Art & Research
The Creative process behind the (Mis)Conceptions Deck
The (Mis)Conceptions Cards are the fruit of a collaboration between historian Isabel Davis and artist Anna Burel. Isabel and Anna have worked together on projects since 2015 and the cards emerged from a similar process, grounded in
a longstanding exchange of written and visual materials, archival and original.
Card decks, appealing for their ability to combine text and image and for their undeniable connection to magical thinking, have offered themselves as the obvious choice for shaping the project early on.
The structure of a traditional tarot deck guided the creation of a table with vertical and horizontal entries in which Anna and Isabel could organise ideas, with 78 cards altogether. The major Arcana was used to represent big archetypal ideas. The themes for the four suits: Fortune, Uncertainty, Secrecy and Hope emerged from a mass online TTC survey and our various public engagement events at which participants offered feedback and shared their experiences. Isabel and Anna pulled together this research, along with Isabel's historical sources to mine them for recurring ideas, conceptions and misconceptions that dominate the experience of trying to conceive today and in the past. Once an approximate structure was derived, the visual work on the prototypes could start.
These prototypes were then submitted to scrutiny by professional and lay person focus groups, in workshops that gathered feedback on the themes, visuals and uses of the deck. The cards you can see today, are the result of an ongoing exchange of ideas between researcher, artist, and those stakeholders who have experienced pregnancy ambiguity in their professional and personal lives. The to-and-fro of words and images is in constant flux, with the deck adapting to the needs of those who might want to use it. In this way, the (Mis)Conceptions project hopes to refine this conversation tool to be as useful, inclusive and respectful as it can be to a diverse audience. While everyone's experience with (in)fertility is unique, and every journey different, this combination of art, research and constant feedback from the public has allowed us to discover recurrent themes, ideas, fears and hopes that repeat throughout history and across cultures. We have developed this deck to reflect these themes.
Words from the Artist
"I start with very quick sketches with ink pens or pencils. I try different compositions, play with different ideas. I copy from different sources, books, exhibitions and museums, Pinterest and life. Old playing cards are a very good source of inspiration when it comes to composition. Everything is there in that little space and yet it never feels overcrowded. When working with collage my style is very minimal, and I find that with drawing I tend to struggle to know when to stop adding details, shadow and effects. I love simple. Looking at these old cards like the Tarot de Marseille was very helpful there. I also look a lot at illuminated manuscripts, especially the ones with simple line ink drawing and a reduced palette. I love to look at posture, hands and body language. Medieval drawings can be so expressive. They are an endless source of inspiration.
I have my regular sketchbook with all my notes and sketches for different projects which is very messy and probably not ideal to share. For this collaborative project, it was a good idea to also have specific sketchbook to keep track of every card’s evolution and allow Isabel to make notes on the sketches and write her ideas and comments. This object that has been passed from Isabel hands to mine on several occasion, with our handwritings and my sketches and copies of the prototypes, is such a powerful element of creative process in its physicality; like the cards will be, actual objects to hold and look at, shuffle through, put down, reflect on and pick up again later.
For the actual cards, I start with a preparatory pencil sketch and then I use quill and ink. I love traditional techniques. There is nothing like the feel of a good quill on paper. I use french inks from the 1970s I have inherited from an old cousin and they are amazing to use but also the old glass bottles are a such pleasure to look at.
I hope the process of making the cards, the materials used, the thought and research, the many conversations give them a depth that the user will be able to feel when shuffling through the deck.”