Guilty Secret

I'm reminded of my exhibition 'Responses' where I produced a body of work that 'aimed to capture some of the issues I found and still find myself grappling with; the inconsistencies, contradictions and paradoxes in me and the fact that I move between two very different worlds. The developing and the developed. The fact that I have a self indulgent and superficial side which attempts to remain thus even when confronted by the hugely uncomfortable issues that arise in this unsettled but beautiful continent.'This body of work (which you can see on the past work 2008 page) was inspired by this and the 'realization that often times it is too much to expect resolution, and in those instances, the step to take is to recognize the anomalies and to hold them.' This work was that holding. 

So this guilty secret, the fact that there's a part of me that wants everything in the shop 'VV Rouleaux' in London. They sell the most exquisite trimmings you have ever seen and I am ashamed to say that this self indulgent and superficial side of me could easily spend the rest of my days lying on a bed of VV Rouleaux trimmings drunk on pom poms and dressed in ribbon and tassels. However... it seems obscene spending over R2000 on a tassel. Indeed, the tassels in the middle picure below cost just that! Isn't that a common monthly  wage for many people in South Africa. How absolutely bizarre when you think about it.

Surrealism at the Tate Modern

POETRY AND DREAM

SURREALISM AND BEYOND

I really identify with the surrealists' notion of drawing 'upon the uncensored creative impulses of the unconscious'. Something that I never took on board about this movement until now.

I was unaware that Freud played such a large part in the 'raison d'etre' of the surrealist movement. I tend to lean more towards Jung than Freud however as part of the inspiration for my ongoing work I too intend to look to my dreams for direction.

Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966

Born Switzerland, worked Switzerland, France

Hours of the Traces 1930

L'Heure des traces 

Metal wire and plaster

In 1933 Giacometti said that when making his sculptures he reproduced images that 'were complete in my mind's eye... without stopping to ask myself what they might mean'. 

This fragile construction suggests the mysteries of the unconscious, combining space and time, eroticism and death. The cage like structure supports delicate organic forms. The upper shapes have been seen as skeletal or phallic, while the lower suspended form has been interpreted as a beating heart or a clock's pendulum. (Tate Modern)

I identify too with how this artist works. As he put it above; reproducing images that were complete in his mind's eye... without stopping to ask himself what they might mean.  

I don't always have an image that is complete in my mind's eye but I go with my uncensored creative impulses and don't ask myself at the time what they might mean until later. I am always in awe of how the unconcsious speaks and how I can trust it, always.