Marroni Caldi (Roasted Chestnuts)

As I posted my artwork "Interconnected" on Instagram, the thought crossed my mind to contact @verbonnet and ask him to write an accompanying story. Stephen Paré and I have been friends on Instagram for many years now, and our discussions have, I believe, been mutually inspiring.  Mobile art is only one of Stephen's many talents, and I am delighted that he agreed to my request. What follows is the result of our collaboration.   

Marroni Caldi

(Roasted Chestnuts)

I’ve had I guess two mystical experiences in my life. I am not going to try to explain to you what I mean by that - anyway, I’m pretty sure that I can’t. Neither of them lasted more than a couple of minutes, although I’m really not too sure – otherwise, they were completely different. The first one took place in 2009. If I ever figure out how to talk about it, I will. 

The second one happened the day before Christmas, about a month ago. 

We’re not particularly rich but we’ve got a talent (by which I mean my wife has) for being invited into beautiful homes as guests. Christine does trading online and I’m writing a novel so we might as well be anywhere; we took an extended vacation last year, working our way from the Arctic Circle in Norway at Summer Solstice south to Italy and finally Athens, where I’m writing this.

We had Thanksgiving in Lyon (duck instead of turkey, petits pois instead of green beans) and then three weeks of grey weather in Geneva with an affectionate elderly couple who were early to bed; I finished a chapter and then some, gazing out at the lake, feeling excitement and accomplishment despite a head cold that had me sleep a lot. 

And then on to Rome for Christmas, to see the Pope in the basilica, the shepherds at Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and this year’s weird and controversial crêche, which I find ugly but which I’m defending anyway because it’s under attack by the right-wing self-appointed guardians of our culture.  

Christine’s uncle has an apartment in the San Saba district, and he was lending it to us for twelve days while he was ‘in Italy’, by which he means literally anywhere away from Mamma Roma, including New York. For me, too, Rome is the center of something both momentous and familiar; but it is as though I’d discovered I had a different birth mother at age 31 - there’s no regret and no rewinding, not even the wish to rewind - only wonder and whatever heightened moments you can find to spend together while your lives continue on in their settled course. 

The first night I was in bed early and slept immediately, only waking at 9, bedsheets soaked with sweat, the way you do when the illness leaves you. I felt good again. Christine was long gone so I set off walking toward the Pantheon, thinking of cappuccino. 

There’s a piazza in front of Santa Sabina, and as I approached it I could see a street vendor with a chestnut roaster (why are they always men?). After a few steps I could smell the sweet aroma and decided to get some.

That's when it happened.  

"Interconnected" ©Linda Hollier

As I looked toward him I saw another figure, also walking toward him from my direction. It was a bearded man, young, congenitally deformed, with an odd spiraling, laborious, start-and-stop sort of walk, supported by two sticks. The chestnut vendor was turned the other way, talking vividly with someone, a customer, gesticulating as he did with that tool they use to pierce the shells.

I’ve always been interested in the ways that people match their postures and gestures as they talk; there’s a dance that goes on. I was watching the chestnut vendor ‘leading’ as his customer nodded and tilted his head and turned slightly in response to each of the extravagant gestures. Then I noticed something else: the bearded man with the sticks was ‘leading’ the vendor. It was unmistakable. He would pause, and the vendor would pause; he would start up his exaggerated spiraling movement, and then the vendor would gesticulate. But the vendor couldn’t see him! His back was turned.

I was looking, observing, trying to sort all of this out, when I saw something impossible. That crippled fellow, with his stopping and effortful starting, was leading the wind that moved the trees in the little park behind him. The trees were following him, starting and stopping with him. 

An old Fiat came along, and stopped in the street when the man stopped, moving along again when he did, its clutch jerking with his laboring walk.

He stopped, and I sneezed. He moved, and stopped again, and I sneezed again.

I must have come to a halt as I watched all of this, for it was only after the crippled man had disappeared into the park that I realized I was just standing there. The chestnut vendor was looking at me curiously. I sneezed again, roused myself, walked up and got some chestnuts from him. I will never forget the deep compassion I felt for him - well, it was love. That’s the real word, isn’t it. We had taken part in an extraordinary moment together, however unconscious of it he might have been, however ordinary it might have seemed. 

As he handed me the paper cornetto of nuts, time was slowed, the elegant turn of his hand and the crinkle of paper and his mischievous amused eyebrows arching as I grasped the bag - all a slow inevitable unfolding, an orchestral music whose every sound of every instrument I could hear.

