More New Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney for Flora and Fornication Series 2007.
Photographs of Art and Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
19 December 2007.

Have a beautiful Christmas

and

2008 is more than you could ever imagine

Festive greetings

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney

www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk

New Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney for Flora and Fornication Series 2007.
Photographs of Art and Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
14 December 2007.

The 'Flora and Fornication Series' is an ongoing creative research project which explores the male human form digitalised to imbue the sense of plant species. To denote the hierarchies which established much of the scientific theoretical concepts on evolution. Further work currently in development (Model, anonymous).

Previous art released in early 2007:

Review: 'UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA'.
Live Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Written by Victoria Samantha Smith.
Photographs by Artist / Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
12 December 2007.

On Monday 10 December 2007, set in the unusual early hours, in a secluded venue in Shoreditch, London (UK), Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney unveiled her 'UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA'. This was an exclusive live art piece by Sweeney with a limited audience of no more than ten people from different professional backgrounds. They were witness to a unique, exclusive and private live art experiment to explore the concepts and process of natural order versus (ou)R-DNA from the constructs of evolution, the visceral and intervention of the human form with the transitions and shifts on the parameters of flesh, liberties, ethics and government. The procreation of new concepts with the desire for (re)design on progeny. From selective breeding, societal inception, scientific intervention, biotechnology and the genome culture. The performance addressed these and more with the audience to determine the new human species.

The audience members by either individual direction or group selection determined the physical presence and action of the artist, combined with digital technology and media, each stage was documented real-time. The spatial parameters were recorded on a computer system where the visceral biological form of the artist could be intervened further by digital modification. This was a hybridised approach of live art with digital technology and audience participation. The process was one derived from the concept that existence of co-operation poses one of the quandaries of human evolution. Significantly that capacity of scientific intervention and advancements in the genome culture that so readily pervades the consciousness and tabloids of mass media and consumerism.

'The development through time of biological organisms by means of the adaptation of species to the demands of the physical environment. Such change generally involves an increase in complexity and functional improvement. Its greatest exponent was Darwin, Charles Robert, whose Origin of species appeared in ad 1859 setting out the principles of evolution based on random mutation and natural selection. These principles have been carried over into archaeological thinking where they can be seen in terms of social evolution and the progressive climb from 'savagery' to 'civilization'. At the small scale, it is applied to the typology of artefacts which can often be arranged in a developmental sequence. At a large scale, society as a whole is sometimes viewed as a unilinear progression through a series of pre-defined stages'.

The vulnerability of flesh, as exposed by the artist, in this live art was one to reduce the concept and experience of origin of the species and natural order, as delineated in many scientific theories by the tangibility of the human form and that within our biological edifice. The artist was introduced with a sound recording of instructions for what was expected of the audience and the liberties they were assigned. By choice, selection and intervention of the audience they determined the outcome of the creative and shared experience to realise new modes of expression conceived, adapted by their autonomous propositions and then collective cognition of purpose, function and rationale in the bodily immediacy of the artist. This then recorded and by selective process modified again through digital experimentation and expression.

A pre-recording of quotations echoed, overlaid, in the background. Some of which discerned as:

'Biologically the species is the accumulation of the experiments of all its successful individuals since the beginning'. (H.G. Wells); 'We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship'. (George Wald); 'I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey'. (Mark Twain); and more resonating in the atmosphere.

The artist during the entire performance remained relaxed and submissive, no utterance of a word and freely open to the audience shifting and manoeuvring her body.

The outcome of the live art resulted in the documentation transformed through this generational approach in time, space and media of the digitalised images.

For more information on the art of Sweeney to to: www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk

Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com

Sleep with the Artist ... Change of Date.
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
10 December 2007.

This project has been moved to early 2008. Please keep a check on Transvoyeur News for release date of this.

Sleep with the Artist - Dream Sharing, Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.

Dreams mean different things to different people. A visual dialogue of the human pscyche revealing a fusion of experiences and the subconsious of the dreamer.

