“Father, I killed my monkey” 2015 cotton thread, rubber, oil paint and found object
Sometimes a work is inspired by a title, sometimes a title is inspired by the work.
In this case the work was inspired by the title, and the title was inspired by lyrics from the song called “Bliss” by Tori Amos:
I always wondered what she means by the words: “Father, I killed my monkey”?
To me the monkey represents curiosity and playfulness, so maybe that’s what I’m killing when I am too serious sometimes.
“Who needs courage?” Embroidery on rubber and found objects, 2014/5 (photo credit: Dejavu Photography)
A lion-finger-puppet was the inspiration for this piece. The finger-puppet belonged to my 4 year old son, and I figured that since he doesn’t play with it, I might as well use it. So the actual toy is stitched onto the rubber. Boy was he upset!! but we’ve reached and agreement of sorts …(strange – as soon as they see that mother is having fun with their toys, only then do they want to start playing with it!)
Anyway, so a lion represents courage to me, surely because of the Wizard of Oz story:
The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum.[1] He is an African Lion, but he speaks and interacts with humans.
Since lions are supposed to be “The Kings of Beasts,” the Cowardly Lion believes that his fear makes him inadequate. He does not understand that courage means acting in the face of fear, which he does frequently. Only during the after effects of the Wizard’s gift, when he is under the influence of an unknown liquid substance that the Wizard orders him to drink (perhaps gin) is he not filled with fear. He argues that the courage from the Wizard is only temporary, although he continues to do brave deeds while openly and embarrassedly fearful. (wikipedia)
In a sense I needed some courage for this piece above, because it was the first time I experimented with combining a little bit of oil paint & thread on rubber.
I found this quote recently (wish I could remember where)….
“Courage is to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart!”
love that!
(*This work: Who needs courage?” will be on show during my 6th Solo exhibition #Crossmyheart at the Erdmann Contemporary Gallery in Cape Town. Opening on the 10th of February 2015- hope to see you there…)
According to the encyclopaedia the month of June is neither here nor there:
“Two figures come next, disputing the sixth place in the pageant. One is the goddess Juno, and the other is a man Junius. Some people think the month belongs to Juno, and others to the great Roman family of Junius. We will let the two figures fight it out. Neither of them interests us very much. Juno was the beautiful but jealous wife of Jupiter, who drove about in a chariot drawn by strutting peacocks, and Junius was a proud and haughty man, without modesty, humility, or sweetness. These two contend for the brightest and grandest place in the calendar, the month of roses and garden glory”
They must refer to the Northern hemisphere, because our garden is in a terrible state! Its freezing, and the weather bureau predicts snow on the mountains.
This month is also a neither here nor there month for me. In between projects and exhibitions. A variety of work in progress. A lot of things in the pipeline. Stay tuned for updates.
Meanwhile I’ve started to experiment with oil paint combined with embroidery on rubber:
“Alien: pneumonia diploccus” (detail) Oil paint, embroidery on rubber in progress
The above image was inspired by a tummy bug I suffered from earlier this week. (Not that the one in the picture above is a stomach bug, but it is a bacteria!) So I decided to make an Alien= foreign body.
I will see where this experimentation leads to, but for now I have to FOCUS and keep warm!
hannalie taute 