Yesterday I had the chance to attend the excellent @shortsupplymcr reliquary building workshop as part of the #derekjarmanprotest exhibition under the sacred guidance of @jezdolan along with fellow pilgrims @orourke_art and @spells_against_civilisation and other saints and Bodhisattvas. I couldn’t have asked for a more tailor made creative experience. Jarman’s work reflected his fury at the Church for centuries of homophobia and murder (but constantly referenced subversive religious, spiritual and mythic imagery to explore this). I have been influenced by him for decades and this exploration of the tradition of reliquary was perfect. I had a big bag of bits from home I wasn’t sure how to combine them into language. These are a few cathartic explorations and notes from the day. The first was my lovely mum’s old phone. It’s been a long time and I still can’t throw her things out. This phone had her last messages to me on it but is obsolete and can’t be charged - but I know somewhere in its slumbering digital brain was a text saying “I love you” I bound the phone in Egyptian cotton and set it in the perfect eternal Blue of Saint Derek’s Lapis Pureland paradise with a halo of powdered gold. Having made that I then built an equivalent for Dad with one of his old tobacco tins in a small shrine cabinet of the same holy blue. It was harder for dad to process my coming out those years ago but I was a surly, angry, bolshy young punk who never made it easier for him, although he tried hard with me. It also contained my first Pride badge and photo negatives from the march, like memories. (The line at the top was not specific to my dad but from Jarman’s video for the Pet-shop Boys, playing in the gallery). The next one was mourning the last few ball crushing years of covid lockdown, with “lucky” negative tests, a nut cracker and Our Lady of Lourdes. Next are sacred artefacts by Nicky, Patrick and other saints, followed by Jez explaining “Queer” and “Margret Thatcher’s Lunch” by mighty Jarman himself. #derekjarman #reliquary #protest #queerartist #preciousobjects #assemblage #assemblageart #mumification #grief #relics #catharsis #loss #mum #dad (at Manchester Art Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbVEAwmspyP/?utm_medium=tumblr
