From the 7th Layer

22 June 2024

At ArtSect Gallery in Hackney Wick as part of FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING drawing & performance festival.

This show’s theme was the nature of embodiment; what it is to live in physical form, versus being a spirit being beyond the material realm. I was invited to be part of a collective by artist Josie Deighton, which included several figurative drawing artists who enjoy drawing movement, as well as several performance artists who enjoy moving as part of their practice.

An event was arranged at the ArtSect Gallery and so I wanted to create a new piece, which lent itself well to the dynamic of the audience drawing my movement. I wanted to tell a story too, and was reminded of some recordings I had made of my Mother some years earlier, about her experience of her body since she’d become paralysed.

Lately I’ve become fascinated by the afterlife; what happens after the physical form has died. I’d had some curious experiences which led me to investigate and study the art of intuition and spirit communication. The process of this study made me appreciate that even if none of it was true, i.e. when we die that’s it, the idea of it was profound and made my life better. It gave me a deeper insight into the nature of life itself and the importance of love and spiritual growth.

In the play I imagine my Mum as a heavenly being, while I still living in my body, muse on the journey of my life. I reflect on some difficulties growing up, and a desire to jump back in time to somehow correct the past. Living in the present moment versus the past, is another big theme. The scene I mention here, about a portal opening up onto the past or the timelessness, was based on a real life moment I had months earlier. Art mirrors life, and my life ended up being transformed by that moment. Walking through Hoxton, I discovered a secret doorway into a world where I could become a mentor to local youngsters as they navigate their early years. Hoxton was a place my life truly went off the rails in the ’90s. Having imagined the portal and wished for it, it appeared. A few months after this performance, come the autumn term, I began mentoring, and that is a new ongoing chapter.

Promotion

Promo flyer for the event