Wonderwebs

Shane Waltener, who lives and works in London, has an extensive portfolio here. I think cross-breeding lace doilies with cobwebs is more than granny-chic meets natural history; it is genius. He cites both cobwebs and dreamcatchers when describing some of these needlework and crochet fantasies.






Auntie Peggy Has Departed 2003, mercerised cotton, audio equipment, 2 part looped soundtrack. Aldwych Tube Station, the Strand, London.


Showroom Doily 2004, knicker elastic, 350 x 350 x 300cm. Disused shoe factory, King's Cross, London.



A World Wide Web 2007 - shirring elastic, 25 sq. meters. Museum of Arts and Design, New York.


The 26,000 2003, nylon thread, 300 x 300cm. St Mary’s Churchyard, Museum of Garden History, London.


Chihuly Doily 1&2 2004, knicker elastic, each 270 x 350cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

I love that something so beautiful (though perhaps ephemeral) can be created in the medium of "knicker elastic".

(via The Jealous Curator)

The human-working-in-the-spiderweb-medium reminded me of the 'uninvited collaborations' mended spiderwebs of California and Finland based artist Nina Katchadourian. She searched for broken spider webs and repaired the damage as much as posible with (starched or glued) red thread. Day and day, the spiders rejected her repairs, leaving piles of red thread under their own re-repaired webs. She displayed her photographs of the webs with her repairs alongside the later rejected patches.


Mended Spiderweb #14 (Spoon Patch)
Cibachrome, 20 x 30 inches, 1998


Mended Spiderweb #8 (Fish Patch)
Cibachrome, 20 x 20 inches, 1998


Marketing Tips for Spiders
Cibachrome, 30 x 20 inches, 1998

See also suspended spiderwebs and feathers, Working with insects (& other animals) and collecting wunderkammer.

suspended spiderwebs and feathers

Compare and contrast:

Dream Catch Me
acrylic, gouache and vinyl on canvas
198 x 198 cm


Dream Catch Me 2
acrylic and pen on canvas
170 x 150 cm

By Kirra Jamison. Check out her owls, foxes, and other good things. {She's been bouncing around the web recently - no pun intended - but I think I first saw her in the Lady Lavona's Cabinet of Curiosities}



Meanwhile, Victoria over at sfgirlbybay had a guest post by Kelly of Halcyon Days (and y. a. studios) which features the above lamp (and its vintage showgirl inspiration). If we follow the link to Halcyon Days, we find some more webs-with-feather light fixtures, by Dutch artist Jennifer Tee {via all the mountains}:


Falling Feathers
Complex Interiors, Trance-lucent Concrete

She's also got suspended crystals and birds in South of the Border (an allusion to Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun.

Of these, only Kirra Jamison explicitly cites the Ojibwe dreamcatcher, but that is what these say to me. Interestingly, that leads back to the God's Eye. These things seem to be wandering the collective unconscious.

These illustrations:


are by Yasmine Surovec of a print a day.

There are even dreamcatcher dresses in Ann-Sophie Back's autumn-winter '09 collection, 'Ann-Sofie Back burns in hell' (inspired by American stereotypes and horror flicks).