Other Altars - Curious Duke Gallery, London, UK, 2016
With Kristin Gaudio-Endsley and Florence Devereux
Muškarac
born from the stones
a g a i n
a n d
a l w a y s,
that his mothers gave him.
The stone itself
came from a cliff,
the thigh
of a woman laying, spreading her legs along the sea,
as if she was birthing the ocean.
her body made of dirt and grass, pines and worms.
she was waiting for her man’s return
in vain.
In her lassitude, she spread her legs along the sea,
as if she was birthing the ocean
letting the water take her womb, go where the long gone man couldn’t go
tides between her thighs
the waves licking cliffs
carving out stories
drawing a thousand portraits of the long gone man
secret caves swelling loudly.
From her cliff, her thigh
a stone escaped
escaped the woman’s lassitude
and rolled to the bottom of the ocean.
It sat there for thousands of years
becoming thousands of faces
until a woman, having decided to touch the bottom of the ocean
found the stone.
Her wombs were parched by the memory of a murder,
the kiss of a dead man.
She fell in love with the stone
and let it in.
She swam for a thousand years
the stone sitting in her belly.
She thought of a thousand faces
and finally chose Muškarac.
She took her new born
to the dry land
let him by a tree.
There lived a snake who ruled all the others.
He embraced
Muškarac, the boy.
With the snake who ruled all the others
Muškarac saw all the faces his rock had been
And melted his soul into a nebulous question -
What had been engraved?
What was his to transform, what was his to release?
Sticks of iron, forgotten fires
Muškarac dived inside himself.
He saw the abandoned woman
He saw the thigh, the blood rushing through
He felt the lassitude of the cliff
Her heart as heavy as a mountain
He felt the long gone man’s shame
His back as heavy as a mountain
He saw the ocean
The colored fish eating the seaweeds sleeping on his skin of stone
He saw the sadness of a womb parched by the memory of a murder.
With her hands she had taken a throat
She had kissed lips
Desperately birthing again
From the murder of the one
Who had owned her soul
Muškarac saw her face face and her swimming dreams
She was hoping for a savior
And thought she had found the perfect one
When she saw his face in her swimming dreams.
But the wombs parched by the memory of a murder
Were emptied of love
Swallowed a long time ago
By the man who had owned her soul.
And so she left Muškarac by the tree.
Muškarac saw the snake
Embracing each one of his veins
Showing him all that was hiding in the depths of his blood
And all this and much more.
He felt in each of his molecules
breathing in his cells
from his bones to his blood
shivering through his nerves and muscles,
all the way up to his pores
Thousands and Thousands of mouths
singing out his ancient memories,
the powerful language of his body.
And from his heart he sent peace throughout his land
he visited his waters, his lakes, his rivers and cliffs
offering peaceful tears to fill up a new ocean.
The snake embraced Mushkarac
To make him a man
fed him venom and birds
told him secrets only snakes know.
fed him branches and birds
told him the secrets only snakes know.
fed him bark and birds
told him secrets only snakes know
fed him mud and birds
told him secrets only snakes know
fed him worms and birds
told him secrets only snakes know
fed him bones and birds
told him secrets only snakes know
fed him a porcupine sleeping in a wale’s guts
told him to listen to birds’ secrets.
One day finally, Muškarac
turned to the snake and said:
I have many mothers
but you have fathered me.
Before I became
I was thousands and thousands of faces
I was the tide, the lassitude,
The Mother’s cave and the Father’s sand
I was the deep waters, the stones
I was all at once
thousands of years standing still in a drop of ocean.
I will make songs from the secrets you’ve taught me to hear -
I will move slowly when I hunt
swiftly when I kill
stand still when I am
I will grow when I love
plant trees for the birds
and give my body to the seas
when I die.
The snake embraced Muškarac
and pushed him from the tree.
Art Licks Weekend 2017
PROGRAMME
Sunday 01/10
12pm - 2pm
Round Table
With a lunch by Fred Hubble
Participants:
Julie Hill from Passeng-ers:
http://www.passen-gers.co.uk/
Sean Rohr from Platform Southwark:
http://www.platformsouthwark.co.uk/
Javier Calderon from the Chalton Gallery:
http://www.chaltongallery.org/
Demelza Woodbridge, artist
www.demelzawoodbridge.com
Ilana Blumberg and Mark Lungley from the Side Room Gallergy
www.sideroom.co.uk
Jean Feline, artist and co-director of Mint Works with Flo and Tais
www.jeanfeline.com
www.mintworks.org
Tuesday 03/10
7pm - 10pm
Screening night
'Rustle in the Bushes'
Olga Koroleva
With Grandfather 10’’16
-
Alex Anikina
Ostrannenie 8''13
Some Entropy in Your Tea 8’'13
Animalist Manifesto 0’'53
-
Gaietto Dawn & Matt Beach
[ extractions ] experiments in time 7''
-
Bona M Konior
Sorcery Means 16''
-
Gui Pondé
Black Jaguar 5’8’’
Taïs Bean
Beauty of an Onion 6''
-
Florence Devereux
Business is Business 7’’
LUNCH AT THE NIPPLE DOME
An Exhibition by Florence Devereux and Taïs Bean
With Fred Hubble and Guests
01/10 - 03/10 2017
Basement Flat, 72 Haverstock Hill, NW3 2BE
Florence Devereux and Taïs Bean have fed their own individual practices through their conversations and common concerns towards modern western society’s isolation to the wider ecosystems it lives in. This lack of engagement and respect has catastrophic results, not only environmental, but also resonating within our social and economic ways of relating to one another. Their practice, processes and curatorial projects is moved by their attempt to celebrate and contemplate the mysterious, numinous interdependence that weaves life together. Experimenting with new and old languages of connection and collaboration, the exhibition is part of their attempt to embody an animist worldview as a starting point to finding a solution to our disconnection with the natural, urban and social environments. The artists define animism as a worldview that grants agency to all beings, that re-establishes a sense of mystery and sacredness when relating to other life forms, human or not.
For ‘Lunch at the Nipple Dome’, Florence and Taïs are exploring archetypal cycles, celebrating death and life, desire and repulsion, togetherness and isolation, intimacy and mystery… Looking at the two side of these dualities as one, they suggest that a true ecosystems - a complete life form- acknowledges, transforms and uses everything it is made of.
In response to Art Licks’s 2017 theme ‘Finding Solutions’, FlorenceTaïs and Fred Hubble are proposing, during a round table, to gather and connect different cultural actors weaving the ecosystem of London art scene, to share about their challenges and creative solutions. Fred will be cooking and offering a lunch inspired by the Surrealists' cookbook.
When socio-economical contexts get harder and impact the health of culture, it is important for cultural actors to remember to share knowledge and resources, to collaborate rather than compete and maintain a sense of support system that will feed individuals as well as the collective.
They will be closing their show with a screening night, proposing independent short movies from various artists, loosely exploring what Taïs and Florence call a contemporary animist perspective.
