Light is a hand made book, both a digital version that is a flip book and a hand made that has additional photographic images inserted and hand written text. As I ask how as an artist can I in a meaningful way respond to the many wars and chaos in today’s world.
As Francesco Arena was interested in creating a work of art related to Rome, he reflected upon the complex dynamism characterising the city: stratification of “stones and monuments, as well as facts and stories”. Building upon this premise, he studied an event that deeply affecte the social fabric of Italian history, namely the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. More specifically, the artist dwelled upon the place where President Moro was held prisoner, which had been built inside the space between the walls of a flat. By studying the court proceedings and the testimonies of the members of the Red Brigades, Arena was able to rebuild this
“phantom prison”. The title of the work, namely 3,24 mq (3.24 square metres), refers to the surface of the walk-over flooring of the cell, which, differently from the original, was built inside a packing case. The artist said: “I wanted to be able to move and transport it like a container, I wanted to make this otherwise inexistent place visible and perceivable.”
On site review 43 2023
What is the acceptable durée for architecture? Is it found in construction, or form, or program? Is the temporary a material issue, or is it about occupation? Can a rental suite be considered temporary architecture, no matter how long the physical space has existed? The use of space might be temporary, or the construction of the space itself, such as a Oxfam tent, might be designed to be short-lived. Sometimes a shoddy building stands on into its second century, beyond all reasonable expectations. How does this happen? Is its use, its symbolic function, part of its material persistence?Sometimes a solidly-built building runs out of programmatic functionality and is let go, a ruin before its time. So, what is the acceptable, or the probable, or the unfair durée for architecture?
Books From Walking series
What’s really going on, what we’re experiencing, the rest,
all the rest, where is it? How should we take account of,
question, describe what happens every day and recurs every day:
the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary,
the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual?
from L’Infra-ordinaire (1989) Georges Perec
Walking has been an essential part of my work. Walking,
strolling, mapping a territory with my feet. Taking pictures
that on their own could be considered mundane. A simple way
to explore and understand the relationships that occur in time,
distance and geography. The images taken, become part of my
archive, and find their way often oblique into my work.
They inform my thinking.
Walking, seeing and image taking are of equal importance.
“Our first questions about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition are: can they walk? Even more, can they dance?” Nietzsche
The distance from Syria to Germany is approximately
3,700 kilometres.For refugees fleeing civil war the journey
can take weeks, months. if not years.No one travels for
thousand of miles, carrying children if not for HOPE
Mundane 1, from Walking series
I am interested in the here and now, the divine quotidian.
The mundane and familiar, transformed by the act of seeing.
The interesting thing about “mundane i” as I edited it I realized that it has
become a book of memories, a document of a past place. Not my intention.
I have focused on my walks in Toronto, where many of the stores, places are gone.
Which is typical of urban spaces in cities. The Shanghai of 1982 was not the Shanghai
of 2008, as the Dublin Bay of 1999 is totally transformed.
time – place – change
“Whenever the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree,
one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards
one through the appearance of whatever it is one is scrutinizing.”
John Berger
31 days
A gesture each day
images from January 1, to January 31, 2022. a moment in
time, captured by the camera lense. a moment of visual uncertainty.
after the camera clicked many of the “images captured” ceased to exist.
when I walk I try to keep my mind empty and at the same time open,
eyes darting here and there, my ears on full alert, what sound may
I hear by the lake shore what wonders will I see. then from no-where but
everywhere a line of poetry leaps into my mind.
I can hear little clicks inside my dream. Night drips its silver tap
down the back.
At 4 A.M. I wake. Thinking
other voices whispering in my ears. I am wide-awake.
(Anne Carson from The Glass Essay)