Four hours later...

In our new project, we have to 'subvert the familar'. I've struggled to get going on this one, but I've decided I'm interested in the idea of making the transient and disposable into something permanent. When I was commuting to London every day over the summer, I was always struck by the ridiculous quantity of the free Metro newspapers (and London Lite et. all) that were left on the trains, platforms, and littered across London and the south generally. And throughout the day, cleaners would come through sweeping them away. Often people would pick one up, glance at the cover, then toss it to one side. Maybe someone else would pick it up and read it, or maybe it would get put in the bin by a cleaner five minutes later.

And it's kind of a metaphor for the news in general really, we often hear the saying 'yesterday's news', and it's true that what was news one day is litter the next.

So with this in mind, I'm creating a permenant, hand crafted version of the Metro newspaper, stitched with my own fair hands. People always used to (and still do) create samplers, tapestries and embroideries, which would go on display on the wall for years to come, and be family heirlooms. I'm going to do this with the Metro.


Voilaaaaa!



Not sure what my headlines will be yet, whether to take a real issue of the metro and copy it exactly, or make up my own headlines, 'The opening of an envelope', 'More war', 'Bad news', 'Yesterday's news'... I need to think more about it.
Anyway, this afternoon I did the first bit.

Side by side comparison...


And some behind the scenes action. Check my mad sewing skillz yo'.


I've got a knack for taking on ridiculously labour intensive projects this year...