happenings • thoughts • adopted objects

Leaf Lips

2011-12-17T18:24:00.000Z

Atargatis (revisited)

2011-09-25T12:48:00.003+01:00

Atargatis (revisited)

Doesn't feel like you're really here
Mocking.
A call's synthetic tease,
Isn't just my imagination
Siren in her splash from Atlas' sea
Will she make an appearance here?

Who do you turn to
When it's all up in the air
Who does she sing to
When there's nobody there

Sometimes when invisible
I came here, a ritual pebble's throw
Smuggled a sample of her home

Who do you turn to
When there's nobody there
What rocks would you cling to
When you're out of your depth

Father History looking on
Now you feel the weight of what you've done

Who would she sing to
If there was nobody there

beaming cake

2011-06-11T00:54:00.002+01:00

Tobacco Faun

2011-01-04T22:57:00.002Z

Bag Face

2010-11-22T13:05:00.000Z

Carpet Swan Reincarnation

2010-10-23T13:39:00.002+01:00

Original incarnation:
http://rebeccamosley.blogspot.com/2008/02/carpet-swan.html

Concrete Killer

2010-10-08T22:13:00.001+01:00

man in the moon stone

2010-10-02T00:26:00.002+01:00

Peapod Bird

2010-08-16T12:41:00.002+01:00

wide-mouthed milky moat man in the microwave

2010-08-06T12:59:00.001+01:00

Loom

2010-08-04T22:30:00.004+01:00

Coincidence disarming to say the least
Love, such a stubborn goat I can't tame the beast
[What if these dovetails wont breach?]
Convinced by reasons why this milky moat I've made
I get the feeling it will turn to whey
Bridge the weave that wont fray

Wonder if this slalom is safe to warp.
An orchestra of nails screeched the shedding walls
[Battering the hatches to hide]
I wonder what's inside.

Words not deeds have made this landscape serial terrain
A running commentary in a cardboard box frame
With no brand name!

Change by deed poll words I write
Almost.

Utopia

2010-07-16T22:52:00.005+01:00

Utopia (a Cogwheel Dogs sketch)

Be careful where you tread
waking up the dead
rocking with the child
in fiction's chair you read

Possessed by a past
That was almost had
Taking back the reign
Nice and slow
Utopia
and it's timeless in the head
written on her grave
like I've always known

here lies the apparition of a station
passed too soon, all
hail to the con artist who sold the fix
and then accused us

and it's always for the best
if you don't try to understand it
trust/think you've always known

Here lies the ghost of Furey's living memory
can't destroy her
Re-paves the way for what once was
And, no, he can't avoid it

Always known

Here lies the silent filmstar's
bed of sleepers, on track she knew well
Who is the driver of the screaming freight he'll cut right through her

Always known.

the adopted object being: whatever he is carrying

2010-07-16T18:57:00.002+01:00

What is it?

Carry that weight

2010-07-16T11:11:00.000+01:00

Atargatis

2010-07-10T15:04:00.003+01:00

After my first (not wholly unsuccessful) attempt at becoming a mermaid having swam in the river yesterday, I thought it might be appropriate to put this up on here.

There's a little legend up in a place called The Roaches, near where I went to school in the peaks of the Staffordshire Moorlands about a little hidden place called 'Mermaid's Pool' - a secluded pool near to the 'The Winking Man'- a rock that appears to wink as you go past it, due to a hole within it being covered and uncovered by a rock just behind it. I've always pretended that I could see this, but I don't think I ever actually did. Or at least, I can't remember if and when the lie became true.

Mermaid's Pool has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I was always fascinated by it, and have so many images in my head when I think of the place, although I honestly can't say which ones are real and which ones are from my imagination

According to the legend, the pool is meant to have been made from a splash of the Atlantic ocean, I liked the idea of smuggling samples of objects from her home - pebbles collected from the beaches of the Atlantic coast. This song sort of alludes to the memory of this place. But that's not what it's about.

Atargatis

Doesn't feel like you're really here
Mocking.
A call's synthetic tease,
Isn't just my imagination
Siren a splash from Atlas' sea
Will she make an appearance here?

Who do you turn to
When it's all up in the air
Who does she sing to
When there's nobody there

Sometimes when invisible
I came here, a ritual pebble's throw
Smuggled a sample of her home

Who do we turn to
When there's nobody left
What rocks would you cling to
When you're out of your depth

Father History looking on
Now you feel the weight of what you've done

Who would she sing to
If there was nobody there

Doesn't feel like you're really here

The Frog Rescue And The Ant Ravine

2010-06-21T18:54:00.001+01:00

mouth hole face man

2010-06-21T17:16:00.002+01:00

sad clock (back of) face

2010-06-09T23:35:00.002+01:00

No, sun, I wont turn around.

