The publishers Levant selected a painting of mine from the MO series for their publication of the epic poem ‘Tanaïs’. The MO series were all based on flood damaged photos and my memories of day to day life and dreams between 2024-25. This drawing was based on the memory of a dream about a man on stilts in shallow water.
‘Tanaïs’ was written by the renowned greek poet Iossif Ventura and is considered one of the most important literary works about the Holocaust.
The poem is homage to the hundreds of souls who drowned when their cargo ship SS Tanaïs was torpedoed by the british in June 1944. It sank in under a minute with nearly all lives aboard, including including hundreds of deported Cretan Jews and Christians as well as Italian PoWs.

Images:
01 – The book ‘Tanaïs’
02 – The original painting from the MO series

I was invited to show a series of my works on porcelain, I call Phossils, at the Regale pop up gallery shop in Arles during the summer of 2025. Given the city of Arles is inundated with fans of photography to see the Rencontres D’Arles every summer,
I jumped at the opportunity.

Images: All work on porcelain is approx. 11 cm x 8,6 cm, handpainted with oxides on porcelain and fired at 1240ºc
01 – View of work at Regale
02 – Phossil 739
03 – Phossil 739
04 – View of work at Regale
05 – Phossil 751
06 – Phossil 751
07 – Phossil 764
08 – Phossil 764
09 – Phossil 764
10 – Phossil 755
11 – Phossil 755
12 – Phossil 755
13 – Phossil 765
14 – Phossil 765
15 – Phossil 765
16 – Phossil 729
17 – Phossil 729
18 – Phossil 729

To conclude my residency with the MadLab on the Étang de Thau, I prepared an event called ‘MO’S’.
MO’S is a 75-minute live performance involving a projection of 364 paintings onto a screen standing in water,
accompanied by live music improvised by James Taylor. Here is a short film by Cedrick Eymenier of the MO’S event.
Between 1st March 2024 and 28th February 2025 I produced these paintings daily.
Initially were interpretations of water-logged family photographs I found after a flood at my parents’ house in January 2024. Unexpectedly, the water stains contributed something positive to the still perceivable photographs – a sense of ‘physical time’ known as ‘t’. Inspired by this duality, I produced over 80 paintings from the photographs, until I reached a point where I felt the need to switch the focus to my own recent memories of quotidian life and dreams for the remaining 284 paintings.
MO’S is therefore a series of paintings blending memories sourced from old damaged family photographs and my own conscious and unconscious self.”
For bookings of this event all enquiries please DM charlie on Instagram at @charliebonallackstudio

Images:
01 – Poster for MO’S Projections
02 – Projection screen in the Etang de Thau ©Photo Federico Drigo
03 – Projection screen in the Etang de Thau ©Photo Luigi Bonallack
04 – Projection screen in the Etang de Thau ©Photo Luigi Bonallack
05 – Audience watching MO’S Projection by the Etang de Thau ©PhotoLuigi Bonallack
06 – Audience watching MO’S Projection by the Etang de Thau ©Photo Kaz Raad
07 – Audience watching MO’S Projection by the Etang de Thau ©Photo Federico Drigo
08 – James S. Taylor at his deck performing live for MO’S Projections ©Photo Kaz Raad
09 – Preparing for the show ©Photo Jason Clarke
10 – Self portraits of me and James S. Taylor on the jetty by Madlab ©Photo Charlie Bonallack

During my residency with the MadLab on the Étang de Thau, near Marseillan in France, I installed Concordia Album,
an installation I first created in 2014. Concordia Album was an attempt to present the Concordia shipwreck disaster
with an installation using my works on porcelain. Each piece interpreted press photos of the disaster to tell the story from
a new angle.
The original presentation was on a table in a low light room, so it was an opportunity to present the pieces submerged in the salt water of the Etang de Thau. This offered a fresh and pertinent perspective on the original installation and obviously brought the story closer to home – the sea.

