KINTSUGI - REPAIRS

Social media can be blamed for a lot!

Social media can be blessed for a lot!

For every story of false news, there is the counterweight of uncovered justice.  For every feud fueled by misunderstanding, there is a love story re-ignited after years of isolation.  

But how to wade through it all?  The blast is unrelenting. 

In true “Two Faces of Facebook”  fashion, this week a friend lost a friend as a result of some political posts. She asked “how do I get back?”  Now there’s a question!  Get back to innocence? Get back to full acceptance of the other? Where is “back?” Should we stay in broken friendships out of loyalty, shared history and memory? Well, yes.  Until we can’t.

In a scene from the movie “Stepmom,” a dying Susan Sarandon tells interloper Julia Roberts that people stay married because they need a witness to their own life.  I think that’s why we fight for long-time friendships and forgive relatives for otherwise unpardonable breaches of civility. 

I didn’t have many words to help my friend through her relationship crisis but I loved that another of her friends wrote “his (life choice) is one of righteous certainty while yours is one of joyful inquiry.”  That sets up the contradiction in clear, creative terms. Can “certainty” and  “inquiry” be friends?  Not always but sometimes they can find a way back.

Kintsugi is an ancient method of ceramic repair (If you ever have a chance to view the 2000 Chinese movie “The Road Home” you won’t be sorry.  It’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen on film. One scene shows kintsugi in practice.)  Here are some photographs of ceramics repaired (kintsugi.) There’s a metaphor implicit in this philosophy.  If the objects are worth having in the first place then, when broken, they are worth repairing.  Sometimes they are more beautiful after the repair.  But they are never the same as before.

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

I follow Hyperallergic, a daily on line, art focused news source.  Today the art of Todd Murphy ’s one man exhibit at Marc Straus Gallery is featured.  Here are some photographs from the installation. He encases women’s dresses inside plexiglass, lighted boxes.  The skirts “hide” images - tree branches, a starry night scene -  “mysteries” revealed in women’s voluminous skirts. Hmmm….quite a rich vein of psychology in these things!  The show (in Manhattan) is on view until December 11.

  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Snow is expected tonight at our house. The forecast was preceded by a frenzy of preparation: snow stakes pounded into the hems of the driveway, the remaining porch chair escorted to the barn, one last leaf pickup before exchanging the tractor sweep for the plow blade. And because stringing Christmas lights and hanging outdoor wreaths is easier on a 70 degree day than on one in the freeze zone, those things got done too. Thanksgiving is only one week away; it isn’t too early for ‘Christmas: Part I’ is it?

It feels like the end of something to be soberly marked - more than the usual entrance to winter.  An unendurable national election has finally finished and with it the inescapable proof that our culture and societal mores have shifted into territory that feels tainted, raw, ugly.  One journalist wrote this week that this election - every part of it - disproved the exceptionalism we Americans claimed as uniquely ours. The “Highest Office in the Land” will go to the most vulgar if he/she throws enough bloody meat to the masses.  God Bless the U.S.A.

I need the solace of my house, my family, my friends. No rehashing, please! No more explanations, no recounts, no justification.  I’ve listened and heard all sides. I hate to sound so dramatic - so naive! -  but I feel like something good and fine is gone. I will continue to plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and for as many more as I have left.  Snow will come every winter here. And each time, the first snow (not the second!) will be anticipated, expected and met with childlike wonder. 

