Judith Scott

I’m not sure where I first found out about Scott’s work, but I didn’t know anything about her at all, I just thought these huge wrapped up sculptures were brilliant.

photo by Leon Borensztein

This picture in particular! I don't know if it's staged or she's just hugging the work anyway, but I like that she's now wrapping herself into it almost, with this feeling of a connection to the work, even though in another book it says she would discard them after making them.

“Judith  Scott was a visual artist isolated by Down Syndrome and profound deafness, who achieved world recognition for her enigmatic fiber sculptures.  Born  on May 1, 1943, in Cincinnati, Ohio, she spent the first seven and a half years of her life with her family in a semi-rural community on the edge of the city, always accompanied and aided by her twin sister, Joyce, who served as guardian and interpreter.  However, it is Joyce who insists that it was Judith who was her guide and her teacher always.” (from the website Judith & Joyce Scott)

I’d been trying to work out what it is about her work I like so much, and I think it’s that the objects themselves are quite tense, tightly bound and knotted, but that I guess that Scott must’ve felt relaxation, happiness or calm while making them- or why would she have made them. It makes me think of how many people (myself included!) like knitting or crochet for the calming repetitive nature but also a creative outcome.

There’s a lot said in documentaries and books about people’s interpretation of how Scott must have viewed her own work, I’m sure how to express this properly, but I think I don’t want to assume anything about what she was trying to express in her art, and whether she was trying to or not – I just don’t know, and don’t know enough to want to start speculating.

In terms of how this might relate to my own project, it’s made me consider the ideas of pushing any negative feelings into a piece, as a form of therapy, cleansing or ‘exorcism’ of those feelings, leaving you feeling happy and calm, while you work is ‘holding’ any tension or fear for example.

I also found this interesting, with the focus on process over outcome:

“Since Scott attaches no lasting significance to the work of art (she discards each finished work), the repetition abides with the process of creation, not with the object produced. Scott often weaves goodbye to her work, as if to signal that the activity of creating is the remainder, while the work is dispensable…” (Davis, 2009: 208)