Cathy Lomax has asked me to make some work for the next edition of ‘Arty’ the title is to be ‘magic’ so I spent some time yesterday reprising my “Pepper’s Ghost” illusion for the stills camera. I found a statue of the Virgin Mary to be my assistant. She seemed very comfortable in the act of appearing magically inside the studio window. Virginity is, I suppose, not a condition usually associated with magician’s assistants. Though often they feign ingenuousness they know too much. They have been initiated. Though I haven’t yet decided which images to send to Cathy (they must also work in black and white) I am drawn to those which reveal the illusion. It is as if knowledge of the trick has failed to diminish the magic.
