'A Thousand Sheep' - an Installation

Currently showing in Salisbury Arts Centre is local visual artist Laurence Dube-Rushby, a French lady who has made Salisbury her home for some time now.

I back-blipped her last installation ArtWords at this venue.

A Thousand Sheep is the culmination of a two-year project involving the local community farm where she has collected fleece from sheep there and dyed it with extract from madder plants, also grown there. This red coloured dye was used for former military uniforms (Salisbury and its Plain is a military area) and this dual element in her work has given the project extra implications. The whole process, such as shearing and spinning has had educational possibilities involving many local groups, including schoolchildren.

My shot was taken of the overhead installation, as these 'lamb-tails' hang down, toward my Nikkor 10-24mm lens. They are only a few feet above one's head but the very wide angle made them look too far away so I pushed the camera above my head, so this is literally only inches away from the strands.

Using A/F I still had to employ Photoshop to line-up the angles afterwards in 'Transform', as I literally was taking this semi-blind. The lens also had its most amount of barrel distortion (close-up and its widest setting) and that had to be corrected too. Then some extra contrast to give the whole thing more 'body'.

Laurence used a couple of my ultrawide images for her ArtWords final publication and so maybe this one might get further exposure, too. I now know her fairly well, from that previous project.

Have a closer look in LARGE

A Thousand Sheep runs until 30th June, if you were able to visit yourself.

A nagging headache has overtaken my plans to go cycling today, for my Blip. Now medicated, I feel anything but whizzing about on two wheels, so maybe that will have to wait for another day. It does give me a chance to catch up with your lovely Journals, though.

Thanks to all who helped get my yesterday's abstract blue vase into the Spotlight - as always appreciated!