It's a (Healing) Process
an experimental online sharing
by Chris Auret
since 23 June 2020
INVITATION:
Take your time here, as though you are walking through a spacious, physical gallery, allowing moments to pause and reflect.
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As a special feature of this unique expression, almost every piece has a PROCESS / REFLECTION
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There are over 52 pieces on one page. If it feels overwhelming, I suggest you play a game of random scrolling or visit again at any time.
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The best sound will be experienced through speakers or headphones.
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It is best viewed on larger screens for zoom capabilities, although a phone will do just fine.
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You are welcome to light a candle or burn some incense - whatever you may choose to create a sacred atmosphere wherever you are.
CHAPTER 1
Open Wounded Ground
Body of 7 collage & mixed media pieces
These pieces make up a selection from my first ASTAR art process, which took place from January to March 2019. The course was a gift from my friends and family for my birthday. In this term, we were using the element of Earth as a portal to explore aspects of ourselves and our relationship to this element.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ZOOM IN / ENLARGE
Open Wounded Ground (2019)
Charcoal on Paper, *Astar Process
515mm x 635mm
R3500
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Head, Heart & Stomach (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Own Photographs on Paper, *Astar Process
250mm x 390mm
R1200
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The Weight of Reflection (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Own Photographs on Paper, *Astar Process
235mm x 510mm
R1500
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The Heartist (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
320mm x 510mm
R1500
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High Flying Bridgework (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
320mm x 510mm
R1500
High Flying Bridgework -
Who are you?
In bold defiance of gravity,
Daring Guardians of the Heights,
"Heaven's right here on earth"
Fallen
In the Path of Destruction
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Submerge to Emerge (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Own & Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
320mm x 510mm
R1500
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Intercepting Eternity (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Own Photographs on Paper, *Astar Process
149mm x 100mm
R900
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CHAPTER 2
Willpower
Body of 11 Collage & Mixed Media Pieces & 1 Film & Sound Element
At least half of these works were created during my second term with ASTAR, now working with the element of Water. It was during this process and a visit to the Garden Route, that an invocation, prayer or poem emerged through me, titled Willpower. This piece of writing became an inspiring force threading through my life at the time. Through Lindy's guidance, I decided to take each phrase and give it it's own visual representation, breaking it into 11 parts. Upon completion, I have explored animating these artworks and combining my own sound, which has resulted in the raw film exploration below. I still feel it is a sketch of a medium I will be going deeper into, open to collaborations with animators, sound masons and film makers.
Artworks: Mixed media & found images (mostly from National Geographic magazines. I do not take credit for the images themselves but feel I have changed their context substantially)
Film: Recordings of my screen in Photoshop when viewing photographed works
Sound: Music is a live score, recorded by myself, while watching the film
Narration: One live raw recording on my phone, layered on top of film and sound
CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ZOOM IN / ENLARGE
WATCH FILM IN FULL SCREEN IF POSSIBLE
Willpower - a short film sketch by Chris Auret
Willpower, I call on you.
Be with me as I go back, down and inwards
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Own & Found Images, *Astar Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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As I swim to the depths of this dark river,
as I greet death, surrounded by onlooking baboons,
beneath rocks of defecation
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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May my last breath fill my lungs with trust
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Inspired Process
210mm x 510mm
R2000
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Keep me warm on the icy waters of isolation,
As I make my way back to the ocean of conscious actions
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
230mm x 290mm
R2000
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Smudge me clean of my fears
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images & Thread, *Astar Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Connect me to that which I have forgotten
(2019)
Collage with Found Images, *Astar Inspired Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Teach me the language to share my experience with this world
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Inspired Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Allow me to remain awake in this vigil
Let me fall, not asleep, but into unconditional love
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Inspired Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Suppress nothing as I sink
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Dissolve all that keeps me from serving myself,
in the service of others
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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Find the fire within me
and feed it with responsibility
(2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Inspired Process
230mm x 230mm
R2000
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CHAPTER 3
My Process (pre-lockdown)
Body of Collage & Mixed Media Pieces
During and after these 2 terms with ASTAR, I was inspired to continue holding myself in similar 3 hour art processes. Usually, I work with a theme I am personally exploring in that moment, such as trauma, nature, making art, my childhood, etc . These pieces came through between March 2019 and March 2020.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ZOOM IN / ENLARGE
Skin (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Paper
297mm x 420mm
R1500
Cultures of the world;
under water, on land, in the air,
on white islands
or born in the mountains
of a no turning back:
Life (the really, really, big picture)
is not a tale of two worlds apart.
Dream time into the Earth.
To most people, flying.
To us, it is a body under reconstruction.
A man with a following
is still killing thousands of children everyday.
Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge.
That may be as good as it gets.
Alive - happily -
long ago to go,
an ancestor of the true capital of Hope.
Sincerely,
The Most Fitting End.
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Trauma (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Card
240mm x 375mm
R1200
A dream called lasting pain
Locates a buried past.
Waiting, it lurks.
