Hurry Up and Wait (Collaboration with Blue Black)
Hurry Up and Wait, is a collaborative exploration of body/mind, illness/health, interior/exterior and time/space/place. Blue began the process by building a Tardus.
Dictionaries tell us that the Latin Tardus means:
Slow in process /sluggish / tardy / late / lingering / dull / stupid.
As children, we were both constantly told off for being dreamy, for being tardy, for being slow. We are still ‘slow’. Our lives, our art, are based on slow progress / slow process.
Like soldiers in an army, we are told to “hurry up and wait”.
[Blue]. This means slowing down is positive: a time to consolidate thoughts, feeling, emotional processes; a time to face inner personal demons.
[Desi]. For me, this reflects at once the frustration of the radiation process as well as my acceptance of it via black humour. Rush to oncology to be on time in the morning. Sit and wait while machines break down and tests are done. Into the radiation machine, my personal Tardus. Time slows down. Blue introduced me to the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra, chanted by Hein Braat, a Vedic healing chart, which enabled me to come to peace with the claustrophobic inner space of the hurry up and wait in my enforced Tardus.
Body parts and their fluids made from crocheted wool and other media intermingled with ‘action’ figures made from ceramics and forged wire. These are positioned on the floor and walls of the gallery.
Overhead is a galaxy of neurons – a brightly coloured nervous system which symbolises the interstice of the physical, the mental and the spiritual body. Lights flash as our thoughts and emotions traverse across synapses.
[Blue]. As a drawer I abstract figurative form from crumpled and painted paper using oil paint and to graphite define these figures, or from discarded ceramic works cut into cross sections reassembled using forged wire to create limbs.
[Desi]. Crochet is a slow process, a meditation. Crocheting my body fluids makes light of the earnestness of the distasteful process of having become less that the some of my body functions, of my internal processes becoming external and public.
The external surfaces of the work on the walls of the Tardus reflect the public face and space of ‘action figures.’ – our outer selves. The internal surfaces of the work reflect the unseen personal space. Through the use of colour, texture and form these two spaces represent what is revealed a polarity between the two. Entering the internal spaces is a meditative process a slowing down of activity and the universal experience of our own demons.
Collaboration of this nature, especially between such unlikely media, are not the norm. It is the first time that either artist has worked in this way, and is a significant development for both. Because of the unusual nature of the amalgamation of media, as well as the subject matter of inner demons and body fluids, we are both taking risks with our art practices as well as pushing the limits of crochet, bricollage and ceramics.
And so we ‘hurry up’ and we ‘wait’ to see what unfolds.
The Dr Who ‘Tardis’ is a play on the original Latin ‘Tardus’.
Desi has had surgery and radiation therapy for a tumour.
Maha Mritvuniava Mantra
Om Tryambakam yajamah
Sugandhim pushti vardhanam
Urvarukamiva bondhanan
Mrityor mukshiya mamritat
Translation: I meditate on, and surrender myself to, the Divine Being, who embodies the power of will, the power of knowledge, and the power of action. I pray to the Divine Being who manifests in the form of fragrance in the flower of life and is the eternal nourisher of the plant of life. Like a skilful gardener, may the Lord of Life disentangle me from the binding forces of my physical, psychological, and spiritual foes. May the lord of immortality residing within me free me from death, decay and sickness and unite me with immortally.
Overhead is a galaxy of neurons – a brightly coloured nervous system which symbolises the interstice of the physical, the mental and the spiritual body. Lights flash as our thoughts and emotions traverse across synapses.
Crochet is a slow process, a meditation. Crocheting my bodily fluids make light of the earnestness of the distasteful process of having become less that the some of my bodily functions, of my internal processes becoming external and public.
Dictionaries tell us that the Latin Tardus means:
Slow in process /sluggish / tardy / late / lingering / dull / stupid.
As children, we were both constantly told off for being dreamy, for being tardy, for being slow. We are still ‘slow’. Our lives, our art, are based on slow progress / slow process.
Like soldiers in an army, we are told to “hurry up and wait”.
[Blue]. This means slowing down is positive: a time to consolidate thoughts, feeling, emotional processes; a time to face inner personal demons.
[Desi]. For me, this reflects at once the frustration of the radiation process as well as my acceptance of it via black humour. Rush to oncology to be on time in the morning. Sit and wait while machines break down and tests are done. Into the radiation machine, my personal Tardus. Time slows down. Blue introduced me to the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra, chanted by Hein Braat, a Vedic healing chart, which enabled me to come to peace with the claustrophobic inner space of the hurry up and wait in my enforced Tardus.
Body parts and their fluids made from crocheted wool and other media intermingled with ‘action’ figures made from ceramics and forged wire. These are positioned on the floor and walls of the gallery.
Overhead is a galaxy of neurons – a brightly coloured nervous system which symbolises the interstice of the physical, the mental and the spiritual body. Lights flash as our thoughts and emotions traverse across synapses.
[Blue]. As a drawer I abstract figurative form from crumpled and painted paper using oil paint and to graphite define these figures, or from discarded ceramic works cut into cross sections reassembled using forged wire to create limbs.
[Desi]. Crochet is a slow process, a meditation. Crocheting my body fluids makes light of the earnestness of the distasteful process of having become less that the some of my body functions, of my internal processes becoming external and public.
The external surfaces of the work on the walls of the Tardus reflect the public face and space of ‘action figures.’ – our outer selves. The internal surfaces of the work reflect the unseen personal space. Through the use of colour, texture and form these two spaces represent what is revealed a polarity between the two. Entering the internal spaces is a meditative process a slowing down of activity and the universal experience of our own demons.
Collaboration of this nature, especially between such unlikely media, are not the norm. It is the first time that either artist has worked in this way, and is a significant development for both. Because of the unusual nature of the amalgamation of media, as well as the subject matter of inner demons and body fluids, we are both taking risks with our art practices as well as pushing the limits of crochet, bricollage and ceramics.
And so we ‘hurry up’ and we ‘wait’ to see what unfolds.
The Dr Who ‘Tardis’ is a play on the original Latin ‘Tardus’.
Desi has had surgery and radiation therapy for a tumour.
Maha Mritvuniava Mantra
Om Tryambakam yajamah
Sugandhim pushti vardhanam
Urvarukamiva bondhanan
Mrityor mukshiya mamritat
Translation: I meditate on, and surrender myself to, the Divine Being, who embodies the power of will, the power of knowledge, and the power of action. I pray to the Divine Being who manifests in the form of fragrance in the flower of life and is the eternal nourisher of the plant of life. Like a skilful gardener, may the Lord of Life disentangle me from the binding forces of my physical, psychological, and spiritual foes. May the lord of immortality residing within me free me from death, decay and sickness and unite me with immortally.
Overhead is a galaxy of neurons – a brightly coloured nervous system which symbolises the interstice of the physical, the mental and the spiritual body. Lights flash as our thoughts and emotions traverse across synapses.
Crochet is a slow process, a meditation. Crocheting my bodily fluids make light of the earnestness of the distasteful process of having become less that the some of my bodily functions, of my internal processes becoming external and public.