'Sleep with the Artist - Dream Sharing' is a project where another is invited by selected submission to spend a night with the artist. This process will be filmed and transmitted via the net from beginning of sleep to awaking.

The artist and the selected participant will discuss and compare their dreams.

For the next eight hours both artists will produce live via the net art cognitive of their subconsious experiences.

In the afternoon, a psychologist will be invited to deliberate with the artists their dreams and reflect on their visual representations.

Web browsers and members of the public logged on will be invited to pose questions via email at the end of this discussion.

To be performed in London, UK.

Dreams and Analysis …

In many of the ancient societies, including Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of dreams.

In the Western world, the first major work on dream interpretation was the 2nd-century Oneirocritica by Artemidorus, which interpreted the meaning of many subjects of dreams. Dream interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at the end of the 19th century; the perceived, manifest content of a dream is analyzed to reveal its latent meaning to the psyche of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.

In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between superego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams. The unconscious would "like" to depict the wish fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it — the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised, and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a multitude of wishes on a variety of levels — conscious wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this test".

Dream analysis is central to Jungian analytical psychology, and forms a critical part of the therapeutic process in classical Jungian psychoanalysis. Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, he believed that Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes, to be simplistic and naive. Jung was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be a self regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites.

In 1954, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process. Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way to skin a cat." or in other words, more than one way to do something.

Dreams and Art …

Dreams, rich in visual imagery and symbols, are a natural well of creative inspiration for artists. While some artists use the energy of a dream to express a powerful idea, others use their art as a means of exploring their dreams.

References to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams of major characters such as Callum and the meanings thereof. However, dreams as art, without a "real" frame story, appear to be a later development—though there is no way to know whether many premodern works were dream-based.

In European literature, the Romantic movement emphasized the value of emotion and irrational inspiration. "Visions", whether from dreams or intoxication, served as raw material and were taken to represent the artist's highest creative potential.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Symbolism and Expressionism introduced dream imagery into visual art. Expressionism was also a literary movement, and included the later work of the playwright August Strindberg, who coined the term "dream play" for a style of narrative that did not distinguish between fantasy and reality.

At the same time, discussion of dreams reached a new level of public awareness in the Western world due to the work of Sigmund Freud, who introduced the notion of the subconscious mind as a field of scientific inquiry. Freud greatly influenced the 20th-century Surrealists, who combined the visionary impulses of Romantics and Expressionists with a focus on the unconscious as a creative tool, and an assumption that apparently irrational content could contain significant meaning, perhaps more so than rational content.

The invention of film and animation brought new possibilities for vivid depiction of nonrealistic events, but films consisting entirely of dream imagery have remained an avant-garde rarity. Comic books and comic strips have explored dreams somewhat more often, starting with Winsor McCay's popular newspaper strips; the trend toward confessional works in alternative comics of the 1980s saw a proliferation of artists drawing their own dreams.

Dream material continues to be used by a wide range of contemporary artists for various purposes. This practice is considered by some to be of psychological value for the artist—independent of the artistic value of the results—as part of the discipline of "dream work".

The international Association for the Study of Dreams holds an annual juried show of visual dream art (Reference: http://www.wikipedia.org/).

Live Art in London and Online by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney ... Sleep with the Artist and UGLY (-).
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
26 November 2007.

I am due to be in London (UK)in just over week for a few days to complete the projects ....

Sleep with the Artist (London/Online)
and
UGLY (-) Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA (Selective Audience/Participants in London)

If you are going be about please email me at ges1967@hotmail.com to meet up, as it is limited access to the above performances?

www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com

More information below:

UGLY (-)
Natural Order versus (ou)R-DNA
Live Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
London (UK)

An audience to witness a unique, exclusive and private live art experiment to explore the concepts and processes of natural order versus (ou)R-DNA from the constructs of evolution, the visceral and intervention of the human form with the transitions and shifts on the parameters of flesh, liberties, ethics and government. The procreation of new concepts with the desire for (re)design on progeny. From selective breeding, societal inception, scientific intervention, biotechnology and the genome culture. The performance will address these and more with the audience to determine the new human species.

