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Chair of Grating, ceramic object, 2022

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《 It is difficult to grasp the immensity and significance of the extreme reverence paid to the Goddess over a period of either twenty-five thousand years (as the Upper Paleolithic evidence suggests) or even seven thousand years and over miles of land, cutting across national boundaries and vast expanses of sea. Yet it is vital to do just that to fully comprehend the longevity as well as the widespread power and influence this religion once held. 》

Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman

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Leaves altered by nature remind me of my psoriasis. There's an expectation that it should look perfect, but it's not and eyes are drawn to the odd part. Does it take away the leaf, does it add to it? Is it, also, the leaf? Is the leaf complete still, should I look only at the healthy part of the leaf? Was the leaf intended to be whole anyway.

In The Liberation of Sita, Volga writes through the character of Surpanakha:

I have been able to find happiness in trying to understand the very meaning of beauty.

(...)

I struggled a lot to grasp that there is no difference between beauty and ugliness in nature.

(...)

I, who hated everything, including myself, began to love everything including myself. (...)

...the effort I made to achieve all this was extraordinary.

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Ana Mendieta 1948-1985, resonates strong

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Jangarh Singh Shyam, 1994

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Art is a wound turned into light.

L'art est une blessure qui devient lumière.

Georges Braque

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Reference - Joseph Beuys, Felt Suit

“The work of art enters into the person and the person internalises the work of art as well, it has to be possible that these two completely sink into each other ... Art enters into the person and the person enters into the work of art, no?” J. Beuys

"According to his own legend, Crimean Tartars kept Joseph Beuys (1921-86) alive by wrapping him in felt after his plane had crashed in the Crimea during a snowstorm in 1944.

The story has long been discounted, but when he later became an artist, felt was a quintessential material for many of Beuys’ works.

In 1970 he wore a felt suit for his performance Isolation unit, an artistic protest against the Vietnam War. He determined that the warmth of felt could counter the inhumane cold of war."

Jonathan Franks 22 Feb 2021

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Reference - mandalas by Hildegarde de Bingen, 11th century

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House shrine, village of Gunehar, Himachal Pradesh

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Reference - Indian miniature painting of shrines in tree

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Reference - Selection of portable or miniature shrines. Some deep like boxes, often they carry visual narratives.

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Reference - Of all the portable shrines, the kavad is the most fascinating, as a narrative device and the sense of hiding/revealing through multiple panels.

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Tiny crabs altering the sand skin, Goa, February 2021

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Wikipedia

Where we learn that cylinder seals were also worn on the body as pendants, rings, amulets etc.

This knowledge opens up potentials for making wearable objects from this Skin Project, which could be sold as affordable work of art.

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A new exercise suggested by Apurva to create a 《Book of Touch》 - a collection of textures as a book - reminded me of a long-time fascination for ancient cylinder seals.

Although I never created this book of touch, the idea was a seed that mutated into something else.

Reference - cylinder seals of Mesopotamia

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Reference - old drawing representations of psoriasis and other skin conditions

Contrary to the photographs, I can never relate physically or visually to these representations, maybe because they were created through the hands, eyes and minds of trained professionals who were not themselves afflicted by the condition and who seemed to have somehow been repulsed by what they had to document.

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Reference - old photographs of psoriasis featured in dermatology books

These photographs are always very dramatic, being both visually strong and fascinating to look at. They are realistic but not true-to-life, due to the fact that they would be taken in black and white and then inked (altered images).

I physically relate to all of them, like knowing what these bodies would have felt like.