Courtesy of the Intendencia of Maldonado which runs the Casa de le Cultura, (cultural centre) I’ve been offered one of the gallery exhibition spaces for next January, with the opening on Jan 2nd. I knew it ‘had been a while’, but when I checked I was a bit shocked that this will be my first solo in Uruguay since May 2009 – way too long.
I’d been to the centre once before, on the opening night of the first exhibition of Glass+Textile art, in which I had a piece. The organisers have made it an annual event, and the third exhibition of glass+textile art will be held at the Casa de la Culture in February of next year. (the conditions of the call have been published, the size is a little larger, 2D, max.25cm, and I’m already working on an entry) Last week I went to Maldonado to meet Ana, the gallery director, and was shown two spaces, both the same. On the day I went there, both rooms were occupied with classes so I couldn’t enter to take linear measurements, but I took a couple of photos through the glass panelled door, which was enough to give me a good idea of how to approach shortening my list of possible works and bring a better focus to the collection.
I initially thought I wouldn’t need to make any new work at all, and while that is true for my 2D wall hanging works – tapices, wall hangings, art quilts – I’m currently enamoured with 3D, too, and now know that the centre supplies the plinths I’d need for some soft sculptures; so I plan to make at least one and probably two table-top pieces featuring embellished stuffed suffolk puffs – (try repeating that phrase fast!)

They grow quite quickly, and learning from the one I’ve been making these past couple of weeks, I’ve realised construction will be faster and easier if I make them larger, and embellish them before I assemble them!