2010-05-20T21:32:00.005+01:00

Ok, I will.

Fir Twig Man

2010-05-04T19:19:00.000+01:00

Lowbury Hill

2010-05-01T17:50:00.001+01:00

foil rabbit

2010-03-04T23:01:00.002Z

Tissue Dove

2010-01-18T01:26:00.002Z

sleeping shin bone man

2009-08-10T00:32:00.003+01:00

19th century shin bone extract man

chocolate wrapper lady

2009-07-18T19:46:00.003+01:00

gravel skull

2009-07-13T01:17:00.001+01:00

tea stained smile

2009-06-12T19:44:00.002+01:00

2009-03-05T00:38:00.002Z

like seeing 'snoopy in the clouds' is the reason my eyes tend to see these objects as something else because I have over-active dopamine neurons?

potato face dancing

2009-02-23T03:20:00.002Z

I thought the ground might swallow me

2009-02-17T02:17:00.002Z

golden lady muck

2009-01-13T00:50:00.004Z

hunched paint drip man

2008-12-31T00:25:00.002Z

flying dragon

2008-11-17T11:00:00.001Z

bespectacled man with moustache

2008-10-20T20:02:00.003+01:00

toad in the root

2008-09-26T01:07:00.003+01:00

why are you sticking your tongue out.

broken glass flower

2008-08-31T23:47:00.002+01:00

sad onion

2008-08-21T03:02:00.000+01:00

sparkler man

2008-07-25T19:37:00.001+01:00

hand

2008-07-22T03:42:00.001+01:00

garlic skin

card skull

2008-07-20T16:25:00.001+01:00

unget

2008-07-20T13:33:00.000+01:00

dove glove

2008-07-03T10:22:00.001+01:00

another sink, another mystery

2008-06-29T11:46:00.000+01:00

There’s a gap at the back of the sink under the window. There must be a way in for such fellows via the cracks in the wall.

comic

2008-06-18T00:33:00.002+01:00

chair shadow people

2008-05-04T02:36:00.001+01:00

pavement polar bear

2008-05-03T09:15:00.000+01:00

mouldy bean landscape

2008-05-03T09:10:00.000+01:00

Bananahorse

2008-04-09T11:11:00.000+01:00

face in an envelope

2008-04-06T12:19:00.000+01:00

walking down Oxpens Road

2008-04-05T02:00:00.000+01:00

I spotted these things.
And a ladybird followed me in my umbrella.

dropped knitting needle

2008-03-26T05:22:00.000Z

what did i mean

2008-03-03T14:19:00.000Z

'pushes'

blood orange

2008-03-03T07:59:00.000Z

"artists"

snow rice

2008-03-03T00:37:00.001Z

rocking horse

2008-03-02T13:47:00.000Z

rocking horse sleep-walk search at dawn.

all-purpose symbolic instruction code

2008-02-29T21:27:00.000Z

INPUT "Yes or no?"; a$
if a$ = "yes" then
 goto [yes]
else
 [goto [no]
WAIT

2008-02-28T11:45:00.000Z

found in an old archive

leaf

2008-02-28T02:20:00.000Z

So the leaf clinging to the window that I spotted has lasted 5 months. I think I may have become as attached to it, as it has to the glass. I have been videoing it every week. I don't want to go back, in case it finally gave in.

second favourite smell

2008-02-10T09:33:00.000Z

Is the smell of the suplhur from a match.
Someone asked me at a gig what my 1st favourite smell was...

...my third favourite smell is freshly cut grass of school fields.

school

2008-02-05T17:00:00.000Z

playground

carpet swan

2008-02-03T21:11:00.000Z

The piece of tissue I spotted on the stair had landed in such a way as to resemble a swan.

forgotten sandwich

2008-02-02T04:05:00.001Z

Tom and I saw this forlorn looking sandwich lying by the bus stop after a visit to Grove to see Ally...I just thought it needed photographing. It looked kind of funny just sitting there, perfectly formed, and thrown away.

childhood pictures

2008-01-31T14:32:00.000Z

Ice House

2008-01-26T11:37:00.000Z

I couldn't believe how the Victorians built these giant 'Ice houses' and stored ice that thewy shipped in, in order to preserve their food. I n this case it was on The Thames. But it was extraordinary. It was a good job I had a torch or I could havevery easily met my death out there.My camrea died, so I have rubbish phone piuctures. The echoes in the giant brick igloo were fantastic.

