I wanted to create using fabric a large scale cotton mill installation as part of my synthesis project. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do this due to time constraints, but I wanted to make a record of the idea in case I have an opportunity in the future.

I would begin by requesting a digital copy, of the plans of a cotton mill from the research library at John Rylands in Manchester and then use a digital embroidery machine (in the sewing department of MMU) to create an embroidered flat copy of the cotton mill and then stitch the panels together by hand to create a 3D version. I would create a small sample with the possibility of making it to a larger scale.

Fig 1 Shown above is a cotton mill construction plan, from Theodore Sington, Cotton mill planning and construction (1897).

The images below show an example of what can be achieved.

I find this installation an amazing achievement by the artist and mine wouldn’t be so elaborate but it just shows what can be achieved with the right skill and expertise.

The artist Do Ho Suh “is a Korean sculptor and installation artist who’s known for his thought-provoking sculptures that often have to do with migration and personal space. These themes reflect his own move from his homeland of Seoul, South Korea to New York.”

The installation was at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, where you could “find Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home, a 1:1 scale replica of two houses the artist had previously lived in, one inside the other. Created in purple fabric, his traditional Korean home, where he lived in when he was a child, is enveloped and suspended within a more modern building, his first apartment building when he came to the United States, located in Providence, Rhode Island.”

The work measures 12m x 15m, and the artist “had to use a 3D scanning machine for precision and detail. While you see two homes in this piece, Suh calls it Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home because he wants the viewer to see the installation on a larger level. “As you approach the gallery space, my translucent piece is between the viewer and the longer view, so it becomes five homes-within-homes: my two homes inside; the museum; the palace; and then Seoul.”

“Artist Do Ho Suh created two life-size replica of homes he’s lived in. The results are massive and most of all, breathtaking.”

Doho Suh Installation Home Within Home

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Images

Fig 2, Fig 3 & Fig 4 Doho Suh Installation Home Within Home

The original article was written by:

By Alice Yoo on November 17, 2013, My Modern Met (The original link is broken)