#26.12

Finally *handed* over the hands to their owner, Martin Gore! The pencil-drawn ASL signs spell out a lyric from [the song “Fail”]  @depechemode’s latest album! © Grace Tame (20/10/2017)

Photo © Grace Tame

Source: twitter.com/tame_punk

It is indeed the first case that we use the f-word. I find it appropriate, because in the last song it once again underlines the dark mood on ‘Spirit’. When I began writing songs at the end of 2015 and early 2016, it felt to me as if the world was slowly getting doomed. I just had to make it a theme. And even though I did not think that Trump would become president, you could see how the Trump train was slowly taking up speed and was dragging the whole election campaign into the dirt. At the same time, you saw and see these horrible images from Syria every day, that no one seems to care about anymore. No wonder I got a gloomy look at the world and concluded: “We’re fucked”? A little side-note: A young artist from Australia is working on a piece of art, in which she is drawing the words “we”, “are”, and “fucked” in sign language. It’s a Christmas gift from my wife. I have yet to ask her, but I also think it would make a great design for a T-shirt. © Martin Gore, Intro magazin (24/04/2017); Translation by Angelinda (dmlive.wiki)

I usually don’t like to post unfinished work, but this is something I’m really proud of and honored to have been asked to do. Just before boarding my flight to Australia, I dropped this off at the home of Martin Gore, founding member of the iconic band Depeche Mode. After being shown my work by my dear friend Camilla Cleese, Martin’s lovely wife, Kerrilee, asked me to do this as a surprise Christmas present for him. I couldn’t have been more stoked. By now Martin will have seen the piece in its current state, along with the video Kerrilee took of me detailing the journey behind its creation. I can’t wait to finish it when I return to America.

At 2 x 2.5 feet, the piece contains 11 life-size hands, both male and female, of all different races, from 5 continents, covering an age span of over 70 years, drawn in coloured pencil. I would like to extend a huge thank you firstly to Camilla for continuing to share my work, often when I am too embarrassed to do so, and secondly to Kerrilee, for trusting me with such a project! And to all those who let me photograph their hands, both those who made it into the final composition and those who didn’t, I cannot be more grateful.

In sourcing all of the individual components, I met people I otherwise never would have, and had the privilege of hearing their unique stories; stories of lives and cultures so unimaginably unlike my own; of suffering and hurt I do not know of; of happiness, redemption, love and beauty; of undeniable, insoluble humanity. I have no absolute answers to the world’s problems, but I cannot speak of the listening to and sharing of stories, nor pricelessness and necessity of interacting with fellow humans, more highly. We may not look the same, or think the same, but we all feel love, and we all, without exception, feel pain. That is to say: we are all human, a fact we know but seem to forget and perhaps don’t fully understand. Thank you again to the ones who made this possible. © Grace Tame - tamepunk (26/12/2016)

Photo © Grace Tame - tamepunk

Source: Grace Tame - tamepunk

An absolute honour to have my art hanging above Martin Gore’s piano! What a legend. © Grace Tame - tamepunk (06/09/2018)

Photo © Grace Tame - tamepunk