North-West opens

Bed of Sorrows, 2015. Ceramic, silk, muslin, dried hydrangea flower heads, metal, wood and wax. 40 cm l x 30 cm w x 7 cm.

NORTH - WEST opens this Wednesday night at NORTH Contemporary Art Space in North Sydney. I have a small work going in the show - Bed of Sorrows - finished while I've been confined to the house with shingles (a bed or sorrows in an of itself!!). I made the ceramic buttons earlier in the year and had the muslin/hydrangea mattress sewn already, as well as the old rusty rack and It just came together. After I thought of the title I searched online to see what would appear and came across this. Given my love of abandoned spaces and sorrowful things, it all seemed rather appropriate!:

The legend states that the Bed of Sorrow was used by a poor soul long since departed who would weep day and night into the sheets, unable to be consoled as they withered away in that bed—never leaving, not even to eat, drink, or relieve themselves.  In time the inevitable occurred and the tragic figure died, still weeping—although they were removed from the bed and given a burial, the bed itself would begin to exhibit unnatural properties such as the once white sheets turning a shade of red.  A feeling of continual dread surrounded the bed and thus, if the story is to be believed, it was destroyed in an effort to end what many believed was a curse left behind by a restless spirit.  As with such stories however, the bed is said to somehow materialize even to this day, and those who seek it out are said to find any abandoned house and search for a single room with a red door that appears locked.