Passional
‘Passional’ was a response to the inherent instability of desire. The dictionary definition :- relating to or marked by passion. “a current of passional electric energy” eloquently describes the volatility of desire.
This underlying precariousness informs all the works in this exhibition from the velvet spiders that represent the nerves in a state of arousal swarming towards a red bucket full of syrup – the object of desire but also the cause of their demise; Mab the fairy queen rides her chariot into the ether taking all reason with her, and all the pieces besides from ‘Lamb’ the martyred soul of love to ‘Snatch’ the dangerous predatory sexual encounter. ‘Leper’ speaks of regret and self loathing.
Syrinx
‘Syrinx’, a series of twelve images using watercolour and coloured pencils 40cms x 60cms. This series was part of my 2008 T3-T4 exhibition documenting a journey into psychosis brought on by a severely under-active thyroid and my subsequent recovery. These images are taken from a lough near my home where I walked every day during my recovery. They gradually progress from turbulent water to calm.
Syrinx was a consort of the woodland deity Diana and escaped the unwelcome advances of Pan by turning herself into a water reed. It is also the name of Pan’s pipes and the voice chamber of birds.
I associated her story with my own difficulty in speaking up for myself and also frequently working until I was exhausted, underactive thyroid is connected to stress and exhaustion, also the proximity of the thyroid to the larynx (voice box).
Them
‘Them’ originally shown at The Context gallery in Derry in September 2002 began with sheep pelvis bones, they always break in half on the central line of cartilage. I liked their shape, reminiscent of a plastic kitchen utensil and always picked them up when I walked out across the bog from my house. After a time I started grading them from the longest to the shortest, left and right. I had no idea what I was going to do with them or that I was embarking on a project that would take years to complete.
There were so many chance encounters that lead to the manifesting of these three figures, a windblown crows wings a liking for playing cards and the three colours red black and white a chance discovery of a chest freezer full of crows, beautiful scarlet velvet in Berwick street market… but fundamentally these three, Queens or Graces or Sacred ones came to me of their own volition and I doubt I will ever again experience the like of them. I have left them without a specific name as they have so many in all of the different cultures and traditions of the world.
Epigynes
Also there are the eight works ‘Epigynes’ made to accompany ‘Them’. These are the reproductive organs of female spiders and have a beautiful almost mandala-like symmetry.
I drew them to compliment ‘Them’ as a last minute addition. They’ve grown on me with time and I last exhibited them in ‘Dearest Someone was Asking for You’
In the small space next to the main gallery are the preliminary composition I made after finding the wind dried crow. I rarely if ever make preliminary work in this way, the wings suggested it to me.
In the center of the space is ‘The Recovery Cabinet’ a seasonal piece populated by snails that feed on layered sheets of paper with thoughts and drawings vaguely related to the work and my concerns at the time. As the snails devoured the paper other things were revealed on the internal paper layers. As snails are hermaphrodite and very calm without interest in the images and words they ate they gave the contents a kind of absolution.
To the right on the wall is a large digital print of the defleshed crows heads from the freezer full of crows overlaid by pages from the Concise Oxford Dictionary, which was opened randomly to reveal words from Lake to Land including Lancashire, my ancestral homeland.
