Making Plans – Anne & Christian Edwardes

Artists: Anne Edwardes and Christian Edwardes
Title: Making Plans
Date: 05.04.16 – 09.04.16

Taking as a cue a number of recent new materialist discourses, we propose a work that will examine the spaces in which work is made as a co-productive environment. This may be understood as one that not only involves a collaborative relationship between human individuals, but one that also takes account of the ‘matter’ of the creative space: the objects used as props, tools, references, or supports that intercede in the process of making, but often remain invisible in the descriptions and outcomes of artwork.
As amateur dressmakers, we will both be involved in creating a number of garment parts, for example: cuffs, collars, hoods. As we research, make notes and diagrams, form possible solutions, draft blocks etc., around individual processes we will also produce makeshift instructions that draw attention to the complex assemblages of supports, tools, references and discussions that come together in the act of making.
Being involved in fields of creation in which we are amateurs is important, in that we approach the production of work without a comprehensive experience of strategies that might be used to solve practical problems. It creates the need for ‘work-arounds’, improvisations and alternative approaches that involve different ways of structuring the making environment. These, in turn, raise questions concerning the way the materials of the studio also shape the directions and choices we take.