|
Have
a beautiful Christmas
and
2008
is more than you could ever imagine
Festive
greetings
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney for Flora and Fornication Series
2007.
Photographs
of Art and Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
14 December 2007.
The
'Flora and Fornication Series' is an ongoing creative research
project which explores the male human form digitalised to
imbue the sense of plant species. To denote the hierarchies
which established much of the scientific theoretical concepts
on evolution. Further work currently in development (Model,
anonymous).
Previous
art released in early 2007:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Review:
'UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA'.
Live Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written by Victoria Samantha Smith.
Photographs by Artist / Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
12 December 2007.
On Monday 10 December 2007, set in the unusual early hours,
in a secluded venue in Shoreditch, London (UK), Gaynor Evelyn
Sweeney unveiled her 'UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA'.
This was an exclusive live art piece by Sweeney with a limited
audience of no more than ten people from different professional
backgrounds. They were witness to a unique, exclusive and
private live art experiment to explore the concepts and
process of natural order versus (ou)R-DNA from the constructs
of evolution, the visceral and intervention of the human
form with the transitions and shifts on the parameters of
flesh, liberties, ethics and government. The procreation
of new concepts with the desire for (re)design on progeny.
From selective breeding, societal inception, scientific
intervention, biotechnology and the genome culture. The
performance addressed these and more with the audience to
determine the new human species.
The
audience members by either individual direction or group
selection determined the physical presence and action of
the artist, combined with digital technology and media,
each stage was documented real-time. The spatial parameters
were recorded on a computer system where the visceral biological
form of the artist could be intervened further by digital
modification. This was a hybridised approach of live art
with digital technology and audience participation. The
process was one derived from the concept that existence
of co-operation poses one of the quandaries of human evolution.
Significantly that capacity of scientific intervention and
advancements in the genome culture that so readily pervades
the consciousness and tabloids of mass media and consumerism.
‘The
development through time of biological organisms by means
of the adaptation of species to the demands of the physical
environment. Such change generally involves an increase
in complexity and functional improvement. Its greatest exponent
was Darwin, Charles Robert, whose Origin of species appeared
in ad 1859 setting out the principles of evolution based
on random mutation and natural selection. These principles
have been carried over into archaeological thinking where
they can be seen in terms of social evolution and the progressive
climb from ‘savagery’ to ‘civilization’.
At the small scale, it is applied to the typology of artefacts
which can often be arranged in a developmental sequence.
At a large scale, society as a whole is sometimes viewed
as a unilinear progression through a series of pre-defined
stages’.
The
vulnerability of flesh, as exposed by the artist, in this
live art was one to reduce the concept and experience of
origin of the species and natural order, as delineated in
many scientific theories by the tangibility of the human
form and that within our biological edifice. The artist
was introduced with a sound recording of instructions for
what was expected of the audience and the liberties they
were assigned. By choice, selection and intervention of
the audience they determined the outcome of the creative
and shared experience to realise new modes of expression
conceived, adapted by their autonomous propositions and
then collective cognition of purpose, function and rationale
in the bodily immediacy of the artist. This then recorded
and by selective process modified again through digital
experimentation and expression.
A
pre-recording of quotations echoed, overlaid, in the background.
Some of which discerned as:
'Biologically
the species is the accumulation of the experiments of all
its successful individuals since the beginning'. (H.G. Wells);
'We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship'.
(George Wald); 'I believe that our Heavenly Father invented
man because he was disappointed in the monkey'. (Mark Twain);
and more resonating in the atmosphere.
The
artist during the entire performance remained relaxed and
submissive, no utterance of a word and freely open to the
audience shifting and manoeuvring her body.
The
outcome of the live art resulted in the documentation transformed
through this generational approach in time, space and media
of the digitalised images.
For
more information on the art of Sweeney to to: www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sleep
with the Artist.
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
10 December 2007.
This
project has been moved to early 2008. Please keep a check
on Transvoyeur News for release date of this.
Sleep
with the Artist - Dream Sharing, Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Dreams
mean different things to different people. A visual dialogue
of the human pscyche revealing a fusion of experiences and
the subconsious of the dreamer.
‘Sleep
with the Artist - Dream Sharing’ is a project where
another is invited by selected submission to spend a night
with the artist. This process will be filmed and transmitted
via the net from beginning of sleep to awaking.
The
artist and the selected participant will discuss and compare
their dreams.
For
the next eight hours both artists will produce live via
the net art cognitive of their subconsious experiences.
In
the afternoon, a psychologist will be invited to deliberate
with the artists their dreams and reflect on their visual
representations.
Web
browsers and members of the public logged on will be invited
to pose questions via email at the end of this discussion.
To
be performed in London, UK.
Dreams
and Analysis …
In
many of the ancient societies, including Egypt and Greece,
dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or
a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled
by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools
of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of
dreams.
In
the Western world, the first major work on dream interpretation
was the 2nd-century Oneirocritica by Artemidorus, which
interpreted the meaning of many subjects of dreams. Dream
interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at
the end of the 19th century; the perceived, manifest content
of a dream is analyzed to reveal its latent meaning to the
psyche of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject
is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.
In
his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at
the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the
foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes,
conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between
superego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams.
The unconscious would "like" to depict the wish
fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it
— the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised,
and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure
of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream
in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a
multitude of wishes on a variety of levels — conscious
wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this
test".
