To Enter the Bright Eye- Oil on panel- 2011-85 x 100cm - £7500 framed
Nay The Plainness of Her Dresses? Now I know her But in Two.-Oil on panel- 131 x 102cm - 2011
£12,000 framed
Maud the beloved of my mother, the moon-faced darling of all- Oil on panel- 102 x 115cm
£10,000 framed
The remarkable disappearing and reappearing Maudeline Spacks
I was there when the world's greatest vanishing act, Maudeline Spacks, unexpectedly disappeared forever. It was billed as the cabaret to end cabarets, the piece de resistance of an artiste at the top of her game. Maudeline was going to perform in London and Sydney, in person, simultaneously.
Queueing in the pouring rain I overheard a journalist from the Evening Standard negotiating unticketed entry to the 2,268 seater venue. Behind me I spotted Lynn Barber from the Observer huddled under her umbrella, frantically typing notes into an i-pad. A moment later, Sting walked past sporting a faux-Snakeskin jacket. It seemed to be Maudeline's illusive big break, the kind that is impossible until it really happens. It was to be my break too: I'd completed all the illustrations for the show and painted the stage set.
Maudeline Spacks, named after the "Maud" of Tennyson's poem of the same name, is a vanishing artist and femme fetale. Her erstwhile persona is the performance artist, Dot Howard (www.dothoward.com). Maudeline's tour de force was a duel show at Sydney Opera House and the Royal Opera House London, where she performed in both venues at the same time. A video link up broadcast the concurrent shows in real-time to each venue. During the course of her Magnus Opus, Maud became lost in transit somewhere between the London and Sydney, never to be seen again. Incidentally, Charlie Chaplin was once spotted in 800 simultaneous sightings across America.
There is speculation that there was one further siting of Maud, a few hours after the performance, outside a house in Pimlico talking to a man in a dark fedora hat. The man fits the description of Andrew Plummer, of World Sanguine Report, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhiPUmB769s). Plummer was infatuated by Maud, like most people who met her, and reportedly heartbroken when his advances were refused during rehearsals. I met Plummer when I was commissioned to paint the stage set and publicity images for Maud's performance, for which he was one of the support acts. In hindsight, the paintings seem to have foreseen Maud being kidnapped by Plummer and falling into an interstice, a sort of lacuna, where she becomes "Schroedinger's cat," so to speak. At this point one should turn to Siouxsie and the Banshees for elucidation:
"She tries not to shatter,kaleidoscope style
personality changes behind her red smile
every new problem brings a stranger inside
helpessly forcing one more new disguise
Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady
Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine sees her faces unfurl"
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