THREE:one /SIBYLS. Liz Collini & Lindsay Simons 4

 

Untitled RF Paper - Collini & Simons

We start to make a piece together (above/below); we are overly ‘polite’ and respectful of each other’s work; 

Liz takes words from the science researches; Lindsay adds a displaced and fragmented figure of the Delphic sibyl

Lindsay draws a self-portrait in charcoal with a tree

speed, reading, twisting, a dissolving figure, the classical

Charcoal Self-Portrait - Collini-Simons

The Sibyl writes on oak leaves; we both experiment with what this signifies and how to use the idea; 

the carriers of prophecies and wisdom; what is kept and what is lost or discarded; flying leaves; the swirl of contemporary information and knowledge; what is this in today’s digital world?; how do we handle the temptation to be overly-literal when suing such a powerful and recognisable symbol in both concept and process? 

Lindsay; a self-portrait with leaves using the Libyan sibyl; 

quiet, contemplative, looking into a void

Liz; an oak wreath to the absent ‘laureate’ Rosalind Franklin (who was not given the Nobel prize posthumously); 

Nobel Oak Wreath - Liz Collini

many failed attempts to make a text with oak leaves; photographing and screenprinting; more doing, less thinking 

Liz returns to the Franklin papers;

strands of words from an RF paper stretch across the page, flipped and repeated; one phrase is ‘an unresolved doublet’; the text is made as a screenprint and folded 

Lindsay paints a quick oil sketch of the Erythrean sibyl 

speed, the’ feel’ of a fresco, movement, the physically active artist

Erithraean Sibyl oil sketch - Lindsay Simons

Liz; the golden bough

‘golden’ words, but not rendered in a gold medium, just pencil, less literal; partially erased; at the centre are the ‘golden’ items from mythology, at the edge items from contemporary culture

Golden Words Encircle - Liz Collini

...but then a return to the literal; some of the ‘golden’ words are drawn and painted in gold paint onto a dark green surface (the golden bough in the wood) as a small test piece