Feature Eliza Swann Eliza Eliza Swann is an interdisciplinary artist, intuitive, artist, is an interdisciplinary intuitive, Swann Eliza based organizer and community educator, writer, SFAI, from a BFA received Eliza Angeles. in Los Hindu at the Isis Centre, hypnotherapy in trained in India, Tarot Shastri Vagish with Dr. cosmology with the B.O.T.A. Practice Magical and Western an MFA and received Mystery School, Western of Martins. St. is the founder Eliza Central from The Golden Dome School. For the last few years we’ve we’ve years the last few For For me, holding space for for holding space me, For She needs strong reps these days. days. these reps strong needs She said it should be. be. it should said need We danger of being erased. salons, and bringing artists salons, for here it more make need to We sabbaticals. in the form of retreats, gatherings, gatherings, of retreats, in the form lished here under the umbrella of the of the umbrella under here lished had We’ve as possible. it as much It is and equinoxes. the solstices like resistance and renewal that are in are that and renewal resistance of a busy heart center for the new the new heartof a busy for center circle between The Divine and the between The circle energy here and I want to share share to and I want here energy really This space here. evolution done that it needs, it can upgrades So, what kinds of work do you do for do for you do kinds of work what So, paradigm, which is what Christopher which is what Christopher paradigm, here it’s to be part to of this sort of it’s here blessing, really. going to what’s see been trying to of the the next phase happen to support financial some have needs to be able to in order ourselves beyond again to share out back be offered performances and multimedia video multimedia performances and dates and partiesrecordings on key ES: ES: the Goddess here? Goddess the Goddess worship is a way of is a way Goddess worship took histories that human share to PS: Right (laughs). There’s an amazing an There’s PS: Right (laughs). people Earthly When I invite realms. had some it’s Once continue. to Universal Church of the Master. of the Master. Church Universal

accessing stories and tools for for stories and tools accessing all dedicated to Her. It’s like a healing like It’s Her. to all dedicated The Goddess Temple, which I estab - I which Temple, Goddess The

