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)