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An Exorcism

Work details

Intro to Exorcism images

This series of collages evolved over a period of more than seven years. In early 1969 I first visited The House, a near derelict Stately Home in the Northamptonshire countryside. I was taken there by Peter Whitehead, a film-maker who had stayed in part of the building during his student years and with whom I was living. The place seemed to be the ideal location for a film-project probing the deep metaphysics of the unconscious.

We were given permission to film there. Over the next weeks the project evolved into a psychodrama with ourselves as participants. The sequences actually filmed were, however, unsatisfactory; the psychic atmosphere of The House seemed to lead us away from reality. The project was shelved but a larger number of still photographs were taken of the empty rooms and grounds before we left.

Over the next month I printed the black and white photos in my darkroom. They had an evocative power, which compelled me to use them as the basis for a series of collages. I felt that this Stately Home had something yet to contribute to my own exploration of the psyche. I started work on the collages; my film-maker took up falconry.

I returned to London and became involved with a woman’s theatre group. This two year commitment, in which time I acted out many of archetypes and aspects of female psychosis, culminated in the making of a film, ‘The Other Side of the Underneath’, in which I played a major role. The participation demanded of me during that project resulted in the traumatic breakdown of my own relationship with my film-maker/falconer partner. Pushing to the limits of psychic disintegration I began to put the pieces of my life together by working on the series of collages, which became ‘An Exorcism’.

Using myself as photographic subject, I acted the parts to the drama. I also organized photographic sessions with my partner and my girl-friend/co-star Suzanka Fraey. In the process of sorting and distilling the archetypes, I felt myself emerging from a nightmare of others’ projections. It made me realize how many people are never able to fulfill their own truly creative potential because of their entrapment by social conventions, spirits of the past and other people’s ideas of them.

In 1977, ‘An Exorcism’ was published as a limited edition book with a grant from Roland Penrose’s Elephant Trust, featuring ninety-nine of the collages. I went on to create another book, which featured more of the collages with accompanying text. I also wrote a film treatment for ‘An Exorcism’.

It is my hope that the ‘Exorcism’ series will help shed some light on areas of the Western psyche, which have remained too long hidden in the darkness.

Penny Slinger

  • An Exorcism cover

    An Exorcism Book Cover Published 1977

  • Self-Image

    photo collage on card 20 x 13.5 inches 1970-77

  • Brick Wall Behind the Door

    photo collage on card 13 x 19.37 inches 1970-77

  • Nursing Home

    phot collage on card 19.75 x 13.25 inches 1970-77

  • Enchanted-Forest

    photo collage on card 9.75 x 13.5 inches 1970-77

  • Elevation

    photo collage on card 19.75 x 13.5 inches 1970-77

  • Mortification

    photo collage on card 14.75 x 9.75 inches 1970-77

  • Way Through

    photo collage on card 17 x 13.5 inches 1970-77

  • The Path

    photo collage on card 20 x 14 inches 1970-77

  • Sigh of the Rose

    photo collage on card 20 x 14 inches 1970-77

  • Celestial Tabernacle

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Wed-lock

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • On Her Mouth You Kiss Your Own

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Vagina Dentata

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Enter Athena

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Communion

    photo collage on card 19 x 12.75 inches 970-77

  • Tribunal

    photo collage on card 12.75 x 19 inches 1970-77

  • I-Witness

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Curse

    photo collage on card 12.75 x 18.75 inches 1970-77

  • Stop the Flow

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • A Difficult Position

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • He Crows

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Primal

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Self Preservation

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Hang Up

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • If You Can't Join Them

    photo collage on card 18.85 x 12.75 inches 1970-77

  • Letting-Go

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Call of the Sea

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Becoming

    photo collage on card 1970-77

  • Perspective

    photo collage on card 13.5 x 19 Inches 1970-77

  • Ariadne's Threads

    photo collage with gold chain 26.25 x 19 inches 1970s-2013

  • Fallen Angel

    photo collage 12.75 x 19 inches 1970-77

  • Flying Blind / The Feminine Mystique

    photo collage 13 x 19 inches 1970-77

  • Something Borrowed, Something Blue

    photo collage 13 x 19.25 inches 1970-77

  • Snakes and Ladders

    photo collage 19.12 x 12.85 inches 1970-77

  • Call of the Wild

    photo collage 1970-77

  • Secrets

    photo collage 20 x 14.35 inches 1970-77

  • Fill the Void

    photo collage 19.75 x 13.25 inches 1970-77

  • Reverting

    photo collage 19.75 x 14.5 inches 1970-77

  • Exorcism print

    silksreen monoprint on card 22 x 26 inches 1977

  • The House

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 1

  • Gestation

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 2

  • Tribunal

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 3

  • Chess

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 4

  • Somnambulist

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 5

  • The Hermaphrodite

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 6

  • Femme Phallique

    Unpublished Exorcism book page 7

  • Vows

    Wooden frame, photographic collage,ribbon, gold ring 9 x9 x 3 inches 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated Mansion 01

    Wooden box, plexiglass photographs, LEDs 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated mansion 02

    Wooden box, plexiglass photographs, LEDs 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated mansion 02

    Wooden box, plexiglass photographs, LEDs 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated mansion 03

    Wooden box, plexiglass photographs, LEDs 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated mansion 04

    Wooden box, plexiglass photographs,LEDs 1970s-2012

  • Illuminated Mansion back

    Wooden box, plexiglass 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches photographs,LEDs 1970s-2012

  • Exorcism Revisited gallery 07

    Wooden box, plexiglass 16.25 x 20.25 x 6 inches photographs,LEDs 1970s-2012

  • 2012 Exorcism perspective remix

    Digital photo-montage based on negatives from 1970s. 1970s -2012

  • Entrance

    Digital photo-montage based on negatives from 1970. Archival Inkjet print on hot press paper. Edition of 10 34 x 23 inches 1970-2012

  • Behind the Facade

    3D installation with laser cut facade, plexiglass and objects.

  • Call of the Sea - The Waves

    Photo collage with cutout windows and LED screen with video waves.

  • House of Views

    Installation with laser cut wood facade, plexiglass facade, and LED screen with video from Lilford Hall movie.

  • Sigh of the Rose

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Copyright Penny Slinger 2014