25 Slinger

Interview with Penny Penny with safe place on the planet to take the take to on the planet place safe limits off and experience the Goddess’ the Goddess’ limitsexperience off and place, your home and studio. It’s It’s home and studio. your place, on the principles of sacred geome- on the principles of sacred energy direct. He built this place this place He built direct. energy After groves. of the redwood energy he passed I have held it in that way. held it in that way. I have he passed his retreat property—he was guided guided property—he was his retreat Eliza Swann: Let’s talk about this this talk about Let’s Swann: Eliza Goddess Temple—what’s the story? the Goddess Temple—what’s try and connected it to the sacred the sacred it to try and connected of Reverend Goddess Temple—I’m to it by divination. He built it to be a it to divination. He built it by to Penny Slinger: [My husband] [My husband] Slinger: Penny built this place as this place Hills built Christopher amazing here! Tell me about The about me Tell amazing here! This place has been known as The has been known This place This past summer I went to visit Penny at her at her visit Penny to I went This past summer Penelope Slinger was born in London in 1947 and in 1947 born in London was Slinger Penelope with a Art in 1969 Chelsea from College graduated Max to reaction made as a feminist body of work art has practice then, Penny’s Since collages. Ernst’s - irrespec mediums and viewpoints shifted constantly result, a or profitability—as of art trends, tive world the art by unseen worth remain decades of work of body Slinger’s Penny In all of its iterations, world. mystical, confrontational, erotic, is mutable, work Goddess-worshipping. and unapologetically and financial hardship faces currently Temple under the word repeating I kept possible closure. or a spell. a prayer like my visit, during my breath home and studio, The Goddess Temple, a sprawling a sprawling The Goddess Temple, home and studio, in honor of the Divine constructed of buildings group is hidden deep in a Temple The Goddess Feminine. Mountains, Cruz in the Santa trees of redwood grove emblazoned on the awning Resurgam with the word “I shall for is Latin Resurgam of the main building. as the Goddess sentiment, bittersweet again”—a rise 1 Penny Slinger, The Web (1973-74). Collage. Image courtesy of Broadway 1602. place before widespread patriarchy They said “you mentioned Goddess and capitalism to let us know what is too much and it’s putting our possible for humanity. Have you buyers off.” noticed an upswing in interest or support for the Goddess Temple under ES: It seems like the art world has our new presidential administration? been more interested in classifying you as a 1970s feminist. I’ve always PS: No, I haven’t yet. One of the most wondered why the academic and upsetting things about the current psychological aspects of feminism regime is that they seem to [be] might be palatable for art world going backwards in the raising of folks, but you can’t say the word consciousness that has been evolving “Goddess” if you want to be taken about the impact that human life is seriously. Why do you think the art having on the rest of the ecosystem. world isn’t ready for representations I love and embrace all life as part of of the divine feminine? my self and feel as if my very body is being ripped apart when assaults to PS: This is quite a complex question. the environment occur. If indeed our The Goddess movement has consciousness makes us the top of the picked up a lot of steam since I life chain, we sacrifice that position discovered Her in the early 1970s and when we plunder earth’s body. when I started doing events and gath- I am not sure at this point what erings in Her honor at the end of the the future holds. I am ready to move 1990s. On the one hand I could reflect on from the Goddess Temple if that is that this is great news; that the things what the Universe requires. If support I believe hold the keys to evolution comes and I am enabled to stay are percolating into the social fabric. here, I will continue and advance the However, as tends to be the case with program. That consists of using the any popularization, there is also a facilities to gather those who are the diminution of essence, a trivialization, change makers, the visionaries, and a tendency to take things at face give them the opportunity to experi- value and face glamor, rather than ence the pure flow of Goddess energy penetrating to the heart and core of available here. what these things really represent. The beacon of light that the To embrace the Goddess in Goddess Temple is will continue to one’s life is so much more than putting transmit, come what may. on a crown and dressing up like one! It is about cultivating all the qualities ES: Do you find that the fine art the Divine Feminine represents world is uncomfortable with mystical in one’s heart and consciousness work that isn’t made in the minimal- ist tradition? I’ve personally had a hell of a time being taken seriously. Penny Slinger is (born London 1947), graduated It’s a little easier here in Los Angeles, with a first class honors degree from Chelsea Col- but not much. lege of Art 1969. In the 1970s she was known for her pioneering Feminist Surrealist collage work. She has published several book including An Exor- PS: I’ve found that. In fact a couple of cism, Sexual Secrets, The Alchemy of Ecstasy, and my galleries told me I had to redo my The Secret Dakini Oracle. Penny lived in the Carib- website, which I did do. And I made it, bean for 15 years where her work focused on the Arawak Indians. In 1994 she came to California. I hope, much more art-world friendly. She is represented by Riflemaker Gallery (Lon- don), and Blum & Poe (LA, New York & Tokyo).

