The Cave (2015)

The making of the Cave for A Place of Her Own, SOMArts Gallery, San Francisco to be exhibited November 19-December 11, 2015. The following process began on October 1, 2015. Many thanks to Jay van Arsdale, who provided me with the bamboo, Shari and Darryl DeBoer who helped with logistics and planning for this undertaking, and my neighbors who put up with a lot of late night chiseling to split the bamboo pieces.

: 150′ of 4′ width chicken wire ready to go!

: raw wool picture taken at night

: raw wool (picture taken in daytime). ruler is 3 ft long for scale.

: Here is me getting ready to split the bamboo in my garage. The carpet is there to protect the blade in case I hit the chisel so hard it lands on the concrete floor.

: Using a chisel and hammer, this is how I am splitting the bamboo.

: an example of how I am weaving the bamboo in.

: left: raw wool unwashed, right: wool after the wash

: washed wool up close

: removing seeds from washed wool

: general form

: more panels, more support

: standing on its own, without support from above! It looks shitty but it’s my first attempt and I’m pretty proud of this.

: trial one which did not produce a good silhouette.

: trial two: I stood against the wall, facing the wall to trace my silhouette.

: the final result (as a result of trial two)

: my silhouette cutout! I’m so excited here.

: Oops! Looks like I’ve gained a few pounds! Because I cut out a large portion of the poultry wire, I no longer had tension in the middle and being that the structure is still somewhat curved, it also didn’t help. Oh well. The chair was initially there for scale, but a lot of people liked the chair there. I’m not sure if it will be there or not in its final version.

: I wondered what it would look like completely covered. Now I know.

: Placing the felt on the outside to help cover the entire structure. By the way, that pair of clippers was not used to cut wire, but to cut some sharp edges of the bamboo splits.

: what I saw when I finally opened the garage door

: into the truck on the day of installation! The gray tubs are full of wool and the branches are for another installation (not mine) for the gallery.

: me and my sihouette. As you can see it sort of fit, although my silhouette is no longer upright, nor is it to my dimensions! oh well, it’s my winter girth.