Luna Morgana
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The Troll of Autumn Hill

19/1/2016

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The Troll that lives across my street is a dandy sight to see,
she has pink hair, metallic trousers and sandals on her feet,
between flowerbed and dustbin heap she keeps a house of green,
far from church bells and their screams, oh how content is she!
through clouds of smoke her voice is gruff, no never loud and shrill,
see how care-free she plods along,
The Troll of Autumn Hill.
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What if Voldemort had won?

7/1/2016

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As a fan of Harry Potter and the world that J.K Rowling has so lovingly crafted I've been mulling this thought over for quite a while now - what would have happened if Voldemort had won?

This is of course going from the assumption that it is not in an alternate universe/multiverse where Neville Longbottom will step up the chosen one. So, let's imagine what would happen if during the battle of Hogwarts when Harry goes into the forest to confront Voldemort, he does not drop the Resurrection Stone and keeps it upon his person. And also that he chooses not to come back while in Limbo chatting away with Dumbledore.


Harry Potter is dead.

Voldemort has the elder wand. He finds the Resurrection Stone and Invisibility Cloak on the body of his nemesis and keeps them, ignorant of their importance for the time being, then continues his display in front of those who were opposing him. He accepts those who submit and slaughters those who continue to rebel. Proclaiming himself the most powerful wizard in the world, he ties up all loose ends and seats himself as ruler of the wizarding world, with his loyal minions in positions of power. First in Britain with Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, and with no one to directly oppose him he extends his reach beyond across Europe, America and eventually around the world. He can now afford to be patient and allow his minions to take care of this regime change. While this happens he becomes curious as to why Harry had kept one of his horcruxes and looks further into this, discovering the legend of the Deathly Hallows and that possessing these makes him the master of death. The Elder Wand has submitted to him as he has dispatched its last master and the others submit recognising him as the last living descendant of the Peverell brothers.

Mad with power he concludes that he is, for all intensive purposes, a god.
This theory comes from the idea that gods and goddesses of the ancient world were power-mad wizards and witches, much of them interpreted by muggles. To me the Greek Gods definitely fit this bill. Egyptian Gods sounds though they could have been animagi or metamorphmagi, which is where the animal heads came from. The metamorphmagus trait could have been much more common in ancient times. The power hungry witches and wizards using their powers and fear to establish cults to themselves, but not being true gods they were still unable to evade an inevitable death. 

Back to Voldemort.
He believes he is immune to death and an all powerful being. Not content with just ruling the magical world, he plots to also take over the muggle world. This could be achieved with surprising ease, influencing or corrupting those in positions of power and forcing any resistance with the Imperious and Cruciatus curses or killing them and replacing them with his own people. Naturally this would start with Britain as it would be easier for him to hold and his influence would spread across the world, making displays of power to prove that he is almighty.

By this point it is likely that he would have repressed and regressed any technological advancement from the muggles to reduce the likelihood of rebellion, or rather his minions would have. Given his arrogance and that he now believes himself a god I'd imagine he would not concern himself with something so trivial, however the Death Eaters and others loyal to him would need to ensure themselves to be untouchable as they are not immortal.

Of course his immortality is only theory at this point. While the life expectancy of wizardkind is much longer than that of muggles, there is still no guarantee that he can not die naturally as Ignotus Peverell did eventually. Although he accepted death, whereas Voldemort is less likely to. This could still take an exceptionally long time though, a life prolonged through many forms of magic, which would be longer than all other wizards.


That is where my thoughts end. My conclusion being that Voldemort would naturally declare himself an all powerful god. Well what else does one do when you are essentially the most powerful being on the planet?
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Slightly belated New Year's post

2/1/2016

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So 2016 is here already. I had originally wanted to do a end of year thank you post, but a start of the year one will do just as well I'm sure.

The past year has certainly been a spectacularly eventful one. I met a lot of people and made many new beautiful friends who have all had positive influences on me, my life and my art. A lot has happened so I'll try to keep this a brief overview and thank you.

2015 held a score of fantastic exhibitions and performances to see, even the arrival of the British Art Show 8 here in Leeds, which had everybody clamboring to have an event on. It also held some fantastic opportunities for projects and work.