Penny Slinger 2 Penny Slinger, I Hear What You Say (1973). Collage. Image courtesy of the Collection. 3 Penny Slinger, Transmutation of Equatorial forest - The Hermaphrodite, (1969). Collage. Image courtesy of the artist. and having these principles be the So in that space I plunged into guiding light of all one’s actions. This this book, An Exorcism. And one of is profound spiritual and psycholog- the very first images in the book is ical work, demanding an absolute called The Brick Wall Behind The Door, kind of commitment. In this society, and to me that was a really shocking so addicted to instant gratifica- image of when you open the door to tion, many who receive a taste of the imagination to go through to your this rarefied domain are suddenly magic world, and it’s got a brick wall teachers, without putting in the kind behind it and you can’t get in! And in of self-work required to earn and own front of it, Peter (an ex of mine) as the that position. man, the male archetype in the book, In a lot of the art these days he’s holding the key. The question was dedicated to the Goddess I also find “why has the man got the key?” What the kind of honed and refined aesthet- are the things that are projected on to ic that I respond to is missing. In this me by my whole cultural milieu? What way, I can understand why the fine art are the things projected on to me by world may be leery. my partner? And what are my things? Be this as it may, there must be Who am I in all this? a place for the Goddess in the field of I worked on it for seven years. fine art, for it is Her time and those on I mean it was a big work. I didn’t only the cutting edge of social and cultural do the collages; I did a lot of writing. change know that. My dedication I did a whole film script about it. to intense self-scrutiny has brought After that, I discovered Tantra. me here. And I have been schooled I discovered Tantra at an exhibition in fine art as well as my own direct of Tantric art, the first one in the experience. UK back in 1973. When I was nearly complete with The Exorcism, I met ES: I am really moved by your Nik Douglas and I went to India for collage book trilogy: The 50% The the first time—Thailand, Nepal, all Visible Woman (1971), An Exorcism these places. (1977), and Mountain Ecstasy (1978). Mountain Ecstasy was really just our playing and coming together, me PS: The 50% The Visible Woman was teaching Nik how to do collage. We made while I was still a student at were doing these pictures for our own Chelsea College and I discovered pleasure. Everything was just juicy and his collage books. I and erotic and full of bliss and the did my thesis in response to those divine and the profane. Everything all books and made a film and my own at once. collage book. I hadn’t seen anyone And they put it out as a book— really using the tools that it did get into trouble. Thousands of provided to explore the depths of the copies got seized by British customs feminine psyche and to lay that bare. and burned as pornography. I had a I collaged pictures of myself and then show in London, and I had a show in I wrote poems to go over them. I was New York after. It was too rich really very dedicated to the idea of being for the British palate, too colorful. my own muse, and not being seen through the lens of a male artist, but ES: Your description of working on seen through my own lens. I’ve done The Other Side of the Underneath that all my life in work—being the (1972) is super intense. The film seen and the seer. is built around a long sequence that is a sort of group therapy on PS: I got the opportunity to connect acid, right? The melt-downs sound back into the fine art world in England horrific. The emotional pain, psychic with a couple of exhibitions—at death, crucifixion. You were doing The Tate with The Angels of Anarchy feminist work with Jane Arden and (2009) show and then at Riflemaker theatre group, Holocaust: A New Gallery (2015). The recognition I’ve Communion for Freaks, Prophets been getting has all been around and Witches… the work that I was doing in the ‘60s and ‘70s and hasn’t gone past my PS: Well, you know, I had never liked discovery of Tantra. At this point it to label myself a feminist because of doesn’t seem like the fine art world is the flavor that feminism had at that ready yet for the divine feminine work, time. Of late I’ve been much more which is where I’ve been all these last willing to take on that mantle because years since. This year I worked for feminism is now a lot more inclusive— awhile on a project called Reclaiming for instance of sexuality, sensuality, Scarlet with a young woman who’s and spirituality. very much part of this whole wave of In England in the ‘60s, women feminism that’s happening now with hardly owned their sexuality at all. In The Red Tent movement. those nascent years it didn’t feel like I haven’t yet got an outlet for it was a very full body experience let’s that even though it’s in a more pro- put it like that. It seemed to be much to-feminist surrealist style. My gallery more like, we want the power that in London just wrote to me and said, men have had and we’re gonna get in “It’s very strong and it’s very real, but that world and fight for it. I didn’t res- I don’t know that there’s a market for onate with the feminist scene because it.” I want to do something that shows I felt that female qualities needed to that I’m not just a historical figure. be recognized and empowered in their I want people to recognize that some- own right too. I have a body and I one in her later years can be totally want to own that body. I want women relevant and do something in society to be seen for all of ourselves, as full rather than being cast aside as no psycho-sensual emotional beings. longer of use. I would like to have Eventually I did become part some success and some recognition of this all-women’s theater group, this time not only for the old work, but Holocaust. And that was because for what I’m doing now. I want to put when I went to that first meeting and a stake in the ground for all women of met Jane Arden, she talked about this age whose wisdom hasn’t been how she wanted to create artwork percolated back into the world. that was from a political and an This is why we have such an embodied perspective. immature, materialistic society; the With The Other Side of the wisdom of older women is not being Underneath, we were trying to shake put back into the energy cycles. out all the sacred cows and really get People are going off into old people’s in people’s faces. We wanted to pres- homes filled with drugs to veg ent the blood and guts of feminism, them out. not just the intellectual and political and more heady kind of side of it. ES: Are you still using your body as the main vehicle for your collages ES: What’s your relationship to and life casts? feminism now in your work? PS: Yes, I am using my body in my latest work. I’m 68 and my body has changed somewhat, but it hasn’t changed that much since I was 28. So I am wanting to use that as my vessel and to bring that forward to make this statement about it not being over. I’m still embodied!

ES: Do you have any advice for young artists and activists trying to cope with the Trump presidency?

PS: Art is the instrument we use to lift the veils and give insight into what is otherwise invisible. At this time I fully believe that awareness needs to come through an opening of the heart. Any work that an artist can do to help do this, even if it means ripping the heart open, is where it’s at. We need to melt the deep freeze of the collective numbness. And it starts with the self. I believe only that which is deeply felt can be in the politics of self, that there can be no political change without inner revolution. 4 Penny Slinger, A Difficult Position (An Exorcism) (1970-77). Collage on card. Image courtesy of the artist.