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ttp://www.jeffreyshield.co.uk/design_dust/tag/oriel-mostyn/
‘Shelter’ by Gareth Griffiths
Thursday, December 29th, 2011. Accessed on 19/02/19.
“Gareths childhood memories of camping in a particular blue tent in Jamaica”
This quote has inspired me to explore my own childhood memories of structures where I felt safe.
My memory of how nice the new carpet in the living felt like, whilst I was sitting under the space under the stair. I felt safe, like a den, until the space got filled with shoes and storage boxes, and then I lost my ‘safe den space’. There was also a side board type cupboard in the corner of the living room when I was about age 3 to 9, that my Mum let me use to store some of my (very few) possessions. There was a make shift curtain across the open cupboard space and my Mum also let me put a blanket across that area, which made a triangle like area by a side of the settee. I felt safe in that space and it was a space that I could call my own. I shared a bedroom with my elder sisters and had ‘hand-me-down clothes and toys etc.
There was also a space under the dining table which was like a seat. It was a ‘beam’ which connected the ‘feet panels’. My Mum let my sister and I sit there to watch Television until we got too tall to fit under the table. I used to sit under the table with the ‘seat’ to lean on as I got older and only stopped in my late teens, as I still like the safe haven/sanctuary of the space.
07 May 2019
Generosity and kindness have found me again, well last week. As I was walking past a house which was having some renovations done, I saw some off cuts of carpet, which I thought might be ideal for me vision on a model/macquette to communicate my ‘carpet under the stairs’ childhood memory. I was a bit wary, as not all my encounters to pick up salvage of discarded objects have worked out over the past 4 years or so. I was lucky as the man on the step. fitting new hallway carpet was chatty, so, I was able to come away with some small off-cuts. The samples are of durable, high-traffic worsted, pewter grey carpet with a thick underlay. This has renewed my very dented faith in humanity. The other week a security guard at a city library tried to wrench a cardboard insert that I had collected earlier that afternoon, as he was adamant he was going to put it in the recycling box as he perceived it as rubbish and me as being difficult. Working with Discarded Objects, especially item which are generally perceived as rubbish or recycling. I am seriously thinking of creating a card/business artist card to say what I am collecting for with an image of one of my works.
The wide convolutions remind me of the form of female nude in paintings such as by Matisse. 
Hong W 