The Order No 5
Dimensions with frame: 22 cms x 17 cms
Painting: 14 cms x 8 cms
Incised ink and gesso on gold board

In the artist’s words:

As a very young child in the early 1960s, I witnessed postulants taking part in an investiture wedding ceremony to signify their complete renunciation of the world and adoption of a nun's life. They dressed in bridal white with wreath and veil, prostrating themselves on the floor, with arms outstretched & their head towards the altar. They were then called to the altar, having their hair symbolically cut and receiving a wedding ring as a "Bride of Christ". A wedding breakfast including cake followed, their white veils swapped for black as they forswore the world and its pleasures.

From this point, hair was not just fashion to me. Moving through youth cults, I cut, styled and kept my own hair for reasons I did not fully understand until much later. My line drawings began through fetishising the memory of a dead lover’s hair several decades ago. They have since developed into intuitive psychological landscapes constructed of energy fields which to me have a regenerative force.

These portraits, “The Order”, are an attempt to reach back in time and into my subconscious to recall my early years at a convent with The Sisters Of Mercy. The sisters wore a fully covering black and white habit accented only by their single gold wedding ring & large sash crucifix. The restricted dress code and the required sacrifice of their hair by keeping it close-cropped made a profound and lasting impression on me. This was in a time of free love and liberation, a time of revolution and self-expression symbolised by a crowning glory of hair. I was caught in a suffocating place but it was to become defiance fuel a few years on.

These works are made by incising with a blade a black ink gessoed surface on gold board. The frames are antique hand carved wood. I source these unique pieces as they resonate history and resemble ones I recall as a child. They are small, intense and intimate.

Cathy Ward Born in Kent England, Ward attended a Catholic Convent served by The Sisters of Mercy, an experience both mind-altering & life-changing. Redefining a personal spirituality was to play a core role in developing her own psychological regeneration encountered through life experiences in love, loss & death. Recognised for her intuitive, psychedelic drawings, was awarded resident artist for ‘Madge Gill-Medium & Visionary’ retrospective at Orleans House Gallery, London (2013-14). She continues to exhibit internationally with primarily underground, outsiders & visionaries. Solo exhibitions include ‘Sub Rosa’ (2018), The Horse Hospital, London; ‘Phantasmata’ (2017) & ‘Solo’ (2015) The Good Luck Gallery, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include: ‘Romantic Detachment’ PS1 MoMA NY (2004); ‘Talespinning’ The Drawing Center, NY (2004); Bridging Two Worlds: The Land of The Living & The Land of The Dead’ Morbid Anatomy at Greenwood Cemetry NY (2018) ‘Art & Spirit: Visions of Wonder’  The College of Psychic Studies, London (2019); ‘Waking The Witch-Old Ways, New Rites’ with Legion Projects (2017-19). ‘Searching For The Miraculous’  The Curfew Tower, N. Ireland (2019). ‘Monochromatic  Minds: Lines of Revelation’ The Jennifer Lauren Gallery, Manchester (2020); ‘The Naked Mind’ Track 16, LA (2020) A monograph ‘Liberty Realm’ was published by Strange Attractor Press & MIT Press (2020). 

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