This performance is in secluded location and there are places limited to ten members only. To be considered please contact the artist at ges1967@hotmail.com and provide an explanation why you should be chosen to determine the next stage in the evolution of humanity? If you are selected by the artist to witness, share and intervene in this experiment she will email you the date, time and location in London (UK).

www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Associated to: www.transvoyeur.com

Sleep with the Artist - Dream Sharing, Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.

Dreams mean different things to different people. A visual dialogue of the human pscyche revealing a fusion of experiences and the subconsious of the dreamer.

'Sleep with the Artist - Dream Sharing' is a project where another is invited by selected submission to spend a night with the artist. This process will be filmed and transmitted via the net from beginning of sleep to awaking.

The artist and the selected participant will discuss and compare their dreams.

For the next eight hours both artists will produce live via the net art cognitive of their subconsious experiences.

In the afternoon, a psychologist will be invited to deliberate with the artists their dreams and reflect on their visual representations.

Web browsers and members of the public logged on will be invited to pose questions via email at the end of this discussion.

To be performed in London, UK.

Dreams and Analysis …

In many of the ancient societies, including Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of dreams.

In the Western world, the first major work on dream interpretation was the 2nd-century Oneirocritica by Artemidorus, which interpreted the meaning of many subjects of dreams. Dream interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at the end of the 19th century; the perceived, manifest content of a dream is analyzed to reveal its latent meaning to the psyche of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.

In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between superego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams. The unconscious would "like" to depict the wish fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it — the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised, and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a multitude of wishes on a variety of levels — conscious wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this test".

Dream analysis is central to Jungian analytical psychology, and forms a critical part of the therapeutic process in classical Jungian psychoanalysis. Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, he believed that Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes, to be simplistic and naive. Jung was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be a self regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites.

In 1954, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process. Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way to skin a cat." or in other words, more than one way to do something.

Dreams and Art …

Dreams, rich in visual imagery and symbols, are a natural well of creative inspiration for artists. While some artists use the energy of a dream to express a powerful idea, others use their art as a means of exploring their dreams.

References to dreams in art are as old as literature itself: the story of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Iliad all describe dreams of major characters such as Callum and the meanings thereof. However, dreams as art, without a "real" frame story, appear to be a later development—though there is no way to know whether many premodern works were dream-based.

In European literature, the Romantic movement emphasized the value of emotion and irrational inspiration. "Visions", whether from dreams or intoxication, served as raw material and were taken to represent the artist's highest creative potential.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Symbolism and Expressionism introduced dream imagery into visual art. Expressionism was also a literary movement, and included the later work of the playwright August Strindberg, who coined the term "dream play" for a style of narrative that did not distinguish between fantasy and reality.

At the same time, discussion of dreams reached a new level of public awareness in the Western world due to the work of Sigmund Freud, who introduced the notion of the subconscious mind as a field of scientific inquiry. Freud greatly influenced the 20th-century Surrealists, who combined the visionary impulses of Romantics and Expressionists with a focus on the unconscious as a creative tool, and an assumption that apparently irrational content could contain significant meaning, perhaps more so than rational content.

The invention of film and animation brought new possibilities for vivid depiction of nonrealistic events, but films consisting entirely of dream imagery have remained an avant-garde rarity. Comic books and comic strips have explored dreams somewhat more often, starting with Winsor McCay's popular newspaper strips; the trend toward confessional works in alternative comics of the 1980s saw a proliferation of artists drawing their own dreams.

Dream material continues to be used by a wide range of contemporary artists for various purposes. This practice is considered by some to be of psychological value for the artist—independent of the artistic value of the results—as part of the discipline of "dream work".