Images:
01 – Concordia Album porcelains on the jetty at Madlab
02 – Concordia Album submerged in daylight
03 – Concordia Album submerged at night
04 – Concordia Album submerged in daylight
05 – Satellite photo of Concordia disaster
06 – Phossil 43 (concordia album16 – 2014) – 22cm x 16cm x 0.4cm approx.- hand-painted with pigment on porcelain, fired twice up to 1300ºc
07 – Phossil 43 (concordia album03 – 2014) – 10cm x 8cm x 0.3cm approx.- hand-painted with pigment on porcelain, fired twice up to 1300ºc
08 – Text presenting Concordia in french
09 – Text presenting Concordia in english
10 – Original installation – Hors Circuit Exhibition – Montpellier 2014

One of the conditions of participating in the Madlab residency in May ’25, was to produce a piece of work using the oyster
crates provided by the Tabourriech Oyster company. I chose to use one crate a day as a support for a series of works called “Île Singulière”, the title of a famous poem by Paul Vallery who himself was born in Sète.
I would sit on the jetty late at night and stare at the “Mont St. Clair” which was covered with shimmering street lights and a functioning lighthouse and try to etch the scene in my memory. The following morning I’d begin the day painting into the crates the scene from the night before, using only porcelain slip and blue ink. A simple exercise that became more interesting the more I did due to a build up of numerous memories of the same scene.

Images:
01 – 11 The sequence of oyster crates, all using porcelain slip and blue ink
12 – View of Sète and Mont St. Clair

My residency with the MadLab on the Etang de Thau, near Marseillan in France, was in May 2025 for two weeks.
A dream location for an artist to work in…if they enjoy solitude and the coast. I love both. The building used to be an
oyster fisherman’s work place for the Tabourriech family but it now serves as simple accommodation and a studio for artist’s in residence.
I spent my time working on several projects, including my work on porcelain, on panels using porcelain slip and beachcombing, one of my all time favourite pastimes.
To conclude the residence, I prepared an event called ‘MO’S’ which involved projecting a series of 364 paintings onto a screen in the Thau lake to live music improvised live by James S.Taylor.

Images:
01 – Me standing in front of Madlab building ©Photo Federico Drigo
02 – Looking down jetty at Madlab residence
03 – Looking down jetty onto the Étang de Thau
04 – Inside studio Madlab
05 – Inside studio Madlab
06 – Inside studio Madlab
07 – Porcelain slip in an oyster shell
08 – Mixing porcelain slip
09 – A dessicated marine plant attached to small shell
10 – Google earth view of Madlab site

I exhibited this piece at my show ‘Ghostwalkers’ at the ART SANT ROCH gallery in Céret in April 2025.
The piece has evolved over time due to accidents and the urge to work further. This is the final state.

Images:
01-03 – Phossil 281 Ladies on a cliff (2017) hand-painted with oxides on biscuit porcelain, then fired.
Inserted into a found wooden block

I was invited by the curator Erwin van Den Arend to exhibit at the ART SANT ROCH Gallery in Céret in April 2025.
Knowing that Erwin wanted an installation, I decided to show an old piece called ‘Ghostwalkers’.
Text I wrote for the promotion of the show.
“Details are the building blocks of memory and therefore by default, at the heart of all stories. Today, we have become numb to the details presented to us in current affairs 24/7. Our anaesthetised selves now seem to resist the cataloguing of ‘details’ as we recoil from this relentless bombardment of information. This suggests that our long term memories could become so undernourished of ‘detail’ that our memories will become obsolete, leaving us solely in the present and void of stories.

The details shown in the images posted here, are close ups of porcelains I made in 2016, called ‘Ghostwalkers’.
They refer to 5000 Syrian refugees who were filmed during the night, in November 2015, by Slovenian border police
using thermal imaging cameras, as the refugees crossed from Croatia into Slovenia. The thermal cameras themselves
pick up no details of individuals, such as facial features etc., but it is clear there are people depicted and thanks to
accompanying information, we begin to understand their story. I want these interpretations, which lack so much detail,
to intrigue and draw attention to the ‘details’ which make up this devastating story, so that we stop forgetting during this
era when we most need to remember the details.”

Images:
01 – Ghostwalkers installation and three paintings in the Art Sant Roch space in Céret
02 – Ghostwalkers installation and three paintings in the Art Sant Roch space in Céret
03 – Ghostwalkers installation and three paintings in the Art Sant Roch space in Céret
04 – Close up of Ghostwalkers
05 – Tide Will Tell I (2022) 220cm x 153cm acrylics, inks, graphite, porcelain slip on plywood panel
06 – Footage Has Emerged I (2013-25) – 190cm x 129cm & Footage Has Emerged II (2014-25) 175cm x 120cm
07 – Footage Has Emerged I (2013-25) – 190cm x 129cm
08 – Footage Has Emerged II (2014-25) – 175cm x 120cm
09 – Me with some visitors at Ghostwalkers

I was invited by the curator Erwin van Den Arend to exhibit at the ART SANT ROCH gallery in Céret in April 2025.
Part of my show ‘Ghostwalkers’ involved a piece called Codex 49 which is 49 interpretations of both found & imagined polaroids, handpainted with oxides on biscuit porcelain and then fired.

