Monday Muse: Moki Cherry
Moki Cherry was a Swedish interdisciplinary artist who worked with many mediums including textile, ceramics, fashion design, woodworking, collage, and set design. In the 1960s she met her husband, jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, and began a collaborative relationship that spanned decades. Her work is rich and whimsical, indicative of the utopian counterculture that took hold in the US during the 1960s and 1970s. There are clear influences from Eastern religion as well as a childlike quality to the colorful work. In her collaborations wth Don Cherry, Moki used her tapestries to create colorful environments for his concerts as well as costumes and album covers. As “Organic Music” they exhibited concerts and installations in New York and Sweden.
After returning to Sweden, the Cherrys set up a communal space for art and creativity in Tågarp. In 1978, Moki started Octopuss Theater, a children’s theater group where she made the costumes and the sets. Moki and Don also recorded a children’s television program called Piff, Paff, Puff which ran for six episodes on Swedish public access. The show was not about teaching didactic lessons but rather immersing the viewer in the Cherry’s family life. Many of the children who were a part of Octopuss Theater later went on to work in art, design, and production.
As we come into the new year, I’m reminded that there is still so much to be excited about, so much art to create, and so much to hope for. I’m tired of saying the last few years were unprecedented, challenging, but there really is no other way to describe them. For me, I’m hoping that 2023 will be more of a return to normalcy. 2020 was a fever dream of chaos and 2021 wasn’t much different. 2022 was chaotic but in a different way, as things opened up again and life became about plans, travel, and showing up for others. For me, I want 2023 to be about a return to my creativity, of envisioning and making the things I want to see in the world.
I am a complete sucker for this type of 1960s-1970s folk art and I am letting it influence me more this year. This is the kind of stuff I like, cartoon-y, wild, unifying, a little hokey. I used to be embarrassed that I liked this type of art, because it’s not slick or precise or high-minded. That’s a habit I’m breaking this year. I love the idea of making your life art, of painting your walls, involving your whole family, making music and costumes. Doing it because it feels good and getting others to feel good with you.
When I listen to avant-garde jazz, I sense that this is what humans are here for. To make weird art and to hang out together. To hope for the best in your fellow man and let yourself experience good things. As much as it’s so easy to sink into cynicism and irony, when I look at Moki Cherry’s work and listen to Don Cherry’s music, I remember that ain’t me babe. It’s honest and earnest work, raw creation that comes right from the soul, that special thing that unites us as humans. In the dawn of this new year, I want to hang on to that feeling, that sense that utopia is possible, that life can be art, and that sharing your work with others spurns more and more creation.
“‘I feel love - rage - care - when I work.
I cut out shapes with different tools - in a variety of material - wood - birch plywood - chickenwire tin - fabric - fabric - paper. Clay is different - because what hides inside comes out.
I paint everything with Flashe paints (originally made for murals), they have the best luminous-forever-lasting pigments - with a very flat dry surface - which I love.
Fabric - I use more for color & shape than texture - (it might change).
Working - I am very slow and at the same time intense deadlines are my best lifelines. The subconscious moves in to rule and I become the tool.
Other times I spend a lot of time just looking at the work I am involved with. (The moment when the work tells me it’s done is quite liberating). I look for small moves and big decisions to be made so the work can (will?) emit some kind of life.
The woodwork as I call it - includes electric light - where the actual lamps are hidden so the work glows from within. It usually takes the form of wall sculpture.
Since June 2003, I have worked mostly with photomontage. I find it a good vehicle to reflect the current situation we are living and existing in. It being appropriated material matters a great deal. I have collected magazines etc. for a long time with the plan to make collage at some point.
It started late 1990s-2000 when I collaged furnitures - objects - walls - floors with printed matter global newsprint and photos. It amused me that if we don’t know the letters of the language we are lost (informationage!)
A coincidence got me started to make individual collage images - it is a very interesting expedition to find the images - coming from all sources sometimes spending 50-60-70 years in one image and bring it to a feeling of nowness and concern is very exciting - like a ball that started rolling in ancient time connects everything.’”
