Trying to Save the World Through Alchemical Love
In the Window ehixbition at
Airspace Gallery
March 2022

An alchemist sets up her laboratory InTheWindow at Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent. The scene contains paraphernalia and clutter from her experiments, including upturned furniture, glass containers, measuring tools, detritus, and lots of feathers. The feathers refer to the mother pelican, a mediaeval alchemical symbol of self-sacrifice in the pursuit of transformation: the bird goes to the extent of piercing her own breast to feed her young with her blood. Scattered objects are presumably used to transform ‘prima materia’ into something new. Mysterious images showing beings who are part human and part animal or plant can be spied as well. Not knowing where else to turn, the alchemist is hoping to save the world from ecological decline and collective despair through her many experiments. Videos provide some glimpses of her enigmatic processes…