Soulsong / Bloodsong Revisited

As my work on 346 is becoming more and more technical (all the work that went into the art and concept bit is done) and is coming to a close, my mind starts roaming and thinking about next projects. Beside new projects that still live only as conscept sketches in my notebooks, I am drawn to “soulsong” a project I began right after the move to England, – so a little earlier than the 346 project. I advanced it a bit, it kept changing, and at some point when I seemed to hit a roadblock, I focused more on my then new project 346. But the leftovers of my last session with soulsong sat in a box on my “to do” shelf in my studio ever since. And so it felt natural to take it out this morning. This is what I put out of the box:

Maybe this just needed to mature a little for me. I might have left it because it is essentially done and ready. I really love the texture and feel this all has. Of course I remember how it all came to be. And that what you can see here are four different stages of the project side by side. But that doesn’t matter, does it? For me it all slots together perfectly.
If I was to exhibit this, I would like to fill a larger area with these parchment bits: they are painted from one side with gesso and from the other side with a gold acrylic wash. Some of them have writing on them. The whole athmosphere they generate reminds me strongly of my grandfather. While I was staring at them, I almost felt like I might hear him cough or speak any minute.
Not all of these text snippets are equally good. I would want to add more and edit some.
From the same material I made two vessels that at the time were supposed to be hung. – I could imagine adding some more, larger ones, and maybe fill them with the text-snippet parchment pieces.

The painted wood-stick-panels are an earlier incarnation of the project, one where I thought more about my mother, my grandmother, my sisters, nieces and daughter. I had more this idea of generation of women passing something along, trying to find what this something is. But nevertheless it belongs with the parchment side of things. Maybe they are two pieces that just need each other. The colour and textures fit together well, I think.

When I made it, I thought that attaching the parchment paper to the panel didn’t work well. But now I rather like it. Back then I thought to integrate this into a larger work, and couldn’t quite imagine how to add the next panel, or what to write on it. – But now I can see that this is because it is simply complete as it is.

And finally in the image on top you can see a paper shape near the edge. This is a model made from paper, inspired by a box for which Cathryn posted instructions a long time ago. I can’t find the relating blogpost anymore, but if I remember correctly, it was menat for just one single container, maybe posted around Valentine’s day. I decided to make several of these and see whether I could hinge them together. – It worked. But it didn’t move in the way I had envisioned. Instead I thought of making some of these out of parchment (with the gesso+acrylic was treatment) and then just put them all together to form a ball. I never got around to trying this, or think about what I would put inside. Now I think the object alone might be interesting and a fitting image for the different identities we have.