Dream
analysis is central to Jungian analytical psychology, and
forms a critical part of the therapeutic process in classical
Jungian psychoanalysis. Although not dismissing Freud's
model of dream interpretation wholesale, he believed that
Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled
wishes, to be simplistic and naive. Jung was convinced that
the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting
the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both
personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be
a self regulating organism in which conscious attitudes
were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within
the dream) by their opposites.
In
1954, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which
dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process. Hall argued
that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts
that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual
representations of personal conceptions. For example, if
one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation
of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which
requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream
symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English speakers,
it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there
is "more than one way to skin a cat." or in other
words, more than one way to do something.
Dreams
and Art …
Dreams,
rich in visual imagery and symbols, are a natural well of
creative inspiration for artists. While some artists use
the energy of a dream to express a powerful idea, others
use their art as a means of exploring their dreams.
References
to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story
of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams
of major characters such as Callum and the meanings thereof.
However, dreams as art, without a "real" frame
story, appear to be a later development—though there
is no way to know whether many premodern works were dream-based.
In
European literature, the Romantic movement emphasized the
value of emotion and irrational inspiration. "Visions",
whether from dreams or intoxication, served as raw material
and were taken to represent the artist's highest creative
potential.
In
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Symbolism and Expressionism
introduced dream imagery into visual art. Expressionism
was also a literary movement, and included the later work
of the playwright August Strindberg, who coined the term
"dream play" for a style of narrative that did
not distinguish between fantasy and reality.
At
the same time, discussion of dreams reached a new level
of public awareness in the Western world due to the work
of Sigmund Freud, who introduced the notion of the subconscious
mind as a field of scientific inquiry. Freud greatly influenced
the 20th-century Surrealists, who combined the visionary
impulses of Romantics and Expressionists with a focus on
the unconscious as a creative tool, and an assumption that
apparently irrational content could contain significant
meaning, perhaps more so than rational content.
The
invention of film and animation brought new possibilities
for vivid depiction of nonrealistic events, but films consisting
entirely of dream imagery have remained an avant-garde rarity.
Comic books and comic strips have explored dreams somewhat
more often, starting with Winsor McCay's popular newspaper
strips; the trend toward confessional works in alternative
comics of the 1980s saw a proliferation of artists drawing
their own dreams.
Dream
material continues to be used by a wide range of contemporary
artists for various purposes. This practice is considered
by some to be of psychological value for the artist—independent
of the artistic value of the results—as part of the
discipline of "dream work".
The
international Association for the Study of Dreams holds
an annual juried show of visual dream art (Reference: http://www.wikipedia.org/).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Live
Art in London and Online by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney ... Sleep
with the Artist and UGLY (-).
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
26 November 2007.
I
am due to be in London (UK)in just over week for a few days
to complete the projects ....
Sleep
with the Artist (London/Online)
and
UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA (Selective
Audience/Participants in London)
If
you are going be about please email me at ges1967@hotmail.com
to meet up, as it is limited access to the above performances?
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com
More
information below:
UGLY
(-)
Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA
Live Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
London (UK)
An
audience to witness a unique, exclusive and private live
art experiment to explore the concepts and processes of
natural order versus (ou)R-DNA from the constructs of evolution,
the visceral and intervention of the human form with the
transitions and shifts on the parameters of flesh, liberties,
ethics and government. The procreation of new concepts with
the desire for (re)design on progeny. From selective breeding,
societal inception, scientific intervention, biotechnology
and the genome culture. The performance will address these
and more with the audience to determine the new human species.
This
performance is in secluded location and there are places
limited to ten members only. To be considered please contact
the artist at ges1967@hotmail.com and provide an explanation
why you should be chosen to determine the next stage in
the evolution of humanity? If you are selected by the artist
to witness, share and intervene in this experiment she will
email you the date, time and location in London (UK).
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com
Sleep
with the Artist - Dream Sharing, Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Dreams
mean different things to different people. A visual dialogue
of the human pscyche revealing a fusion of experiences and
the subconsious of the dreamer.
‘Sleep
with the Artist - Dream Sharing’ is a project where
another is invited by selected submission to spend a night
with the artist. This process will be filmed and transmitted
via the net from beginning of sleep to awaking.
The
artist and the selected participant will discuss and compare
their dreams.
For
the next eight hours both artists will produce live via
the net art cognitive of their subconsious experiences.
In
the afternoon, a psychologist will be invited to deliberate
with the artists their dreams and reflect on their visual
representations.
Web
browsers and members of the public logged on will be invited
to pose questions via email at the end of this discussion.
To
be performed in London, UK.
Dreams
and Analysis …
In
many of the ancient societies, including Egypt and Greece,
dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or
a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled
by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools
of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of
dreams.
In
the Western world, the first major work on dream interpretation
was the 2nd-century Oneirocritica by Artemidorus, which
interpreted the meaning of many subjects of dreams. Dream
interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at
the end of the 19th century; the perceived, manifest content
of a dream is analyzed to reveal its latent meaning to the
psyche of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject
is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.
In
his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at
the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the
foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes,
conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between
superego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams.
The unconscious would "like" to depict the wish
fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it
— the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised,
and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure
of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream
in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a
multitude of wishes on a variety of levels — conscious
wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this
test".
