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Interview with Penny Slinger 25 The Goddess Temple, which I estab- Interview lished here under the umbrella of the Universal Church of the Master. Feature with Penny ES: She needs strong reps these days. So, what kinds of work do you do for the Goddess here? Slinger PS: Right (laughs). There’s an amazing Penelope Slinger was born in London in 1947 and energy here and I want to share graduated from Chelsea Art College in 1969 with a it as much as possible. We’ve had body of work made as a feminist reaction to Max performances and multimedia video Ernst’s collages. Since then, Penny’s art practice has recordings and parties on key dates constantly shifted mediums and viewpoints irrespec- like the solstices and equinoxes. It is tive of art world trends, or profitability—as a result, all dedicated to Her. It’s like a healing decades worth of work remain unseen by the art circle between The Divine and the world. In all of its iterations, Penny Slinger’s body of Earthly realms. When I invite people work is mutable, erotic, confrontational, mystical, here it’s to be part of this sort of and unapologetically Goddess-worshipping. blessing, really. This past summer I went to visit Penny at her For the last few years we’ve home and studio, The Goddess Temple, a sprawling been trying to see what’s going to group of buildings constructed in honor of the Divine happen to the next phase of the Feminine. The Goddess Temple is hidden deep in a evolution here. This space really grove of redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains, needs to have some financial support with the word Resurgam emblazoned on the awning beyond ourselves in order to be able of the main building. Resurgam is Latin for “I shall to continue. Once it’s had some rise again”—a bittersweet sentiment, as the Goddess upgrades done that it needs, it can Temple currently faces financial hardship and be offered back out to share again possible closure. I kept repeating the word under in the form of retreats, gatherings, my breath during my visit, like a prayer or a spell. salons, and bringing artists here for sabbaticals. We need to make it more Eliza Swann: Let’s talk about this of a busy heart center for the new place, your home and studio. It’s paradigm, which is what Christopher amazing here! Tell me about The said it should be. Goddess Temple—what’s the story? ES: For me, holding space for Penny Slinger: [My husband] Goddess worship is a way of Christopher Hills built this place as accessing stories and tools for his retreat property—he was guided resistance and renewal that are in to it by divination. He built it to be a danger of being erased. We need safe place on the planet to take the to share human histories that took limits off and experience the Goddess’ energy direct. He built this place on the principles of sacred geome- Eliza Swann is an interdisciplinary artist, intuitive, writer, educator, and community organizer based try and connected it to the sacred in Los Angeles. Eliza received a BFA from SFAI, energy of the redwood groves. After trained in hypnotherapy at the Isis Centre, Hindu he passed I have held it in that way. cosmology with Dr. Vagish Shastri in India, Tarot This place has been known as The and Western Magical Practice with the B.O.T.A. Western Mystery School, and received an MFA Goddess Temple—I’m Reverend of from Central St. Martins. Eliza is the founder of The Golden Dome School. 25 Eliza Swann 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 Roland Penrose 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.
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