The Luxville Dolls book was launched at the event ‘City Bloody Hall‘. The ever fabulous Kiri Smart gave a speech to die for. Thank you darling Kiri, may the verve you shine over everything lift be accepted with grace as it is by those who know and love you. You are indeed spectacular!

Madame Yum

But first a message from the LAA:

Luxville …

What was it? What is it? What will it be? What does it mean? Does it mean anything?

Luxville is a strutting youth. She is spectacular yet unsure. She is the centre of attention, but wary of making a fool of herself. She is glamorous, but self-conscious. She is funny, but she is sad. She is clever, but she’s no genius. She is sweet, but can turn sour. She is the dream that slowly fades into practicality. She is the rush that springs forth when you allow love into your heart. She is the hurt that creeps in when you leave the gate open.

I went looking for Luxville once upon a time. I wanted to sparkle to, to throw off the grey lab coat of society, to be free to express myself, to shine, to be loved… stuff loved, I wanted to be adored!

I wanted to be clever, learned, well-travelled, well heeled, well read, artistic, witty, sarcastic. I wanted drama and laughter and passion and pain. I wanted beautiful men… hell, I wanted beautiful women. I wanted intoxication and ecstasy. I wanted to travel the world without a care, being applauded from New York to Paris.

Then slowly it happened, I don’t know exactly when.

One shade of grey after another, one tiny spark went out after another, and slowly I wanted to – pay my bills, buy groceries on special, get my tax up to date, make sure I had my pap smear on time, buy matching towels… like a TV with the brightness and contrast on low… still in colour… but subdued, like life had taken a giant valium and I was watching it go round and round and round, like a merry go round that I was neither on, nor apart from.

But where did the sparkle go? Did it actually leave, or had it just left me?

When I first moved to Luxville I saw a muse down the street. It was grey and raining and I was late for the bus as usual. I could see her glow as she approached. Her eyes sparkled with mischief and she tempted me to forget my responsibilities and come and entice a stranger to pay for a tropical holiday.

I thought she was mad, I thought all muses were mad. The next week she was in the tropics and I was running down the same street, running late in the rain.

That’s when I began to understand Luxville, if you could call it understanding.

If you don’t dream, you don’t live.

If you don’t chase those dreams they don’t happen.

If you believe in those dreams you make it happen.

And so I began to believe and it began to happen and the crazier the idea, the easier it seemed to be to achieve, and then the easier it seemed to be to achieve more, and the people of Luxville began to see me as a citizen of Luxville too; a chaser of dreams, a lover of beauty and laughter and intoxication, and the drama, the happiness, the love, and the sorrow, rained down in buckets until I could barely breathe…

But then the anxiety crept in, like a thief in the night. Self-doubt, self-loathing, the real world wagged its long bony finger at me and I began to conform to its will. And so it went on, and I moved to a practical place with all its apathy, rules and red tape – and the shining lights of Luxville became a distant dream, sleeping in my subconscious.

The people who made Luxville had come from around the world, from the old world, where poverty, class and general inequality had ruled their world and stifled their dreams. They had travelled the oceans to create a new utopia, a better world where it wouldn’t matter who you were or who your family was. If you had a dream and worked hard you could be anything you wanted to be; where if you wanted something that wasn’t invented, you invented it; where even practical everyday things could be made as things of beauty and style; where pure imagination could be king.

But the people who followed were spoilt, they forgot that Luxville was for everyone. They got greedy and wanted to keep the best for themselves. They talked of being fiscal, realistic, practicable! They tore down the forests to make more and more and more forms to fill out. They made their fortunes investing in factories that made red coloured tape and boring ties and flat shoes. They legislated against certain colours of paint to decorate our castles, and created health scare campaigns, and taxed and criminalised all the fun juices until the dance halls were empty.

They flooded Luxville with cheap pharmaceuticals and big screen TV’s until the population became a pack of unhappy TV watching zombies, with no love for their tortured brothers and sisters around the world but still enough feist to start a punch on over a fucking roundabout!

One day in the not so distant past a mystic, Madame Yum, invited us all to a film. After the movie there was wine, and laughter with witty and glamorous people. As I wandered back to my happy home in the crisp, fresh moonlight I realised that Luxville hadn’t left me, I had left her.

If we all dream together we will get back to Luxville people, and make her brighter and shinier than ever.

May I propose a toast….please raise your glasses and GET ABOVE YOURSELF.

Kiri Smart – late August 2016

 

[portraits from muse Nadia Moth!]

Film Girl by Nadia Moth!

Kiri in the Red Boots by Nadia Moth!

The Girls that LAA Together by Nadia Moth!

Madame Yum Ponders by Nadia Moth!

Over Here by Nadia Moth!

Rose Red of Luxville by Nadia Moth!

Miss Nellie as Spy by Nadia Moth!

Secret Signup at: Be a Luxville Art Avenger

Luxville Dolls book limited edition now available here: The Luxville Parlour

Congratulations to Christine Hickson the winner of our #LuxvilleTales comp. A signed copy coming your way!!