Dream
analysis is central to Jungian analytical psychology, and
forms a critical part of the therapeutic process in classical
Jungian psychoanalysis. Although not dismissing Freud's
model of dream interpretation wholesale, he believed that
Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled
wishes, to be simplistic and naive. Jung was convinced that
the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting
the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both
personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be
a self regulating organism in which conscious attitudes
were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within
the dream) by their opposites.
In
1954, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which
dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process. Hall argued
that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts
that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual
representations of personal conceptions. For example, if
one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation
of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which
requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream
symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English speakers,
it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there
is "more than one way to skin a cat." or in other
words, more than one way to do something.
Dreams
and Art …
Dreams,
rich in visual imagery and symbols, are a natural well of
creative inspiration for artists. While some artists use
the energy of a dream to express a powerful idea, others
use their art as a means of exploring their dreams.
References
to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story
of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams
of major characters such as Callum and the meanings thereof.
However, dreams as art, without a "real" frame
story, appear to be a later development—though there
is no way to know whether many premodern works were dream-based.
In
European literature, the Romantic movement emphasized the
value of emotion and irrational inspiration. "Visions",
whether from dreams or intoxication, served as raw material
and were taken to represent the artist's highest creative
potential.
In
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Symbolism and Expressionism
introduced dream imagery into visual art. Expressionism
was also a literary movement, and included the later work
of the playwright August Strindberg, who coined the term
"dream play" for a style of narrative that did
not distinguish between fantasy and reality.
At
the same time, discussion of dreams reached a new level
of public awareness in the Western world due to the work
of Sigmund Freud, who introduced the notion of the subconscious
mind as a field of scientific inquiry. Freud greatly influenced
the 20th-century Surrealists, who combined the visionary
impulses of Romantics and Expressionists with a focus on
the unconscious as a creative tool, and an assumption that
apparently irrational content could contain significant
meaning, perhaps more so than rational content.
The
invention of film and animation brought new possibilities
for vivid depiction of nonrealistic events, but films consisting
entirely of dream imagery have remained an avant-garde rarity.
Comic books and comic strips have explored dreams somewhat
more often, starting with Winsor McCay's popular newspaper
strips; the trend toward confessional works in alternative
comics of the 1980s saw a proliferation of artists drawing
their own dreams.
Dream
material continues to be used by a wide range of contemporary
artists for various purposes. This practice is considered
by some to be of psychological value for the artist—independent
of the artistic value of the results—as part of the
discipline of "dream work".
The
international Association for the Study of Dreams holds
an annual juried show of visual dream art (Reference: http://www.wikipedia.org/).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Poems
and Art: Liverpool's 800th and Ghana'
s
50th by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson.
Text
and Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson.
16 November 2007.
The
artists Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson have
exchanged cultural discourse through their creative practices
and philosophies since 2003.
Sweeney was born in Liverpool, England, and returned in
her early thirties with her art. Forson, originally from
Ghana, West Africa, moved as a child to New York with his
family where he still resides.
Both
these places celebrate anniversaries in 2007. Liverpool
celebrates its 800th Anniversary as a city, while Ghana
commemorates it’s 50th Year of Independence. For the
two places this year is a notable one to the culture, heritage
and peoples.
Sweeney
and Forson adopt this theme of the anniversaries and through
prose and visual art explore their cultural heritage of
each respective place.
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
The poetry project I wish to do is more one of spontaneous
response, so I have taken a Dadaist approach. I have adopted
the lyrics from 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and fused with
a poem of my own, by combining the texts of the iconic verse
now synonymous with Liverpool, particularly football, combined
with my own prose is similar to that of the reformations
the city is going through.
Similar in the approach of hybridisation, the process is
one of taking the institutionalised and through deconstruction
and reconstruction new modes of thinking and expression
are realised and this simple theoretical and innate approach
is cognitive to the transitions Liverpool is experiencing
in its 800th Anniversary in 2007. It is comparable to the
multi-cultural amalgamations that have brought forward the
diversity in this city. This titled ‘Contemporary
800th Perceptions’.
When reading the words, it is interesting to address the
text in its own new form. The words fortify a 'Renaissance',
the old and iconic, ingrained in the culture of the city,
but to evolve into something new. In a similar way, the
auto biographical stance applied here by combining something
from myself to that which is institutionalised has been
implemented to the construction of the image.
I
have taken an archival photograph of Mill Road Hospital,
the Maternity Wing and one of myself as a baby and overlaid
with each perceptible. This was a very old and part of the
Victorian reformations in the history of the Liverpool.
I would have been one of the last babies born there in its
latter years.
Both
these methods in the prose and imagery are one to take the
iconic in the history of the city and reflect in terms of
my own shared experience as someone born here within the
800 year chronology of the city.
Birth
of Contemporary 800th Perceptions
When you walk through a storm
Dance on the edge of the living sea
Hold your head up high
And let the water caress your toes
And don't be afraid of the dark
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
Between Elysium and Hades repose
And
the sweet silver song of a lark
Dance on the edge of the living sea
Walk on through the wind
And let the water caress your toes
Walk on through the rain
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Between Elysium and Hades repose
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
Dance on the edge of the living sea
And you'll never walk alone
And let the water caress your toes
You'll never, ever walk alone
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
Between Elysium and Hades repose
And
you'll never walk alone
Dance on the edge of the living sea
You'll never, ever walk alone
And let the water caress your toes
Kofi Fosu Forson
After
my brother committed suicide in 1994, I found it urgent
to retrace my steps to the very country I had been displaced
from, Ghana. For starters, I wrote several poems in his
honour. What these poems did is place me back where I grew
up. It was a politicizing of my heritage and culture.
