I
A blank canvas.
II
but your thoughts
III
not up to anything
IV
and no one else
Descriptions of artworks to create in your imagination. Some could become real. Some never should. Some are ultimately mindfulness exercises. However you see them, the experience for each viewer is unique. Resource List. Manifesto.
Sit outside of society, of everything, of your own life even, for a while; sit outside of the place where you are right now, as much as you can - imagine you are behind a veil that keeps you separate and experience life as if from the outside.
Wait.
Watch.
See.
Record your findings.
Oil on canvas. All white paint on a black background. Hands with lightning shaped arms reach towards a body curled up and helpless. Text on the frame reads: the hands of control / over both bodies and minds / massage just themselves.
A picture of a group performing the same, or joint, activity; or all in attendance somewhere together, their focus in the same direction. All seem comforted and happy to be there - although they might not show this in the way you would expect.
(or an ornate sword - one edge sharp and plain, the other blunt but beautifully carved).
A name is written on a wall (for example, Taylor Swift) which is protected completely by a locked frame. The means to deface this artwork is placed in a locked cabinet underneath. Only the person whose name it is (for example, Taylor Swift) has means to access the artwork and cabinet and they (for example, Taylor Swift) have an open invitation to come and deface their own name, should they wish to.
Snapes, Laura (2024) Breakups, fantasies and her most cutting lyrics: inside Taylor’s Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/19/taylor-swift-album-the-tortured-poets-department-lyrics (Accessed: 19th April 2024).
Swift, Taylor (2024) ‘But Daddy I Love Him,’ The Tortured Poets Department [602465081343]. US,Republic Records.
Although the title and idea comes from a lyric in the above Taylor Swift song, it is thanks to the above Laura Snapes article that this idea came about.
A cage that we are all locked in together and cannot escape from.
Imagine a fight breaks out.
What happens next?
How do we carry on?