Kundalini Trance Parties

Yes I studied fine art at UCT in Cape Town, I got my degree there and stayed to do a post grad’ in painting; I really wanted to learn my technique. Then I went to Johannesburg – and did another post grad’ degree before travelling; for that one I was specialising in sculptures – I wanted to learn as much as I could about stone, marble, wood…

… 12 -13 yr ago, for no reason in particular other than I had a British passport and I wanted to experience new horizons and new things – I thought Britain would be a good place to start but I never left!

Very much so – that is how I survive through proper, more formal art. I design greeting cards, do paintings for houses, portraits, I design jewellery and objét and I sculpt. I am always creating and collecting; when I go to Bali on holiday I am always collecting stones and shells and local wood which eventually becomes artwork. I have boxes and boxes of stuff! All the time I am involved in lots of different things – workshops and shows – collaborations on different levels. Recently I did a workshop with teenagers in my area – it was allowing these kids to experience something they have never had the chance to do before; exploring painting – to explore with a paintbrush – to allow them to conceptualise and give them a space to create; no-one can create without input from others. Large festivals are like that in that they get teams of people together where we all bounce of each other creatively and that feeds back and in turn facilitates me.

Ah! This is a very funny story – Steve doesn’t know this! I arrived in England and started going to the early parties, but they were quite expensive for me having come straight from South Africa, I noticed the artwork and thought I can do better than this, maybe this is a way for me to be involved. I produced 6 small paintings only as big as my hand, which took maybe a couple of days – they were little UV drawings and I took photos of them and sent them to a number of promoters telling them they were 6 metres by 6 metres! The one who replied was Steve and he asked if I could bring 3 of my paintings to the next Kundalini which was in 2 weeks time. So it was a mad rush for the next few weeks – I had canvas stretched all over my walls to get them ready in time! I arrived at Tysson Street and one of the paintings was still wet – I had just finished it. Hahaha. Now I am much more successful I will always stand by Kundalini as Steve gave me my first break.

Don’t do it for the money - I am afraid in the décor scene be prepared to work for years and years for nothing - do it by all means but don’t give up the day job! And working with fabric it has to be beautiful but safe – one flick of a cigarette and it can all go up, so it has to be fire-proofed and safely secured and out of reach for pulling. Those putting on the parties have to be aware of these issues – Health and Safety – or as I call them Elf and Pixie – inspectors come around and hold a lighter to your work to test the amount of time it takes to catch. They are tight here and in Ireland which is good but it varies from country to country – there is no H&S in Portugal or many of the big festivals abroad – I see things that I know would not be allowed here.

We are creating a multi-layered temple of light with layers and layers of tensile fabrics pulled and formed and shaped, with psychedelic, gorgeous white light and cracking visuals flowing over them.

Rod Bubble, a mad professor who hand-makes bespoke oil lamps and The Extra Dimensional Space Agency who are creating fabulous visual media. EDSA are Richard McKenzie (aka Shiva Monkey) and Kim Holden (aka Agent Colours). Richie has just finished his final show of his art degree; he is the most exceptional man, he has wonderful ideas and I love working with him. Every time I get into something and we bump into each other – we realise we are going down the same track, so it is a natural progression to work together. He makes fantastic visual which work extremely well on my fabric.

I don’t do much indoor work anymore – it’s really all festivals apart from Kundalini and Liquid Collective parties. I tend to refuse to do indoor work now because it is always about the décor and not the art and it is not satisfying; it goes up in a few hours, then it comes down and even if it is fantastic 50% of the people don’t take it in – on a festival site there is masses of space for huge installations and you experience it on different levels and over different time periods; it is much more satisfying.

My favourite festivals are the Boom – I have worked for them 3 times and they are a fantastic bunch of creative heads in our genre that facilitate artists – they like not only recording artists but visual artists too - walking around the site at every happenstance there is a beautiful sculpture, an installation or photography and that makes them stand out and I thoroughly enjoy them as human beings too. Another great one is the Life festival in Ireland – I have to say it is the best site I have ever been on – it is in a castle – to anyone reading this I would highly recommend going there next June. I am very excited about the Irish; they are fabulous to work with as the scene there is new – they are open to extra ordinary things.

I’ve worked everywhere – oh I have never worked in Wales – I would like to do that one day!! But I have worked in South Africa, Spain, Holland, India, Thailand, Ireland…

I’m doing a fantastic install at the Glade – its outside and is simply art just for arts sake.
Then going to the Lamertree festival which will be really nice. In September there is the Electric Picnic in Ireland – I am creating a huge doorway to get into the Light Body and Soul part of the festival using visual media and tensile fabric. But I have to say for us personally as Liquid faeries Shamania is going to be the festival of the season – it will fill our need for good, lovely music, it is esoteric – there is so much there that we can learn; we can go to a workshop or sit on a hill or you can dance your nuts off!