I was about to start crying so I hurried off with my nuts and turned down the pedestrian street, tears streaming down my face in the Roman sun and north wind, appetite gone, but every twenty feet stopping, smelling the chestnuts, filling myself with the odor over and over, receiving a blessing, the grace of an ordinary day. I left them on the fountain in front of the Pantheon as a kind of offering.

---oOo---

After writing the story, Stephen let me know that he was writing music for it as well. Listen to Stephen's reading of "Marroni Caldi" set to the music he has composed to accompany it.

lindahollier · Marroni Caldi

#interact2connect

Using slow-shutter photography on my iPhone, I captured images of women at an Ethiopian festival in Rome.  With the aid of various apps I then painted with and on my iPhone screen to create six artworks which I have had printed onto cloth cut from traditional Ethiopian shawls. These artworks make up my new series #interact2connect.

There is a short background to this in my last blog “Linda in Wanderland”. 

The almost see through, gauze like cloth of the shawls results in the pieces being fairly transparent.  The figures in them seem to be moving in a space/time beyond past, present and future, or simultaneously in all. As a cloth is held up, it interacts with the surroundings it finds itself in, incorporating objects or people that are behind it. This evokes different emotions in the viewer. We are reminded too that everything is connected. 

 

This is a photo of one of the shawls shortly after it was printed. 

I would very much like to display these pieces as an installation in a gallery. 

 

Each piece would be hanging draped on the gallery wall when encountered, but visitors to the gallery would be encouraged to take down an artwork, hold it open and even walk around with it, thus allowing the figures in it to interact with the surrounding architecture, art and space. 

At this point another dimension would be added.  Because I believe that the physical and online worlds can no longer be viewed as entirely separate, visitors would be requested to take photos with these pieces and share them via social media with the hashtag #interact2connect and any other hashtags they might wish to add. 

In this way both the ethereal figures in the artworks and the individual sharing the photo would simultaneously be entering the realm of cyberspace - the mindspace we find ourselves in when we connect online.  

Later when other images shared under this hashtag are seen, the possibility would exist to make new and interesting connections by engaging with others who, regardless of their physical location or time zone, have shared their archived experience of the event, or commented on a photo.

As I have used current technology to create the artworks, it is my wish that the heart of the art of this installation will be found in the connections made through online sharing.

The vibrant patterns on the borders of the shawls are a stark reminder of the beauty to be found in diversity within unity, and the harmony of the colors asks us to question how we view the other.

The age of connectivity calls for transparency.  The gauze like cloth of the shawls asks us to question whether we are authentic when online.

#interact2connect would further raise the question of whether photography should be allowed in galleries and museums in an age when most people want to archive experiences using the technology at their disposal. 

Until such time that these pieces find themselves together in a gallery, I have decided that I will carry different ones with me when I am out and about, and ask people to hold them up in their surroundings once I have given them a short background.

 

This week while in Dubai with two instagrammers, Nilufer and Femi, I allowed the first piece to make its debut in the new phase of City Walk.  That the venue included the word “walk” felt appropriate, and it was wonderful to see the background glass shining through, and the reflected green wall pick up the color of the one ladies’ dress. There even seemed to be similar shades of orange and yellow to the colors in the border of the shawl.  

 

The next day I asked a waiter in a cafe to hold up the same piece.  Ernesto willingly obliged.  I had seen beforehand that there were artworks up on the wall behind him but I only realized afterwards that they were of three women too! The green skirt of Maria Callas on the wall also picked up the color of the transparent lady on the right and the chairs behind the cloth, despite themselves being stationary, added a sense of movement to the transparent figures. 

 

Who knows what further journeys the figures in these cloths will make, and what connections they will lead to.

I wait with anticipation :) 

---oOo---

Related: To see one of the journeys the figures have made, check out this steller story!

Are you a #mindfuliger

When I started out on Instagram I was living in Dubai, surrounded by amazing skyscrapers. That is where I was, so I decided to photograph the skyscrapers. 

Dubai is a cultural hot pot and offers one a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to, and practice taking different perspectives. We are so influenced by our upbringing, education and cultural backgrounds that it is not always easy to see a situation at hand from the perspective of another or in a way that encourages growth and change. 

Instead of seeing with open eyes, our vision is often blinkered or filtered.  On my Instagram account  I have tried to encourage the taking of different perspectives in all life situations, by mostly posting photographs which are lookups of buildings, photographing from different angles, or editing the photographs in such a way that a new perspective is presented. It is my wish that my photographs will be a gentle reminder to look at life with fresh eyes.  

In my photography I have been greatly influenced by the work of John Daido Loori Roshi. What follows is a transcript from one of my favorite youtube videos, in which he speaks about Zen Photography. 