I
found a deeper meaning in my status as a New Yorker. I questioned
my friendships with Caucasians, especially women who formed
a balance in my practice. Not having ever been a follower
of politics, I attempted to learn about Nkrumah and the
founding fathers of my beloved Ghana.
The image followed the tradition found in the poem, which
was honouring Ghana's 50th. Originally, the b 'n white photograph
was a portrait of me honouring my identity. It carried over
into honouring Ghana. The miscue on the nose makes for a
deterrent from what would seem self-serving. It gives the
impression of a mask which I like very much.
Mother
Ghana
(My Scent is in Sekondi)
Nkrumah, we’re calling on you
Surrender the earth to mother Ghana
Fifty years since our independence
That day at midnight, your words spoke…
“Our independence is meaningless if not linked
…With the total liberation of Africa.”
Western Sons have fetched Apollo 1:
Space to afford many more moons
Together in creating peace
Streets catapulted to kpanlogo
People danced on La beach
To the spirit of High-Life
Year I was born, you had been overthrown
Ghana made it to Mexico
Could it have been the living among us
Answering our prayers?
My mother was Owunta, gave birth to twins
I lived in Osu. My scent was in Sekondi
Carried with me flavour of house wives
Smell of fried plantains wafting in the air
Far from the city of Accra, its fishermen
Contemplated the pull, mastered the wait
Dreams of villages came to us like water
Touching the shore
For
further information on the artists go to:
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney:
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Kofi Fosu Forson: http://kofosu.blogspot.com/
In
affiliation with Transvoyeur: www.transvoyeur.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Because,
I Love You!', Photographic Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Text and Photographs by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
16 November 2007.
'Because,
I Love You!' Series, Monoshame, Pretend and Hide,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007.
'Because,
I Love You!' Series, Seven Days to Lose Yourself and One
More for Goodluck,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007.
'Because,
I Love You!' Series, Lose and Lost,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007.
'Because,
I Love You!'. Photographic images taken, black and white
to denote harsh reality, which is quite often reversed literally
in the situations to escape or as a coping strategy. The
eyes to denote the humanity of the person within. Then morphed
in the colour version which is digital modified to dehumanize
the subject.
Abuse
in relationships is something encountered even in the most
respectable of homes and usually these the best well hidden.
Domestic violence is still a prevailing symptom of the human
condition where relationships break down, the oppressor
and the victim. It becomes a secret filled with shame, but
this perpetuates a cycle of domination and victimisation.
Like most abusers, to the outside world, they are the nicest
of people, but there is a twist in their personalities.
Usually able to emotionally manipulate not only their partner,
but family and friends. Their guise a duality of extremes.
Anything, can trigger them. The simplest of things that
does not please them.
These
individuals, not all the time, but generally tend to be
habitual liars along with the propensity to blame the victim
and find fault and criticism in all they do. Sexually relations
are forced and fidelity alien to the abuser. Anything in
their eyes is permissible and they see no wrong in their
actions. The abused becomes trapped, firstly by the shock
of the first incidence, the following times by shame and
so the cycle becomes established, concealing the marks with
clothing, makeup and more. It is one that is destructive
and can end up in fatalities, not on only the potential
of the abuser killing their partner with the regular violence,
but indeed the victim themselves one day fighting back and
retaliating. Survival will always rise.
This
is a taboo subject and as a human and artist I believe one
not for shame, because the clandestine, brutal and sinister
nature of this only allow such to continue. It is subject
needed to be confronted and addressed.
For
further information on support go to contact: www.womensaid.org.uk
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney: www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Affiliated to Transvoyeur:
www.transvoyeur.com
Ragdoll
Stories
He
said, "She was not 15 years old! She told me she was
18!"
She
replied, "Come off it! She looked 15 and turned out
to be that age! You and your friend are disgusting!"
He
avoided, "Shut up! I do not want to hear it? I have
heard enough!"
She
retorted, "So, shut up and put up! Is that it! The
way your mother said! Excuse it to that he and you were
drunk! That gives credence to someone sexually assaulting
me in my own home, while you try it on with a child? Well!
Go on do your usual? Justify it, the way your family and
friends have!"
He
shouted, fists clenched, "I have had it. Shut the f@ck
up! I do not care!"
Interval
... Legs kicked black and blue, as she sits!
Finale,
He
wants a lift from his mate, so he wants to protect his friends.
He blames her. She is at fault. He is willing to lie to
save face and as long as he can still be friends and get
that lift.
She
sits alone, at least she is not thrown about anymore like
a ragdoll ...
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Call
for Submissions ...
Love and Death by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
14 November 2007.
The
familiar saying of the spirit is willing, but the body is
weak, made me think about a film where a lover willed themselves
to die and other examples of old couples, where one dies
and the other soon follows of a broken heart.
Morbid
romanticism maybe, but it does happen. Maybe easier to carry
over into the next incarnation to meet up again, rather
than live without that implicit bond.
Then
there is that where love is taken and not reciprocated until
there is nothing left to give, life itself carries no meaning.
