I'm pressing myself against you. I want you to do the same.

https://cherellesappleton.com/

[cksappleton]

Untitled, 2016, Gif

[cksappleton]

Close to the feeling I’d like to create in this new work.... I’ve had so much trouble trying to gather my thoughts and make progress on this project over the last couple of weeks- it feels like trying to catch smoke but hearing this track has brought things slightly closer and the fact it comes from an album titled Spa Commissions brings me joy. I made a smallish work titled S.P.A in 2018 which was/ is the genesis of my initial thinking for this new series of work- glyphs, self care, transcendence, meditation, spas/temples or collective reverential spaces to take refuge/relax in.

[cksappleton]

I’ve been experiencing a compulsion to wait and stay my hand (actually not by the current lockdown, although it has enabled a time of deep reflection and personal exploration) which I hope will fuel this project and inform the direction life takes on the other side whatever that may look like.

[cksappleton]

Untitled, 2016, Gif

[cksappleton]

Excerpt of Eathseed verse taken from The Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler.

[cksappleton]

Applied pressure with one’s lips Atop another's mouth

Asymmetric so as to plant right corner puckered high

Taking preference Skin prepares receiving a glancing touch

Yet to be titled, Cherelle Sappleton, 2020

[cksappleton]

Anansi the Ghanaian trickster as female.

The trickster archetype encompasses a lot of what I have been thinking about and draws together the idea of deep ancient ‘wisdom’ (forgotten/ ignored) (the erotic) bound up with mystery and the pursuit of knowledge, upsetting status quos, sometimes to chaotic effect,  standing in opposition to stagnation and ignorance instilled by patriarchal structures. 

The trickster is indifferent, existing to affirm the complexity and the plurality of life.

[cksappleton]

"Meyerhold! A mix of creative genius and human vulnerability. Innumerable, those in agony over his loss, whom, like myself, loved him endlessly. Innumerable moments of excitement for those, who witnessed the creative magic of this one time wizard of the stage." Sergei Eisenstein Is Meyerhold, framed and murdered by Stalin in 1940, the "greatest theater master" (Eisenstein)

[cksappleton]

Joseph Beuys,’ I Like America and America Likes Me.

As a child, Beuys was fascinated by nature, obsessively cataloguing all the plants and wildlife in his area. At the same time, he was enthralled by northern myths and folklore, in which creatures are endowed with mystical power. This reverence for the natural world persisted throughout his life and his art. He identified closely with certain animals, seeing them as guardian spirits: ‘The figures of the horse, the stag, the swan and the hare constantly come and go: figures which pass freely from one level of existence to another, which represent the incarnation of the soul…’ In the 1970s, Beuys became involved with environmental politics and was one of the founders of the Green Party.

[cksappleton]

“.... when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense.”

Excerpt taken from Uses of the Erotic, Audre Lorde

[cksappleton]

Abyss

Excess

Abundance

Obliteration

Oblivion

Surplus

All the above words that have been floating about in my head for some time... coming to the fore so as previously with Proximity, I’m putting them here to sit and settle.... 

[cksappleton]

This song has been a bit of a soundtrack to the last year or so for me. The kitsch sounding intro, distortion and delay throughout combine to trippy effect, giving a sense of far away, far out tranquillised experience.... made me think about the use of delay in Dub and the use of echo which some attribute to a fragments/ disjointed Afro-Caribbean diasporic experience. The spaciousness in Dub music and it’s use of repetition which has been attributed to reflecting the expanse of time whilst disjointed vocal floating on top and abruptly appearing throughout the track refers to the presence of ancestral ghosts....

[cksappleton]

Those dreams where you reach out, grab, punch and the action doesn’t connect. The sensation of standing outside of yourself and watching yourself at a distance.

Pic: An experiment/ work in progress (A Show Of Hands series), 2014-2020, scanned found image. 

[cksappleton]

Cradle; to hold, bear weight, support.

Pic: An experiment/ work in progress (A Show Of Hands series), 2014-2020, scanned found image. 

[cksappleton]

Cosey Fanni Tutti - Time To Tell, 1989

http://www.coseyfannitutti.com/content/texts/pugzine.html

[cksappleton]

Words by Cherelle Sappleton, 2020

[cksappleton]

An obvious choice for obvious reasons....