!

wishing you all merry christmas and a surreal new year ♡

today

cucumber water, brain storms, playing with visual contrast and book formation

Finding

this week I discovered paradise in South Wales.
35mm film.

~ Nicole

Distance

Recently  I've spent a lot of time wandering, a lot of time thinking (and not so much doing).  Getting lost, discovering, adventures and exploring ways of seeing and ways of living.  Conversations, debates and new landscapes.
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Two poignant events in the last month that have lingered in my mind were 'Democracy Sandwich' hosted by g39 in Cardiff which took place during Parliament Week. The event was an 'exploratory ramble though all things democratic [and not so democratic]'.  Artists, comedians and activists were invited to share their opinions, knowledge on thoughts on the importance of freedom and equality in democracy today.


Sara Rees
Sited in one of the now ubiquitous empty shops symptomatic of the Global Financial Crisis, the work explores the ideological basis to the current crisis and the threat to democracy posed by global corporate capitalism. Democracy originated in Ancient Greece and its agoras; open public spaces that were both market place and the place of assembly - the site of both commerce and politics. In DEMOCRACY, Rees supplants consumer space with a discursive space, in which she invites us to engage and reflect on the nature of consumer culture, democracy, our cities and the future.

Images of iconic historical people who have helped shaped the world's current democracy were pinned onto boards and people were invited to use the faces as masks.  Literal sandwiches were made and used as a metaphor for the public's opinions on the state of current democracy. The room was quickly filled with inside out sandwiches, plates scattered with individual components, mixtures of pickles and chocolate spread or simply a lonely (yet bold?) apple.

"The value of democracy is one of the central articles of faith of our society. Yet in complex societies like ours, the power to determine our own fate may often seem beyond our grasp – except when we go to the ballot box, and even then we find ourselves asking whether the choice we have in front of us is a real one."

--Cardiff Philosophy Cafe Blog

The conversation began conclusion by bringing the issue to a local sense - in particular a recent incident in Newport, where the council demolished a mural depicting the 1839 Chartist uprising. The local public were furious that they only discovered the plans on the day of the demolition - this highlighted the need for respect, and the question of problem with communication and importance of rights.

After a lengthy debate which involved, Russel Brand's recent call for a revolution, the contrast of happiness and satisfaction in less Westernised countries compared to the UK, and what changes do we want/need in order to be more content with our society; a conclusion stalled at "we have a democracy, it's not perfect but it's the best idea we've produced to date." The first step in moving forward is clarification and understanding?

~ Nicole

I had been wandering amongst An accumulation of thoughts

~ A definition between a physical quality of place – being in the here and the now - and how reality is reflected in mental dreamlike spaces.

~ Considering attempts at recording slices of experience, through words or imagery and how successful these attempts are.

~ Levels and layers of reality and perception - A sense of uncertainty.

I had been wandering amongst

An accumulation of thoughts

following
shapes and signs

parallel lines

Connections string one place to another

crossing my mind through a fog of time

A strange depth of distorted perspective

concealed in some sort of dark mirror

The space is thick
Cotton wool

tangles of

muffled forms 

grow in my eyes

Figments float

round and round

Rose tinted clouds

unconsciously overhead

Infront of me intentions stretch into the distance

The mind sways wistfully

Restless

up in the air

~Phoebe

Is art good medicine?

I  attended an evening of presentations and discussions exploring ideas of 'well-being', 'being well' and the impact art can have on this; looking at spiritual, emotional, mental and physical health. Hosted by Rabab Ghazoul and Sarah Pace, with talks from Tracy Evans, Valley and Vale, Mark Williams, Fathers Reaching Out and local poets.
Questions were posed to think about how celebrating 'local' and  a sense of community and can enhance mental health. To think about the function of a social and cultural space; to make something familiar, unfamiliar.

Being aware through being.

What is the connection between art and health?
It could be argued that all art and culture contributes positively to our health - enabling individual and collective elf experession - provoking dialogue about the world we inhabit and enriching connections, to both ourselves and others.

How can art subtlety bring communities together to enhance relationships and emotional states?


Jeremy Deller's work is all about the happening and the being there.
He explores compelling social and cultural territories while alternately taking on the roles of artistic producer, publisher, filmmaker, collaborator, curator, parade organizer and cultural archivist. Deller devises what might be called social interventions. He has been called "a pied piper of popular culture".

Joy in People, 2012


MINDFULNESS. AWARENESS. 

Miranda July focuses her work around closeness, intimacy and interaction with strangers.  "The point of art is to transform yourself through understanding".

