Richard Healy

A hand painted canvas sack, complete with hand embroidered badges, unfolds to make a wall hanging, room divider or beach mat. The hand painted pattern reference the action paintings championed by Frank O’Hara, but also the psychedelic tie-dye aesthetic of the American beatnik. Inside is a hand macraméed fishing net from which hangs several mouth blown Japanese glass floats, keyrings and trinkets – each acting as anchors whose function is to cue up possible narratives or introduce certain personalities from a Frank O’Hara poem*. Together each edition depicts the spiritual journey of these sexually nomadic characters. Objects made from glass and gem stones reference the dreamcatchers of Native Americans who once lived in that area, whilst the fishing net nods to the travelling labourers of the island.

Photography by Frédéric Leemans.
Model - Jens Uwe Beyer.

*
Now it is the 27th
of this month
which would have been my birthday
if I’d been born in it
but I wasn’t
would have made me a
Scorpion
which symbolizes silver, money, riches
firm in aim, coldblooded in action
loving the Bull
smelling of sandalwood
I do anyway

instead of
Cancer
which symbolizes instability, suggestibility, sensibility
all the ilities like a clavichord
only an interior firmness
favoring good and evil alike
loving Capricorn
with its solitudinous research

but how could I love other
than the worldly Virgin
my force is in mobility it’s said
I move
towards you
born in the sign which I should only like
with love.

Untitled, by Frank O’Hara – poet, art critic and champion of American Abstract Expressionism. O’Hara died in an automobile accident on Fire Island on July 25, 1966.