So, start again in the next and hope it is better as explicated
in the novels and poetry of Romanticism, so very much ingrained
into costume dramas of the 20th and 21st centuries. Where
lovers are spurned by cruelty and commit suicide, but not
always, as a willingness is expressed in these literary
tales of preferring mortality than a loveless existence.
They simply give up and prefer that cold touch of Death
to carry them to the next realm.
In
the development of a new piece of art by myself over the
next four weeks, I would like artists to submit a sketch
of a vision that conveys the concept of ‘Love and
Death. I will select a series of ten and from these compositions
construct into a conceptualised live art piece to be embodied
and performed on line in conclusion of this project. The
final piece of art will be a fusion of expressions on the
theme from different view points collated to imbue a sense
of the universal that we all experience. For further information
please email you sketch to ges1967@hotmail.com.
Lord Byron
(Written 1824, First published 1887).
I
watched thee when the foe was at our side,
Ready to strike at him --- or thee and me,
Were safety hopeless --- rather than divide
Aught with one loved save love and liberty.
I watched thee on the breakers, when the rock,
Received our prow, and all was storm and fear,
And bade thee cling to me through every shock;
This arm would be thy bark, or breast thy bier.
I watched thee when the fever glazed thine eyes,
Yielding my couch and stretched me on the ground
When overworn with watching, ne'er to rise
From thence if thou an early grave hadst found.
The earthquake came, and rocked the quivering wall,
And men and nature reeled as if with wine.
Whom did I seek around the tottering hall?
For thee. Whose safety first provide for? Thine.
And when convulsive throes denied my breath
The faintest utterance to my fading thought,
To thee --- to thee --- e'en in the gasp of death
My spirit turned, oh ! oftener than it ought.
Thus much and more, and yet thou lov'st me not,
And never wilt ! Love dwells not in our will.
Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot
To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still.
More
information is available at:
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Affiliated to:
www.transvoyeur.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Flesh'
Abstract Series Part II by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
02 November 2007.
Cock
(Abstract), 2007.
Cunt
(Abstract), 2007.
M'engage
et toi (Abstract), 2007.
Female
Nude #1 (Abstract),2007.
Female
Nude #2 (Abstract),2007.
Self
Portrait (Abstract), 2007.
Male
Portrait (Abstract),2007.
Female
Portrait (Abstract), 2007.
Portrait
of Knox (Abstract), 2007.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Flesh'
Abstract Self Portrait Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
02 November 2007.
The
'Flesh' series is an abstraction of the self portraiture.
They are not representation of meaning with interpretations
to likeness, such as in realistic self portraits to represent
the likeness of the author. These are one where the function
and rationale to the representations have shifted to the
higher, abstraction to imbue a sense of the self in the
media. It does not refer to visual experience, but the concept
embodied. How these are perceived by another’s subjective
interpretation dependents on the cognitive framework and
not the creator. In essence, these abstractions are simultaneously
a reflection of artists vision in terms of the self and
that of the viewers own mind. ‘Flesh’ is that
of the body, the sensual, the transformed and more experienced
by the artist.
(Oil
on Canvas Project, 2007).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist
and Philosopher Genderised: Kofi Fosu and Gaynor Evelyn
Sweeney.
Written
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs of Art (c) Artists.
01 November 2007.
The
role of the artist is both viewer, philosopher and recorder.
One of communication, exchange and object of art to artefact.
Kofi Fosu and I through discourse on a manifold of subjects
on gender, ethnic, sexual and body politics have been deliberated
in a full spectrum, roles undulating from artists to muse,
as subject and mentor, to challenge and inspire new modes
of thinking and expression. Through creative and ideoligcal
exchange since 2003 the two artists have produced impressions
of portrait to reflect and embody the other. The female
artist as perceived by the male and equally so from the
female artists vision.
Portait
of Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney by Kofi Fosu.
 
Portait
of Kofi Fosu by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Love
in the 21st Century of the Human Male and Female Species
... The Horsley and Greer Love Affair Warhol Style ... 15
mins (If You Are Lucky!)
21st Century Gender Portrait Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
30 October 2007.
Not
saying I know ... I like anyone have a track record of deplorable
relationships, but some exceptional too. I have known some
absolutely beautiful men and some, well I would not p@@@
on if they were on fire! I do think though the plot is lost,
as we each stand off to either gender and assume and usually
incorrectly. Anyway, sexual anarchy is the foreplay of contemporary
relationships and the most iconic and ironic I have selected
by parody are Sebastian Horsley and Germaine Greer for their
very gender roles and indeed sexual proclivities. Maybe
a little fun from my perspectives too .... Hmmm! Will continue
to contemplate this one ... as it is the implicit enigma
of 21st century or maybe explicit, depending on your own
penchant and viewpoint!!!
Quotes
...
Sebastian
Horsley: What I hate with women generally is the
intimacy, the invasion of my innermost space, the slow strangulation
of my art. The writer chained for life to the routine of
a wage slave and the ritual of copulation. When I love somebody,
I feel sort of trapped. Three years ago I was saved. I found
a girl whom I could fall in love with ... and sleep with
prostitutes with. She sends me to brothels to sleep with
women for her. I buy her girls for her birthday and we go
to whorehouses together. I am free forever from the damp,
dark prison of eternal love.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1306267,00.html
Germaine
Greer: The truth is out. Men are much more trouble
than they're worth. Sisters are doing it for themselves.
