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Palace of Opposites -A New Start


She Saw Him In Her Dreams - details to bring the story together
She Saw Him In Her Dreams - details to bring the story together

I've been thinking for the last 6 weeks ago about a new collection for 2025. Writing loads of notes, looking through old sketch books and playing with ideas. It needs to be lighter than last year for my head. Obviously all my collections have a leaning to being semi-autobiographical, 'cos it's how I see the world. However focussing on one particular facet was helpful and therapeutic, it could at times be draining. Tied in with this is the nature of the materials themselves and the importance of drawing on their past uses, their brokenness, the beauty in their fragmented make-up and their discarded status being overturned as they are married with other objects.


I need something broad enough that I can work on for the year. It has to be light enough that there is a joyful feel. I need to believe in it. I want it to conjure up a feeling or visual about the body of work. Specific yet ambiguous. 


Over the last year I have been aware of being faced with constant opposites. The juxtaposition of needing to move forward but equally desperate to not leave my past behind, taking it with me. There has been moments of euphoria, both personally and professionally, that are instantly hit with a wave of guilt. I'm thinking that opposites might be my way forward. There are obvious big hitters to draw from, but also a sense of playfulness with young and old, small and big, here and gone. And on they go...


All the pieces can stand alone, but work together emanating their own character
All the pieces can stand alone, but work together emanating their own character

I need a collective noun, or a sense of place to collect the stories together. Most of my collections, in my mind, take place on a chess board, or in a ballroom, or on a battle field. There is an element of choreography in how the the pieces work together, they balance and compete, step forward or recede - they are all supposed to interact together but can stand alone too. 


There is a balance to be struck between theatrical and pretentious. I know if it is too contrived I won't believe in it, and then I won't feel comfortable talking about my work. I've played with so many titles now, and think I have the one that sits best with me. Some of the discarded are:

A Book of Tomorrow

Silhouettes and Footprints

Tomorrows Choreography

Tales of Opposites and Beyond

Palace of the Unexpected

Reflections and Opposites


I want the collection to have a motley flamboyance that I create a Palace of characters
I want the collection to have a motley flamboyance that I create a Palace of characters


The chosen one is now The Palace of Opposites. Palace to me suggests oppulence, wonder, formality, duties, baroque, secrets, beauty, over the top, a level of kitsch. Opposites can be as focussed or wide as I choose. Enough to guide the collection but not be constrained in one genre. I can go Kings and Queens, history, pull on so much reality and team it with my imagination and interpretation. 


I feel workshop ready!

 

 


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