Apparently it was owned by Lord Harcourt back in the day and he presumably got people to ship in rthe ice from the arctic. How funny, and it was at the top of thi sgiant hill - which seemed odd to me...Practically having to climb a cliff, in order to reach the place where it was stored. (Maybe it had to be deep in order to keep the ice cool?) But it strikes me that perhaps there is another entry - an undergrouhnd tunnel perhaps? I need to investigate further. haha, it wa quite funny thogh - I found the 'proper' path as soon as I'd foot-sledged down the near-cliff sloped hill.

I'm going to go back and take some pictures, because I can't get my phone pictures on to here - not that you can make out a damn thing in them anyway.

Capsules

2008-01-20T08:04:00.000Z

I have the resin gun. I have the resin.
And I've started making the time capsules of cress. They're not all that easy to get right...but I'm getting better at it, I think. If anyone has any empty paracetamol packets please send them to me.

pastry

2008-01-15T11:34:00.000Z

I meant to say this to Tom after we had a discussion about it - I now have a firmer opinion on it.
puff vs. shortcrust pastry.
Good shortcrust beats puff, but puff is a guaranteed non-disappointer.
I could just tell him, but I thought i'd write it instead, as it's silly o'clock.

letter c

2008-01-12T07:08:00.000Z

I noticed this while I was running in the rain. Someone must have dropped a fridge alphabet magnetic letter in a puddle.

mowing

2007-08-28T21:51:00.000+01:00

Listening on my ipod to girl anachronism, whilst mowing the lawn, naturally you speed up (I was sort of inspired by the way Tom described it as the 'envelope stuffing' track...) Anyway, accidentally disturbed what must have been part of a wasps nest..or something, musty have been about 8 or nine of them......in a moment of panic, with the ipod lead entangled in the mower lead, which in turn was wrapped partly over my shoulder/round my neck (rto prevent me from electrocuting myself by mowing the wire) I was unable to figure out what to do....I mean, it *should* be simple, you 'let go' and the thing automatically switches off.....but I think as a result of a number of factors, exacerbated perhaps by the panic in the music I was unable to apply logic, so sort of carried on mowing, raising my flymo to a sort of defense position, as if attempting to 'air mow'...(wasn't trying to hurt htem you understand just show them whos boss, you know)...this did not deter the wee angry, striped little blighters, as perhaps I should have expected. Heart a-pounding I managed to regain sense, and quickky untangled myself from the bright orange wire, and made a run for it...
why was it relevant to note the bright orange wire?

lightbulb lady revisited

2007-07-06T05:55:00.000+01:00

Research

2007-05-06T02:43:00.000+01:00

I researched it, and it's ladybird larvae...

My Work Is Never Done

2007-05-02T23:45:00.000+01:00

What is this insect? I want to know...He is on a mission. I couldn't stop filming him.

Funeral For A Fly

2007-04-03T02:45:00.000+01:00

An entangled mess of dead spiders and a fly hanging from an age old thread of spider's web that looked as if it had been through the spindle.
I found capturing this very problematic.
I didn't, under any circumstances want to make light of or make a sort of comment on the beauty of death, other than it being my honest first reaction. I'm going to write again about this later I think, because I can't explain myself today.

Horsewomen

2007-03-19T10:03:00.000Z

an old box of childhood drawings was re-discovered. I couldn't stop examining them.
i displayed them all in a garage, and videoed them ('videoed' is a strange word when written in type)

I had an obsession with these tall women, pushing pushchairs in their high-heeled shoes, domestic women, with horses heads.
Also umbrellas. Witches with large black hooked umbrellas. And school memories.

I believe this is some of the best work I've ever done. When I was 4 1/2. I started thinking about trying to get back to a state of innocence and the opposite of learning. Unlearning bad habits of convention.
I used to only do these drawings on rough paper. They weren't 'proper' drawings *to be seen* They were 'throw-away' drawings. Literally. I was embarrassed to be churning them out at such a rate...adn I remember burning some of them on the fire in the living room.
But I couldn't relax into doing them, if I knew they were on 'proper' paper. It needed to be a lined 99p pad or something. I remember that feeling very well.
Some of the images were quite disturbing. I daresay it was god fo me to do them. I don't know.
it's easier to show them now, as it feels quite removed from then - as if it was a different person. But because I am currently trying my hardest to get *back* that state - I am concerned, slightly, that I mihtwake up one day and be extremely self-conscious about them. So until then, I will show them here. Because I like them to be alive and seen. They've waited quite a few years.

