The Pollen Factory: cardboard diagram of the cross section of an anther & gouache study of cardboard structure. Below, large scale collage in progress, which uses both the 3d diagram, gouache study & felt pen drawings as templates to work from.
Making the collage I find myself thinking of hives, of each cell as a space to live and/or work - a home or a factory unit; of insects busy, buzzing, working, collecting, building. The different roles of different bees - the worker, the drone, the queen. Replication, reproduction, pollination. Engines, turbines, dynamite sticks. Of clocks and time. Cycles - of nature, life, work. Rotations, shifts, miserable make-shifts. Waste and surplus. Of efficiency and inefficiency. This is taking too much time. Hurry up, too slow! Of the absurdity and pleasure, pleasure taking time and pleasure in making the work. And of Morris.
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| The Pollen Factory - paper collage in progress. Photograph by Shirin Shahidi, November 2016. |
