"I think of you all the time..."
"I hardly ever think of you, in fact right now I'm thinking of doing my laundry."

iki, ma...

went to a lecture on japanese aesthetics yesterday. japanese arts are very holistic and not separate from other parts of society. it is not possible or desirable to separate 'aesthetics' from other philosophical threads. i wish i had seen this lecture when i was younger since i have been constantly in an (east-west) identity crisis. the japanese have been going through this same process since the they were forced to modernize/westernize in the 19thC. there is something very deep in my psyche that reacts to japanese arts, like noh plays... and there it was laid out for me in this film. the sound is something primordial. another point is that noh is transmitted to the younger generation orally, that there has to be a master on site to correct you. this same principle applies to being japanese or any other nationality (?) that you need to live there or at least have parents of that nationality. but pardon me while i work this out because i am a couple generations removed from japan. my parents did some inculcating, but this is beyond me, something biological, like salmon...

dear photograph

there's a lovely website called dear photograph, in which people take pictures of old pictures at the same scene and write comments. today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and so today's one is particularly touching. i know that it was much more horrific for so many people, and i haven't begun to digest what happened that day. all i know is i was there on the phone talking to my friend about a fire at the WTC then, chaos, then 'no more WTC' what do you mean i said...
new york was my home like it was for so many and i wasn't watching the tv. i was there. the smell. the pile. the obituaries. Here is an interview from a fireman someone who was really there

my friends are still there and i am here in ireland. thinking about the day that time fractured. more than time, the world fractured. here in ireland they are talking about the aftermath of 9/11, what the US did after, how they squandered the opportunity to bring the world closer, squandered goodwill...

Gil Scott-Heron

I heard about the death of Gil Scott-Heron and I have to admit I didn't really know who he was. The phrase, 'Godfather of Rap' meant fairly little to me. So my first introduction was this video.

It was a good introduction to understand where he was coming from, recollecting memories, in this understated way ---'mistreated to the maximum' --- referring to death of some of the Civil Rights leaders...

Sorry for pulling quotes but he's just so brilliant -- 'Even if you ain't got no job there's some shit you could be doing...the last thing that's available to you is your right to complain.'
(I should read this phrase everyday) He talks about helping people and how it helps your soul and therefore the energy you radiate to others...
'People who spend a lot of time looking in the mirror, they know what they look like, sort of...The way that you know how you look really is the expression on other people's faces...'

He is most known for , 'The Revolution will not be Televised.' It's an amazing rap about commercialism and marketing of events. Jeremy Clarkson wrote a piece about video and catastrophic events -- saying basically, if there is no video of it doesn't make an impact (ie, the Rwandan massacre) and conversely that the Japanese Tsunami/meltdown wouldn't have been front page news (back in the day)...

Love the future

On any given morning I read a lot of random information and according to Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian spam filters are not the answer. No one forces me to click links about plastic surgery record holder Cindy Jackson but I suppose when I sign out of Yahoo I should just look away. I don't have an efficient brain for filtering or filling information.

The recent imprisonment of Ai Weiwei gets filed somewhere in my gut-brain, churning and indigestable...
I admire the creativity of the Chinese for using a similar sounding 'Ai Weilai' (Love the future) to avoid the censors, but that phrase was blocked as well.

Onslaught

There has been so many catastrophic events lately, of 'biblical' proportions, as the news says. And eventually the news fades and recedes. But the earthquake on March 11, the tsunami that followed and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan will not be forgotten anytime soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami


I know this blog is supposed to be about things that 'inspire' me but some things just thrust themselves into your consciousness and won't go away. Just this morning I awoke from a dream in which I was sleeping and awoke to see the water rising above my windows...

Last time in London

At the Whitechapel -- enjoyed the show of John Stezaker's collages. It is only an image pasted on another image in a surreal way but it was pleasantly disturbing. Having just watched part of this documentary on the future of art in which art is mindblowingly open, collaborative and technologically dependent, I supposed it's comforting to just look at a few collages.

Hanshen Gu

Saw this on the V & A website and then looked up the artist --- amazing stuff...
http://guhanshen.blogspot.com/

and this is inspiring in a different way...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/30/dying-mother-sons-to-do-list

Re-enchantment

An amazing show at the British Library and a lecture http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/ . http://www.artevents.info/tre.htm brought about a change after a disenchanting winter and departure from the art world. Practical concerns such as moving out of my apt and back again and trying to figure out how to make money have distracted me....

chocolate

it all started with ingesting Ecuadorian chocolate...wrote to a friend, accidentally insulted him, have to read about Gran Colombia to learn about the conflict between Venezuela and Colombia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Colombia
realized i have no home land
and then this website
http://www.bizzbook.com/choklad/chocolate.html
I have been facilitating these artists for ArtTrail--
http://cargocollective.com/combicity#

and doing collaborative drawing at my studio.

