Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I have become greatly attached to the thought of being a monkey, and living in the rainforest canopy and bathing in thermal pools and cool rivers at my own behest. And here are some monkeys, which I intend to make into fabric designs of sorts... either for the 'tent dress' i've made, or also for general furnishings, perhaps as big hanging room dividers.

I saw Interstellar last night, and it made me think of the harmless little monkeys we used to be! I think these modern monkeys are probably looking out from their treehouses, oat the oncoming destruction of the world by mankind, and feelin' pretty angry. They are the eco monkey brigade.

Glitter and donkeys

So i keep ordering glitter off ebay. Every time i sell something on ebay, I spend the money on glitter!

Now i'm just trying to think why i love it so much! 

It's partly also to do with VISIBILTY: the raw essence of visual arts, that I think most of us who have had academic education in the arts, or even the slightest bit of experience of contemporary art, forgot about! And visibility can occur through anything - colour, form, luminescence, texture, setting)

This is part of sketch for a fountain (of glitter!) i'm designing

And below are some painted sketches. They initially started from something the architect Aldo Van Eyck said about 'variety within a system - a pattern with an interruption that sets off on a new line of movement'. This was a rhythm he admired in visual art, and employed it in his architectural designs to influence perspectives of the inhabitants.

I want to use this idea in the formal design of my Swagstation (which i've been collection some great wood for, from local skips). So I decided to take his words literally in my sketches. But straight away they turned into another idea, one that I had: that in all the community engagement projects that surround us, many of them don't accommodate our insatiable need for privacy. So these images sort of show private shelters/hidey holes, in the open mass.

And here are the donkeys of St Ouen's, Jersey. Just near Dom's house.

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OH, and my scans of some of my new reclaimed fabrics!

Ideas incorporated: une robe environ un film que sera jamais realisé

I made this dress today from some grey cotton jersey i got second hand - it's been heat pressed on one side with some sort of flimsy imitation leather, so it sort of feels like a tent. I might dye it with onion skins or black beans - it can't get hot that's the only thing, otherwise the leathery stuff will melt off. But either way - i'm going to treat it like a shelter/a tent/a retreat: like a portable and wearable Swagstation - the dress will be printed/adorned with imagery and colour and texture that will convey a few of the scenes I keep picking up on when i'm daydreaming about fantasy lands and adventures:

1. Outdoors outback cinema - a screen in the desert, run by a cowgirl. (this is about ideologies we see in films, and in the experience of watching a film - and indeed of creating one - but this is kind of about a film that's never been made.... which links into the idea of idealising something from afar: being a fan) Also sort of relates to Robyn Davidson trekking across the outback with her four camels.

2. a Kangaroo on the run to see the Springsteen show with his ghetto blaster playing Lana del Rey (again - the reassuring eternal excitement of admiring something from afar. And of course all those virtues and mental habits that Springsteen's music teaches, and that del Rey's music questions)

3. Monkeys bathing in a whirlpool/on rocks in shallow water -this is just a funny image i got in my head when in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris!?!? not sure why, perhaps something to do with the claustrophobia I feel in cities in the summer, but also because monkeys would put a smile on even the most dastardly robber's face. I'm going down a Laure Provost route here - just magnetising towards a few scenarios that appeal simply because they are mad and escapist and succulent and sensual, and offer respite from the effort/hard work this whole practice is asking for. the made up moments kind of keep your head in the game for working hard.

The way Native North Americans decorated their tipis to enhance and entice spirits/events/luck is part of this whole idea. It'll be a sort of dress of ideas. And i'll probably make a tent afterwards. Also - now i've learned to weld, my major project is to weld a huge metal kangaroo shaped frame, that i can sit inside, and then i'll cover it with amazing hand-dyed and printed textiles that i've made - it'll be a Fan Club Hut for everything i love, like where i'll listen to my music uninterrupted, and write, and make things, and have friends over. And ask The Gaslight Anthem, Springsteen and Jimmy Eat World if they'll come and play me a gig in there.

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Below are some scans from playing around with colours/textures/imagery with which to adorn the dress: which is called: une robe environ un film que sera jamais realisé

It's in french, because a spent my early years on a mountainside in rural southern France, and I also find it very calming to think in French. It's sort of a grab for part of my idealised world that was once a reality.

Amazing photo I found in the Metro

Three of the dresses i've made, in my window. And Grandma's blue silk scarf.

And a black bean-dyed top I made. It's covered in blemishes from the dye bath and originally i thought it was a total mess, but now i love it.

And yesterday evening Dom and I had a super fun night in, and then we decided it's such a shame that nights out aren't as good as they should be now, because the music is crap and it's all indoors. So this is what we would've wanted to do!