Discarded males of all ages loiter in the streets, looking
for trouble to get into and finding no lack of it. Male
security guards shoot male football fans in Bratislava,
male fans howl racist abuse and hurl chairs at each other,
males train as suicide bombers, male heads of state stroll
about discussing whether they could get away with another
shooting war on the women and children of Iraq, and their
male flunkies zoom around the world trying to talk other
males into joining in. The Beltway Sniper turned out to
be a man. And those "children" ejected from school
for threatening to kill their teachers are actually boys.
It doesn't do to say so. A kind of mad squeamishness prevents
us from quantifying the nuisance value of maleness, possibly
because if you actually tell men that they are damned nuisances,
they are likely to behave even worse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,839992,00.html
(Screenprint
Project, 2007)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ugly
Beautiful Abstract Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
30 October 2007.
After
Kofi Fosu (New York, US) expressed his philosophical insight
to the subject of aesthetics in terms how beauty is measured
and indeed to those deformities in the body, whether In
Vivo or In Vitro. The simplicity of his applied terminology
'Ugly Beautiful' by concept inspired me to produce further
renditions on the subject. These are abstract digital paintings,
large scale to consume the spatial experience of the viewer.
The linear and banding cognitive to the limitations of conventional
and commodified notions of aesthetics in post modern society,
arts and culture, which saturates the senses through mass
media and consumerism.
Ugly
Beautiful Empathy #1 and #2.
 
Ugly
Beautiful Self Portrait #1 and #2.
Ugly
Beautiful #1 and #2.
Ugly
Beautiful Societal Spectrum #1 and #2.
 
Ugly
Beautiful Sentience # 1 and #2.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kofi
Fosu on Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 'I am Mary Ann Bevan ...
The World's Ugliest Woman ... and So Are You!'
Photograph of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written by Kofi Fosu (New York, US).
29 October 2007.
"What
is life?" was a song posed by the reggae band Black
Uhuru. The body black in the sun was a poem I wrote about
my first black lover B.B.
Why then the balance of life and body? Life is based on
an eternal existence. This is massacred by all means through
the product of advertism. The corporate structure heightened
by well to do white males who define for the general public
what to think and say is an example of what I deem as a
"marrionette principle" where society is ruled
conclusively from a think-tank made up of a conscience known
primarily to be Euro-American.
Stardust. Will the black woman ever find her eyes sparkling
with the color blue? Does white flesh ever truly become
black. The derriere of a Latina. The bosom of an African
maid. What is beauty? It'd be best achieved once the vulva
is retired from commercial means. Beauty is not drawn from
the literal, physical body. It happens when aesthecized.
Isabella Rosselini's character in the film "Blue Velvet"
is an abundance of torture and flesh. Redeem her essence
cinematically with reference to cinematography, make up,
lighting, direction, she then can be read as a literary
text.
Do men fall in love with women because of the vulva or perhaps
in a form of escapism they live them as literary texts?
The most beautiful woman is imagined. She doesn't exist?
When she does and has relevance to life, it's only persuaded
in hyperreality. Isabella Rosselini in the movie "Blue
Velvet" and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney in her intervention
at Museum of Modern Art are examples of beauty in hyperrealism.
Isabella Rosselini, the actress is safe from judgement or
the crucifying of the perception of flesh, blood and bones.
Humanity as a floored reality knows no acceptance of truth.
Perceptively it exists into infinity. Much of this can be
ascribed to Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, not the person, unbeknown
to most, but the model in her interventions. It is here
where she exudes beauty not in the flesh a-go-go but the
importance of the body as textural, placed upon the merriment
of a visulant status aforded beauty, infinitely to be admired
not as gorgeous but in gorgeousity principles of beauty
as semiotic are expressed whereas it multiplies in its immediate
resonance more so than the ushering of plasticity and the
plug and pull of the vulva.
With respects to acromegaly, the crush and disfigurement
of beauty has got to reach the elements of surgery, not
in artificially maintaining the origin of beauty but bordering
an act of scientific and medical proportions.
The disfigurement of the body is not an act of The "Ugly."
It's a matter of science. The transformation is not to be
reviewed with disgust and hatred. More so it is another
manifestation of beauty. Ugly Beauty as a concept has a
history in Cubism. A true artist knows that beauty isn't
qualified as perfect. It is so only in hyperrealism or perhaps
what one would be led to say, "Beauty is in the eye
of the beholder."
"An ugly woman doesn't exist. She is always equal to
a work of art."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
Art Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 'I am Mary Ann Bevan
... The World's Ugliest Woman ... and So Are You!'
Photograph of Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
29 October 2007.
 
 
Beauty
is delineated in the philosophy of Eugenics. A theory that
envisions every human as equal at birth; in beauty, health,
mental health, social strength and intelligence. It is a
designed evolutionary system with aims and planning that
would provide all of these to every human creature with
assertions that only then can it truly be understood of
a egalitarian society could be realised. The visceral of
flesh becomes the marker of eugenics to measure those theoretical
ideals of body in socio-political constructs.
‘It
is with Hitler and the Nazi movement that eugenics became
a cursed process. Nazi Germany enacted strong racial hygiene
laws in 1933. The Nazi Hereditary Health Courts was formed
to review eugenics proposals and approved very many of them.
