Thursday 16 May 2013

figure behind the door












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20 comments:

  1. what happens when doors are windows? and when nothing is opaque, but veil-translucent? (thinking of your question about doors, on the window-blog, erin)

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    1. When doors are windows both become metaphors for each other. Everything is veiled by translucence, the real and the image are indistinguishable, yet distinct, without clarity. It's like forgetting we have feet of flesh because we are so accustomed to seeing them covered with other beings' skins, and forgetting we can walk without help. Or maybe when we think of time as linear, individualised, and quite fail to understand the inevitability of the heavy ceiling of time - which is planar - crushing us. It is when goodness stops being visible, and cannot be distinguished from its opposite. You understand this in your art: it is too consistent for you not to, but your art is planar too, whereas your words have to be linear, and cannot carry these notions. It is when kindness becomes the act of looking through a dark lace veil into a cobwebbed mirror, and offering tea to the stranger one glimpses through the circular porthole.

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  2. hello my beautiful friend, this is such profound art. so this is it than you are voyaging along planting masterpeices along the way.these photos ring a deep resonnance for me like the playing of a worn cello.
    there is the ancient wood and light and the textile of life and well I love this idea of the door being translucent as if we consent to everything even the act of seeing.
    so why shut the door on light.
    hugs

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    1. Madeleine, this is wonderful:
      "As if we consent to everything even the act of seeing"
      could we ever imagine, even start to imagine such an openness as being possible for us?

      thank you...

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  3. ... bei uns würden diese gerade linien steril und hart wirken und hier tragen sie etwas spirituelles, etwas sanftes in sich und gerade dies ist ja erstaunlich. hier wirkt etwas tiefes, das über das sehen hinausgeht, etwas, das man fühlen und spüren muss und nicht erklären kann...
    ich freue mich sehr über dein neues blog, liebste roxana und ich werde ständiger gast hier sein, versprochen! und ja, und natürlich habe ich ryokan hier bemerkt und immer werde ich an dein post erinnert, das du mir einmal gewidmet hast...ryokan habe ich seitdem lieben und schätzen gelernt - und, dass du hier dann auch sagst, dass die japanische stimmung zu mir passen würde, bereitet mir tiefe freude...! ich danke dir für alles hier! auch ich denke an dich und vermisse dich! alles liebste! auf bald! renée

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    1. Liebste Renée, wie recht Du hast... ja, es gibt unglauble Saenfte und Frieden in den Linien dieser Geometrie, und die Seele spuert es und man fuehlt sich bald im Einklang mit der Welt und sich selbst... Ich habe dieses Gefuehl immer, wenn ich in einem japanischen Zimmer sitze...
      ich freue mich auch so sehr darauf, dass Du meine Reise auf diese Weise begleiten wirst, ich habe dort oft an Dich gedacht und ich haette mir gewuenscht, dass wir diesen oder jeden Tempel zusammen haetten besichtigen koennen :-)

      auf bald, mit Freude und Fruehlingslaecheln :-)

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  4. si pe mine m-a bantuit opacul,inca de mica.nu puteam dormi ziua,mama adormea langa mine,iar eu stateam asa,cu ochii implantati nu in tavan,ci in geamul opac al unei lustre pe care o aveam in camera,stiu ca ea avea acolo si niste desene micute,rosii,intotdeauna in spatele lor imi imaginam ca traiesc oameni:)

    si la fel m-a strapuns,ca sa zic asa,si aceasta fotografie-am lasat-o pe ecran,plecand sa sting televizorul,voiam sa o privesc in liniste-si,cand m-am intors,am avut impresia ca cineva vrea sa intre aici,ca astepta cineva in spatele sticlei-si am rams o clipa ca atunci,cu bucatele din camara:)

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    1. şi cuvântul este minunat, nu? opacul, ce frumos sună - ca şi fratele său, translucid...
      trăiesc în cuvintele astea, în muzica lor... cât de imposibil de explicat de ce ne ating anumite lucruri, până la urmă tot ce contează cu adevărat este inefabil (un alt cuvânt de vis :-)

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  5. thank you for taking me on your journeys, dear Roxana.
    i find it both amazing and ironical for you and i to have started from the same physical point (the balkans) and to be traveling the world seemingly in opposite directions, but very much along in our minds. and how it is for you to go further east (to the Far East), but for me - to continue west, all and all to reach that place on the other side (an in our perceptions perhaps). i smile.
    looking forward to seeing more of your enchanted travels.