But mostly, quiet!  Snow is quiet.

```````````````````````````

Odds and Ends 

It’s almost time for the end of year “blessings count”…it’s going to be a tough one for me this year!  Meanwhile…on my desk…

An 11 foot landscape painting by David Hockney just sold at auction for $11.7 million, slightly more than a million dollars per lineal foot. What do you make of that?

“There is a crack in everything.  That’s how the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen who died this week)

A news story:

To help save the economy, the Federal government has announced that the Immigration Department will start deporting seniors (instead of illegals) in order to lower Social Security and Medicare costs. Older people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get home.  

I was worried about you.  Then it dawned on me:  I’ll see you on the bus!

Maybe my all-tiome favorite artist, Cy Twombly

NICK CAVE AT MASS MOCA

Enter "Until" installation, Nick Cave

Nick Cave’s new exhibit at MassMoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, has marched around inside my head for nearly a week.  It’s time for me to get it down on paper.

  I like the IDEA of Nick Cave.  I like that he graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a place that I associate with beauty, scholastic rigor and high achievement in fields associated with hand-crafted arts.  I like that he was once a dancer with Alvin Ailey, a dance troop that co-incidentally just performed in Rochester, New York.  They are extraordinary in every way - bodies, movement, expressed emotion. 

And I especially like descriptions of his work that include such phrases as “blurred lines,” “performance, dance, moving sculpture.” I’ve never seen his Sound Suits in person - only on YouTube clips -  but I can imagine the delight of his audience - particularly students! - and the chosen ones lucky enough to perform in these masterful total immersion art creations. 

So I am sorry to admit that I was underwhelmed with the MassMoCA installation.  “Until” is the title of the show; I avoided reading about it in advance. I read after seeing the show that Cave designed this exhibit as a racial discussion started by the term “guilty until proven innocent.”  Stretching the experience as far as possible - onto my very tippy toes! - I still don’t get it.

Viewers enter Space #5, the largest installation space at MassMoCA, and find themselves immediately submerged into glittering movement -  ceiling strung  colored aluminum “lawn ornaments” - thousands of them! Spinning and shining and twisting the light in every direction - pure joy! And these things fill maybe half the football field space, hanging from the 24 ft.ceiling to nearly touch the floor.  A narrow path is cleared to walk through the maize.  So far, total enchantment!

This is "Heaven"

Then you find yourself in the half-court standing under a cloud the size of most smallish bedrooms of hanging crystal.  Cave says the inspiration was a thought: “I wonder if there’s racism in heaven?” which leads me to obviously assume that the cloud and all the junk piled high on top are “heaven.”  But to get to “heaven” to see what’s on the other side of that huge cloud requires climbing one of four really scary bright yellow scaffold ladders - not heavenly! And once on the top of the ladder, if you are average height, all you see is a wall of junk.  Perhaps if you had a bird’s eye view and looked DOWN on this mess, you’d have a different take.  But not this time…and as an observer, I can’t re-design the installation.  So I’m forced to give it a grade of C-; it missed the mark.  

At the far end of the space draped again from the ceiling are long “nets” of various colors.  The nets are made from strung beads on heavy black thread; the beads are the same solid plastic as some hair scrunchies.  So what goes on here? Is there a reference to (literal) racial hair dos? metaphorical “fishers of men?” hair adornment? I didn’t get it…again. 

And finally, at the very back of the space is a partitioned off room with a video playing on endless loop of images that transform from abstraction, flowers, dancing “Bo Jangles” and back again.  A sign outside the room cautions: viewers may experience dizziness.  I suffer from vertigo; I assume the signs were truthful and spent no time pondering this video.

Then we left.

Now…after a week…here’s what I think:  not every artist no matter how gifted can pull off installations.  And in fact, most that I’ve seen fall flat on their good intentions!  And this space - a FOOTBALL FIELD!  REALLY? - is ridiculous! 

Videos are an entire other breed of cat.  I need a lot more education before I can comment one way or another on their artistic and relevant success but as a non-authority, I see way too many that are way too self-involved and I leave way too often thinking “who cares?”

But I still love the idea of Nick Cave and those Sound Suits are transformative!   Good enough for me. 

NOVEMBER SWEEP

It’s time to clean off the laptop screen and my desk of oddities I found interesting during the past month.  I need a journal to keep such gems in retrievable  order. Instead, I scribble on the back of whatever is handy - BJ’s recipe, invoice from Warren Phillips Framing, correct spelling of “Griebsch.” I drag odd photographs over to the desktop screen and when I can no longer actually remember what I found so thrilling about that plant or that story, they go into the trash. (Don’t you love that fizzy sound that trash makes when you hit “delete”? Almost as good as the smell of my glass cleaner: both give me an instant sense of accomplishment.)

So here are a few pieces from my vegetable stew.  First, check in on hyperallergic.com  once in awhile.  You’ll find stories pertaining to (mostly) the arts that send you on excursions you never knew you wanted to take!

Today’s hyperallergic.com story of interest?  Poisonous pigments in 19th century British Wallpaper.  Arsenic was a common standby in 19th century households.  Used for everything from rat and mouse poison to face powder, it was also the ingredient that turned William Morris’s wallpaper into delicious shades of green.  Yes, people did eat/lick wallpaper. Why? I always wonder why children would lick lead-filled paint. Historically, they seem built that way and some died from licking arsenic-dyed wallpaper. If you are curious, read Lucinda Hawksley’s new book “Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the 19th Century House.”

```````````````````````````````````````````

Speaking of wallpaper….I have wallpaper fetish! When I can’t sleep and don’t want to disturb the dogs or Chip, I cruise around on my laptop at WALLPAPER SITES. I know…weird! Here’s the one I fell in love with recently. Have you ever noticed that no two people EVER love the same wallpaper? Really…I don’t know how wallpaper printers stay in business! Every time a potential buyer walks into any house, the first things they say is “OMG, that wallpaper has to go!” We just this summer papered our powder room and office. The paper was MEGA-EXPENSIVE and IMPECCABLY TASTEFUL (not literally - no licking, please.). I’ll make sure that’s in the listing info with # of bedrooms and central air when we sell.

`````````````````````````````````````

My writing group met as scheduled Monday -  Halloween. We had a raucous good time.  If you don’t belong to a writing group, start one! You won’t be sorry. Keep it ultra simple, no more than 8-9 people - no boss. Share leadership. No nibbles; no treats.  And invite people who don’t know each other to begin. It’s taken a year and we’re still learning new things about each other; we are about as different as 8 women can get in background, training, ages, etc. We used Halloween as “prompts” (half the fun of writing group is forcing the nostalgic memories out of our minds’ attics. FYI, we get through about 3 exercises in each morning session.) 

This time last year, Chip and I were in Hillsborough, North Carolina, working with Patrick Dougherty on a huge twig installation.  A small donation to the Hillsborough Arts Council now gets me regular newsletters; here are some photographs from their annual “handmade parade.” 

``````````````````````````

Yes, in spite of rotten weather (rain, black ice, sleet and finally snow!) , Chip and I drove to MassMoCA last week to see the Nick Cave installation.  I have pictures - still sorting.  I’ll write about that (maybe)  another day.  I also have parts of Alain de Botton’s TEDtalk “The Religious World” swirling around with notes on this scrap of paper that seem really fascinating…if I could only read it. 

I’ll listen again. Or maybe you could listen and share your input with us?

```````````