Mended Spiderwebs
Nina Katchadourian
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1998-99, Repair kit on pedestal, DVD - GIFT/GIFT, Three sets of framed photos and rejected patches, 2 framed, color photos
1998-99, Repair kit on pedestal, DVD - GIFT/GIFT, Three sets of framed photos and rejected patches, 2 framed, color photos
The Mended Spiderweb series came about during a six-week period in June and July in 1998 which I spent on Pörtö, an island off the coast of Finland where I spent summers growing up. In the forest and around the house where I was living, I searched for broken spiderwebs which I repaired using red sewing thread. All of the patches were made by inserting segments one at a time directly into the web. Sometimes the thread was starched, which made it stiffer and easier to work with. The short threads were held in place by the stickiness of the spider web itself; longer threads were reinforced by dipping the tips into white glue. I fixed the holes in the web until it was fully repaired, or until it could no longer bear the weight of the thread. In the process, I often caused further damage when the tweezers got tangled in the web or when my hands brushed up
against it by accident.
The morning after the first patch job, I discovered a pile of red threads lying on the ground below the web. At first I assumed the wind had blown them out; on closer inspection it became clear that the spider had repaired the web to perfect condition using its own methods, throwing the threads out in the process. My repairs were always rejected and discarded by the spiders, even in webs which looked abandoned. The larger, more complicated patches retained their form after being thrown out, though often in a somewhat "wilted" condition. Each "Rejected Patch" is exhibited next to the photograph showing the web with the patch as it looked on site.
Among a collection of old books in the house on the island, I found Kom Bara Lite Närmare ("Just Come a Little Closer"), an illustrated Swedish nature book from the 1950s. In a chapter on spiders it described the spiders’ sometime habit of using its silk as wrapping paper to package its dead prey and present it to another spider. From this came the idea for the video "GIFT/GIFT." The word, when pronounced in Swedish, means "poison."
-Nina Katchadourian
against it by accident.
The morning after the first patch job, I discovered a pile of red threads lying on the ground below the web. At first I assumed the wind had blown them out; on closer inspection it became clear that the spider had repaired the web to perfect condition using its own methods, throwing the threads out in the process. My repairs were always rejected and discarded by the spiders, even in webs which looked abandoned. The larger, more complicated patches retained their form after being thrown out, though often in a somewhat "wilted" condition. Each "Rejected Patch" is exhibited next to the photograph showing the web with the patch as it looked on site.
Among a collection of old books in the house on the island, I found Kom Bara Lite Närmare ("Just Come a Little Closer"), an illustrated Swedish nature book from the 1950s. In a chapter on spiders it described the spiders’ sometime habit of using its silk as wrapping paper to package its dead prey and present it to another spider. From this came the idea for the video "GIFT/GIFT." The word, when pronounced in Swedish, means "poison."
-Nina Katchadourian