“Look at what a photograph is. It’s like 1/60th of a second , or 1/120th of a second, or 1/1000 of a second sometimes. So it’s the moment.....

The moment is a fleeting thing. It arrives as it departs. But the moment is where a life takes place.  And unfortunately most of us miss it. We’re preoccupied with the past which doesn’t exist, it’s already happened. Or we’re preoccupied with the future, worrying about the future. It too doesn’t exist, it hasn’t happened yet. And while we’re so preoccupied, we miss the moment to moment awareness of our life. And that’s where our life takes place. We miss the moment, we’ve missed our lives. So that’s the importance of the moment.........”

My photography flows out of my mindfulness practice, but in many ways I use my photography as a mindfulness practice in itself. When I am out photographing, awareness of all that is happening around me is key.  To capture a scene which I will be able to incorporate into my art,  I need to be particularly alert, sensitive to, and mindful of the moment. 

Today I decided to start a new hashtag on Instagram. I suddenly realized again, something I have known for a long time. It’s all about the moment. Being mindful of the moment is a wonderful message to spread on Instagram. 

So are you a #mindfuliger?

I love words especially new ones! This one has a lovely sound to it. It could be from any language in the world! 

I believe the hashtag #mindfuliger has the potential to add an extra dimension to Instagram. 

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  -Viktor E. Frankl

If you would like to find out more about incorporating mindfulness into your photography,  you might like to take a look at  the website “Seeing Fresh”.  The About and Galleries sections have some wonderful info and assignments to try out. The end part of the John Daido Loori Roshi video also has some wonderful tips. 

“But when I photograph, what I try do is to get out of the way and let the photograph happen. Let the camera photograph by itself.”  -John Daido Loori Roshi

Are you mindful when you photograph? Would you like to be? Become a #mindfuliger and start adding the hashtag #mindfuliger to your work. I’m very excited to see this new stream on Instagram! 

Tokyo2Dubai Collab

The concept here2here has taken another leap in meaning. I was recently asked on Instagram to participate in a collaboration project with someone from Tokyo, Japan. 

When I joined Instagram just over one and a half years ago, @takiti or Tera as we all know him, was one of the first igers whose work I greatly admired. When after some time I asked him how he achieved a specific effect, he gladly shared the name of a favorite app he was using. Tera, who has an amazing gallery, kindly leaves comments on numerous photos and despite his huge following, always thanks those who leave a comment on any of his shots. 

I believe that we connect to others on an energetic level in cyberspace and that energy is conveyed on a subtle level by online presence tied to our avatars, content produced or shared, quantity, quality and online conversation.

Needless to say, I was very excited when Tera asked if he could edit one of my pics. The process was set in motion by me sending him the four photos that he requested. He then chose one to edit. The resulting image was published in his gallery. 

Tera has various shots of the Tokyo International Forum and I requested the original of one of these to edit. I chose it because it contained a lit up pathway in the Forum. The resulting edit is now part of my Corridors of Cyberspace series

In Japanese calligraphy there is a symbol called an ensō. It means circle and is often referred to as an “expression of the moment”. Many artists, as a form of spiritual practice, practice drawing an ensō daily.  I have often wondered if it is possible to practice this in photographic form, and for some time now, have been incorporating the circle in my edits with this in mind. To be invited to collaborate with someone from Japan on an image appeared to me to be a form of answer to my question. 

In my art, the circle, for me, represents not only the moment, but all form, and that which is without form. At the same time, it is an attempt to represent the experience of whirling in cyberspace; a space which is not localized but experiential. 

The outcome of a piece I am working on is not known to me at the onset.  As I attempt to express the experience of cyberspace, the very creation of a piece is itself an experience in cyberspace, as I work hand in hand with technology.  Working with various apps which often produce surprising results, I go through countless resulting images until I find one that fully resonates with what I am attempting to express. The result is therefore a collaboration of a human and technology. 

In this particular edit, you will notice within the circle, lines and sections meeting. This represents collaboration. There is also a darker space, symbolizing the unknown when the photo is handed over for editing.  It is also the space in which creativity takes place and from it something beautiful appears to be emerging. 

The speeding circles on the left remind me of all the data exchange going on in the collaboration.  Living in Dubai, I was also reminded by them, of the Burj Khalifa standing proud and tall.  Japan is one of the first countries daily to see the rising sun and this is depicted by the small moving circle on the right of the image. The shades of grey suggest timelessness in their neutrality. 

