Patience and anxiety

sunset on amstelveen

Dark corner chair

Monotheistic religions sharing the "creation" myth

The Bible: A History, Creation, channel4 (also on youtube)... on the distortion of science:
"a longing for absolute truth hides in the human heart, absolute atheism, absolute creationism, dance to the same tune each driving each other to further and further extremes of absolute conviction, for me neither position leaves room for what the poet John Keats called "negative capability" - mystery, uncertainty, doubt and since these are what makes for creativity they are precisely what we must bring the creation story"

at one point he also argues- "what do you want mere fact for"(?!)

Proof is belief not belief with proof. The requirements of belief of all monotheistic religions have been critised in the same way as the subjects of the book When Prophecy Fails and there is a common line I have heard myself in many church surmons and lay speeches, that persecution is almost proof of rightousness because the persecution was either a test of belief or a punitive measure, a benchmark set down as a model of potential comitment to apparent selflessness required. (Common themes such as sacrifice, homicidal certitude, terminal altruism all appear in the old testament and the book Marquez penned - from which the blog title is punned). The belief that punishment (for the sins of previous generations, for loss or lack of faith/belief) and the delay of (the "one")"his" (lord/god/son/aliens/apocolyptic agent/emancipation) return is a continual test of faith. The process and the results of this is objectively documented in the cult setting of this book. The cynical tone of the general publics response allowed this scrutiny to be permitted a luxury hard to gain if the same study was conducted on a church, especially in American Midwest. A review from amazon did make me think again about the conditions of study . The similarities between this cult and the monotheistic religions opens up a debate around the possibility of manipulation by the founders of the big three (Judaism, Catholicism and Islam).

Study: Cellist performance London bridge venue

The musician emanates one of the most enduring images of solitude. The level of concentration and focus between the musician to the instrument removes the musician from the immediate environment in many ways, it is our appreciation of this detachment and the consequences of the use of this object that allows us to be drawn into the musicians world, to share their vision, to experience what is being communicated through interaction between human and object. The chair is essential it must be one of the few instruments that require a chair. There is a frequent connection between the spine or the back and "other" places. It can be associatted with the past, so therefore with memory and with security or protection (by being a weakspot or centre of instability.
I would like to reproduce these images with black ink on red/orange glass/plastic backlit with yellow/orange...use diffuse technique...

Secularism and Mathematical Oneness

The Prayer Stool was one of my early sketch models before commiting to this project. The sprititual aspect of Marquez's story(ies) and my own fascination with division of belief despite seemingly identical values drove me towards an interpretation of the spritual buffet we seem to be (continuing to) evolve. Although violent secularism seems to be the news media's messianic vision the future may not be so bleak. I am interested in the divulgence of religions and the intergration of belief through individual and socially cohesive policies as this happened for example to propagate the big three monoteistic religions and will continue to proliferate, in my opinion. The interest for me is in the concepts of absolute truths, or single individual immoveable facts and the individuals that pursue this quest for... the examination of limits-of-faith-in... the description of the ultimate "figure" (person, number, equation, date, event) numbers and dates - measurements, (nemerical and mathematical / spirtuality - noahs ark, the ten commmandments, the ark of the covenent, islamic geometry,equations, theoretical sciences/maths) events, (apocalypse, doomsday (cults), second coming, end of the universe, meteorites, blackholes, singularity etc) always figure in religion and science, both of which require huge dedication and "faith" in the subject of focus. The examples of which interest me, the anthropological neccessity (as it seems) to generate and regenerate or re-present the concepts of both division (divisible down to 1) and multiplication (or duplication of 1) within contemporary frameworks.

the "drive" or impetus, the momentum all interest me, why divide numbers down to 1? conversely multiplying othe relements

experiencing the city alone we are neither on our own or part of the swarming herds cutting channels through the humdrum flow. In the middle of one world city the illustration of the great divide in life seems to niggle at me. Not rich and poor, immigrant and native, male and female, young and old, but one that sums up all of these divides. The one and the many. How you perceive yourself in this equation (feedback?) of the one and the many may define your experience. To be part of the many is important to us but in typical human contradiction we seemingly desire to be different, to establish our own independence.

Study: Separation of the human and all its senses...

the chair here in a squalid corner of a squalid park, used by drunks and tramps, a single seat futon matress crumpled up dumped in a corner next to the derelict toilets. The visual cues of the human form curled up in a foetal position renders this image as slightly disturbing and an unsettling reflection of the scenes played out upon it. The lost and broken paraphernalia smashed glass, a stick, an empty beer bottle and can, a remote control, electrical componants, bin bags























If you take all the sense and all the senses from the human form there is only a carcas remaining recognisible by the most basic of forms

"the last days of decadence"

The entry title refers to the name of a club night in London which always springs to my mind when I think about our current decade in comparrison to the turn of the last century and up to world war 1. It uses the imagery of art nouveau and brings to mind the comparisons of both heady times.

In contemporary terms how can we talk about the individual and his corresponding society as Plato spoke about the individual and his corresponding society, although this is (admittedly) suscptible to (forced through) prejudicial and stereotyping (filters)

"the last days of decadence"

are there similarities between art nouveau and the movement of cameras one effect of our fascination with the integration of technology (anthropomorphising technology/objects/values and valueables) integrating into our lives and even our persons (body programming mental and physical) mixing new technology with natural elements. does this take the edge off new concepts? to smoother it in beauty to disguise its harsh reality...

harmony and disharmony

divide images into two categories

quote lifted from the website below

http://www.roopho.com/connectionPage.html
relates to this earlier thought...
and this observation

Study: Reflection of a chair

Study: Cellist's Chair, Tate Modern

The cellist's chair next to Jannis Kounellis’s work Untitled (1971) which I think is more of a prop as oppossed to an integral part of the work. The chair is a visual reminder of the absent cellist.























Here is an official reproduction of the piece in the tate modern

jill magid / the lives of others

Jill Magid and The Lives of Others

the solitude of "dividing" your caracter or soul, as if the essence of the person is divided between two. "agents"

Study: Life in the fast lane - Get in the trunk...

More car seats retired from service and consigned to a slow death in the dark boots and alleyways of junk dealers and gypsy sites.

Study: Bike baby seat

Study: Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris (1972)

Solaris (1972) trailer and
end sequence





















Frozen pond, in deepest darkest New Cross