Final Result of the womb tent
Close up of the Womb Tent
Evaluation
With my installation I wanted to create a space that brought back the comfort of being inside of the womb. I wanted to show how dark life is with representational items such as gravestones and disturbed toys to make the viewer want to go back into the safety of the womb in a form of escape from the harsh reality of life. The viewer is intended to interact with the piece by walking up a pathway leading up to the entrance to the womb tent. The viewer then has to crawl their way into the tent through a small opening. The opening is very awkward and difficult to crawl into and this makes the viewer feel self-conscious while getting into it but they then have an instant calming effect once they are inside from the soft fabric to the warm glow from the outside. On the exterior of the womb tent is a collection of teddies and dolls that are disturbed or creepy, mixed in with these are some more happy and cute toys to add a contrast as not everything in life is dark and miserable. The toys are arranged into the walk way the viewer walks down. Also at the start of the walk way is three wooden crosses made to represent death, as I wanted the walk way to be a progression of life and back into the womb, in a sort of reverse life.
When I first got the brief I liked the suggestion of creating a womb, I decided I wanted to create a soft comfortable safe place that the viewer would have to climb into to immerse themselves into the space. As part of an initial research project we were put into groups and had to research into a selected artist. My group was given Edward Kienholz to research into. I really like the dark nature of his work and how he gathers found objects to create his artworks that are immersive for the viewer. After doing the research project I looked into a few artists I had found and liked during the introduction presentation for the project. To make a start on creating the womb for my project I went to a local fabric shop and found a soft pink velvety fabric. I started stitching it into a tent by adding pleats into a lot of the fabric I bought, I then added a top piece of fabric to it to make the roof of the tent and to have a way of hanging it up. I got some twine and cut a hole in the top of the tent, and had it tied to a wooden beam on the wall. I used two different sized hula hoops to give the tent a more solid shape, once I had finished stitching the smaller one in the top of the tent and a big one to the bottom of the tent, I cut a hole into the tent, I later changed it to have flaps as it wasn’t very accessible to climb inside. For the bottom of the tent I bought 4 cushions and stitched them together, I was originally going to have a oval dog bed as that would have been circular to fit inside of the hula hoop, however I couldn’t find a one the correct size and the dog beds were very expensive for what I needed it for. I then used some of the scrap fabric to make a giant cushion cover to cover all of them. Since I had fully finished the tent I worked on the outside of the tent. This included hanging some black fabric to disguise the outside of the tent that looked a bit messy. I used the same black fabric to make a walkway to place the items I had chosen to show the darkness of life. The walkway started with 3 wooden crosses to represent death, then the walkway was scattered with dark and creepy dolls and teddies, most of the toys were from older pieces of artwork I had created. A few more sentimental pieces were added, these included a doll from my 1st Christmas, and one of my favourite toys from when I was younger. This wasn’t to add a personal level to the work, as I want the piece to just be universal of life and death rather than my own experience. Once I had completed the tent I got a group of my peers to individually go into the womb tent and spend a few minutes inside, I then got them to write down how they all felt. It was pretty unanimous that everyone felt comfortable while inside, this is the exact reaction I wanted to gain from people so I feel that the goal of my installation was successful. I am happy with the outcome of the tent, however if I had a bigger budget and longer time for the project I would work on the walkway as I felt it was a little sparse and could have done with more that I didn’t have.
Maeve Dawson Art 