Image: by Sonya Renee Taylor (source: @yashayoungprojects)
What’s normal?
Seems like the right time to reflect on how we might want to individually and collectively reshape a new way of inhabiting this beautiful planet.
vivus
“Vivus”— Latin for “alive” or “living”
The wonderful designers Vivienne Westwood and her partner Andreas Kronthaler recently celebrated Earth Day with a collaboration involving their fashion house with Canopy, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting old growth forests and wild life by drawing attention to the link between the clothing industry and the destruction of forests. The result is a poem “vivus” by artist and activist Aidan Zamiri celebrating the world’s forests while highlighting the connection of how they’re endangered by the fashion we consume. So, if you’ve ever wondered about the true cost of that humble basic T-shirt you’re wearing, check out Zamiri’s poignant spoken poem/performance.
a velocity of being
Reading, writing, words, language, books, stories…they’re so much a part of my life it’s like breathing. Air. Oxygen. Necessary. Life-giving.
A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader is the labor of love of Maria Popova (check out her inspirational www.brainpickings.org) who compiled 121 original illustrations and letters for children from wonderful people from all walks of life about why we read and how books transform and shape our lives.
Here’s one letter from American writer Anne Lamott (whose book on writing Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is fantastic):
“Hi You,
I really want you to hear what I am going to say, because I think it is the truth. Okay? I’ll make it fast.
If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.
Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.
Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise.
Okay? Deal?
Love you,
Anne Lamott”
joie de vivre
Joy of Life. For anyone celebrating Easter—or not!—stay safe, healthy, hopeful and strong.
Artwork: A collab between @wrdsmth @ami_imaginaire_streetart & @polarbearstencils, Los Angeles, 2018
f major
Something beautiful. Something to imagine.
Polish pianist/composer Hania Rani’s video for her piece F Major from the forthcoming album Home is set in a stunning, wild Icelandic coastline. In our current locked-down lives—the sheer magic of music and dance merging with the elements of nature is freeing. Lets the mind fly. For a while.
the pandemic is a portal
Artwork: SETH (@seth_globepainter) and one of his rainbow portals
Author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness) recently wrote an article in The Financial Times titled ‘The pandemic is a portal’ (read here). Amid the unfolding situation in her country, India, here’s an excerpt that resonates beyond borders:
“Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
joy
Image: Subjoi EP Me & U (2020)
Definitely need more joy right now! Been listening to this a lot—Subjoi’s great track, Joy from their recently released EP Me & U (2020).
wait for it...
Artwork: @WRDSMTH
Street artist WRDSMTH created this paste-up reflecting on the current corona situation and it’s free to download at his website: https://www.wrdsmth.com.
#frommywindowframe
Image: JR in his window frame
Love this. Posted today by JR on IG about self-isolation and creative projects and opportunities.
“A few years ago, the Buddhist monk Mathieu Ricard showed me the book Motionless Journey with photos he took from his window while he was confined in Nepal during a yearlong retreat. It was amazing to see how many different perspectives you can have from a single small window to the outside world… In 2015, the work of the Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase was presented during the Rencontres d’Arles: During 13 years, he took very moving photos of his wife Yoko from his window… In the film Smoke by Paul Auster (directed by Wayne Wang), Auggie takes the a photo every morning from the same corner. When he shows the 4’000 clichés to his friend, he reacts by saying that they are all the same. And Auggie replies “They're all the same, but each one is different from every other one.” Today, we are confined at home and we must make it a valuable experience. I have asked the students of the Kourtrajmé Photo School @ecolekourtrajme in Paris to do a photo from their confined place every day and to publish it with the hashtag #frommywindowframe
Of course, everyone can participate …. Stay safe, stay home”
Day 1
Image: Day 1 by Marco Godhino (@marcogodhino24)
In response to self-isolation during the covid pandemic, Luxembourg based Portuguese artist Marco Godhino is creating a daily project on Instagram (@marcogodhino24). He’s up to Day 3.
Here’s Day 1.
uncertainty/hope
Image: from @studioolafureliasson
Hope within this space/time of uncertainty.
A quote from writer Rebecca Solnit via artist Olafur Eliasson from his studio’s research wall.
be safe
Artwork: close-up of street art by @pobel.no
Love in the time of Corona…
Keep safe and empathetic everyone! Amid the fear and anxiety, let’s try to help others who need it and share what we can. Be as healthy, compassionate and kind as possible.
And keep falling in love…(and maybe not watch that film Five Feet Apart or anything with “apocalypse” in the title!)
Bia underwater
I’ve always loved the original portrait of Bia de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino (1542) that this street artwork is based on. I especially love Joseph Cornell’s version as part of his Medici Slot Machine series (see my short story The Girl in the Box based on the work here).
But this takes it to another level! Created by Florence based street artist Blub (@blub_lartesanuotare) in Ravenna, Italy, it’s Bia underwater with scuba diving mask. It makes me smile.
Artwork: street art by Blub (@blub_lartesanuotare), Ravenna, Italy
people power
Sometimes people power wins against big oil and the politicians supporting the fossil fuel industry.
Norwegian oil company Equinor has pulled out of drilling in the Great Australian Bight.
This is a big win in Australia for environmentalists, indigenous peoples, local South Australian communities and industries, and anyone who loves nature. Such a beautiful, wild and pristine marine environment and whale breeding sanctuary has been saved. It’s been a long, ongoing protest for so many people. Late last year there was a collective sense of dread that drilling was inevitable given the current Coalition government’s support and the approval for the project by the national offshore petroleum watchdog NOPSEMA. There were still more hurdles for Equinor to jump and the Wilderness Society took legal action against NOPSEMA over their consulting (or lack of) process. But Equinor has bailed and there’s now a push to have the Great Australian Bight Marine Park placed on the World Heritage List.