First of the projects I was involved with was Artist Anonymous. A platform for talks, discussions, showing work. Natasha, Emma and I organized events where we gave participants to interpret a theme and create work and discussion around it. We had many people from all paths, creative and non-creative, and was a great place for exploration and conversation.
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What A Drag! at Liver Art Bistro
I have spent a large proportion of the past year at Live Art Bistro seeing some fantastic shows with some just as fantastical performers such as Jamal Harewood, Lucy Hutson, Season Butler, Figs in Wigs, the Orbit Showcase from Leeds Beckett students and graduates to name a few. And of course not forgetting the party of the year What A Drag! An unofficial British Art Show 8 after party. During which I was part of the confessional booth and worked as the 'door whore' for a lot of the night.
Live Art Bistro are one of the best performances spaces in Leeds and programmes some of the best (and weirdest) shows possible.
I was also a part of NEWK, which is based at Live Art Bistro, a platform for testing new performance works. I had been learning to read tea leaves as part of a project on fortune tellers and took some of my tricks to NEWK for the visitors there to do small, intimate readings for them. And what an audience they were! I had a queue going the length of the venue of people eagerly awaiting what I might find in their future.
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A picture of a tea leaf reading I had done.
At the same time as this I was doing a residency at the Hepworth's The Calder space as part of a two year project for Pavilion and the Follies of Youth, looking at the landscape architect Lancelot 'Capability' Brown as part of the run up to his tercentenary. I had the privilege of working with some fantastic artists, performers, historians and enthusiasts. In particular Giles Bailey on his piece for the main exhibition Out of a Morass.
My piece for the residency responded to the themes with fun and absurdity, in a similar way to Giles' piece. It was great to work on it with 3 other great performers and friends Natasha, Naomi and Adam. How often do you get the chance to dance around throwing cake and smashing teapots at the Hepworth?! ​
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'Serve For The Gods' at the Hepworth
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'What Do We Want?' at Leeds Art Gallery
This was an especially busy time as I was finally moving house and managed to escape a rather volatile man, thanks to my friends Sarah and Sophie rescuing me. It was such a relief to be free of the abuse I suffered at his hands.

After this I had the opportunity to perform at Leeds Art Gallery as part of PoMoGaze, a one-day queer culture festival curated by Jude Woods. I responded to a painting in their permanent collection of Lady Godiva. I donned a blonde wig and a placard which asked 'What Do We Want?' to give visitors the chance to protest in the gallery about issues they felt need to be given space in conversation. My favourite responses were actually the people who tried to actively avoid me, prompting me to follow them around more to engage them.
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Disco unicorn HOARD.
My final project of the year was HOARD. For one week we took over the bottom floor of the Corn Exchange here in Leeds and filled it with the hoardings...I mean...art...of all the artists involved. For this exhibition I finally got to show off the disco unicorn chess set I had been working on. Our curator Sarah had worked hard for the project and for this exhibition and it all paid off. It was a great week being surrounded by other like-minded artists in such a vast space and talking to all the shoppers whose curiosity got the best of them and came to explore.
I then had the opportunity to help some good friends on some of their projects. Lucy, Zoe and Jason who have a beautiful project called Tea & Tolerance and held a Tea & Tolerance Party. Wonderful conversations were had by all who participated on a range of topics, with a 'putting the world to rights' cup of tea.

Lucy and Zoe are also part Yorkshire Life Aquatic, a company of women who do dry-land synchronized swimming. The Mermaids, as they are affectionately known, ran a show at Bramley Baths titled Mermaid Tales, which was a truly exploratory experience. The building was filled with dancers, projections, storytellers, paraphernalia and even a memory aquarium.  The main event was the mermaid's synchro routine in the water with members of the Bramley mermaid club.
A rather brilliant night of two sold out shows showcasing how far they have come in the past few years.
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Me dressed as a crab for Mermaid Tales.
So to wrap this blog post up I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone I have had the privilege of working with this year and to all the friends, old and new, that I have had the pleasure of knowing this year and hope to know you for many more years to come! 

I'll leave you here with a selection of pictures from my year.
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  • Home
  • Performances
    • I Haven't A Thing To Wear
    • Truth To Power Cafe
    • Why I'm A Mermaid, But I'm Not A Man
    • A Queen's Speech
    • What Do We Want?
    • Serve for the Gods
    • What Time Is It Mr Wolf?
    • Out of House and Home
    • The Hermit
    • Bedtime Story Series
  • Visual Art
    • When Is It About Me
    • Wish Upon A Star
    • HOARD: Unicorns
    • Homage to Claude
    • Medusa's Lament
    • Wicked Witch's Walk
    • The Unicorn
  • Projects
    • Planetine
    • Queerology
    • Artists In Solidarity With Sex Workers
    • Gossip Grrrl
    • AgeOfThe: Athenian
    • Leeds Queer Fashion Week
  • Exhibitions and Events
  • Interviews
    • WYQS
    • The Bisexual Agenda
    • Non-binary Leeds Interview with Yorkshire Post
    • Refinery29 on Clothes Swaps
  • Blog
  • Contact