First Finished Vardo

 

Wooden minimalistic vardo, canvas, muslin, battery powered tea lights and brick columns.

Sewing, canvas and problem solving

 

Sewing the canvas for the roofs on the mini vardos

 

Cute pin cushion

Adding muslin to the entrance of the vardo to block the observers view inside the vardo, where there will be battery powered tea lights... safety first! 

I like that the fabric distorts the view to the inside of the object, but light from the tea lights will still be able to come through. 

Battery powered tea lights.

Vardo almost ready for burning...

Details of decoration

The End of Civilisation

Douglas Gordon: The End of Civililisation

 

Douglas Gordon's film is a beautiful, enchanting yet uncomfortable view of a grand piano slowly burning in a vast tranquil landscape as the sun is setting. It encapsulates feelings of loss, death and end; all points that my own work focuses on.

 

He displays this work as a film shown either on a split screen or on separate screens, one showing the burning of the piano and one the unspoilt landscape. And then the burnt remains are displayed on the gallery floor.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33PUyTL_3Ls

 

The atmosphere that he has captured in his film is something that I aim for with my burning caravan, as what I want to portray is and idea of the death and the end of something that was once vibrant, full of life and importance; the Romany gypsy culture. The mood set by the natural landscape, passing of time and minimal editing is something that I also wish to create with my film piece.

Decoration

I have started decorating the large vardo, which I am going to burn next week. The patterns and colours that I have used are inspired by traditional vardo artwork and some of my own sketches that I have been playing around with. I wanted to use gold as a symbolic colour in the piece because it symbolises the wealth of tradition in the Romany culture and makes the object seem more precious. Therefore by burning the finished piece it will represent the death of this rich and vibrant culture.

"Man is Born Free and Everywhere he is in Chains."Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Vardo Blocks

At the beginning of this project I had the idea to replace the wheels with bricks. And as I have slowly been going off the idea of creating a larger scale vardo I have been making identical flat pack furniture versions.

10 works in process...

These vardo models are minimal and shell like, with no soul like that of flat pack, mass-produced items. They appear empty and cold, which I hope establishes the feeling of loss and the death of tradition. 

With these pieces I would like to display them on towers of bricks at different heights. These bricks symbolise the change in tradition from gypsies being able to roam the land freely, to now conforming and living in houses. The different sized towers represent the idea of flats, tenement blocks and houses.