KIPPENBERGER
Kippenberger let the stationary guide him. Over the course of his short life, he drew hundreds of works on Hotel Notecards he collected on his travels, often from hotels he never stayed in. Exceeding their origin as preparatory sketches for wider works, the hotel drawings became a constant source of reflection, almost diaristic in nature. Kippenberger drew self portraits from that day, surrealist renderings of his emotional state. He drew Frank Sinatra, scientists, graphic posters, cartoons, the hotels themselves, but while they are frenetic in their multitude, each taken alone offers a surprising calm. A staggering technical ability is evident, and a breadth of style remarkable, the story of the letterheads, and of a rambunctious, nomadic life that it tells, is offset but a profound sense of self, and of calmness within that self.
CALLE
In February 1981, the conceptual artist Sophie Calle was hired as a chambermaid at a Venetian hotel. As she cleaned each of the twelve rooms, she not only documented the belongings of the guests but, in some way, became them. She used their perfumes, the contents of their make up bags, ate their leftover food, tried on their clothes. She rummaged through suitcases and read diaries. In Room 47, a family of four was staying. They bored her. Her unashamed voyeurism sought something more, something different. The resulting artworks appear as diptychs. One frame contains Calle’s written observations not only of the contents of their rooms but of details of their lives, parsed from the detritus. How much can we learn from the contents of someone’s suitcase, and how much can we become them from fleeting impersonations?
WEEMS
Radically simple, Carrie Mae Weems’ portraits, known as the Kitchen Table Series, offer a picture of universality. In 1989, Weems began setting up her camera at the end of the kitchen table, a single hanging light and a door frame behind her the only other decoration. Over the next year, she took portraits of a fictional life, a romance leading to a break-up, sadness leading to contentment. Within her four walls, it is hard not to see our own. The minutiae and mundanity of everyday existence becomes something profound and palpable in Weems’ images. As she says, ‘This woman can stand in for me and for you; she can stand in for the audience, she leads you into history. She’s a witness and a guide.’
Thursday 18th April 2024
As we journey deeper into the constellation of Leo, we enter a phase ripe for creativity and self-expression. Biodynamics employs the concept of fourfoldness to offer us a new perspective on the world and how life develops. In plants, these aspects are roots, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Similarly, plant development mirrors cosmic and human processes. Initially, plants grow roots, followed by leaves, then flowers, and finally fruits. This progression symbolizes a transition from the earthly realm to water, then air, culminating in fire. This fiery element, associated with Leo, represents the pinnacle where, much like a plant's development, human self-expression can fully blossom and be realized.
Mason Rotschild April 18, 2024
"Language keeps me locked and repeating", shouts Ian MacKaye over and over again in the Fugazi song ‘Stacks’. The mantra is raging against the profound influence of language on our perception of reality…
2hr 14m
4.17.24
In this clip, Rick speaks with scientist, writer, and meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn about pure awareness.
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Tuukka Toivonen April 16, 2024
Sometimes life brings us in contact with people who help us discover aspects of reality we did not know existed. Their behaviors can serve as gentle guides to new ways of seeing…