Pilgrimage to Imago (Journey to the mother/adult self/fly) is an open project in 26 stages (13 in Australia and 13 in the UK). Together the stages extend a strong psychoanalytical context to the building of a symbolic primordial mother figure, idealised through painting, soft sculpture and collage. The residential programme within and without the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and its archival heritage will foreground embodied objects relating to five main sections, the head/upper torso/lower torso/legs/wings and reflect on key distinctions and patterns, information gathered through the learning nature and deep layers of the Institute.
Wellspring, a soft sculptural remnant, forms an introduction to the project re-imagining the cycle of birth/death, decay and renewal, insect forms bristle with life, layering complex patterns inside and out. I imagine these ideas as an exploration to my own psychology, reflecting childhood to adulthood, always in a state of flux, always in a state of loss and becoming, working through the deep psychoanalytical complexities that underpin lived experience, directing a more poetic extension of the ‘self’ as subject.
'Wellspring' Materials: Japanese sequins and seed beads, interfacing fabric, wool knit cuff, synthetic fur, silk/mohair, mixed beads and Australian Tapestry Workshop (ATW) wool..
'Wellspring', WIP: body formed using red velvet square (30 x 30 cm), interfacing fabric, wool knit cuff, synthetic fur, silk/mohair, sequins, mixed beads and seed beads.
'Wellspring', Introduction to 'Pilgrimage to Imago', (leg section), 2020, mixed media, 30 x 15 x 15cm (Image, Iain Bond)