The international Association for the Study of Dreams holds an annual juried show of visual dream art (Reference: http://www.wikipedia.org/).

Poems and Art: Liverpool's 800th and Ghana's 50th by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson.
Text and Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson.
16 November 2007.

The artists Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Kofi Fosu Forson have exchanged cultural discourse through their creative practices and philosophies since 2003.

Sweeney was born in Liverpool, England, and returned in her early thirties with her art. Forson, originally from Ghana, West Africa, moved as a child to New York with his family where he still resides.

Both these places celebrate anniversaries in 2007. Liverpool celebrates its 800th Anniversary as a city, while Ghana commemorates it's 50th Year of Independence. For the two places this year is a notable one to the culture, heritage and peoples.

Sweeney and Forson adopt this theme of the anniversaries and through prose and visual art explore their cultural heritage of each respective place.

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney

The poetry project I wish to do is more one of spontaneous response, so I have taken a Dadaist approach. I have adopted the lyrics from 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and fused with a poem of my own, by combining the texts of the iconic verse now synonymous with Liverpool, particularly football, combined with my own prose is similar to that of the reformations the city is going through.

Similar in the approach of hybridisation, the process is one of taking the institutionalised and through deconstruction and reconstruction new modes of thinking and expression are realised and this simple theoretical and innate approach is cognitive to the transitions Liverpool is experiencing in its 800th Anniversary in 2007. It is comparable to the multi-cultural amalgamations that have brought forward the diversity in this city. This titled 'Contemporary 800th Perceptions'.

When reading the words, it is interesting to address the text in its own new form. The words fortify a 'Renaissance', the old and iconic, ingrained in the culture of the city, but to evolve into something new. In a similar way, the auto biographical stance applied here by combining something from myself to that which is institutionalised has been implemented to the construction of the image.

I have taken an archival photograph of Mill Road Hospital, the Maternity Wing and one of myself as a baby and overlaid with each perceptible. This was a very old and part of the Victorian reformations in the history of the Liverpool. I would have been one of the last babies born there in its latter years.

Both these methods in the prose and imagery are one to take the iconic in the history of the city and reflect in terms of my own shared experience as someone born here within the 800 year chronology of the city.

Birth of Contemporary 800th Perceptions

When you walk through a storm
Dance on the edge of the living sea
Hold your head up high
And let the water caress your toes
And don't be afraid of the dark
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
Between Elysium and Hades repose

And the sweet silver song of a lark
Dance on the edge of the living sea
Walk on through the wind
And let the water caress your toes
Walk on through the rain
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Between Elysium and Hades repose

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
Dance on the edge of the living sea
And you'll never walk alone
And let the water caress your toes
You'll never, ever walk alone
Laugh silent in echoes of seagulls cries
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
Between Elysium and Hades repose

And you'll never walk alone
Dance on the edge of the living sea
You'll never, ever walk alone
And let the water caress your toes

Kofi Fosu Forson

After my brother committed suicide in 1994, I found it urgent to retrace my steps to the very country I had been displaced from, Ghana. For starters, I wrote several poems in his honour. What these poems did is place me back where I grew up. It was a politicizing of my heritage and culture.

I found a deeper meaning in my status as a New Yorker. I questioned my friendships with Caucasians, especially women who formed a balance in my practice. Not having ever been a follower of politics, I attempted to learn about Nkrumah and the founding fathers of my beloved Ghana.

The image followed the tradition found in the poem, which was honouring Ghana's 50th. Originally, the b 'n white photograph was a portrait of me honouring my identity. It carried over into honouring Ghana. The miscue on the nose makes for a deterrent from what would seem self-serving. It gives the impression of a mask which I like very much.

Mother Ghana
(My Scent is in Sekondi)

Nkrumah, we're calling on you
Surrender the earth to mother Ghana
Fifty years since our independence
That day at midnight, your words spoke…

"Our independence is meaningless if not linked
…With the total liberation of Africa."

