I got to relocate to New York with VCU's Sponge HQ. Crammed in a van we absorbed passages of sponge biology, sounds of incisive needle felting from the back seat and much music. Momentum built as we neared the struggling post-Sandy city. With tense focus we unpacked, straight into MoMA and the vast open studio space of our host, Mildred's Lane.
Out came our distinctive pops of color, landing as Hope's felt rug was unfurled and bright bee boxes found their place. Our materials were seriously mixed, from natural sea sponges – our conceptual starting blocks - to their lurid foam evolutions and glowing bronze and beeswax casts. At hand - giant balls of burnt orange and deep lilac wool.
Children swarmed in, utterly intent on needle-punching sponge forms and, like the best fairytales, someone’s thigh got pricked. Our story continued on screen, looping with shots of the HQ’s beehive, neon tetras and gushing water - immaculately edited and scored, of course. Everything connected – not just the living, breathing turtles wallowing in the Mildred's Lane interior and the Reggio Children’s reef scene - we had dive visuals too, including Kalymnos, Greece - the sponge stores now bereft of native samples and forced to import from the Caribbean.
At the close of the day we got back in our van and headed off for much needed nourishment in the East Village's Banjara.
PS: Word is I'm the front of VCU's Commonwealth Times - cover girl at last!