pushes

2007-03-18T19:28:00.000Z

sink

2007-03-14T10:25:00.000Z

Ally let me have his parents' old sink. Thanks Ally.
I made a video with it. I'll post it up later.

funghi

2007-02-26T05:00:00.000Z

the best I've ever seen.

helicopter journey over clock

2007-02-24T05:00:00.000Z

I was pulling my eyelashes out and videoing them as they fell over the page.

in a glasgow toilet

2006-02-28T07:00:00.000Z

Extraordinary Persistence of Cress

2006-01-15T08:13:00.000Z

Got back late and went into the kitchen. Where I noticed something very peculiar.
Unbeknownst to me, at the back of the kitchen sink where it meets with the tiles...a small piece of cress was growing. I hadn't noticed it prior to this day, and it appeared to be fully grown. It was pretty amazing, and I didn't have a video camera at that time (as I had only borrowed one previously) So it was a shame that I couldn't capture it in sustained time, as well as single moments.
I got my camera. Then disaster, I realised I had zero battery (because digital cameras that take AA batteries last about 30 seconds, on a good day)
I had the dilemma that my housemates might return soon, and possibly (although perhaps unlikely!) they might clean the sink etc.
I took that gamble and ran (literally) to get the batteries. Again not the best shots in the world. But it was another encapsulated moment. An adopted object.

a brief 'conversation'

2005-10-30T00:39:00.000+01:00

R : Once I showed somebody some writing. They laughed because I had misspelled the word 'sneer'. That was the very first thing they noticed.
R : Actually, that's perfect. Thank you.

one way road

2005-06-18T08:46:00.000+01:00

to nowhere

rubbish truck noise

2005-04-18T18:11:00.000+01:00

6am, rubbish truck reversing outside my house. Incredible noise, almost sounded orchestral against the deadness of the half-lit morning. This happened mid-way through my tape recording of a song. When I've found a way to put the tape on to the computer, I'll put it up on here. But I want to try and re-create that same lift that the truck noise managed to make in this first rough recording of the song.

Edit
I wanted to add to this now, as Tom has done exactly the above in such a way that it seems now as if he must have been there. The song is 'Breathe'...and we've recorded it now.

Sweet Suicide

2005-02-26T10:13:00.000Z

I was late for work and I had to make some difficult decisions.

Very annoying gnat in my bedroom. Making more noise than your average gnat. I was cursing at gnat.
Had been keeping me awake all night. Blamed gnat for lateness.
Gnat noise stops. Strange emptiness without that sound. Reminded me of the time when my friend D and I were walking up Rectory road and I had a wheely-suitcase. And felt a strange combination of uneasiness and relief when I stopped, and the noise of the wheels over the gravelly pavement ceased.
Gnat noise had stopped is in yesterday's cold tea. Already late, but without the gnat noise the relief had turned into uneasiness. I took some tissue paper (the quilted sort, so it wouldn't completely disintegrate....no, actually, that's all I had at the time, but thinking about it now, it was lucky that it was that kind.)
It's true, that you can actually save flies and gnats when they seem to have drowned. He dried off on a leaf and was absolutely fine. Even started flying around.

I was extremely late for work.

It was raining, and as I ran down Holywell Street, outside the Tuck Shop, there was one of those large cola bottles that you get. And someone must have dropped it just off the curb. It looked amazing. Despite now being completely late, I took a photograph. Only one. On a bad camera, trying to balance an umbrella and folders bags.

I retold the story to my boss, who was a little bit intrigued, but seem to mind as long as I made up the time. Which I did happily. It's one of my favourite encapsulated moments.

Lightbulb Lady

2003-05-29T02:09:00.000+01:00

Broken lightbulb in the corner of the studio, looking at the remains, the filament/element? (one's in a kettle, and one's in a lightbulb) looked like the arms of a woman...she just needed something to emphasise her head a little more, so I found some pieces of blu-tack off the wall, and sculpted a head on her tiny body. I was meant to be putting up a show. Spent the morning axing down walls of the studio so she was standing amongst broken pieces of wall and peeled, scattered paint.
I gathered together her glass remains and took her home, and filmed her trying to piece herself back together. The sounds of the glass that she made were fantastic. I projected the video inside a fridge when I showed people. Unfortunately, I don't have a video of this event.

The combination of sounds (the movement of the shattered glass echoing inside the fridge) made me want to try out other places for her to go. So i will come back to her and take her to
some other places soon I think.

I came back to her, and put her inside a big fridge as opposed to the tiny one I had in the studio.

reborn

2003-05-27T11:27:00.000+01:00

as mermaid.

edit undo

2003-05-23T21:36:00.000+01:00

after and before

dolphin gallery exhibition