Documentation of Cushions....

After making my second cushion I decided to take them home and document them in a cosy setting outside of the studio. I really wanted to see what they would look like outside the studio and perhaps this could lead into a new direction for my ideas and current practice. I used a good quality camera that my housemate let me borrow to get some really high quality shots rather than using my basic phone camera.

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I experimented with different placements, backdrops and locations within the house, starting on the sofa with one our own cushions, and then moving upstairs to my bedroom and placing the cushions next to my own on my bed. I really liked how they looked on my bed and I think the close up shots look really effective.

I also experimented with placing them with all of the cushions that we own in the house, but I didn't really like the placement. It just didn't look natural, it looked set up, and I wanted to document them in more natural setting, treating them like actual cushions rather than hand made art pieces in a studio. I think it would be even more interesting if I had an entire series of these made. All of which with different slogans and patterns, and all blurring the line between craft/fine art/functioning object.

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Furthermore, I still want to document them elsewhere outside of the studio and I am already planning on having them shown in the interim show as two of my peers are going to have an installation comprised of a fort that changes each day of the exhibition. I thought that my cushions would be a really appropriate addition and it would be really good to get some documentation of people interacting with the cushions. I do plan on making another cushion, I just need to plan out the design/slogans etc.

Additionally I did have the idea of documenting them in my workplace, and I might still do that, but I need to work out how I'm going to ask them, think of the ethical issues (for example one has explicit language related to rape, do I document them during opening or wait until they're closed?) Also I have to think of the implications of the company and not use their name in conjunction with the photographs as I don't want people to think they endorse this kind of subject. So there are a lot of factors that I have to consider, perhaps over the holidays I can discuss this with one of my managers and see how they think I can approach this idea.

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Overall I'm really pleased with how these photographs have turned out, and I hope to get a few more of these made, possibly combined with more facts based on misogyny and sexism perhaps. I might also think about combining imagery to my cushions and possibly experiment with different materials I could use to make cushions that aren't fabric based, and document these in a cosy environment such as my bedroom and our living room.