Between Worlds
“Voice: If you enter through the magic gate, if you walk through the encampment of the tribe …… You will find them carving at wood sculptures in open workshops, hammering at bronze, singing poignant songs in groups, in lovely harmonies. You will see children making new objects outs of rejects, drawing pictures on the ground. You will see the women painting cloth in vivid colours, or creating new forms with jewels and cowries, practising new dances in the square. You will find the old at work, directing great projects, telling stories to the young, listening to the dreams of maidens.”
From STARBOOK, by Ben Okri
The sculptures and wall pieces that you see were made over a period of about 16 months, starting with Between Worlds and The Actors and finishing with The Child. I used paperclay and a grogged sculpting clay to make them all and I coloured them with clay body stains and copper oxide to keep them earthy. I made them all as they occurred to me and so they document my feelings and experiences during the time of making. Some are tongue in cheek, like Tea with the Arabs, some funny and some full of fear like the Gargoyles (Dengue Nightmare). I made this piece while Rory was ill with dengue fever in September -it was a cathartic pouring out of all those fearful beasts.
It was a difficult year. Letting go of Ajoupa Pottery has been the hardest thing to deal with – like a death. During 2008, I followed up whatever opportunities were presented and I became involved in an exciting project that took me to the deep South. It had nothing to do with clay but everything to with Earth. It gave me hope and in between, I kept going down to the workshop to put my hands into the clay for comfort.
The pieces that you see are the result of this erratic process. The piece Alice in Wonderland, expresses perfectly our situation “between worlds”. Either we are too big to get through the door into the beautiful garden with its clear pools and streams, or the door is locked against us. Some of us are torn between the love of nature and our need to make a living in the city. I find that I am between worlds, where the importance of the artificial life falls away and a pair of hands and a boat-load of trees assume overwhelming importance.
Ben Okri’s book delighted me and I couldn’t resist quoting the passage above. His is the world I would occupy.
I hope you enjoy the exhibition.
Bunty O’Connor
February 3rd, 2009
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