Wiwaxia Hat

 

Wiwaxia, a scaly spiny invertebrate were common inhabitants of the Cambrian & early Ordovician seas. No one is quite sure if they were scaly worms or mollusks, but I was quite sure if you scaled up (no pun intended!) their 5 cm long bodies they would make quite a fabulous hat. One of the fun things about contemplating ancient fossil is that colour is rarely preserved so no one can disprove my (admittedly quite unlikely) idea that the scales has multifarious patterns. So this piece is really wearable multimedia textile art. It works sculpture or hat.

When I make art to tell stories about science I am often literal and direct to communicate clearly. If I make art for or about me, it’s much more metaphorical. Though depicting an extinct animal might easily be #SciArt, this is more about my feelings of experiencing lockdown. I can’t quite explain why I felt like “f— it, I’m making a wiwaxia hat” is how I felt, but it was. This was work I could actually do while wrangling my child for remote school, when very few other things were possible. Each scale and spine is block printed and hand sewn.

 

Carving, while working at the same table as a busy 7 year old was tricky. I felt like I said, "Don't shake the table" incessantly. Printing while supervising school would not work at all. But, I could cut and sew by hand,  hand-printed scales and spines I prepared the previous evening (after my son's bedtime).

Compare this work with my print on the same subject:

Wiwaxia linocut by Ele Willoughby, 11" x 14" on translucent washi with bark inclusions and collaged assorted washi scales and spines.

Thanks to my husband Roger Hallett for the photos!