Hello All,
I'm new to Blogger and so this layout isn't exactly what I wanted, but it will do. I also have more images to come.
Anyway, the top 3 images are of a memorial ritual that I held with some fellow artists last spring. During this ritual, I asked
everyone present to light the 200 plus white candles one by one that I had melted to a shopping cart. I collected these from thrift stores. Many of the candles had been burnt before. All had a unique history that was unknown to me. Each shape and texture was unique. My only stipulation (to myself) was that they would all be some shade of white. I asked the people present to think of someone dear to them that they had lost as they lit their candles and I explained who the people were whose names I was about to read. The candles were lit one by one as I read aloud each name on what was then Women In Black's current "List of The Dead". I held this ritual as a way to encourage empathy for those in our community we don't know and to figure out how to use symbolism and form in relation to memorial and death. This was not something I sat around and intellectualized. I only know that while working on my thesis project I was one day compelled to buy a shopping cart and candles and do this. I do have video to share of this ritual if anyone wants to see it. I did not post it because the video is way to small on line to appreciate.
I wanted to post these images in reponse to Clark's question back on June 22nd, about what symbols have a place in the HPR.
Michael has repeatedly rasied his concern that some of the imagery in the project include specific references to homelessness. I have shared these photographs with many people and received various reactions. Visual forms or symbols mean different things to different people. Some see stereotyping in the shopping cart image. Other see beauty and truth and do not take offense. I am still not completely certain what I see. I do know that that during that memorial almost 30 people stayed for hours to watch and listen (mostly in silence) as all of the candles burnt down into one large pool of wax. The dripping sound was slow at times and intense pouring at other times. There was a breathtaking merging of sorts as all of the candles burnt each other down and became one. It was mesmerizing. Some saw the wax as tears. Some saw it as life blood. What do you see?
The last photo is one I meant to include in a 2nd round of images that I will get to soon. For those of you who may not know it, these flyers were taped to a fence in Ballard where WIB held a death ritual for Mathew Korpinen who died this year after being beated with a lead pipe.
Thanks for reading. Nicki.
2 comments:
Cool image & ritual, Nicki. Like the idea of all candles burning into one massive flame. Wax as blood or tears? How about wax as wax...a material that’s viscosity changes with temperature, originally sourced from bees and has uses that range from illumination to food preservation (btw, have you ever seen Carlos Saura’s marvelous meditation on the Spanish Civil War Spirit of the Beehive?).
Re: imagery that captures aspects of homelessness. Seems like there's a balance to strike between utilizing elements identified with homelessness & getting at some more universal connective statement that crosses the divide of stereotype. Shopping carts are certainly iconic, serving as rolling personal belonging containers while offering an implied critique of a consumerist society.
A number of artists in the 80s created similar work as a reaction to Reaganism, including a friend of mine, Cris Bruch, who did an extensive series of works with shopping carts, including a performance piece involving a rolling soup kitchen. He continued with a series of other related works incorporating various mundane but metaphorically iconic materials (bottles, pots & pans, silverware, cardboard boxes, etc.) commenting on alcoholism, malnutrition, poverty, etc.
There's lots of tensions within this work (probably similar to work I was doing at the time related to my anti-war activism & investigations of childhood sexual & emotional abuse & endemic sexism) that derive from material selection, attention to craft, political correctness & the objectification of experience as art.
Thanks, Clark. Hmmmmm... Yes, of course. Wax simply as wax. A fellow artist I know just started keeping bees and she absolutely loves it.
I have heard of Spirit of the Beehive, but have not seen it. I will make a point of it now. Your comments also bring to mind Joesph Beuys' work with tallow, honey and his thoughts on a beehive as an ideal working model of society. I love so much of his work. One piece that stands out in my head is when he filled a public niche or stairwell with fat, thereby using it as a mold.
I know of Cris Bunch, but not of his shopping cart works. I do remember being struck by images of Krzysztof Wodiczko's Homeless Vehicles years ago, though. I'm sure you're familiar. (This would have given the Design Build Challenge students a run for their money.)
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/homeless-vehicles/
Thanks for mentioning those works. I'll will definitely check them out.
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