The theme immediately suggested the ages of man. I did my usual mind map to explore other ideas but in the end came back to my original thought.
I researched the ages of man. I was familiar with the Shakespearean speak from As You Like It:
All the worlds a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts
His acts being seven ages….
I was surprised to find that the ages of man is a theme that runs through many cultures although these are mainly societal ages rather than focused on the individuals span on earth. In his writings the Greeks poet Hesoid’s defined five ages (golden, silver, bronze, heroic, iron) and the roman poet Ovid four (golden, silver, bronze, Iron); Hindu and Vedic writings make reference to four ages termed: Satya (Golden), Treta (Silver), Dwapara (Bronze) and Kali (Iron). In Aztec culture they also have creation myths of five suns in which the present world was preceded by four other cycles of creation and destruction.
I felt that the four metals of the ages provided an interesting palette but I wasn’t getting any ideas for images. I considered an abstract colour based piece but felt unsure about where to take that. Its an idea to follow up some time! I returned to the personal and started looking at how the ages of man had been portrayed in art. I found many wonderful examples of the seven ages of men and women but also five and three (plus death).
I’ve been doing a lot of work with silhouettes and outlines mainly using printing techniques. I also did a mosaic felting workshop with Heather Belcher last year which was great fun. I used one of the technique learned to make a felt carpet which was one of the pieces for my diploma. I haven’t done much felting since and was keen to find time to do some more. This influenced my decision to do a piece using cut pre-felted ‘sister-felts’.
I decided to use silhouettes of women in the different stages of life. Originally I started with five but found that in silhouette it was difficult to clearly distinguish different ages. Klimt painting three ages of Women shows infancy, motherhood & old age. Although slightly miffed by the implication it happily served my purpose!
I started out by making two pieced of pre-felt using two fine layers of fibres laid in a square. I cut out the silhouettes from each pre felt and swapped the pieces around – volas two pieces of work.
I approached completing the two pieces in different ways. For one I stitched the cut out pieces into the background piece with thick thread, varying both thread and stitch length with each silhouette. For the second piece I did not do any stitching before completing the work.
Both pieces were completed in the same way by laying two layers of fibre on the back of each piece of pre-felt and felting the work.
I was amazed that despite using an even number of layers the pieces have both shrunk more in one direction that the other so the silhouettes are rather foreshortened. In particular the crawling babe seems to be rather frog-like; in retrospect a standing toddler might have worked better. I spent time working to get a nice edge but its still not as neat as I’d like it.
I enjoyed doing this piece and would like to continue with more ideas around this theme when I find time.
Rose what an interesting amount of research went into this piece. I was familiar with the Shakespeare quote, but the recurring theme of metals in the various cultures was entirely new to me. How interesting – I’d love to know why the metals were chosen to represent the ages. Any connection to our use of bronze and iron age to denote the evolution of societies I wonder?
I think using only 3 ages was a good choice. I’m familiar with the Klimt painting – he and Schiele are among my favourite artists.
And now to your two pieces – the crawling baby is instantly recognizable in both – nothing frog-like about her at all. She works well in both pieces. I think the striated colour of pinks and browns works wonderfully on the blue background for the middle figure. And I prefer the blue old lady in the lower piece – she looks more hunched in on herself – head drawn into the shoulders – than on the upper piece with the blue background. But seeing both together is the real interest. The paler background piece moving from pale to darker from left to right also, for me, emphasizes somehow the ageing process.
I like the stitching on the upper piece. I would like to use more hand stitching in my work, but I don’t seem to get the ideas for doing so. A simple but effective way of adding visual interest to the piece.