It is my wish to exhibit the corridors of cyberspace series, perhaps at first in frames on paper, but ideally on special screens which allow the light to shine through them electronically from behind. 

This month Emirates Airlines launched daily direct flights between Dubai and Tokyo.  Both the UAE and Japan are considered to be global hubs of development and growth. It is my wish that the two have also been brought closer to each other on a more personal level in this photographic act of here2here online collaboration.

The image had one further message for me. As I contemplated it, I suddenly started recalling the music for “The Windmills of Your Mind”. As the circular melody went round and round in my head, I thought how appropriate it was for someone who attempts to practice watching her mind with all its thoughts.  Often there are so many different thoughts going round and round like a windmill and it is only by becoming mindful and observing them that we are gradually able to loosen our attachment to them. 

When I researched the song I discovered that it was the song which won the Oscar in 1969 for Best Song from a Film (in this case, the original Thomas Crown Affair). Dusty Springfield also recorded a version of the song in 1969.

Amidst its lyrics were these words which I immediately linked to my edit : 

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind! 

It was as I read this, that my photographic ensō became the expressed moment!

Thank you Tera-san for the invite and the collaboration.

Digital Archways

Living in Dubai, I am constantly surrounded by Islamic forms of art. Even many of the futuristic looking skyscrapers that grace the city’s skyline are modern interpretations of Islamic architecture. Calligraphy, geometric patterns, domes and arches abound, and one never has to look too far to find wonderful examples of these art forms.

As many of you know, I am a keen flaneur and iphoneographer who enjoys wandering and taking photos of Dubai’s architecture when the weather permits. With the heat outside on the increase at the moment, my outdoor expeditions are becoming a bit limited. A trip to take some photographs of the Wafi Mall the other morning, found me hastily looking for some shade.  

iPhone in hand, I found myself in an interesting outdoor passageway.  I was struck by the light and the different inner and outer arches. The pointed arch so typical of Islamic architecture caught my eye especially.  Out came my recently acquired olloclip, and this picture was the result using the fisheye lens:

Today when I looked at the photograph, I noticed how my recent reading was undoubtedly influencing the way I was viewing the image. The circle hinted at by the fisheye effect was a reminder of a wholeness within which the contents of the image appeared to be enfolded.  At the same time the distorted effect of the closest arch made it appear to be coming towards me, a reminder that it was unfolding from the space in which it was contained. 

Excited by the fact that with all the photo apps available to us now I could edit this image I set to work. My editing is done intuitively and I choose various apps according to what I feel will suit the photo at hand. Using the apps decim8, image blender and snapseed, and after four steps in the edit, this was the result:

 

Upon closer inspection you will notice that the image is not entirely symmetrical.  Certain sections are, but they stand alongside the asymmetry to be found in the overall image, adding to its enchantment in my opinion. The image, filled with color, light and shadow, hints at volume but also at void. 

The pointed arch in the middle, so typical of Islamic architecture, invites me to enter the passageway. At the same time, however, it allows me to slip around it to explore the surrounds. 

I have been reading about Baroque art and how in this art form with its many scenes flowing into each other and almost into the space of the viewer, the viewer determined the centre of the spectacle at any moment in time. This centre was constantly shifting depending on the viewer’s focus. My image reminded me of this. 

How Baroque-like cyberspace is. We are able to enter various streams, whether they be of words, sounds or images. Each tweet, for example, brings a part of you and your point of view right onto my screen. Your here is brought to my here via the interface of my screen, in itself an electronic stained glass work of art.  I can choose to focus on your tweet, follow its links if they are there, or reflect upon what has been said. I can also skim over it and many others until something in particular captures my attention and focus.

However, unlike in Baroque art, we are connecting in the digital world not with forms and figures on a dome but with real people. The fact that I am able to receive an immediate response to my posting from others all over the world in this polycentric environment adds a collective dimension to the whole event and is bringing about a level of interconnectedness not imagined before.

At one stage I wanted to call this blog “DIgital Baroque”, only to discover that a book by that name already exists! This discovery just added to my musings.  Perhaps all ideas exist enfolded in potential, and at different times and in different places unfold to make themselves known to those who can hear them. 

I have decided to take the edited image above and work with it further in the weeks to come.  I will post the results on Instagram and add them to a gallery on this website. As I live in Dubai in the Middle East I want the resulting edits to reflect the region but to also have a global appeal.  I wish to discover all that this image has to tell me. It is my wish too that the images will encourage viewers to open themselves to new perspectives, hold multiple perspectives simultaneously, shift focus where necessary, drop some of the boundaries that limit their vision, and open themselves to others as well as to creative potential.