Helen Saunders

Hello,

We're all busy working hard on this project. I've had various different starting points, but have decided to concentrate on drawings of queueing etiquette. I started off by looking at queues and recorded them via camera and drawing.

I became interested in the amount of space people left around each other whilst queueing, personal space. In this work I am exploring the this and the message is to bring attention to it and to create thinking, as we are a nation of great queuers.

I've found a simple and effective way of using embossing and matchsticks to resemble people. These have been quite effective, but I felt that I needed to add a drawing, or maybe some stitch work to the piece to add information, or to convey the message to the audience via hand sewing in to the drawn lines.

I plan to go back in to town this weekend and do a lot of drawing of different queuing situations and then work into these with sewing.

Back soon with more updates.

Thanks for reading.

P.S  Please click on the images if you would like to see more detail.

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1-4 images show early development work and first drawings

Below are my four final 'postcards for the people'.  They will be released into the public domain in March 2014, date to be announced.  

The postcards explore the etiquette of queuing (and waiting) in line.

Theorist Leon Mann in 'Queue Culture: The Waiting Line as a Social System' comments: 

“Cultural values of egalitarianism and orderliness are related to respect for the principle of service according to order of arrival which is embodied in the idea of a queue”(1) .  

This is my core interest in the area of my work, it fuels the underlying message of the etiquette of queuing and explores the space  which we create between each other. This reveals the lack of human interaction based on manners and cultural obedience.  

• The queue breaks down all cultural and class divisions in an environment which is ruled by order, manners and cooperation. 
• The brief interaction of queuing, where current or past social difficulties/ indifferences can be absent.
• The union by choice as the queuers stand together for a common but individual purpose which awaits them.

Train Station

Clothes shop

Bus stop

Fast food outlet

I decided to used the style of  drawing called ‘no looking continual line drawings’, as I felt this style of mark making conveyed my message in a clear and simple way. The mark making reflects the experience of the queue, not being aware of whom is next to you but you trust and move along in conformity, this is learnt behaviour which is acquired from a very early age. 

I feel that the abstract quality of the style of drawing creates a sense of ambiguity and anonymity which mirrors the lack of real human interaction found in the majority of queues, despite being in close physical and sometimes intimate proximity to unknown individuals. The use of continual line in drawing mirrors that of the people in the queue, binding them in this common purpose and union.

I have chosen to use orange and black in my work, as orange represents the situation and location as orange is a lively and vibrant colour. It expresses speed in contrast to the black, which represents the slowness and mundanity of queuing.  The four postcards use the same colours for uniformity and when they are placed they will be singular and not grouped. 

I plan to place the postcards in the city centre, near to where the drawings where taken. I am choosing to locate them in 'peaceful' and 'restful' locations, in contrast to the busy queuing environments that they depict.

I am interested to see what will happen to the postcards once placed in public as free art.  I plan to visit the four locations after placement.

Thanks again for looking.


Helen  

(1) Amercian Journal of Sociology, vol. 75, no.3 (Nov.,1969),pp. 340-354.  http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2775696?uid=3738032&uid.