I think of rivers, of tides. Forests and water gushing out. Rain and lightening. Rocks and shadows. All of these are in me.
-- Haruki Murakami
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Why We Are Digging Up Old Bones
The remains of Cervantes have been discovered. Art history sleuth Silvani Vicenti thinks he has identified the remains of the woman we know as the Mona Lisa. The Archbishop of Canterbury has just conducted the funeral of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. On Front Row the sociologist Tiffany Jenkins explains our fascination with bones of cultural and historic significance. Listen here.
phosphate of calcium
What reconciles me to my own death more the anything else is the image of a place: a place where your bones and mine are buried, thrown, uncovered, together. They are strewn there pell-mell. One of your ribs leans against my skull. A metacarpal of my left hand lies inside your pelvis. (Against my broken ribs your breast like a flower). The hundred bones of our feet are scattered like gravel. it is strange that this image of our proximity, concerning as it does mere phosphate of calcium, should bestow a sense of peace. Yet is does. With you I could imagine a place where to be phosphate of calcium is enough.
--John Berger
and our faces, my heart, as brief as photos
and our faces, my heart, as brief as photos
Sunday, 28 June 2015
Saturday, 27 June 2015
Friday, 26 June 2015
Once
On a summer trip to Norway, I jumped in to the Arctic sea.
I did it because everyone else was doing it (yup) with what looked like ease...
And, as I have mentioned before, I've been swimming since I was a tiny...one of the only things my parents were adamant me and my brothers stuck with...so I figured I'd be strong enough.
The cold was such a shock to the system I had to be pulled back out, gasping and numb.
When I swim in the ocean now, I step into the water slowly and with great care and although I rarely think about that time in Norway, it always feels as though I'm absentmindedly touching a scar.
I did it because everyone else was doing it (yup) with what looked like ease...
And, as I have mentioned before, I've been swimming since I was a tiny...one of the only things my parents were adamant me and my brothers stuck with...so I figured I'd be strong enough.
The cold was such a shock to the system I had to be pulled back out, gasping and numb.
When I swim in the ocean now, I step into the water slowly and with great care and although I rarely think about that time in Norway, it always feels as though I'm absentmindedly touching a scar.
Thursday, 25 June 2015
Once
As a kid, I ran down a hill so fast I couldn't stop myself.
Momentum took over and I lost all ability to command my legs.
My body just kept propelling itself forward.
I still vividly remember the feeling bubbling in the pit of my stomach as I lost control.
I tumbled straight into a bush and a pile of rocks broke my fall leaving a permanent scar on my right knee.
I remember not wanting to leave the shelter of the bush, I was boiling with embarrassment.
It was some time before I let myself loose control like that again.
And it took an even longer time to learn that mistakes aren't good or bad, they're just mistakes.
And you clean them up.
And you go on.
Momentum took over and I lost all ability to command my legs.
My body just kept propelling itself forward.
I still vividly remember the feeling bubbling in the pit of my stomach as I lost control.
I tumbled straight into a bush and a pile of rocks broke my fall leaving a permanent scar on my right knee.
I remember not wanting to leave the shelter of the bush, I was boiling with embarrassment.
It was some time before I let myself loose control like that again.
And it took an even longer time to learn that mistakes aren't good or bad, they're just mistakes.
And you clean them up.
And you go on.
Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Once
When learning how to dance with a partner
my teacher told me
'"The highest technique is to have no technique. Your movement should be the result of his movement and his the result of yours."
It took me a long time to understand what that meant.
I've since found out he borrowed that quote!
'"The highest technique is to have no technique. Your movement should be the result of his movement and his the result of yours."
It took me a long time to understand what that meant.
I've since found out he borrowed that quote!
(thanks again for sharing the video David!)
"The highest technique is to have no technique. My technique is a result of your technique. My movement is a result of your movement." -- Bruce Lee
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Frida
Frida marching for workers rights, at a rally protesting C.I.A. involvement in Guatemala and on a communist rally.
Once
On a family trip to Ireland I fell in love with Irish Dance.
On my return home my mum found a local class for me to attend.
I was besotted for years.
It's still my favorite kind of folk dance, especially the tap.
Dancing those rhythms is like laying your heart beat on the floor.
p.s. THIS is brilliant.
On my return home my mum found a local class for me to attend.
I was besotted for years.
It's still my favorite kind of folk dance, especially the tap.
Dancing those rhythms is like laying your heart beat on the floor.
p.s. THIS is brilliant.
Monday, 22 June 2015
Once Upon a Time
"Unlike what most people think, storytelling does not begin with inventing, it begins with listening"
- John Berger
Brilliant article about John Berger and his work here
Saturday Poem
Once
I got up early in the morning
to take pictures of this huge momolith
in the middle of the australian outbck.
It took me a whole day
to walk around Ayers Rock.
On my trip
I never met anybody,
but ever since I'd left the motel in the morning
I was joined by a dog
running ahead of me.
It was blazingly hot,
and except for a stubborn German like me,
nobody in his right mind would have gone on such a march.
Thanks to my local guide
I found a few amazing hidden places.
Only when, to top it all,
I decided to climb the mountain,
my canine companion backed out.
He waited for me at the foot of the steep climb
and welcomed me when I came back down,
wagging his tail.
Wim Wenders. from his book "Once"
Thursday, 18 June 2015
The miracle is this…
The more we share
The more
We have
The more we share
The more
We have
Leonard Nimoy,
A Lifetime Of Love: Poems On The Passages Of Life
Recommended Read
This is a slightly premature recommendation because I haven't finished reading it yet, mostly because I keep getting side-tracked looking up all the wondrous thins Chris references BUT I'm really enjoying it so far.I am really enjoying this.
If you want a much more nuanced argument for giving it a go then take a listen to this Liberated Body podcast.
Blindly
Documenting scenes from a painting workshop with visually impaired participants, Żmijewski’s video Blindly asks what it means to imagine and represent without relying on the sense of sight.
Artur Żmijewski, Blindly 2010
Video, colour and sound, 18min 41sec
Image courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Agnes Martin
Artists are intuitive. They wait for inspiration. That's what art is about, the intuitive, not the intellectual. Art about ideas stimulates ideas, but art that comes from inspiration stimulates feelings of happiness, innocence and beauty.
--Agnes Martin
I've just been to see her exhibition at the Tate. It's glorious, go!
I don’t think there is much separation in all the things we do. How we do one thing is how we do anything.
-- Lauren Spencer KingFrom apieceapart.com
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