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!

Welding and whatnot

I went home last weekend, and my dad taught me to weld (MIG and Arc welding!) - I made a table! I've always wanted a metal table that I can insert different bits of scrap sheet wood/surfaces into, and now i have one - one that i made myself no less! All from scrap metal; some we found in the shed, and the legs are parts of old tailor's dummies that are from the company my dad works at. 

He also made me a magnet necklace so I can go round testing metals in all the skips in London, and gather welding material! 

And this is The Bum Bum Cake that I made, mainly for Dom, but everyone ate it! Still, it's important to keep humour in your romance sometimes! Nice glittery pink letters I made with glitter card from the 'art shop' in Dulwich where I went with Rachael yesterday when she was nannying.

And a top I made today, that is in the dye bath right now going a nice orangey colour. Made from old napkins, scrap material and my old White Stuff uniform that I spilled red cabbage juice on and couldn't wear anymore!

Always the kangaroos!

If everyone carried a candle with them...

Sneak peak of new painting - needs to be seen by candlelight. like scans below

Fan Club!!!

stop all the clocks. Where is W.H.Auden when you need him?

Firstly, here is a recent creation: The Swagtop, to wear when I am creating Swagland. With my zine 'The ragged edge of your town' neatly tucked in the pocket there, so I can remember what to do if I ever get confused about my general direction! And so I always remember to put the effort in.

me completely captivated by the mini-documentary that accompanies Springsteen's latest album High Hopes

And below is a hastily-made set up for an idea i've recently had; about Fan Clubs and how exciting and important they are. There's no particular order to the items, and really they don't go together very well, but it was a first attempt - just to see what items I already had.

Which are:

-The Swagtop

- 'I'd like to thank the River Boys' banner, which isn't finished yet

- Screenprinted pillow - part of the 'Affirmations' vein of my huge Swag project - based on tattoos, but stemming from (of course) Home & Away and Springsteen, amongst other things. So basically I really am being a big old fan with this Affirmations project! as well as trying to create a small spiritual practice of displaying affirmations and encouraging others to think of their own. This idea comes from hypnotherapy, which fascinates me. And I now want to be a hypnotherapist in the years to come. I think the 'I'd like to thank...' banner nearly came under the Affirmations project, but i suppose it's just more of a Fan Club shout out, so there it fits: in a future Home & Away related Fan Club.

- The Dyeing Station. This is less of a conceptual item, and is really just a participatory or performance item, with which I can demonstrate my eco philosophy and my methods. I made it from reclaimed wood, including our excess stair banisters! I then stained it with tea and a vinegar & wire wool solution (iron acetate solution) to get a lovely grey stain (also not finished). The top part of the  Dying Station, which you can't really see, is reminiscent of Aboriginal Dreaming paintings - partly just a fanciful more, partly because it felt appropriate given the organic pigment I was using.

- The coil pot thing....?!   made from metres and metres of plaited reclaimed bedsheets! this is far from finished and i will get the two girls whom I teach art to, to help me. they love plaiting! and this is part of it - being accessible to and inclusive of kids, who are the most fresh and imaginative community on out planet. They are never disinterested! Anyway - it is basically something to dye at the Dyeing Station.

And this is a mono-print I did last year on rice paper, but it's just so hard to photograph! Still not sure it's very complementary of the real thing, which is gorgeously delicate looking with all it's flimsyness and creases and submission to breezes when it's pinned up.

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And now I'm thinking also about two more artistic adventures, both very large and involved!! I need more time and space to do them. I need to start really looking for some good residencies so I can run away and be a real artist, with an actual audience for a bit - to test out these ideas and actually employ my methodology of democratic, group/community made and influenced art. In fact one of these ideas is entirely FOR this purpose, and the other most likely needs a group to realise it.

I've been full of ideas for a year and a half, but too many disparate ones to have a clear definition of purpose. But now I feel really excited and engaged with at least two or three ideas.

So, two of the ideas:

1. The Swagstation - for real. Actually engaged in designing it, testing it, and making it, and finally using it!! Perhaps the Fan Clubs can be started and meet in The Swagstation?

2. A Paul Gaugin Soap Opera! Soap operas - the structure and atmosphere are so helpful for observing cooperation and employing it, and for also unharnessing your imagination in a healthy, sustainable dose. 

And Paul Gaugin's Tahitian period reads like a soap opera (short, escapist, succulent and open), and to me really looks visually like Home & Away, with all its colours, characters and general adventure and imagination. 

The Ocean was also a distinct force in Gaugin's life, and the sea is such a life-blood for local communities. It is so full of a sense of place and adventure, whilst also being one of the only physical presences and imaginative concepts that can be understood across the globe. It is universal but also private: it has infinite relatability but also intense privacy and intimacy... and that is what community focused art should be: universally understood, through the echoes of our close personal impulses.

And soap operas operate in this way too. 

Below are scans of my notebook page introducing the idea.

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everyone make their own character or script? everyone has a good at screenplay for a minute? we all write it together? (a tentative 'we' - whoever wants to do it with me!)

everyone please help, come with me

And some more stuff..

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'Affirmation I'

 Acrylic, hairspray, carbon and oil pastel on onion skin-dyed found fabric. This is so soap opera-y! This almost works like a scene from my imaginary future soap opera!

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'Nothing is ever set in stone'

An affirmation tablet made form homemade clay (vaseline, beeswax and talc) that never dries out - so you can always change to a new affirmation.

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and more thoughts on The Swagstation...

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