Phoenix and the Flying Books

10′ x 7’6″

I was invited by The Auckland Project to make a piece of work in response to a tapestry that was commissioned by Henry VIII entitled The Burning Of Heathen books.

The original features St Paul encouraging the Ephesians to burn books of sorcery and was made as a piece of propaganda at a time when Henry VIII was making huge changes to religion in this country.

I was asked to include certain elements in my work, including the image of books being burnt. I find it a very disturbing image and wanted to give it a slightly different perspective. So in my piece, there are books being burnt at the centre of the image, but above them is a phoenix; and they are encircled by seven large picture books that are emerging from eggshells.

The idea is that the books are being reborn after the fashion of the phoenix, perishing in the flames but being reborn in the ashes of the fire. My suggestion is that you can burn a book but you can’t burn an idea.

Here are some details from the work. It is made almost entirely from recycled fabrics. The background was sewn by machine and the rest by hand, and I had assistance, particularly with the picture books, from several people who volunteer for the Auckland Project.

Faraway and Fabulous: Scenes from Makebelieve

New exhibition at 42 Gallery Bishop Auckland

42, Market Place, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7PB

Tuesday August 22nd – Friday 20th October 2023

open Monday to Friday 9 – 4 BUT the space is a community venue, PLEASE RING BEFOREHAND to confirm opening times

01388 660 270

Mughal Prince with Falcon

Les Parisiennes

P A N

Foo Dog Family

More photos of the Floating City

The Floating City of Haberdash

I spent last week installing this work at the new gallery at the Gala Theatre in Durham. It was hard work but without any major trauma but then I was armed with a plan of action and a mountain of kit, having plundered The Bombay Stores in Bradford for fabric and ebay for all sorts of bits of hardware such as pulley wheels, tension cable, blue piping and marine clips.

These photos were taken by the photographer who came to document the private view: I hope to go up in the next day or two and take some myself and I’ll post some of those if they turn out okay.

 

 

solid fluid shadow

 

These are new paintings, they are roughly A3 done in acrylic inks on handmade watercolour paper. I did them last week, although I’m not sure about them it was rather nice to do some painting. Have got some bargain brushes from Ryman’s which are lovely to use but the last time I was in they didn’t look like they were stocking them any more.

 

 

 

Polychromatic Ornament

 

 

 

Here’s a photo taken at the Private View of the Fifth Sized Books exhibition last November. It gives a better idea of the scale of this textiles piece.