Xenotopia IV

I've finished another piece of work in my Xenotopia series. I had a clear vision of the look and feel I wanted for the HUE exhibition and it took a lot of printing and dyeing to achieve it but in the process I created a number of pieces that didn't made the cut and this is the story of one of those pieces. 

61 cm x 92 cm

After spending a lot of time dyeing and printing this fabric I got to the point where I realised that it was never going to be the fabric I was looking for and so with nothing to lose I decided to over dye it with a view to using it in other pieces. The only problem was that I liked the resulting fabric so much that I couldn't bear to cut it up and despite it's darkness, the pattern inspired by the salt crystals was still coming through. So I decided to use it to create a piece in a similar style to Xenotopia I .

The fabric along the horizon line was something I had printed years ago and was the first fabric I'd used in this series that wasn't inspired by the salt flats but it does show that all those bits of fabric will (hopefully) come in useful one day. 

It wasn't my plan to enter a piece for the RA summer exhibition but I couldn't resist after reading the message from Grayson Perry encouraging artists to apply, especially as Grayson has created textile pieces himself. But this week I heard that it hadn't been accepted but then I always knew it was a long shot but you've got to be in it to win it.

I'm going to try and make a floating frame for this piece. I've thought about making one before but tight deadlines have stopped me doing this but I've got no excuses now. The cost of framing adds so much to the cost of the piece, it would be nice to think that I could do it for myself. I'll let you know.