Trees etc

Went to London and Barcelona recently and will be there again on Nov 6.

http://www.all-that-is-solid.net/exhibition.php

Yao Lu

This morning: Yao Lu is a Chinese photographer who digitally alters his photographs of landfill waste to look like traditional landscape Chinese painting. There are ample links to his works. He manages to combine aesthetically pleasing work with a social conscience.
http://www.prixpictet.com/2009/view/533
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425983444/423818140/yao-lu-mountain-and-the-straw-houses-in-the-summer.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/13/photography-prix-pictet-2009?picture=350200001

Tea and tabs

I need to do more research on tea. All the tea appreciation society needs to do is say 'fancy a cuppa?' and 300 people reply. fascinating. i'm just finishing a blend of loose leaf tea with green rooibos from Vienna. I think tea's appeal is the quiet time to think and the pleasure of something warm in one's mouth and hands, usually accompanied by something sweet. One link led to another and I found these links on flickr that has cuppa related art, such as the illustration by Paula Mills below

http://www.flickr.com/groups/a_cup_of_art/pool/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/tea_rooms_a_cup_of_tea/pool/

I also need to do research on trade in exotic goods --chocolate, coffee, bananas, etc... In this spirit I googled 'banana plantations' I'm interested in how the banana gets from Costa Rica to me.
So I was looking at this link from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations which describes the DNA of two banana pathogens.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ae216e/ae216e0d.htm
in the process it has a map of the areas where bananas are grown.
Probably not the article to read while eating chocolate chip banana muffins.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Banana-Muffins-2/Detail.aspx

Figure 2 (a) Latin American sampling sites of Mycosphaerella fijiensis (a) and M. musicola (b) populations used in the present study.

Radical Nature, flat abs, bobby baker

A sample of my tabs this morning
http://www.ub.edu/guiaconversa/angles/a.php?fer=PORTADA&idioma=7, a link for an English-Catalan phrasebook (We're going to Barcelona on 19 Oct)
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/pastexhibitionsandevents/bobby-bakers-diary-drawings/image-gallery/index.htm Bobby Baker's exhibition at the Welcome Centre which documents her journey through depression.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ --Still trying to read about Phenomenology
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/12887/score-flat-abs-without-sit-ups/ --who wouldn't want flat abs without sit-ups?

Culture Cake

Thanks to S. Foster, who recommended that I look up Bobby Baker, I heard about this event at Chelsea theatre in London--
Saturday 31 October 2009

Bobby Baker
CULTURE CAKE
A one-day workshop

11am - 5pm. Tickets £20.00 (£15.00 concessions)

ODE: culture - def (2) - the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.
ODE: identity - def (1) - the fact of being who or what a person or thing is; the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.

1. Do you have a cultural identity? [ ]
2. Are you bothered? [ ]
3. Are you a practicing artist? [ ]
4. Are you alive? [ ]
5. Do you like cake? [ ]

This workshop is for those scoring 5 ticks. The plan is to explore individual notions of cultural identity - and how these impact on the content, process, practice and production our work. Having identified our 'identities', somewhat briefly, during the day - we will collaborate on producing a cultured, cultural, diverting diversion involving cake - to be presented to visitors at the end of the day in fifteen fleeting moments.

Needless to say I tick all the boxes. I wish I could go but flights to London are prohibitively expensive for Halloween.

Cupcakes, cabbage, etc...

I have about 40 'tabs' as of today --- research for projects, research for last night's dinner, I've split my blogs into one that's only about work and the other about the myriad of research and 'inspiration' that goes into the work.
I spent a lot of time on the Joy of Baking website ---the pictures are gorgeous. What I realized after making cupcakes for the CCP gallery opening is that it is not possible to be a subversive baker without making the decision about the 'ego boost' associated with food and the joy in giving people pleasure. Maeve Higgins' show is brilliant at showing the self esteem dilema with women, who cannot take a complement about their appearance, but will enjoy a complement about their food and emphasize the effort it took to prepare it.

Back to the cupcakes. People do use food products as media which renders them inedible. But is it possible to make something to ingest that is also thought-provoking art. AA Gill manages to write such resonant pieces while consuming food and reviewing a restaurant, so it is possible, I think.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/searchresults.aspx?text=cabbage&page=3
http://www.joyofbaking.com/cakes.html
http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/maeve_higgins_fancy_vittles.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/a_a_gill/article6816906.ece

29 August 2009

You and I must make a pact we must bring salvation back....

Michael Jackson - 29 Aug 1958 - 26 June 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jackson-obit26-2009jun26,0,1970798.story

Map research has led to Sugoroku,
a Japanese board game and Paramapada Sopanam (path to salvation) the latter is the inspiration for Milton Bradley's Chutes and Ladders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_ladders

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-icon-of-the-heavenly-ladder-of-st-john-klimakos-1232957.html