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    1. yes, i have thought about this as well... the balkans, and how i feel close to you because of this as well, in a way (not only the sea, and the love for contemplation, the sensitivity for the simple beauty of sand, of shadows - to name only a few of our affinities :-)

      thank you so much for being here.

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  6. These are beautiful. The pattern on the curtains is not Japanese, which seems odd.

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    1. in many japanese rooms there are curtains now, which is a modern addition, i have noticed this too, this time, i don't think i was struck by this the first time i was in japan. maybe it is because i now have the windows-and-curtains blogs, and i am more attentive to such details :-)

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  7. but before i say anything i need you to tell me what is happening in the second shot. i laugh, i have been thinking this since i saw the photos, unable to speak. the black figure, this is your reflection? or this figure resides on the other side of the glass?

    and then i realize it is my questions which have become the obstacle, not the glass itself.

    but i wonder further on the nature of masculine and feminine, on wall and on opportunity to enter. but this door, i feel, is trickier than the doors i know in the west. it behaves differently. it is constructed differently. it is feminine, isn't it, in how it allows admittance even before drawing the door open? (and what does that mean? it is only an intuition which perhaps makes little sense.) but of course it would be different as it holds and reflects a whole other philosophy of living and seeing culturally, and so i see my initial questions as obstacles too, the obstacles of my own living history and experience.

    i can not help but be overwhelmed with the opportunity you have had for being a part of this other world, having the chance to see in such different ways, but of course this is not only cultural/physical travel, but you being you essentially. while the country is one opportunity, the light another, you too, your essence, is our opportunity to see differently.

    xo
    erin

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    1. :-)

      it is not me! it is a figure indeed, wearing the traditional guest "kimono", called yukata, which is provided in japanese-style hotels: "Yukata (literally "bathing clothes") are a traditional garment, similar in style to kimono, but lighter, much more casual, and made of cotton. Yukata function both as a bathrobe and loungewear, which can be worn at all times during your stay, including to the bath, to both dinner and breakfast, and to bed as sleepwear". actually it is my friend with whom i shared this room in this old family-run hotel in Kyoto :-)

      i am pondering the feminine/masculine remark, i feel (instinctively), that it makes sense (it is a very bachelardian pondering at that, he has written a lot about the archetypal qualities of gender and their symbolic functions for our psyche). and all the more so with me, as i am "at home" in a language, romanian, which assigns gender to every noun: when i think of "door" or "window", they are, intimately, feminine to me...

      i am overwhelmed with this blessing that i have had, yes, yes, yes. i have no words to tell how much this possibility of living in japan, of learning to know their culture from within, has changed me, and my life...

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  8. cat de frumoasa a doua imagine, figura aceea alunecand printre liniile atat de hotarat trasate. ca si cum intr-un astfel de spatiu, doar aici, doua tipuri de existenta ar fi posibile, doua tipuri de trairi, parte ale aceluiasi intreg.

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    1. :-)
      da, se întrepătrund aici, lumile, cât de bine ai văzut. mulţumesc, draga, pentru că ai venit, ai scris, pentru că eşti aici.

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  9. I am reminded of the subtleties of the Japanese fan concealing and teasing...the allure of the almost hidden....mystery is in the ambiguity...seduction and romance, the quest to see through it..the longing.to know in fullness...

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    1. myth, thank you for coming here!!! in japan all is about concealing, the vague, the allusion, you are right. it is fascinating to me, i will never cease wondering - and feel how blunt our western directness is (though how much easier it makes for us to relate to each other, at the same time).

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  10. liebste roxana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32d_rZeBwFE
    von den wolken, r. :-)

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    1. ach wunderschoen!!! vielen vielen Dank! ich hatte noch keine Zeit mir ihn anzusehen, aber bald- und mit einer guten tasse Tee :-)

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