A vast printed wool carpet was created from a residency with Tron Theatre staff and arose out of conversations about the balance between private and working lives.
A text carpet, commissioned by Visual Art Projects on behalf of the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, 1998.
During the research and development stage Tracy & Edwin were based in the Tron Theatre’s temporary staff offices in a street overlooking the theatre while it was being renovated.
The roles of staff, and staff interaction quickly became central to conversations. Accepting the artists into their working environment, people discussed Tracy & Edwin’s role in the rebuilding of their theatre. They expressed their feelings of alienation from what they had anticipated would be a consultation process, and a development of the ethos of a small artist-initiated theatre.
Discussions moved towards issues surrounding the creation and occupation of an ideal work environment, professional relationships, territory and the balance between private and working lives.
As relationships developed with the staff, Tracy & Edwin shifted away from the idea of making a work for the public areas of the theatre to making a work for the new staff offices. Excerpts of conversations between staff and the artists were printed on to a vast wool carpet that covers both floors of the new offices. The carpet was produced in Halifax, England, where once the world’s largest carpet factories were operational.
The final phase of development, the furnishing of the offices, proved to be severely limited in terms of funding. Unfortunately for staff, an award-winning building housed age-old furniture and equipment.