Make your offering. Cut the warp and weft. Weave in rhythm, life is a stage. Step into the spotlight, feel the glow. ‘Who dares to make the commitment of living in the moment?’ Stitches in time create small cuts. Shed your blood, women’s work. Pull at the stitches, come apart at the seams. Flow. Rush, heave, and swell. Surge. You were not made to be contained anyway.
Moki Cherry (1943 – 2009) was a multi disciplined artist, whose work didn’t just grace the gallery walls, it embodied every part of her life. She trained as a fashion designer in 1963 at the Beckman’s School for Design in Stockholm, when she met her husband the American jazz musician Don Cherry who was touring the city. She made the move to New York with Don, and together they started a 20-year collaboration of music, art, and design. Her interdisciplinary practice included textile, sculpture, drawing, painting, writing, and set design. Moki and Don’s artistic partnership became known as ‘Organic Music’ and Moki, a talented pattern cutter, created backdrops, tapestries and costumes for all their performances. By the end of the 60s they had two children, Neneh and Eagle-Eye. Both would go on to become famous musicians, with Grammy nominations and platinum albums.
Airmail 1980. Silk
Moki used her creativity throughout her life, she saw ‘home as stage, stage as home.’ She was influenced by music, Buddhism, Pop Art, abstraction, and fashion. Her work was not just the aesthetic for the stage and album covers, it challenged the stereotype of what being a wife, mother and artist could really be.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1979. Silk.
Here and Now at the ICA in London was the first UK solo exhibition of Moki Cherry’s work. I found the exhibition inspirational, especially as an artist from a background of fashion and textiles. Her work showed me that we don’t always have to label ourselves as one thing. I always describe myself as a painter. I love to make paintings but as an artist I do have a much larger skill set, especially in sewing and pattern cutting that I gained through my university degree. This exhibition has encouraged me to extend my practice, to break out of the rigid rules I have unknowingly set for myself over the years. Art like life, doesn’t always have to be so serious. Moki Cherry’s work evokes a sense of experimentation and play that I think is essential to the creation of great art. As a result of this exhibition, I will dust off my sewing machine that has been dormant for many years, learn to let go of expectation, and make some more room for fun.
Make an Offering to the Gods of Dayly Survival. 2004. Oil pastel and pencil on paper (postcard from ICA)