Thursday 3 September 2015

spectra




On The Artistic Ethos of Being

Crawling through the pages of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, you cannot help thinking about the qualities of being, and initially, considering the qualities of negation, or not being. It has not been too taxing for me to ponder the things relating to performance that I did not want to be now, or do now, in the new work. I did not want to be an actor. I no longer wanted to be a mime, at least in the conventional sense.

To perform or to act seems inconsistent with just being, without doing. But imagery is nonetheless created, and the pictures are worth a thousand words. So is this installation art? Perhaps, except it is not only visual. It, he, the creature, has a living soul, a personality, and states of being which are sincere, if in limbo.

Not only observation is engaged here, but also recognition. Something is familiar while also being strange.
There is a knowing sense of relationship and truth which doesn't necessarily have to be 'real'.

Shakespeare writes that the purpose of 'playing' is to "hold the mirror up to nature". As a mime I knew and embodied this, that a mime reflects as a stylish, true-if-unreal representation of human nature. But now I prefer to think of myself as a spectra... a vision of someone who isn't, but might be. He is an odd alternative, a sort of benign monster, showing us who we are not, but could be. 

In this, he plays the fool, he manifests becoming. He is zen baka.



LIMBO

Adrift... without More-ings
on a Sea of Tranquillity,
Moon-lit.

Left Somewhere ---
Not Arrived Somewhere Else.

Buoyant in Levity,
a-fool-a-loof.

Silent in Stillness,
Alertly Asleep.

Diver,
Strokes of the Deep.

Fearless & Innocent
as an Octopus.

Acutely Alive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Wednesday 1 April 2015

April Foole's Day


A Stupendous Rumour

I always wanted to be a stupendous person, you know ?

Bold but not Arrogant
Enigmatic yet Approachable
Insistent but not Presumptuous
Irreverent but not Slipshod

Boisterous yet Eloquent
Brisk yet Self-Assured
Charismatic yet Aloof
Pragmatic yet Defiant

Ignoble yet Luminous
Bad yet Good

(in a word : stupendous.)

*     *     *     *     *

Happy April Foole's Day to All !



Sunday 1 February 2015

zen baka in Kyoto




Rippling pool reflections in Japan...

Kikoku-tei
zen garden

equipoise 
like the shadow of a stone - moves
under the sun
fix'd at the centre
sweeping the day along...

'hanatsu kireini' 
(radiate clarity)
like night fire on a hilltop

'kaze'
the wind swirling around...

- present like the moon.

adventurous charismatic equilibrium
the vacuum has a stillness pour'd into it --
the open space that people need
to recognise the invisible.
the mask fulfils the hidden secret longing --
where public individuality gels
into a quiet harmony.