An amazing win. And a HUGE relief.
no noise
A short meditation on the sea, winter and cold water surfing by director Andrew Kaineder in collaboration with Finisterre and featuring surfer, Noah Lane, No Noise (2019). Kind of a teaser for Kanieder’s feature length film, Beyond the Noise. Check it out.
love love love
Artwork: Mural by @adidafallenangel at Underpressure international graffiti festival in Montreal, 2019
Great mural and words by artist @adidafallenangel:
“Honestly, I couldn't care less about Valentine's day but we all know I do care a lot about Love!
To me love is the source of all that is pure and good, the innocent and the honest, the brave and the humble. To me love is an unstoppable force, a universal machine that is packed with so much warmth and light that the sun will pale in comparison to it. Love drives me to be better, to do better, for myself, my loved ones and the world around me. Love gives me hope, it helps me get up in the morning and it fills my heart with a magnificent force that pretty much helps me breath and be present. Without Love I dont even want to exist, to be brutally honest, I believe we are love and that powerful force is part of us for eternity, to stop believing in love is to stop believing in yourself, and there is no greater pain than that. So forget about Valentine's day and embrace everyday that you are here, that you are love and will always be loved by the rest of us, for under the skin we are alike.
Keep love alive, love every day, tell it to yourself and those around you, fear not of love, hold it dearly and let it go, love will always find it's way back into your heart.”
cupid
Artwork: Banksy?? in Bristol, 2020
Cupid—kind of—and maybe a new Banksy in Bristol…
mirage
Artwork: eL Seed, Mirage, 2019
Artist eL Seed (@elseed) recently created an artwork in the city of Al Ula in north-western Saudi Arabia, Mirage. Overwhelmed by the beauty of the natural surrounds, he wanted to make something using his signature style of Arabic calligraphy that would blend with the environment, that would be almost impossible to grasp.
eL Seed relates the story that inspired it:
Artwork: eL Seed, Mirage 2019
“In the 7th century, Jameel Bin Ma'mar was famous as a lover of the lady Buthayna from a neighboring tribe. The story of their romance is that Buthayna’s people turn down Jameel’s marriage proposal because they feel Jameel’s verses praising their love have compromised her honor—merely saying that a woman loved a man was considered a blot on her honor in ancient Arab tribal society. Buthayna is forcibly married off to another man, but she and Jameel continue to be in love with each other, although they never consummate their love. Jamil continues to visit her at Wadi ‘l-Kura (Al Ula), and to complain in verse of his longing. ‘If only the prime of the youth were new and old times come back, Buthayna, should my poetry spend a night in Wadi AlQura, then I’m happy.’ These words summarize the love the poet has for this region and I chose them to shed new emphasis on it to residents as well as visitors. The poetry offers a lens through which to witness the entire landscape. The words come from within the heart of the region and are, in many ways, an ode not only to one woman, but to nature itself. Mirage acts as a metaphor for the love Jameel had for Buthayna; a love so infinite, ever longing to be reached and grasped, like a Mirage.”
It Took Me Till Now To Find You
Artwork: Addam Yekutieli, It Took Me till Now to Find You, mixed media, 2017
The Isreali/Palestinian conflict is one with such a long, fraught and complex history it’s hard to know where to begin to untangle it. Make sense of it. Have an informed position on it. That is unless it impacts on you personally. Then your very life situation becomes the pivotal point on which your perspective turns.
Isreali artist Addam Yekutieli—who also works under the pseudonym ‘Know Hope’ (@thisislimbo; www.thisislimbo.com)— has been creating work, both on the street and in exhibition spaces, that explores this terrain of a complex political and historical reality.
His new exhibition about to open at Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv, It Took Me till Now to Find You, expands on these themes with the title coming from one of the artworks, an extract from a letter written by a Holocaust survivor to her childhood friend whose father served in the Gestapo.
Yekutieli says: “For this exhibition I collected letters written by Palestinians and Israelis, with the aim of hearing about notions of belonging, of homeland and longing. The authors of the letters come from eclectic backgrounds and various walks of life- left wing, right wing, settlers, military objectors, religious and secular. Each letter is addressed to whichever recipient the author chose fitting. At times, the letter is open ended, and other times it is addressed to someone very specific. The letters are all handwritten on paper in an intimate and personal tone.”
From the letters he took phrases and then scratched them into the surface of replicas of the Segregation Wall that stands between Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Phrases such as: “But I Also Feel”; “As If We Are”; “That Grey Area”; “I Was Proud”; “To Give In”; “Understand My Love”; “I Can Remember”; “Restored By Force”; “Your Home” and “We Only Meet So Far Away”.
As Yekutieli states: “By taking these texts out of their original context it is unclear whom the original author is, allowing it to gain a universal and ambiguous meaning and thus broaden the participation in the political discourse.”
Another significant element is the olive tree, the roots of which are present in each artwork. Besides the olive tree’s significance to both regions, it is the notion of offering an olive branch as a gesture of reconciliation or peace that comes to mind. How in offering these highly personal and disparate narratives from both sides of the the West Bank “wall” that separates Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, Yekutieli’s underlying project is to not only reveal the intricacies of living with this conflict, but perhaps to also bring people closer to a more insightful understanding and desire for peace.
The emotional resonance of the artwork (evident in the original letters which are on display for the viewer to read), acts as the vehicle to further explore these complex political realities by acknowledging people’s connection through a shared humanity, finding commonalities through feelings around home, longing, love, jealousy, frustration, anger or hope. This allows the work to speak to diverse people, to create dialogue—and potentially empathy or understanding—over division.
To create a crack in the walls that we erect to separate; to reach a hand out in support, kindness, compassion and hope.
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Image: Yoshitomo Nara Peace flag
Love Peace