Western Sons have fetched Apollo 1:
Space to afford many more moons
Together in creating peace

Streets catapulted to kpanlogo
People danced on La beach
To the spirit of High-Life

Year I was born, you had been overthrown
Ghana made it to Mexico

Could it have been the living among us
Answering our prayers?

My mother was Owunta, gave birth to twins
I lived in Osu. My scent was in Sekondi
Carried with me flavour of house wives
Smell of fried plantains wafting in the air

Far from the city of Accra, its fishermen
Contemplated the pull, mastered the wait
Dreams of villages came to us like water
Touching the shore

For further information on the artists go to:

Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney: www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Kofi Fosu Forson: http://kofosu.blogspot.com/

In affiliation with Transvoyeur: www.transvoyeur.com

'Because, I Love You!', Photographic Series by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Text and Photographs by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
16 November 2007.

'Because, I Love You!' Series, Monoshame, Pretend and Hide,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007..

'Because, I Love You!' Series, Seven Days to Lose Yourself and One More for Goodluck,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007.

'Because, I Love You!' Series, Lose and Lost,
Photograph by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, 2007.

'Because, I Love You!'. Photographic images taken, black and white to denote harsh reality, which is quite often reversed literally in the situations to escape or as a coping strategy. The eyes to denote the humanity of the person within. Then morphed in the colour version which is digital modified to dehumanize the subject.

Call for Submissions ...
Love and Death by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
14 November 2007.

The familiar saying of the spirit is willing, but the body is weak, made me think about a film where a lover willed themselves to die and other examples of old couples, where one dies and the other soon follows of a broken heart.

Morbid romanticism maybe, but it does happen. Maybe easier to carry over into the next incarnation to meet up again, rather than live without that implicit bond.

Then there is that where love is taken and not reciprocated until there is nothing left to give, life itself carries no meaning. So, start again in the next and hope it is better as explicated in the novels and poetry of Romanticism, so very much ingrained into costume dramas of the 20th and 21st centuries. Where lovers are spurned by cruelty and commit suicide, but not always, as a willingness is expressed in these literal tales of preferring mortality than a loveless existence. They simply give up and prefer that cold touch of Death to carry them to the next realm.

In the development of a new piece of art by myself over the next four weeks, I would like artists to submit a sketch of a vision that conveys the concept of 'Love and Death. I will select a series of ten and from these compositions construct into a conceptualised live art piece to be embodied and performed on line in conclusion of this project. The final piece of art will be a fusion of expressions on the theme from different view points collated to imbue a sense of the universal that we all experience. For further information please email you sketch to ges1967@hotmail.com.

Lord Byron
(Written 1824, First published 1887).

I watched thee when the foe was at our side,
Ready to strike at him --- or thee and me,
Were safety hopeless --- rather than divide
Aught with one loved save love and liberty.

I watched thee on the breakers, when the rock,
Received our prow, and all was storm and fear,
And bade thee cling to me through every shock;
This arm would be thy bark, or breast thy bier.

I watched thee when the fever glazed thine eyes,
Yielding my couch and stretched me on the ground
When overworn with watching, ne'er to rise
From thence if thou an early grave hadst found.

The earthquake came, and rocked the quivering wall,
And men and nature reeled as if with wine.
Whom did I seek around the tottering hall?
For thee. Whose safety first provide for? Thine.

And when convulsive throes denied my breath
The faintest utterance to my fading thought,
To thee --- to thee --- e'en in the gasp of death
My spirit turned, oh ! oftener than it ought.

Thus much and more, and yet thou lov'st me not,
And never wilt ! Love dwells not in our will.
Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot
To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still.

More information is available at:
www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Affiliated to:
www.transvoyeur.com

Return ...

After the rendition of the abstract stuff!!!

I think now is time to return to my roots of Realism ... new research starting for series to be unveiled next year ...

Keep posted!