LIKE Fran Allison

“Making this work for LIKE was difficult…. far more so than I had expected. I interpreted the text as literally as possible and this is perhaps something I would do differently in retrospect. The nerdy swot in me deciphered the poem. The rest of me wanted to subvert it. Some things I couldn't bring myself to do, I couldn't make the body of the piece solid, however much I tried it totally went against the grain and I had to make it hollow. For the same reason I had to colour the piece black. The making of the piece was so removed from the materials, techniques and ideas I am currently exploring in my practice that I had to force myself to make it, other things kept grabbing my attention. I tried not to ask myself the question 'What is it exactly I am making? But inevitably found myself asking it. Stella is a jeweller was the reply, and she has asked 9 jewellers to respond to the brief, therefore this must be a piece of jewellery….. thought provoking….how easily I bought into this idea that it had to be a piece of jewellery and what immediate 'jewellery' type images it conjured up. I questioned my own creative process, wondered at the power of the written word, contemplated visual language and the power of shared learning and how strongly words can act as visual triggers to activate memories. I wondered at the insertion of 'my' personality or mark on the work and how hard it was not allowing myself to do so.

When I finished the piece I was awfully tempted to place it under a steel block and squash it.”