Preparation (Saturday 30th May)

Saturday 30th May: Preparation Meeting

Venue: Upstairs, Outdoors at the National Theatre
Present: JM, MR, NM, JH
Absent: DI

The aim was to prepare for Experimental Seance II, in which we will contact the spirits of living, USA-based artists Jeffrey Vallance and Chris Cummings.  We did this by carrying out two paper-based activities. The two activities were selected from seven possibilities, defined by JM. The possibilities consisted of paired words or phrases, as follows:

Material Body & Spiritual Body 

Verbal & Aura-al

Work & Play

Artwork & Intention

Presence in Personality & Secret

How Will Manifest & Wishes

Relationship to Us & Relationship to Each Other

Of these, we selected two possibilities to illustrate:

Material Body & Spiritual Body

and

Relationship to Us & Relationship to Each Other.

The idea was to illustrate how EITHER Jeffrey Vallance OR Chris Cummings, OR BOTH appeared to each of us, under each set of paired possibilities.

Each person selected a coloured piece of paper, and was asked to use one side to illustrate the first of the two paired words/phrases, and the other side to illustrate the second paired word / phrase.  Of the people present, only JM had any idea what either of the two artists looked like, and any idea about their work. 

Here are the resulting works. By chance, there was some 'cross over', that is, the pens used 'bled' through from the other side.  Unfortunate, though symbolically striking.

First, Material Body and Spiritual Body.

For 'material body', NM (Nicholas Morgan) produced the following:

For 'spiritual body', NM produced this:

Matthew Rowe (MR) produced the following for 'material body':

(he had a very light touch with the pen)

And this for 'spiritual body'...

Julia Moore (JM) had this for 'material body'...

With this for 'spiritual body'...

Last but not least, James Hardie (JH) gave us this for 'material body':

And the cut-out from the centre of this became the 'spiritual body'...

(As a small interlude, this was the view we had as we worked)

Now the  second pairing of words/phrases, 'relationship to each other' and 'relationship to us' (we also used 'relationship with each other' and 'relationship with us').    For 'relationship to each other', NM made this:

And for 'relationship to us', NM made:

For 'relationship to each other' MR offered this:

(the lightness of touch replaced by a touch so heavy the 'cross over from the other side' effect was very noticable)

MR gave this for 'relationship to us'...

JM (also on the red paper) had this for 'relationship to each other'...

... and this for 'relationship to us' (the small things at the bottom are seeds. We ate all JH's crisps and nuts very quickly, but JM's seeds were not enjoyed, and hence were used for collage purposes).

This is JH's take on 'relationship to each other'...

(this one was rather dynamic. The flattened out square bottom left is a 'fortune teller', one of those paper folded things you manipulate between your fingers based on a number called. The green oblong to the left is the result of using the fortune teller.

And finally, JH's 'relationship to us':