“For the magician the art of walking down a street has less to do with the solid paving slabs beneath his or her feet; more to do with the web of association—of memory, of fiction—that surrounds the place through which the magician passes.” –Alan Moore
Stainspotting
Through this pareidolic practice one may engage in acts of playful, psychoanalysis and interface with daemonic realities. Simply put, that means intefacing with The Unconscious (personal or collective), the disowned parts of the self, as expressed through various facets of the personality. Integrating the disparate parts of these unconscious collectives back into the framework of The Self is an act of reclaiming one's "schizovereingnty".
Stainspotting is Street Art in the most literal sense of the word. By spotting thoughtforms in literal street stains on the sidewalk, and outlining them with chalk, these (st)inkblots are transformed into impermanent, living works of art. The results look like cave art on concrete, temporarily depicting an array of whimsical, strange, and expressive characters and otherworldly creatures.
Stainspottings may also include alterations made with chalk on the shadows of objects—making light of the dark by, for example, adding a smile to the ominous silhouette of a fire hydrant. The art of Stainspotting attempts to reveal the childlike imagination that we once plotted in the clouds—now obscured by increasing high-rises and the hustle and bustle of our adult lives—down on the ground level, allowing us to marvel once again at the wonders of the human imagination, and feel the magic of the city.
Where the Sidewalk ends, the Other Side begins...
Stainspotting utilizes the sidewalk's surface as its canvas, and the residual remains of the day (the trails of dirt we leave in passing) as its guidelines. The process uses the barriers of the material world to transcend themselves by allowing the spirit of The Other Side, and the faces of all its denizens, to shine through.
A Rorschach Worship Workshop...
Stainspotting has an alchemical nature--it transforms something excremental into something sacramental and valuable. It is animistic in the sense that it brings life, liveliness, and personality to what is inanimate, mundane, and easily overlooked. A wonderful tool with which to engage the inhabitants of a place in an active dialogue with the spirit(s) of its location.
A chalk outline used to signify where the dead had fallen,
now it signifies where the imagination arises.
Divine your mind's design on-the-go!
#CaveArtOnConcrete
#stainspotting
#chalkwalk
#rorschachworshipworkshop
