Casting Bones

'Casting Bones' is an exhibition of the totemic, atavistic art of Charlotte Rodgers.

Existing on the fringes of society, sometimes as part of a counter-culture, sometimes in a more structured and institutionalised environment, and living in countries that integrated modernity with folk traditions, taught Charlotte the limitations of standardised written and verbal language.

A natural pull towards bones and 'dead stuff', evolved into a necessary form of healing and creative self expression when she was in her teens, and first started working with road kill.

The tribal, traveller culture of the 1980's in New Zealand further encouraged this art-form. Years of travelling in Asia also helped develop her art, giving Charlotte the ability to articulate her work in terms of a mythology.

Whilst 'outsider art' is something she considers to be a label that can easily become a constriction, Charlotte admits that being an untrained artist, with a history of institutionalisation and a view of reality that is not mainstream, she can be seen to fall into this category.

She prefers simply, to be considered an artist and an animist.
'Casting Bones' is Charlotte's sculptural, and very personal, interpretation of the tarot.

It is said that all artists and spiritual seekers, at some point in their lives, design a tarot deck or equalvalent.

Thus the pieces in this exhibition are representative of archetypical phases of life. Although they can been seen as divinatory, they are actually intended to be companions to the many stages of the journey. They are totems, talismans, elemental conductors and acts of magick, encapsulated in remnants of death.
Everything that lives, casts a shadow and leaves a memory. These memories can be accessed to both look back and learn, and to move forward, empowered and enriched.

Charlotte Rodgers is also a performer,public speaker, event organiser and author. She has contributed to many magazines and anthologies. She wrote 'The Bloody Sacrifice',' P is for Prostitution: A Modern Primer', and conceived, introduced and co edited 'A Contempory Western Book of the Dead' (all published by Mandrake of Oxford), and the Italian published The Sky is a Gateway Not a Ceiling, (illustrated by Roberto Migliussi.)