1 : references
Tolle, E., (2003). Stillness Speaks. London : Hodder & Stroughton p7
fig 1. Gray, S., (2017). The Violin Case. mixed media.
fig 2. Kahlo, F., (1933). My Dress Hangs There. Oil and collage on masonite. San Francisco : Hoover Gallery Available from : https://www.fridakahlo.org/my-dress-hangs-there.jsp [Accessed on August 11th 2021 at 20.21].
Jung, C.G., (1987). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. 4th ed. London : Fontana.
Crone, R., and Graf Schaesberg. P., (2008). Louise Bourgeois. The Secret of the Cells . London : Prestel : p27
2 : key research material
silence
Maitland, S., (2009). A Book of Silence. London : Granta.
Kagge, E., (2018). Silence In the Age of Noise. London : Penguin Books.
Leloup, J-Y., (2002). The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Vermont : Inner Traditions International.
literary works – with a theme of personal loss and remoteness
Michaels, A., (2010). The Winter Vault. London, Berlin & NY: Bloomsbury.
Michaels, A., (1998). Fugitive Pieces. London, Berlin & NY: Bloomsbury.
Haushofer, M., (2013). The Wall. London : Quartet Books.
Frida Kahlo
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston., (2016). My Dress Hangs There: Frida Kahlo Fashion Icon. [online video]. 28th December 2016. Available from: https://youtu.be/edb-6xjtSj0 [Accessed on July 20th, at 17.30].
Alchemy
Baldock, K., (2016). Alchemical Garden : The body of Spirit. [blog] Available from: https://alchemicalgarden.com/2016/03/04/the-alchemists-preparation-understanding-the-difference-between-alchemical-stages-and-alchemical-operations/ [Accessed on Aug 1 2012, at 15.33].
Steve, B.A., Rise from Eden (2020). Introduction to Carl Jung’s Psychology via The 4 Stages of Alchemy. [online video] 16th March 2020. Available from : https://youtu.be/uc7CCAx8Uf0 [Accessed on July 31st 2021, at 15.49].
Maclean, A., (2016). How to explore alchemical symbolism 3. [online video] 13th June 2016. Available from : https://youtu.be/w9K4oHQbDac [Accessed on August 12th 2021, at 08.34].
Leonora Carrington
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale., (2019). Leonora Carrington in Mexico : The Mirror of the Marvellous. [online video]. 17th December 2019. Available from : https://youtu.be/eF2PlzMfrVo [Accessed on July 2nd 2021, at 12.50].
Tate., (2015). Leonora Carrington: Britain’s lost Surrealist I Tateshots. [online video]. 26th March 2015. Available from: https://youtu.be/lqXePrSE1R0 [Accessed on June 25th, at 16.45].
Esterhazy, M., Leonora Carrington 1992 A visit to the artist’s house. [online video]. 30th December 2020. Available from : https://youtu.be/q4aooKLEHQg [Accessed on June 30th 2020, at 14.20].
Black, B., (2020). Leonora Carrington : The Lost Surrealist. [online video]. 24th May 2020. Available from : https://youtu.be/oukpRMIPISk [Accessed on June 18th 2020, at 17.49].
Louise Bourgeois
Turner, C., (7.4.2012) Freud’s Toys The Guardian Review. p18.
Crone, R., and Graf Schaesberg. P., (2008). Louise Bourgeois. The Secret of the Cells . London : Prestel.
3 : materials & items
copper : dish, funnel, wire, vintage hairpins
lead : box lid, vintage paint tubes, telephone
black bamboo : clothes prop
brass : on vintage wooden ruler, candlestick, wire, vintage weights
wood : boxes, vintage dolls house walls, vintage furniture, toilet, stairs, bird
glass : containers, pages of book, spheres, mirror, egg timer
feathers : quill pen, dress x 2, bed
bumble bee : in gold pot
silk : velvet dress, bow tie
gold : goldleaf, dragonfly, gold in alembic
silver : lid, eggcup, jet jewellery
salt crystals : (pink, white, black), egg timer
soap : black charcoal bar, striped bar
paint : in lead tubes
clear oil : lamp
pearl beads : in alembic
egg : in glass alembic
paper & cardboard : vintage letter, postage box, columns, notebook, songbook, plans, instructions, diagram
linen : black dress, wrapping on 2000 yr old Judean pot handle, house on stilts
leather : book covers
wax : candle, wax seal for alembics, house on stilts
plastic & acrylic : toilet, shelf, box, basin, specimens, snake
stoneware : cycladic figure, ancient pot handle, pestle & mortar
plaster : white body
wicker & reed : baskets
marble : pestle & mortar, slab
water : ice
tin : vintage tobacco tin
iron & steel : wire, vintage compasses, mesh, vintage decorator’s combs
cherry stalks : in basket
modelling clay : figure in bath
black treacle : in bath
cotton : cushions & bedding, knitted blankets, glazed cotton dress
grass from a special burial site : in alembic
4 : supplementary info
I was volunteering at an archeological dig at Magdal next to The Sea of Galilee in 2013 where Mary Magdalene allegedly originated. This pot handle was the first time I pulled out an artefact that was 2000 years old, untouched from that time until I held it.
Jet pieces were picked up on the beach near Whitby where I used to live. It’s a fossilised Monkey Puzzle tree popular in jewellery. The jewellery was kindly made as a gift by my friend, Mo Bellamy in 1989. He called these The 3 Mascara Tears because I cried at lot back then after a breakup.
All the white feathers were found close together in the park the morning I made this piece, August 2021: it looked like a predator had caught this young fledgling. I took her beautiful young feathers for a tiny bed and then respectfully fashioned a spirit dress.
The beautiful dead Bee was found laying in front of me on the path while walking my dog in the park the afternoon I was making this piece, August 2021.
A huge 10-12cm Emperor Dragonfly flew into my house while working on this. He is honoured by the tiny gold dragonfly, a gift from my Quetzal Sister, Karan, 35 years ago.
Tiny pieces of pure Gold are in a little glass alembic: my son found this while filming on a TV shoot in the Yukon in 2018.
The grass is from the site where my mother’s ashes were placed in 1964. I didn’t discover the whereabouts until 1998.
The cherries were a lovely gift from my friend Geraldine, grown in her garden this Summer and made into a crumble.
The stoneware Cycladic figure was a gift made by my studio potter friend, Edith Raaby in 1992.
I made the glass-paged prayer book in 1995, part of the installation ‘In Vitro’. Mary Bartlett kindly guided me through the gold lettering process at the bookbinding workshop on the Dartington Estate.
The bedding, knitted blankets, cushions, dresses, coathangers were all made by me as the work progressed.
The tiny glass alembics are made from xmas tree decorations, sealed with wooden plugs, linen, wax and copper wire.
The songbook is a 1924 edition of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’, which I found for £1 in a charity shop just as I started this work. I took this as a great ‘hint’ due to his early influence on the Elmhirst’s and Dartington. I had decided to name this work Considered Whispers before I found this songbook, but the first Song is named ‘Early in the Day it was Whispered’.
The vintage dolls house stuff and all other random vintage ephemera has been bought or found over many years in charity shops, junk shops, car boot sales and the sales area at my local recycling centre.
The small wooden box with writing on it was bought for a shekel in Israel in 2013. I was quite unwell and started writing in a huge 10-day winter storm. I wrote 30, 000 words. This box was decorated with some of that writing and sealed with clear nail polish, which was all I had to hand. I keep the ancient Judean pot handle in it, wrapped in old linen.
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Stephe Gray 