#notjustcollective

[ghostofatree]

The Penultimate set from the Book of Lapis shows another project from that year. I had started to visit sites of LGBTQ historical importance such as the Harvey Milk memorial in San Francisco, the Stonewall bar in New York and the Homomonument in Amsterdam. This time I had decided to visit the Alan Turing statue in Manchester to make 7 bowls of offering to the saint. The line from the Buddhist puja “I make offerings at all the holy places and places in which the a Bodhisattvas have been” inspired this set of work. Usually my travelling companion had photographed the prostrations for me but this time my patient friend and fellow Foundation tutor Damian had agreed to come with me do the recording, (which added much to this pilgrimage because I didn’t usually have a fellow artist to notice other details worthy of documentation while I was doing the performance). The first plate is the embossed copper and slate ex voto I made to honour Turing, (shortly after exhibited with #notjustcollective ) Alan Turing was of course a gay man who helped end WWII much earlier and thereby saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In gratitude for this remarkable contribution the government arrested him for his homosexuality, chemically castrated him and caused him to commit suicide. There would be no computers as we know them today without his genius and countless people alive today would have never been born. The hand gesture is a mudra meaning “do not be afraid” the apple he had bitten was laced with cyanide. The second plate I removed my shoes to walk on holy ground to his shrine, on arriving I made appropriate prostrations to him, sat at his feet to request blessings. I offered 7 bowls of water to represent the 7 traditional offerings to a Bodhisattva, and used the holy water to clean the rainbow mosaic at his feet. Only then did I dare sit next to him 🙏 #sketchbook #drawing #drawingsketch #nostalgia #memories #alanturing #enigmacode #saint #hero #martyr #homophobia #immitationgame #blechleypark #computerscience #genius #manchesteruniversity #queerartist #liverpoolartist #icon #exvoto #bodhisattva #pilgrimage #blessings #pridemonth #lgbtq🌈 (at Manchester Gay Village) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cohj1vYMITF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

The Book of Learning had been sketchbook 19 and next was the Book of Gaps. I cannot yet archive that book because it recorded the years around loosing my amazing mum and I am not yet brave enough to revisit it in detail. It led to a show called Square Mile in #thebridewellstudiosandgallery but for now I will show sketchbook 21, after a period of grieving in which making art was impossible a few years later the Book of Lapis, the cover of which was dedicated to my protector Saint Derek of Dungeness in his Blue Lapis Pureland and based clumsily in his own gold-leaf Square covers. For some reason Houdini was there and the inner cover is a self portrait as shadow over the angel wings made by one of my excellent Foundationers. I was delighted to be invited by @spells_against_civilisation to join #notjustcollective and came up with some early lino cuts to honour dissident political groups such as the Diggers, The Levellers, The Suffragettes The Luddites, The Saboteurs etc. Plate 6 was a quote from Gerrard Winstanley and I printed this image into a gold-leafed spade for him. there was a vegan glass raised, (appropriately enough at this point in time as we as a culture start to wake up the murder, exploitation and privilege that has pretended to be acceptable to now) of to anti slavery local lad William Roscoe. Finally a little more success that year as the mighty Kitt Cherry had managed to get an article about my work mentioning Nicolay Alexyve. The article was taken down soon after so it was an honour to have been censored by Putin but I printed off a translation before that #sketchbook #drawing #drawingsketch #nostalgia #memories #linocut #derekjarman #derekjarmanblue #lapis #diggers #luddite #saboteur #queerartist #gerrardwinstanley #nicolayalexieve #sochiolympics (at The Georgian Quarter) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClgkNqNsa0_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

The Book of Lamentations stumbles to its inevitable end with some more recent panels. The first two being the wipe off of inks from monoprinting which seem to offer a more interesting surface than a blank page. The first becomes a grim sky backdrop for a pylon /wicker man in answer to the question “What the fuck is England?” from the notes on the second plate which recorded a meeting with #notjustcollective about work after Covid. The third and fourth are results from the “draw everyone in the zoom call challenge” from the recent #liverpoolindependentartschool seminar session. They are unflattering to say the least. The last is all the stickers from my recent will and testament document pack stuck over a failed life drawing. I am too dyslexic to relish the vast documenta pack that needed filling in signing and witnessing so it took me months and I kept hiding it under the couch hoping the admin fairies would fill it in. A year after I first posted this and having had them send it back time and again for tiny errors that invalidate all the accompanying documents I have given up and handed this nightmare over to a grown up #sketchbook #sketchbookdrawing #archive #liverpoolartist #pylon #lockdown #darkness #zoomlearning #zoomclasses #quicksketches #attendees #legaldocuments (at Minster Court) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgKdHb5sHsp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ghostofatree]

