Photobook Sunday proof read

table became a pattern representing
interconnectedness. This has echoes of the sacred
geometry of abstract Spiritualist art.
The picture is drawn in soft and hard pastel, in a
more conservative style than I usually employ. The
gold haloes, and the drapes and colours of the
clothing, are borrowed from iconography, and it is
styled like a traditional religious picture. I framed it in
a heavy, very old, slightly broken wooden frame to
photograph it in a church context where I hoped it
would look both at home and strange. It is a surreal
icon, calling to mind characters from an alternative
fable or gospel.
Although to my mind the realisation is not
immediately Abject, this theory lies behind the
blurring of gender boundaries, and the upsetting of an
established order, if in a way that is blatantly Surreal
and fantastical. Placing three strange characters in a
work titled Trinity undermines expectations. It is
deliberately disorienting and the viewer needs to
interact with the work, use their imaginations, to
create meaning where ‘meaning collapses’.
I cut up a small copy of the picture to make three
separate miniature figures, and incorporated them
into a section of one of the circular geometric prints
inspired by church arches. A different version of this
pattern has miniature icons of the Virgin and Child.
By making the pattern containing the Trinity rotate, it
gives pleasing associations with Richard Rohr’s idea of
the Trinity as a circle dance or infinite flow.
Serpentine Labyrinth
In the popular book about labyrinths, ‘Red Thread’,
author Charlotte Higgins writes about the time she
went to see the famous labyrinth in the floor of
Chartres Cathedral. I was inspired by her comment,
‘It was as if some vast serpent had coiled itself there
in the cathedral nave’, to first draw a labyrinth in the
form of a snake, then carve it in Maltese limestone.
While stone carvings and labyrinths are found in old
churches, snakes generally are less popular. In
Christianity they are associated with Satan tempting
Eve in the garden of Eden. However, snakes, as they
shed their skin, can also be symbols of rebirth,
transformation and immortality - in fact one of the
monuments in the old church has carved wooden
snakes on it. Snakes also represent healing - the
snake coiled round a stick (as held up by Moses in
the desert) is the symbol for doctors and health
services in some countries. Snakes can also represent
fertility, either represented straight as phallic symbols
or coiled around the goddess as in Cretan statues.
The coiled snake can represent the umbilical cord
connecting us to ‘Mother Earth’.
I am happy with the ambiguity of a very familiar
shape, the labyrinth, made of something unfamiliar.
I’m pleased with using a symbolic creature that while
unusual in the context of a labyrinth is perfectly
logical – as labyrinths are also about rebirth and
healing. Particularly I like an ‘icon’ with ancient,
female-bodied imagery for the divine.
It appeals to me as both superficially beautiful but
also slightly disturbing, whether for people who fear
snakes (a common phobia) or Christians who fear it
looks like worshipping Satan. The stone is smooth
and gives the desire to touch it, and this carving is
about the size of a ‘finger labyrinth’ designed to be
traced with the hand as a form of mediation, but the
thought of touching a snake is repellent to many. This
might make it an Abject Icon. This contrasts with the
deep plush of the fur labyrinth, which suggests a soft
and strokeable animal, and the contrast itself is
pleasing. As stated, I don’t believe there is any one
way of describing the mystery of god or the universe;
we need many metaphors or image.
Fun Fur
The first 3D labyrinth, intended as a prototype, was
made from obviously synthetic fur, as used for a
cheap teddy bear or a pencil case. It gave it a retro,
1970s feel, like something from a bizarre toyshop.
But it worked surprisingly well despite that, perhaps
because it made so little sense. Again, the material
jarred with the ancient formal shape. The colour and
texture of this fur photographed well, and for me it
linked with my previous rabbit-inspired project which
involved unpicked soft toys, so I took it with me to
the church locations and took some photos. I initially
mounted it on a square fur background, but changed
it to gold, to reference an icon. Despite the colours
making a bright combination, the contrast in textures
make it pleasing.
Drawn on the Body
In exploring the labyrinth, I made a number of
experimental drawings and prints using different
materials. My first attempt at cutting out a fur
labyrinth was spindlier than I wanted, so I glued it to
a support and made some prints. I took these photos
of a direct print made in black ink on pale pink tissue
paper, which I held up to the light and allowed to fold
and crease in various directions.
The effect is abstract and bodily due to the fleshy
colour and folds, especially when the hairiness is
visible on the print. The shape of the print on the