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The Wonderland Diaries

The Queen’s Centurion

By 12th December 2012November 28th, 202411 Comments

‘The Queen’s Centurion’

‘The Cold Bloom of a Torn Heart’

I had always planned the ‘The Queen’s Centurion’ as a distant sister to ‘The Ghost Swift’. Both characters were guardians of keys, separated at birth, and banished to the distant outreaches of Wonderland. I deliberately intended their pictures to communicate this relationship by echoing the design of their bodices and the way that both characters were encased like waxen dolls in shrines. The only purpose of ‘The Queen’s Centurion’ was to protect the White Queen’s key, which lay embedded deep in her chest. I felt strangely sad for this glassy-eyed automaton, who waited patiently, imprisoned by her surroundings of twisted roots that dripped with a hundred other keys, each designed to distract whoever came upon her.

In my dreams I imagined Katie discovering the Centurion, momentarily bringing life and warmth into her world but would inevitably take the Queen’s key, leaving nothing more than an overwhelming emptiness and a gaping hole in the Centurion’s heart. In all honesty, creating these pictures was a strange mix of emotions for me, at a time when I was struggling a great deal. It was the four-year anniversary of losing my mother, something that is painfully obvious to me every time I look at them. There is a sense of hopelessness and loss that I cannot avoid, I’ll admit their meaning is a little blurred – it is hard to explain but this is just the way they came to be.

Despite how I was feeling, the Centurion’s costume became one of my favourite pieces and something I took an enormous amount of care over. The embroidery was based on old Art Nouveau lace, which I hand drew and had embroidered onto fine silk. I then varnished them with endless layers to turn the material into a structural piece, which in turn formed the headdress I made. It was deliberately linked with the design of the key, and was intended to blend with the organic forms of the tree roots and roses in the shrine. Maybe it was subconscious, but the way the embroidery almost suggested carved bone was something I particularly loved. I felt it made the Centurion more synonymous with the key and less human. Equally, I loved the slow process of creating the set, for which I learnt a whole new skill using liquid plastic to coat my hand-painted roses.

My main inspiration was Catholic roadside shrines; the concept of leaving something precious in the middle of nowhere was how I saw the Centurion and her key. The shrine figures are often made of wax and surrounded by oval portholes of flowers, with trinkets laid at their feet, so that was exactly how I translated this idea. It is strange that looking back through Wonderland I’m constantly finding myself being influenced by religious iconography. I’m not sure if it is because of the extreme levels of surface decoration and ornament they carry, or if it is a more subconscious choice.I guess I find absolute devotion fascinating and view it as something close to a belief in magic, which is maybe why it recurs so often in my work. The idea of these statues shedding tears as miracles was the reason why I decided to add one to the picture in post-production. It is something I would never normally do, but I deliberately edited the model to look like a blank doll, with nothing but this one tiny shred of emotion. It was intended to hint at a trapped soul within.

Shrine influences

Creating the key from rabbit bones, and old decorative carvings  and making the base for the costume bodice.

Coating the hand painted flowers in plastic

Creating the shrine from painted tree roots, flowers, and liquid plastic to give a wax coated appearance .

Rose petal talon nails

Making the large ‘melting keys’

Author Kirsty

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