"Life must be lived forward but can only be understood backwards."---Soren Kirkegaard
I ripped this quote off from one of the first few pages of a Rizzoli published book recently mailed to me by the Academy of Arts and Sciences [no less]. This is a perk voting Art Directors receive while pre-Academy Award clouds are gathering in the steely winter skies over greater Los Angeles. By the way, the book is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"--- testament to the power of campaigning for a vote and the enormous hubris of Hollywood. I'll stop with that here.
This blog isn't about bashing the film industry, it's about sharing the next 12 to 18 months with friends.
Mark Quinlan, longtime friend and playwright, encouraged me to do this [write a blog] before I relocated to Swingapore in early December 2008. It's taken a month to quit pacing along the edge of a weakly imagined fear and take the plunge. So, here I am once again not able to touch bottom and in some perverse way loving it. My creativity is expressed through a driving restlessness. Lately, image-making or writing have acted as an effective tag-team for expression. Although I haven't quite found "my voice"--real or imagined--at 56 as an artist, my work in the world has always pointed me towards entertainment of one type or another. I guess this journal now exists to help me figure out why I'm really in Singapore. This statement isn't as muddleheaded as it sounds: I've noticed that many of the projects I've participated in have only been a backdrop for the more significant issues at hand. If you're willing to take this journey with me, we might see or understand something together while staring at a lot of photos.
the photos--the colors, first, are so beautiful. the calligraphy both the architectural nature of it and the detail, the writer's face and his place, so tiny, on the long sidewalk....you've captured it all in this series. so here's my question: what does the writing say??
ReplyDeletebean
Hi, from Beth, mom of Spanky B. Rizzo Segalstein, who is now 9. What an adventure ahead of you. The photos are great. Good luck.
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An answer to Bea's question: the calligraphy was compelling because it looked like it had been printed by a machine--regimented and hypnotic. I knelt down to inspect and after five minutes or so the man spoke in Chinese. Luckily, another passerby, also Chinese, was listening and offered some help after I answered in English. Apparently, the Calligrapher is a poet and intellectual without work. He has never been published but has always used the sidewalk as his 'tablet'. The writing is a stream-of-consciousness describing his life as an artist in Zhuhai. He lately calls his writing his "internet" and is gratified when someone stops to chat.
ReplyDeletefleababe: give that Spanky boy a scratch behind his velvety ears for me. happy to see you here and please enjoy the photos.
ReplyDeleteMichael! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and images. Since I haven't been to Singapore (yet), your impressions serve as an intriguing appetizer. My camera finger and suitcase are calling...
ReplyDeleteWonderful photo's Mr. R. It's nice to see you've entered this new "world" with eyes open toward the poetic. Can't wait though till you post your experiences from the demi-monde, which we hear is
ReplyDeletemost interesting in that neck of the woods.
great story about the calligrapher, michael.
ReplyDeletemore more more please!