I absolutely don’t give a shit what people think about my art. But I give way, way, way too many shits about what people think of me as a human being. I wish it didn’t, but people knowing I’m a ‘good girl’ consumes me. Deep rooted since childhood. Currently, my dark thoughts centre around the fact that I might appear to be taking advantage of my boss.
Lying Naked is being unwrapped for the first time since 2018. It last left the house to be hung in the National Gallery, for one night, when it reached at shortlist of ten for the Evening Standard Art Prize. I couldn’t afford to get it framed, so I nailed it to a lump of wood. I didn’t win.
It’s emerging from hibernation to be part of a group show at Tension Gallery, where I work three days each week.
The number of artists who contact Ken, the gallery owner, asking for exhibitions is huge. So it seems incredibly unfair for me to have been selected. I can’t handle the favouritism. Ken has asked me many times to show my work, but I’ve always declined. I should’ve said at the start that I couldn’t be a part of this one, but I didn’t, and now everything is organised and I don’t want to mess anyone around by dropping out at this late stage. I won’t be doing it again.
Lying Naked, 2018
Hand-stitched newspaper to cloth
38 x 51cm.
Left to right:
1 The Lion Man of Ulm, thought to be about 40,000 years old. Carved from mammoth ivory and discovered in Germany in 1939. Cut from the London Evening Standard, 6.9.2018. Photo: Oleg Kuchar/ Museum Ulm. Taken from a book review, by Douglas Murray, of ‘Living With The Gods: On Beliefs And Peoples’ by Neil McGregor (Penguin, 2018). Also a Radio 4 series.
‘Pink Pussy Hat’ from the anti-Trump marches. Cut from the London Evening Standard, 4.9.2018. The photographer appears to be uncredited, however, there is a photo of Ian Hislop on the same page credited as J Fernandes/ D Hubbard. Maybe this credit also applies to the hat photo? It was cut from a review, by Melanie McDonagh, of the British Museum exhibition, ‘I Object: Ian Hislop’s Search For Dissent’. I saw this exhibition. Six years later, all I can remember about it was that the hat was displayed in a glass cabinet as if valued, but the knitter was not named. I would’ve almost accepted ‘we tried to find the maker of this piece’, but nothing. It was almost as if it had not occurred to them that someone’s hands had made it. Recently.
Feet of Boris Johnson, London 2012. From that photo when he was on the zipwire with a Union Jack in each hand. Barcroft Media*.
2. Torso of Donald Trump with the arm of his granddaughter, Arabella. Cut from the London Evening Standard, 30.7.2018. Photographer uncredited.
‘Busting out the moves’ legs of Theresa May, Metro 31.8.2018. PA*.
3. Jeanne Hébuterne as Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) by Amedeo Modigliani, 1917. Sold at Sotheby’s in New York for £116m. Cut from the Guardian, 12.5.2018. Article by Rupert Neate. Photo: AFP/Getty*. Additional article by Miranda Bryant, London Evening Standard, 15.5.2018.
Prosthetic leg with leather boot of Frida Kahlo. London Evening Standard, 17.5.2018. Advertisement for ‘Making Herself Up’ exhibition at the V&A. Photo by Javier Hinojosa.
4 Torso of AJ Cook as JJ Jareau (Special Agent Jennifer Jareau) in ‘Criminal Minds’. Cut from the TV schedule page of the London Evening Standard, 29.3.2018. No photo credit.
Legs of Kendall Jenner ‘in feathers’ by designer Rick Owens. Photographer uncredited.
5 Torso of Kim Jong-un on a visit to a teacher training college in Pyongyang. Evening Standard, 17.1.2018. Photographer uncredited.
Skirt and left leg of Serena Williams, U.S. Open, 2018. ‘The 36-year-old wore a dress, designed by Louis Vuitton Men’s Artistic Director Virgil Abloh, as she beat Polish player, Magda Linette, in straight sets’. London Evening Standard, 28.8.2018. Photographer uncredited.
Right leg of Natalie Portman, who ‘transformed herself into a punk for her film Vox Lux, in which she plays a musician called Celeste’. London Evening Standard, 1.3.2018. No photo credit.
*The photo credits appear as they did in the publication from which the images were cut. For the record, I don't accept the name of a company as the credit for a photograph. There was an actual person behind the camera. If you are that person, or know them, please let me know.