It was pointed out to me that the writing I am engaging in/transcribing onto the rice paper scrolls is constrained. So I am experimenting with a more gestural approach, scale and abstraction. I am starting to think that the current covid situation is clouding my thoughts. Perhaps my intention is not as simple as commenting on the influx of information. Perhaps there is something–a feeling–that persists from before and that I struggle to make front and center.
I read a quote by Martin Heidegger; it’s from his book The Concept of Time. I don’t know much at all about Heidegger or his ideas but this got my attention:
Now, as I do this; now, as the light here goes out, for instance. What is the now? Is the now at my disposal? Am I the now? Is every other person the now? Then time would indeed be I myself, and every other person would be time. And in our being with one another we would be time–everyone and no one. Am I the now, or only the one who is saying this?
The Concept of Time, 1924, page 5
Using Heidegger’s first few words in that paragraph, and using them as a prompt, I started writing a sort of poem–something which I never have done. Here’s a small sample (this is just something I am playing with, it’s not polished or anything and it might not go anywhere):
How does this fit in with what I’ve beein doing/collecting? This is more personal while everything else has been about something that already exists out there, produced by culture. I am thinking about how the personal can co-exist with the public–I’m not sure ‘public’ is the right word, and I’m not sure ‘political’ fits either right now, at this stage. But, this writing and the collecting (see previous posts) share handwriting as a visual element, a mode of expression.
