Spirit Parlour has closed and returned to its origins on Mischief Mountain

The rest of the snaps of my exhibition Spirit Parlour at Free Space Gallery that was on throughout November. Cheers y'all who made it down. I was well pleased with how it turned out.

Red Dress.... this piece is about men's mental health awareness, and also about punk rock spirit. More to come on this... I took it to it's spiritual home in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA to soak up the stories of it's forefathers...

The Spirit Shroud

There are spaces between folds of fabric that offer retreat and hideouts, behind cotton barriers from the outside world.

We can wrap a shroud around our tired bodies and close out the expectations and burdens of the world,

Or feel a second of peace in the pureness of a light and gentle white shawl.

The hollows and folds make pools of calm inspiration, respite and memory.

This ‘Spirit Shroud’ as it has come to be called, is a wearable blanket onto which I’ve sewn mono-printed patches that come from notes I’ve made about combating emotional trauma, or on overcoming fears or pursuing a positive outlook.

Badges are often presented as accolades. I wanted to place a merit element upon the idea of facing up to one’s own emotional and mental health issues, and on facing up to the stigma associated with poor mental health that can sometimes force you back into your corner.

Grandma's Threshold

Process piece/s...

The collages of imagery in this exhibition show a little of my process during this project.

- The towel is my Grandma’s, and her bathroom was always cosy and warm with these beautiful soft

towels. It was a safe place for me.

I have written a little about the ’safety’ aspect of clothing and fabric in reference to the Spirit Shroud.

- You will see some lists of certain visual elements I was considering... diamonds, wall, pink towel etc...

I find the power that words have to describe a visual image very therapeutic, almost like using words to describe a visual snapshot... it makes a kind of poem or prose which will bring different visuals into each individual viewer’s mind. This leaves room for personal interpretation - asking the viewer to work out the visual themselves. This is a helpful practice if one is using a diary or a journal to try and represent or make sense of one’s feelings and emotions.

- You will see I have scribbled down a collection of sentences that speak of wild desert suns, moon rocks, bamboo houses and pewter animals. This is a dream I had which really stuck with me and calmed me for the next few days.

- The glittery pink circle takes inspiration from the ’wild desert sun’ idea and also from the Japanese flag.

Both of these evoke ideas of, or represent open space in which there are few isolated elements. Having isolated elements allows room for reflection, retreat and serenity.

Below is my bamboo parlour screen for an imaginary tattoo parlour. Thinking of making a 4th panel, for stability and to extend the design. Perhaps I'll add one every time something important happens fir Mistress Axolotl...? 

While spending much time imagining myself as Mistress Axolotl, I became familiar with everything about her; books she reads, colours she likes, how she does her hair, what she wears, her rituals and habits, her attitude in certain situations etc.

As a result I felt a need to create physical representation of her character, or of her tattoo parlour and practice as a whole.

I was reading Patti Smith’s new book M Train, which involves a lot of sitting and thinking in cafes, imagining and procrastinating and existing in dreamworlds:

“I reflected on how my mornings at Café Ino had not only prolonged by also afforded my malaise with a certain amount of grandeur. ‘Thank you’, I said, ‘I have lived in my own book.” P.208, M Train by Patti Smith

The book also included a description of Patti creating a reading room for herself, inspired by Japanese interior décor and architecture.

I started researching Japanese homes and kept coming across room dividers / privacy screens. I thought these acted as great space makers…. ‘Safe space makers’.

Having decided my residency project would focus on ‘safe spaces’, I wanted to design and make something that involved a use of space, or created a space itself.

So I decided Mistress Axolotl needed a privacy screen (space maker) for her tattoo parlour, because tattooing (and all art) can be a personal and private act.

I made this screen that depicts certain rituals that Mistress Axolotl undertakes to stay relaxed. One of these depictions is her sitting at a table with her notebook. This is a scene that is partly inspired by the importance of cafés as a safe space in M Train, but also by a specific café in San Francisco outside which I used to sit glumly every day for a week after a friend of mine had died suddenly, waiting to feel a bit better.

During my research into all things Japanese I also became interested in the Japanese flag design. It is single red dot in a white space.

With this I realised something about composition: Isolated elements and spacious arrangements create a space for viewers (& makers) to meditate upon a single element, or upon one idea.

I became obsessed with a mantra I wrote for myself as a result and it helped me to concentrate on important personal topics when making these artworks, as well as helping me with composition itself. That mantra was:

A concentration of a scene but an expansion of an idea.

This is often a true description of what a tattoo is.

It is also true of talismans.

Talismans and tattoos channel and focus our minds, for the betterment of our spirit.