The Book of Lamentations stumbles to its inevitable end with some more recent panels. The first two being the wipe off of inks from monoprinting which seem to offer a more interesting surface than a blank page. The first becomes a grim sky backdrop for a pylon /wicker man in answer to the question “What the fuck is England?” from the notes on the second plate which recorded a meeting with #notjustcollective about work after Covid. The third and fourth are results from the draw everyone in the zoom call challenge from the recent #liverpoolindependentartschool seminar session. There are unflattering to say the least. The last is all the stickers from my recent will and testament document pack stuck over a failed life drawing. I am too dyslexic to relish the vast documenta pack that needed filling in signing and witnessing so it took me months and I kept hiding it under the couch hoping the admin fairies would fill it in. #sketchbook #sketchbookdrawing #archive #liverpoolartist #pylon #lockdown #darkness #zoomlearning #zoomclasses #quicksketches #attendees #legaldocuments (at Minster Court) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPA0lkVMwCs/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ghostofatree]

The Book of Learning volume 2 continues with experiments in chine-colle; (which is a lovely process where the intaglio plate is inked and wiped and laid on the press, a shaped piece of tissue paper is laid on top with glue applied facing upward and the print paper is laid on top. The sandwich is then run through the downward pressure of the press and the inked plate pushes the glued tissue onto the paper and prints the design onto it in one action). It can provide areas of bold colour while maintaining the fineness of mark of intaglio. It takes a fair bit of practice and in real terms is pretty tricky but I loved the process. At this point I was making some prints of seraphim for a little show with #notjustcollective .They were an emotional response to the disaster capitalism and rising fascism of Tory Brexit and were called Sic “Transit Gloria Mundi” (thus pass away the glories of the world). I was under no illusion that the EU is wonderful but am painfully aware of what is to come in the next decade in the UK. For UK minorities this is particularly terrifying. Seraphs demanded gold on EU blue. Several pages of experimental disasters are shown here with problems with Chine-colle including seraphs and Buddhas. They were shown on Smithdown Rd #sketchbook #printmakersofinstagram #printmaking #intaglio #chinecolle #experiments #samples #problemsolving #seraphim #angels #eu #brexit #hardbrexit #disastercapitalism #queerartist #liverpoolartist #archive #drawing #sketchbookpage #sketchbookdrawing #sictransitgloriamundi (at Rose Lane Liverpool) https://www.instagram.com/p/CET_0iwHw3G/?igshid=12jdixq99yb6j

[ghostofatree]

This selection from the Book of Common Prayer concentrates again on Saints. The first was an assemblage I had built about the idea of martyrs who had been forgotten. There are twin abuses which have through history been dealt to dissidents of every flavour. The first is torture, murder and terror and the second is erasure from history such as the “disappeared” or Stalin’s victims. I am convinced that the Roman Empire would have done the same to early Christians as they became aware that the programme of spectacular public torture was having the effect opposite on the public mood to the desired. This is a shrine to three generic forgotten martyrs with no names set into arch ways and with a shelf for offerings of coins, incense and tokens. The figures are covered in candle wax as though to make up for the centuries of devotion and offerings their more well known compadres would have had. Their robes are clerical and I implied forgotten narratives such as the thorn through the robe of the figure in white. They were made from compacted aluminium foil. The second page is the immaculate Nick Frost who is clearly a saint. tragically, since then, he has grown a huge beard and his blessed face is largely obscured and no longer visible to devotees. The next two pages showed my own efforts toward sainthood. But by the final two pages I had reverted to ancient pagan rites as part of #notjustcollective and was aware of the spiritual dangers of Morris dancers and plague doctors. The second of these panels was a procession through the city centre to ancient Druidic spaces in Fullwood gardens. We got the bus because the procession was too long. Local tribes people on the bus were extremely polite and said nothing... they dare not. #sketchbookpage #drawing #archive #liverpoolartist #queerartist #saints #reliquary #martyrs #forgotten #offerings #procession #bustravel #pagan #nickfrost #beautifulman (at Minster Court) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDg7t1ZAvtQ/?igshid=vs6s9qs93cfb