As time progressed they became more and more perverse in
their decisions. Euthanasia of the insane and mentally deficient,
as well as others judged to be undesirable began. Aryan
women were encouraged as a patriotic duty to bear more children
and to select Aryan fathers …’
‘…
Rational thinking is extremely difficult on human culture.
The bases for all human cultures are not rational. All current
human cultures were established by and are based on the
irrational - the emotional drives of the human instincts.
The most perfect logic fails miserably in its analysis and
projection of even the simplest of cultural processes. Human
culture is political, with all the subterfuge, sophistry,
and dishonesty that term implies. The instant that a single
bit of new real knowledge is uncovered by science, it is
seized on by one or more political groups, who then twist
and turn it to their own advantage.
This is why it is so necessary for humankind to reconstruct
human culture, to abandon its current hodgepodge of sub-cultures
based on cultural evolution (a cut and try process without
goal or plan) in favour of an intellectual culture based
on real knowledge, one with real plans and goals.
As the human collective culture responded to knowledge about
heredity, that knowledge became politicized. One social
group used it to attack another, based on social differences.
Eugenics as a science became a torture machine for social
inquisitions, and ceased being a science. If eugenics should
become a science, and it certainly will, it must not be
used as a social tool. It is a tool that may be used by
politicos for right or wrong reasons. No process should
use the human as a guinea pig. Each of eugenics' proposed
processes must pass the test of moral analysis before being
applied. That test is the net effect on the survival and
welfare of the human species.
There is no detectable correlation between human construction
and human behaviour. Many have tried various means such
as: shape of the skull, color of skin, lines on the palm
of the hand, astrological sign, economic class, IQ tests,
conduct, etc. Every attempt leads to as many failures as
successes’.
http://www.onelife.com/ethics/eugenics.html.
In correlation to these precepts, that of commerce and industry,
the laissez faire of excess and commodification to dispose
of what is not wanted and replace by the ideal, as easily
as slicing the flesh for body modification to enhance the
vision of the self divined. The flesh is the plastic, moulded,
reshaped and more. In a strange twist of fate, the throw-a-way
consumeristic society striving for that Mother Nature neglected
to give us, those very mass produced, buy, replace, discard,
reside and pollute the very natural environment we have
evolved, but through the artificial parameters we called
civilisation and society equally so now absorb into our
flesh deep to that which makes us, our DNA. Our genes disrupted,
more rapid and aggressive than the innate order of Mother
Nature’s caress of natural selection.
Human intervention works parallel by both curiosity that
has propelled our journey to post modern living with liberties
of gadgets, concept living, new and newer, discard what
we do not want and deconstruct to reconstruct, flesh industrialised,
manufactured and more by such not only our desires are saturated
and hunger for more, but so too our natural environment
by the chemicals discharges, the human refuse ever-amassing,
buried in earth, the water poisoned and it continues. Human
are now becoming a by-product of a production and reproduction.
Not merely that of aesthetic taste to reform and transform,
but whether unintentional our excess pervades to endocrine
disruptors and the dominions we equally aspire to give us
the idealised eugenic world by science and technology that
permeates down through the echelons of society, medicine
and consumerism, will be called upon more to solve that
of our own suicidal tendency to poison our planet and bodies.
Beauty is but in the eye of the beholder and I am Mary Ann
Bevan, but so are you.
Research
Sources:
Mary
Ann Bevan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Bevan
Mary
Ann Bevan (born Mary Ann Webster, 20 December 1874 –
26 December 1933) was named as "the ugliest woman in
the world" in the early 20th century after developing
acromegaly. Born in Plaistow, London as one of eight children,
she worked as a nurse for much of her younger life. In 1903
she married Thomas Bevan with whom she would have four children.
Bevan
started exhibiting the symptoms of acromegaly soon after
she was married, around the age of 32. She began to suffer
from abnormal growth and facial distortion, which led to
her "homely" appearance, along with severe headaches
and fading eyesight. When her husband died in 1914 she no
longer had the income to support her family and had to find
work herself. In 1920 she was hired by Sam Gumpertz to appear
in Coney Island's Dreamland sideshow, a form of freak show,
where she would spend most of the remainder of her life.
She also made appearances at the World's Fair for the Ringling
Brothers Circus until she died on 26 December 1933. When
she died she weighed 12 stone (168lbs or 76 kg) and measured
5 feet 7 inches (170 centimetres) – not excessive
for someone with acromegaly.
In
the early 2000s her image was used on a birthday card in
the United Kingdom made by Hallmark Cards. The card made
reference to the dating show Blind Date. This was poorly
received and a complaint was made by a Dutch doctor that
it made fun of a woman who had become physically deformed
as the result of a disease. Hallmark decided that the card
was indeed inappropriate and removed it from shop shelves.
Acromegaly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromegaly
Acromegaly
(from Greek akros "extreme" or "extremities"
and megalos "large" - extremities enlargement)
is a hormonal disorder that results when the pituitary gland
produces excess growth hormone (hGH). Most commonly it begins
when a GH producing tumor derived from a distinct type of
cells (somatotrophs) and called pituitary adenoma.
Acromegaly
most commonly affects middle-aged adults and can result
in serious illness and premature death. Because of its insidious
pathogenesis and slow progression, the disease is hard to
diagnose in the early stages and is frequently missed for
many years.
