Arachnida

Arachnida (n.) About 100,000 named species. Four pairs of jointed legs, simple single-lensed eyes, no antennae, no wings. A suspended creature of woven cloth, pigmented glass and hand-patinated aluminium, made for Reverie. I find spiders beautiful, though my body freezes in their presence (the daddy-long-legs is exempt). There is something faintly unnerving in the way they move, inseparable from their grace. Arachnida keeps to that quality: delicate, composed, perpetually in motion and, in the right measure, a little unsettling. It began with sketching. Sick and stuck in bed, I had a day or two to sit and draw. I wanted something with scale in three dimensions, to be moved around and seen from every side. The drawings kept arriving at something creaturely, for which the fever may deserve some credit. Emma of Sundance Studio invited me to collaborate after Jessica Rayment invited her to contribute to Reverie at Fremantle Design Week. Emma’s challenge was a piece with scale and presence, without the investment of excess new production. It would be shown in Western Australia, and I wanted it to hold something of my home, up in the Hills. It was also an exercise in using what remains. Emma wove the fine cloth some time ago, yet it seemed to have stepped straight from the sketches. Billy of Studio Dokola made the feet from the last of a batch of clear glass, pigmented to meet the body. Durwin of Custom Industrial made the aluminium shade from an off-cut already on hand. Its 40mm aperture lets the piece hang with a lamp glowing at its centre. Sixteen fine holes, two to each of its eight legs, allow the feet to be tied. The dark patinated finish is a technique tested only a week prior. Each element is held in weighted balance. Even with its feet at rest, the piece shifts gently, at times lifted by the weight of the shade, moving of its own accord. On view in Reverie, Naval Store, Fremantle. Opening Saturday 17 October. Body Emma Shepherd - Sundance Studio Linen, bast fibres, wool, silk Feet Billy Crellin - Studio Dokola Glass, with pigmentation Metal Plate Durwin Lambe - Custom Industrial 5995 Aluminium 5mm / Aluma A-14 patina / Cold Application / Wax / Satin clear over Arachnida 01, Prototype (Shown) Body: 540mm x 540mm x 670mm H Available to purchase by enquiry. Please get in touch for further information.