Following a course I recently took to release ‘stuckness’ in painting, I have been working into collaged torn paintings. This together with a comment from a reader to perhaps consider incorporating some of my writings with the work, has curiously led me to take some tissue rubbings from the Chapel.
I work with tissue for its textural and unpredictable qualities, so this could be a natural extension to that practice.
Two of the altars where I took the rubbings from. The one with the red fabric is supposed to contain the remains of a dead child, so being a couple of inches away from the glass was quite disconcerting. In fact this was the final rubbing after which I had to sit in the sunshine to relieve a very uncomfortable feeling, not quite nausea but certainly something wasn’t right.
By this time the sun had moved and was flooding through the westerly stained glass windows. I decided to use the opportunity to revisit the right hand window, accessed by a spiral staircase. The resultant images are joyous, in a way that I do not experience elsewhere in the building.
Again I am not sure what I will do with the images, maybe use as the basis for painting, maybe just keep as photos.
susanmilleruk 