Unholy alliance
Leonora Carrington in her studio
A new project and collaboration with friend and artist Mandy Tolley took us to Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery yesterday to check out their small but perfectly formed collection of Orthodox Christian icons. As part of a forthcoming show which asks contributors to re-imagine the cover and reverse art of a favourite or influential book, we’ve chosen The Hearing Trumpet by surrealist artist and a favourite of mine, Leonora Carrington.
Leonora Carrington: Self Portrait, 1937
A character within this novella will be the focus of our efforts as we in turn look to creating a cover portrait of the deliciously titled Dona Rosalinda Alvarex Cruz della Cueva; at face value a pious and dedicated Abbess of the Covent of Santa Barbara of Tartarus, actually a scheming sorceress whose power can be traced to vials of ‘Musc de Madelaine’, a magical ointment that may or may not be responsible for the miracles performed by Jesus of Nazareth.
Early thoughts involve combining not only religious art but also, as our approach will be using computerized embroidery and hand-beading, the folk style of Russian ‘Matryoshka’ or nesting dolls; the painted dark-hued allure of Spanish flamenco souvenir ladies, fetish neck braces, cubist landscapes and the seemingly demure practice of needlepoint, scrapbooking and patchwork methods.
Pearly whites wanted
Although still in the early pre-production stages I’m delighted to tell you about my involvement as project producer in helping realise artist Gina Czarnecki’s wildly imaginative sculptural work, PALACES. Gina's current body of work revolves around stem cell research, informed consent and bio-engineering, with a retrospective exhibition of existing and new work scheduled for December 2011 at Bluecoat in Liverpool.
PALACES will be a sculpture some 2 metres high and 2 metres wide, consisting of stalagmite-like towers formed of clear cystal resin. Grouped to form a fairytale palace (more in the Jim Henson mould than Disney) and embedded with UV particles, it will be clad in an ivy-trace of barnacle clusters formed of up to 12,000 children’s milk teeth, purposely donated on the back of an international campaign.
Milk teeth are a means of extracting adult stem cells (not necessarily stem cells from an adult, but cells whose future role is limited to specific outcome/s due to their progressed stage of development), unlike embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell type. I’ll be posting more about this project, but the thinking behind it includes debate upon regeneration, how wealth will affect future health care, informed consent and ownership of our own genetic make-up.
But at heart, it’s quite simply a wondrous and beautiful sculpture that will enable mass public participation, with a UK tour already in the planning stages. Endorsed and supported by The Science Museum, Imperial College London, Welcome Trust and Medicine for Children Research Network. If you’ve got any milk teeth saved from your own childhood, or know of any young’uns with wobbly pegs, I’ll be announcing information on where to send these totemic human gem stones soon.
Oh, and before you ask, the tooth fairy remains fully consulted at every stage and is looking forward to moving into her Grand Design-styled new pad. Tokens for tooth exchange can be downloaded and slipped under the pillow so that she's aware of who is contributing to her fantastical abode (so she can advance the expected reward), while special treats await those who follow the project through development, childerlings and grown-olds alike. Let's get the word out - the Palace needs YOU!