Eugenics
http://www.onelife.com/ethics/eugenics.html.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Transvoyeur
Screenings by MediaNoche in New York.
Transvoyeur Gender, Space, Art and Architecture.
Written by Victoria Samanatha Smith.
Photographs by Judith Escalona, MediaNoche.
27
October 2007
Transvoyeur
Gender, Space, Art and Architecture is an unusual
exchange programme conceived by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
It looks at those concepts of culture in the space we live
and art produced. The international artists selected for
this project were Daiva Gauryte, originally
from Lithuania and now Liverpool based, with Kofi
Fosu, whose heritage is from Ghana and since childhood
resides in New York.
 
Digital
video stills from screening of 'Transvoyeur Gender, Space,
Art and Architecture 2007'.
As
well as taking a perspective of mutual exchange and collaboration
with the two artists, the process has been one in the alternative
realms of cyber space via email, image sharing and websites.
Gauryte and Fosu looked at their creative practices in context
of the places they are now living in terms of their gender,
concepts and the urban environment over about a ten week
period.
Kofi
Fosu to entrance of screening at MediaNoche.
The
final stage to this project was to adopt another technological
approach by Sweeney who took art and dialogue from the artists
exchange and produced a digital video short that embodied
the sense of place and expression by the artists. This is
an inventive use by Sweeney, who in essence has not only
taken the role as editor, but expanded to one of curatorialship
in the final space of digital video media.
Judith
Escalona, an award winning Film Maker and art activist
herself from New York, came on board and has screened the
film not only in the confines of a conventional gallery
context, but taken it outside to the public realms, such
as White Park, East 106th Street, between Lexington and
Third Avenues and more.
Judith
Escalona with Eva Forson at screening in MediaNoche, New
York, US
The
recent screenings in New York have received a diverse feedback
from members of the public to creative practitioners with
an intrigue expressed.
Judith
Escalona discusses her professional role to supporting the
New York side of the project.
Smith:
'How did you get involved with the Transvoyeur Gender, Space,
Art and Architecture project?'
Escalona:
'We learned about the project from an artist who currently
lives and works in Spanish Harlem. After sharing our emails
with him, Gaynor and I were directly in touch, which is
when our gallery learned of Transvoyeur. Eventually, we
met with Kofi Fosu, one of the participating artists'.
Smith:
'What were your objectives with the collaboration of the
screening?'
Escalona:
'MediaNoche is part exhibition space and part production
studio. We are seeking to once again bring our community
and the general public into direct contact with artists
who are working in new media, as a way of transcending or
superseding the dialectics of marginality. We always seek
a global platform for issues that concern us. Screening
the Transvoyeur exchange allows us to once again open a
dialogue about aesthetics, gender, race, politics, while
exploring the interstices of technology and art'.
Smith:
'What is your opinion on the hybrid approach of the project
using different platforms and combined media in the final
digital short developed?'
Escalona:
'The Transvoyeur video synthesized the views of
the artists Fosu and Gauryte, and reframed their works within
the curatorial vision of Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney. It was quite
effective in introducing in an impressionistic way perspectives
on gender, space, art and architecture. The blurring of
the artists’ talking heads augments the viewer’s
interpretive function in attempting to understand what he
or she is seeing and hearing. Alternating between real-time
talking heads and fast-paced sequences of the artists’
works and architecture disengages the viewers visually and
re-engages them aurally. The hybridity worked well formalistically
for the given subject'.
Smith:
'How was the screening received in the public arena
and the gallery?'
Escalona:
'People were fascinated by the concept of Transvoyeurism,
of the transnational exchange exploring the visualization
of gender and power in art and architecture. So far, it
is only screened in the gallery, where people could sit
and watch the video. At the outdoor screening, there will
be no seats. Just a large projection with audio that can
be witnessed in the park or from the street. I would love
to see this video projected in a cave!'
Audience
at MediaNoche for screening of Transvoyeur Gender, Space,
Art and Architecture 2007.
Smith:
'What are your future objectives with your gallery and creative
practice?'
Escalona:
'To reflect more on our artistic/media practices
and to write critically of our work. More collaborations
with art groups, galleries, museums and other institutions,
more site-specific interventions, more residencies, and
more filmmaking. To continue to develop our signature programs:
PRdream’s Oral History Project, Medianoche_wifi, The
Handball Court Summer Film Series and the Digital Film Studio'.
Escalona
has a diverse background and insight that are equal to the
objectives of the launch of this exchange and her creative
management in New York has enabled the effective and diverse
screenings in New York.
Her
primary work is in writing and filmmaking. For the past
eight years, she has has produced content for www.prdream.com
and www.medianoche.us and currently editing her new film
‘Bx3M’. ‘The Krutch’ (2004), which
she wrote and directed, is currently doing the festival
circuit and will be featured at this year's Hispanic Film
Festival at Columbia University. It screened previously
at the Havana Film Festival, Loisaida Cortos, and the Harlemwood
Film Festival. She has written for the Daily News, Womensnet.net,
NY Latino Magazine and Quarterly Black Review and Film Curator
on- and offline. Nuyorican Cinema, a film program she curated,
can be seen at www.prdream.com, which she is the co-founder
and director and MediaNoche, a new media gallery. She has
have worked in broadcast, cable, corporate and community
television and more recently consulted with the government
of Bermuda on its new iptv channel.
The
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