Eleven Heavy Things
53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, 2009
Center Lawn of Union Square Park in New York from May 29 to October 03, 2010
Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles from July 23 to October 23, 2011

July assumes and invites the picture — these are eleven photo opportunities, in a city where one is always clutching a camera. Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance that is only complete when these tourist photos are uploaded onto personal blogs and sent in emails — at which point the audience changes, and the subject clearly becomes the participants, revealing themselves through the work.


Rabab Ghazoul is a visual artist whose practice draws upon a range of media to explore our negotiations and constructions of the political. Part social observation, part investigation into the realm of public narrative, her work often sees her referencing or re-staging chosen 'texts' - from news media footage to an existing art work - by way of exploring our relationship to power, and the coerced and de-stabilised nature of our affiliations. Born and part raised in the Middle East, her experience of dual cultures informs an ongoing interest in belonging and identity, but often at their point of fragmentation or dissolution. In this sense, her chosen context is less the culture of home, and more the ever present effects - or 'home' - of late capitalist culture, through which we continue to rehearse our prescribed and ritualistic movements. Born in Mosul, Iraq, she currently lives and works in Cardiff, Wales.
Ghazoul created an on-going project called 'A Short Walk Without Words' to explore ideas of the intimacy of social. To invite pairs of strangers to take a walk in silence, and then at the end, write each other a letter reflecting on the experience.


Anthony Schrag's work is research-led, he sees the processes of collaborative engagement as the core value of the work, rather than the production of art objects. As such, any project must be site- and context-specific, and deeply concerned with the position of audiences, both as collaborators and as viewers. A process of autonomy.

Ship of Hope, 2008
"On a project in Lahore, Pakistan, I felt uncomfortable making a work when I was a white outsider and a representative of its colonial history. Considering the bleak outlook on the future, I proposed to develop a ‘Ship of Hope’ to be entirely constructed by the public (i.e. not artists) on the condition that whatever form it was in, in 3 days we would launch it into the City’s central canal, and if it sunk, Hope was dead and, if it floated, Hope would survive. Built by bankers, students, housewives, maids and homeless children, it did not engage the skills of any professional builders, and begun to act as a metaphor for the social cohesion & ability of a society towards a better future"

CONNECT. TAKE NOTICE.

Experience a 'cultural thing' - as simple as a swimming pool - in a unique, individual and fresh way. Create a unique and positive experience. Human flourishing; develop solidarity. 

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Reflection

Links to The School of Life.

Art can be used as a trigger of conversation, thoughts, ideas, feeling and emotions, to reflect. A sort of middle-man and can allow people to express indirectly, to build trust and self-confidence. Art therapy.

Mental well-being allows for motivation and energy for physical well-being. Notice how people 'open up' when in an informal and comfortable setting, importance of mutual trust and an essential connection. An ease of confession when not being provoked.

Live and breathe in culture.

~ Nicole

text and ink

contemplation..

~Nicole

I go to the moon / they pull me back to the sun

Escaping mental making-block, contrast and fleeting moments. Image-making and story-telling.

~ Nicole

◊

By awakening our imagination, art intensifies and complements our own experience.

Why Study the Arts and the Humanities?


-Huffington Post

Choose to be concious in the present

much of our day/time is spent in the past/future playing scenes/thoughts over and over like a broken record, allowing what is in front of us, which is our true reality, to slip through our hands.

how would our lives change if we were to choose to consciously live in each moment, only briefly visiting the past or future when needed?

i feel that by doing so, it would not only allow for a deeper understanding of our self, but also connect us to “who we are”, which is usually the reason for our wanderings into the past and future to begin with.


- satsuki shibuya

sometimes we get lost in our thoughts.

instead of standing still in uncertainty, move forward.

the momentum itself may reveal new answers.


-satsuki shibuya

Noosphere

'Sphere of human thought', from the Greek 'nous' meaning 'mind'.

A separation of the real and the physical

I know nothing with any certainty 

I'm in your head

You are in mine

Alot of thinking ~ problems of converting thoughts into a tangible form

~Phoebe

Thinking Thoughts

“… the point is not to try to get rid of thoughts, but rather to see their true nature. thoughts will run us around in circles if we buy into them, but really they are like dream images. they are like an illusion — not really all that solid. they are, as we say, just thinking.” ~ Satsuki Shibuya

non-sense

a vague / subconscious comment on contrast of atmosphere/emotions/feelings/states of mind is two different places

(Cardiff ↔ Bali)

~ Nicole