The Mended Spiderweb series came about during a six-week period in June and July in 1998 which I spent on Pörtö. In the forest and around the house where I was living, I searched for broken spiderwebs which I repaired using red sewing thread. All of the patches were made by inserting segments one at a time directly into the web. Sometimes the thread was starched, which made it stiffer and easier to work with. The short threads were held in place by the stickiness of the spider web itself; longer threads were reinforced by dipping the tips into white glue. I fixed the holes in the web until it was fully repaired, or until it could no longer bear the weight of the thread. In the process, I often caused further damage when the tweezers got tangled in the web or when my hands brushed up against it by accident.
The morning after the first patch job, I discovered a pile of red threads lying on the ground below the web. At first I assumed the wind had blown them out; on closer inspection it became clear that the spider had repaired the web to perfect condition using its own methods, throwing the threads out in the process. My repairs were always rejected by the spider and discarded, usually during the course of the night, even in webs which looked abandoned. The larger, more complicated patches where the threads were held together with glue often retained their form after being thrown out, although in a somewhat "wilted" condition without the rest of the web to suspend and stretch them. Each "Rejected Patch" is shown next to the photograph showing the web with the patch as it looked on site.
Artist's website:
http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/uninvitedcollaborations/spiderwebs.php
First exhibited: Chapelle Saint Maudez-Lesneven, France 2012
handspun and handwoven Malian cotton, natural loofah sponges, fermented vegetable indigo
In West Africa, trees are considered like ancestors. They live for such long times and they see so much – they bear witness and hold secrets for the communities around them. They provide nourishment, protection from the elements, and many other essential things. This work is about the reverence we have for trees, their power and presence, and their wisdom. It is also about the alchemy of indigo. Held in the leaves of the indigo plant is a blue pigment that can only be made visible under certain conditions. The magic of how green leaves can make so many shades of blue is a tangible example of how plants nourish us on so many levels, not just providing food and shelter, but even clothing us in their fibres and colours, and linking us spiritually with the natural world.
Artist Website. https://www.aboubakarfofana.com/artists#/abres-a-bleu