01 – Codex 49 – 49 pieces (all approx. 11 cm x 8,6 cm handpainted with oxides on porcelain and fired at 1240ºc)
02 – View of Codex 49 with children watching my film ‘Susan Sentinels’
03 – View of entire exhibition space with Codex 49 on the far right
04 – Phossil 724 
04 – Detail of Phossil 724 
05 – Elevated view of Phossil 724
06 – Phossil 735
07 – Elevated view of Phossil 735
08 – Phossil 733
09 – Elevated view of Phossil 733
10 – Phossil 732
11 – Elevated view of Phossil 732

This box of old prints I’d decided to throw out two years prior but for whatever reason, didn’t. They became a feature of the studio, a monument to no longer needed memories, a still life.
I’m fascinated by topographical strata and layers of traces and I then realised their potential as I started to shoot them in a controlled studio environment in my studio on and off for several weeks.
I’m a photographer but not a professionally trained studio one and therefore this was a whole new learning curve for me. Infinity screens, lighting, tripods, different lens etc. Given my inexperience, I just went for it, playing with different lighting, candles and other techniques. These are just a few examples, one of which became the image for my show, in Prague in december ’24, called Helter Skelter. I now need help with editing the rest in post production hopefully for a show in the near future.
Images:
02 – Poster for Helter Skelter exhibtion, Prague December 2024

This series has been ongoing since late 2020. It began with a series of polaroids taken during a 17 day quarantine with my son Jules in Stirling, Scotland as he prepared to start his BA at the University there. Cooped up and looking for some stimulation and routine things to do, we decided to take alternately a polaroid a day. I’ve held onto these polaroids and have been looking at ways to produce some work about or from them. These large scale panels are the latest approach, using porcelain slip on plywood panels. At the moment I see them like growing organic plants or possibly dying corals that hint at the original cluster of 17 polaroids. Still got some way to go…

Images:
01 – Q Polaroïds Slip 01’ WIP 153cm x 153cm porcelain slip on plywood panel
02 – Q Polaroïds Slip 02’ WIP 153cm x 153cm porcelain slip on plywood panel
03 – Q Polaroïds Slip paintings in studio in Montpellier, France
04 – Beginnings of Q Polaroïds Slip 01’ WIP 153cm x 153cm porcelain slip on plywood panel
05 – ‘Q Polaroïds 11:15pm 29/03/23′ 30cm x 30cm -oils, inks, & crayon on cotton paper 300g/m2
06 – ‘Q Polaroïds 11:43pm 23/03/23′ 30cm x 30cm -oils, inks, & crayon on cotton paper 300g/m2
07 – Q Polaroïds (14 polaroids alternately taken by my son, Jules and I, during our 14 day Covid quarantine in a flat in Stirling, Scotland, 27/08/20 – 09/09/20) still life in studio

I often invite composers to create soundscapes and music to accompany my installations and shows, as I believe profoundly in the power of music/sound and what it can bring both to my work and an audience. Sound or music contributes another dimension that triggers our minds to adjust the way we focus, observe and stimulate our emotions. For Helter Skelter I invited my son Jules, aka Køemner, to compose a piece to accompany the exhibition and what he created, moved me to the core. He spent several weeks trawling the web searching for Czechoslovak radio samples which he then manipulated into an ethereal and haunting piece. One witty Czech friend, who had witnessed the sovietic era, said “sounds like creepy communist demons getting out of a box”. It did this for sure, but in such a moving and sophisticated way. Køemner released an EP of the work called ‘Obědy v Praze’ which is now available on Bandcamp here and all music streaming services, enjoy the samples he’s embedded into the following images.

Images (all photographs taken in the 1980s):
01 – Køemner’s EP Cover for Obědy v Praze using my photograph taken in cafe off Wenceslas SQ 1989
02 – Me and Jules in Staroměstské náměstí, Prague, 08/12/24.
Audio Images:
01 – My photograph taken in cafe off Wenceslas SQ 1989 with sample of Køemner’s from his EP Obědy v Praze
02 – Phossil 708 Barbara Day photographed by czech secret police StB with sample of Køemner’s from his EP Obědy v Praze