REGRESSION
by BLISS (Lucy Stein & Simon Bayliss)
8 October – 29 October 2016
Kingsgate Project Space, London
BLISS (Lucy Stein & Simon Bayliss) laid themselves under the powers of hypnotist Robin Smidowicz within two ancient fogous in West Cornwall. What happened in these prehistoric subterranean enclosures cannot be fully understood, much less their stories told. Regression is the best account we have.
Lucy chose to go down into Boleigh fogou near St Buryan for its enchanted aura. Simon chose Pendeen fogou, piqued as it is with antiquarian notoriety as well as an unrelenting stench of slurry.
Within the radon-filled granite chambers of these mysterious Iron Age structures, the artists ventured hypnotically through intense past-life experiences. Visions and sensations were roused from the subconscious; Stein recognises herself as a bearded Roman warrior; Bayliss a tired Victorian lady. Boundaries of gender, race and class are traversed, and, as hypnosis deepened the artists gained visual insights into what happens beyond death.
