Perilous Dancing

Resurrection 2005 Patricia Chauncey silk, photograph, dye, hand tinted, painted, image transfer, stitching, silicone, pyrography 1 of a series of 12 works.

I am interested in human interaction and connection. The most compelling of these connections are darker and hidden from sight. Secrets.

I read the personal columns to reveal this energy. I am a voyeur to the ordinary. I have never had desire or need to respond.

Most people, have simple desire for companionship and sunset walks on the beach.
They are sweet and light and lonely. They reveal their anatomical dimensions and offer an evening of romantic promise. Or a life time of the ordinary.

Deeply touching in the lack of originality and real passion.

Some of the work I make is about erotic interaction.

"Hive" is made from handmade paper that I recycle from erotic novels and pornography. It is dyed and soaked in things like wine and scented oils. It is built up through many layers and mixed with glues and resins to resemble amber and honey. It is printed and branded with images from nature related to life force. Objects are hidden in pockets. My hair. Stained silk. Tiny erotic drawings.

"Soiled" is a tiny pair of Victorian dancing slippers. I made them for the Double Vision-Morphus Inquiry show and was inspired by the A.S.Byatt's story used in the film "Angels and Insects". They are made from lingerie silk and dyed with ammonia and pennies. There is an erotic poem in the lining of the right shoe. Hidden from sight.

I have been working on a series for a few years based on marks left on a man I know who is a dedicated sexual submissive. I once documented the interactions between him and his partners for nearly a year. I am not one of them. I find this very complex and distressing so it will be awhile before the work will be shown.

Today there was an personal ad that, after a lifetime of reading, provided inspiration for my creative urge.

Here is the ad.

"The Perilous Dance In The Darkness"

"I shot awake from a dream. Aside from a myriad of other seemingly unrelated turns of event, this dream consisted of me walking quite a distance with two fox like animals with the tenacity of badgers clinging to my legs. I save a baby bird from their clutches, the fact of which pleased them not in the least. They said that I needed to let nature take its course. Yes they were talking badgeresque foxes. You know, when they invent a video recorder for dreams , I'll be the first in line.

However, it did get me to thinking. About a lot of things. That we can't deny who we are. That nature, while beautiful ,is rife with cruelty. That people, even those that put their limbs in peril for a baby bird, also have sides that we prefer sometimes not to acknowledge. That I am a dichotomy seeking a dichotomy. She is a confident, capable and creative woman with a little girl's vulnerability...she possesses grace and goodness that belie hedonistic desires which veer into a realm most don't understand, a radiant light which is the heat of it's most inner core, yearns to dance perilously in the darkness...I need to go back to bed. I hope the angry little carnivores in the forest attack my sleeping sub conscious. There is a sexy, intelligent sub conscious and reading my words. And I hope she will write and share part of her dichotomous self as she ponders the dance."

Oh my ...