Wrought-Iron Bars and Sewing Thread: The (Re)Construction of a Lost Home via Creative Practice

In: Dialectics of Space and Place across Virtual and Corporeal Topographies
Author:
Melanie McKee
Search for other papers by Melanie McKee in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

This chapter considers how lived spaces can be (re)constructed via creative practice to investigate the function of barriers and obstructions in a disenfranchisement process where Marston, the family farm, was redistributed under Zimbabwean land reform policies and my family was excluded from that place. Understandings of protection and exclusion are considered, referencing the function of barriers and the African kraal in the construction of home and ownership. In this instance the role of barriers in failing to prevent disenfranchisement at Marston, and the subsequent sense of profound loss associated with the exclusion from this lived space, will be articulated via creative practice research methods. A number of art objects will be discussed in relation to Gaston Bachelard and Anat Hechts’ findings on lost homes, in which they suggest lived spaces are revisited and articulated in memory through the appropriation/collection of objects and arrangement of spaces. The barriers sited here are my grandfather’s wrought iron security bars that formed part of the material structure of Marston homestead. Physical in nature, they were designed to withstand force and protect the inhabitants and contents of the home. My creative practice calls their function into question as more subtle actions breached the home and initiated the disenfranchisement process. Particular attention will be paid to the (re)construction of my grandmother’s sewing room, where news of our impending expulsion from Marston was delivered via the window, through my grandfather’s bars. Creative processes were important at Marston, and plain and decorative sewing methods learned from my grandmother form a key component of the creative research. A selection of artworks combining these processes with my printmaking practice will be discussed as examples of the (re)construction of lived spaces at Marston and position the research firmly in that place.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 77 11 0
Full Text Views 1 0 0
PDF Views & Downloads 2 0 0