It casts a spell to make me(we) stay asleep.
Invisible monsters inside the physical.
Temporary resevoirs
Last and last like a nightmare,
Until a victim
Gains a face
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Healing Visions of the Heart Through the Stomach (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Card
210mm x 297mm
R1200
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Searching for Water (2019)
Acrylic on Card
240mm x 297mm
R2000 (SOLD)
As far as the eye can see,
Mountains - untamed and tall
In between the foothills,
I follow, unrestrained
By choice
Or instinct
In the footprints of two elephants -
Mountains themselves.
I am natural tones,
Jagged and free.
The elephants know the way.
I have forgotten.
Out here, the sky inspires expansion,
The ground holds me down,
All the more reason
To be wild.
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Forgetting to Remember (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Card,
240mm x 594mm
R2000
An elephant in the gallery room
Stands bigger than the frame.
A Mammoth, long ago dead,
Yet resurrected from it’s fossilised slumber
To be remembered
Even though we forget why.
The lens looks on so that we look through
Blinded by a present which does not exist
The world’s greatest show; a hoax!
Of lights, cameras and fake actions.
In an attempt to recall my past,
I lift my hands above my head, like tusks
Reaching for distant memories, eyes closed.
Scattered at my feet are the remains of my ancestors,
Whispering stories of future myths.
The writings on the cave wall
But there’s no writing at all.
There are simply images of what was,
painted so that we don’t forget.
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The Fragile Web (2020)
Mixed Media Collage with Own & Found Images on Paper
375 mm x 240mm | 240mm x 375mm
R1500
The Fragile Web
Works well with people around the world
Who remember the sweet way
Of a different future,
Appearing up from the rubble
As living statues on the street.
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Seeing the Light (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images
610mm x 928mm
R1500
Stay, the darkness tells you
When your visions
Glimpse pathways
To the rise of eyes,
After the fall
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To We, From Me (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images on Paper
515mm x 770mm
R2200
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Water Falls (2019)
Oil Pastel on Masonite
240mm x 320mm
R1800 (SOLD)
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Suffering and Surviving the Forgotten Face of Self (2019)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images
240mm x 375mm
R1200 (SOLD)
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Lockdown
Like most of the world, we entered a national lockdown here in South Africa due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The date was 1 March 2020. As I type this, the date is 18 June and we are still experiencing what is termed "level 3 restrictions" in lockdown. During this time, I have found myself activated and energised creatively, finding my voice within the noise. Like many others, I also felt lost, unstable and falling apart. I turned to art once again to process and anchor some of the feelings and thoughts coming through me. The following more-or-less in chronological order and I am still creating art today.
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CHAPTER 4
ASTAR Process (during lockdown)
Body of Collage & Mixed Media Pieces
I consider myself extremely privileged have taken part in a few art processes during lockdown as a way to digest the upheaval of emotions stirred during this challenging time. This journey began with a guided 10-day ASTAR Art Meditation process. Using WhatsApp, Lindy Soloman would send the participants daily voicenoted and written cues to create from. Even though we were scattered all over the country as participants taking part in isolation, using what we had at home, we were still able to be held by the group container and it's sharing practice.
I followed each visual process, with a short poem or piece or writing as a reflection, which became one piece at the end of the process.
CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ZOOM IN / ENLARGE
Prayer Flag (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
245mm x 940mm
R1200
The first steps
Through the dark passage
Begin in prayer.
Make yourself heard,
In the sound of silence.
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"I invoke patience as an antidote to waiting in the unknown" (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media & Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
100mm x 305mm
R1000
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A New Sense of Adventure (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media & Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
305mm x 425mm
R1200
A New Sense of Adventure
Brings the rapids of time
Calms the waters of the storm
Trust, and all will be just fine
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Sweeper or The Mess (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media & Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
215mm x305mm
R1200
Sweeper or the mess,
Broom in hand or beers,
In working pants or a big dress,
In service or luxurious,
Being better or the best,
Wearing a hat for the sun
Or for decoration,
An earth custodian or abomination,
Who am I?
Take one guess,
Be my guest,
I don't need it.
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The Autumn Path (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media & Found Images on Paper, *Astar Process
216mm x 305mm
R1200
Leaving behind an old bowl hat,
My perfect bowtie
And prescription glasses,
I walk the Autumn path
With new gratitude
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Love is The Third Being (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
215mm x 305mm
R1200
Love is the third being,
a suspended connection
to source,
which acts as a channel
for deep listening to happen between two beings.
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This Opening to LIfe (Lockdown 2020)
Chalk & Oil Pastel on Paper, *Astar Process
305mm x 333mm
R2000
Inspired by the poem by David Whyte: Enough
Enough
These few words are enough,
if not these words, this breath.
If not this breath,
this sitting here,
this opening to life
we have refused again, and again.
Until now.
Until, now.
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I give thanks for my home, my people, my art, nature and gold (mine) (Lockdown 2020)
Mixed Media Collage with Found Images, *Astar Process
Diameter: 306mm
R1200
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