[ghostofatree]

This set from the Book of Common Prayer is a partial record of the set that was displayed at the Fabric district with Not Just Collective. It was probably our largest show with over 40 artists from various countries and I was really proud to be involved. The first panel is my handsome (and patient) man as Saint Sebastian, (martyr, warrior and protector Saint). The rainbow halo is self explanatory. The second is the shield I built for the Saint, based in a flattened version of the Roman infantry scutum and built from a closet door. The arrows of his martyrdom had pierced right through and the title was “That Which Can Not Protect You”. Scribed very subtly into the surface was an imagined text of his trial and execution. Next is that object and the first image as part of the large scale “Triptych for the 49- And It Doesn’t Even Make The Daily Mail Front Page” (partially titled after the @gracepetriemusic song Pride, which discusses the same event; it was of course a tribute piece for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the worst hate crime against LGBT in American History. It depicted each of the victims as photo collage saints set in windows to heaven. (two of whom are shown in greater detail on image 5). The page had previously been used to write down notes from an abusive phone call from management at the college as evidence for the grievance that marked the end of our careers. After this is an unsuccessful experiment of printing Belisama onto a copper surface and last is the metal emboss of Buddha Amogosiddhi I had previously made with the Liverpool Triratna Sangha. He is the unstoppable Buddha of direct action and fearlessness who represents the north and midnight. #sketchbook #exhibition #notjustcollective #saintsebastian #pulsenightclub #hatecrime #tribute #shield #martyr #queerartist #homophobia #belisama #amogasiddhi #warriorsaint #liverpoolartist #archive #happierdays (at Fabric) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDZZIf0Aq2q/?igshid=keemqyhwtyyh

[ghostofatree]

The Penultimate set from the Book of Lapis shows another project from that year. I had started to visit sites of LGBTQ historical importance such as the Harvey Milk memorial in San Francisco, the Stonewall bar in New York and the Homomonument in Amsterdam. This time I had decided to visit the Alan Turing statue in Manchester to make 7 bowls of offering to the saint. The line from the Buddhist puja “I make offerings at all the holy places and places in which the a Bodhisattvas have been” inspired this set of work. Usually my travelling companion had photographed the prostrations for me but this time my patient friend and fellow Foundation tutor Damian had agreed to come with me do the recording, (which added much to this pilgrimage because I didn’t usually have a fellow artist to notice other details worthy of documentation while I was doing the performance). The first plate is the embossed copper and slate ex voto I made to honour Turing, (shortly after exhibited with #notjustcollective ) Alan Turing was of course a gay man who helped end WWII much earlier and thereby saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In gratitude for this remarkable contribution the government arrested him for his homosexuality, chemically castrated him and caused him to commit suicide. There would be no computers as we know them today without his genius and countless people alive today would have never been born. The hand gesture is a mudra meaning “do not be afraid” the apple he had bitten was laced with cyanide. The second plate I removed my shoes to walk on holy ground to his shrine, on arriving I made appropriate prostrations to him, sat at his feet to request blessings. I offered 7 bowls of water to represent the 7 traditional offerings to a Bodhisattva, and used the holy water to clean the rainbow mosaic at his feet. Only then did I dare sit next to him 🙏 #sketchbook #drawing #drawingsketch #nostalgia #memories #alanturing #enigmacode #saint #hero #martyr #homophobia #immitationgame #blechleypark #computerscience #genius #manchesteruniversity #queerartist #liverpoolartist #icon #exvoto #bodhisattva #pilgrimage #blessings #pridemonth #lgbtq🌈 (at Alan Turing Memorial) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBvQSsNAWyv/?igshid=18h3f3kzs4n2w