Brior Rose

Brior Rose. Graphite on 35.5 X 27 cm paper. Julie Clarke (c) 2017

I woke at 4.30 am this morning and when I looked at that knitting/rose stem sculpture I'd made I recalled the animated Disney film Sleeping Beauty (1959), which I saw when I was a child. The most dramatic image for me was the bramble and thorns that surrounded the castle where Brior Rose slept for one hundred years. There's something that still captures me about that imagery. The idea of waking up after being so long asleep and contained is fascinating, perhaps akin to the modern day procedure of cryonics - the science of using freezing or very low temperatures to preserve the bodies of dead individuals with the intent that sometime in the future they may be resurrected and restored to good health by using nanotechnolgies or other unimagined biotechnological advancement. No mention of course of the psychological impact of waking and knowing that everyone you have known or loved are dead and the world a different place than you had previously known. So, I did a small drawing based on the sculpture. I understand this drawing to be part of the overall project: Old knitter of black wool, since it deals in part with the knotting of the bramble and the deterrent qualities of the rose thorns.