“At one stage I was learning how to juggle chainsaws. It’s not impossible but you need a good arm, a good eye, and perfectly timed rhythm.”
By Lyndal Irons
Studio A artist Skye Saxon’s world is populated by shadows, intergalactic warriors and memories from past lives. Her character in birdfoxmonster is an ambassador for a sometimes unpopular animal.
“I like foxes – I like their sly nature. Skye Fox is very similar to Skye Saxon (we share similar features) but also different. She’s not technically human. Hence the name.”
And Skye Saxon is all human?
“More or less. Can’t say that I am all human – not in my past lives.”
In previous lives, Skye recalls being found and raised by Mana the clown and apprenticed in the art of circus skills, earning a living from performance. Some residue of past lives remains with her still.
“At one stage I was learning how to juggle chainsaws. It’s not impossible but you need a good arm, a good eye, and perfectly timed rhythm.”
At first glance, Skye’s new development home in the north-west Sydney is in stark contrast to her second, mystical realm where parallel dimensions exist and almost anything is possible. But after she guided me through her suburb and its pockets of forest park lands, parallel dimensions seemed possible just about anywhere.
Saxon is primarily a visual artist who works across mediums including performance art, drawing and textiles. She’s a creator of mystic characters, drawings and stories with a magical capacity for manifesting the intangible. Dreams, memories and metaphysical worlds form the substance of her work.
Midnight is a companion to Skye Fox and features in her work across mediums. He is part-werewolf part-vampire.
“Midnight is an old friend. He saved me, Skye Fox, before I crash landed. Luckily it was close to his home planet so he could fly me there. Occasionally he appears in my bedroom upside down. He’ll walk up on the wall. Despite his hairy feet he has pretty good grip! He is only scary when he is defending someone he loves. Generally, he is helpful. He can be as patient as anything or as ruthless as anything too. He will easily find you if you are wearing or hiding in black. It doesn’t matter what you are wearing – he’ll find you.”
“Apart from being a fighter pilot, Skye Fox is also a princess but Midnight has promised to keep her royal princess side a secret. Like any princess she doesn’t really want to rule her kingdom. And Midnight can understand why she doesn’t want to. Her parents don’t have enough guards so they had no choice but to let her fight in the wars against light and dark and the shadow creatures.”
“In one past life I was this young British dude by two names: Alan Walker and Colin Clown. I have vague memories – not all mine. Most are his or someone else’s. It is a bit confusing trying to remember them. If you can see my left thumb I have a little mark that goes across up and across down. And you may notice that some of my veins go in the other direction. My whole arm used to be red, my nails were black. And I wasn’t the only one who had this but we called it ‘Innocence’.”
“I have at the back of my right hand shoulder, what I would call my royal birthmark. I think I was the elf princess Zelda – I was her in a past life.”
Saxon has exhibited at Gaffa gallery, Kinokuniya Books and Carriageworks. In 2015 she was an exhibiting artist in the Underbelly Arts festival, and presented a performance work at 2017 Cementa Festival in Kandos. In 2016 she co-created ‘Snowflake Moon: A Paperville Mystery’ with Elias Nohra.