Close
Look at them, now exposed like lavender flowers on the window. You can see the color and its smell is immediately associated.
But if I put you to remember from your memories the color of this flower, yeah, you would have one imagine in your mind. But if i put you now, right in this moment to open your eyes and to look on the plains, one close-up to this flower, would it be the same color as the one from your memories?
The same goes to those objects: you look at them and you might know what’s with them. That’s one of the first stories that it might be deciphered: what is already inside of you.
The following story is the one as the owner of the object knows it. Perhaps some of the objects were mass produced and they could be easily replaced anytime in case of malfunction, but what they have unique is their own story (which is making them in fact original objects, not copy of a copy… of a copy), by the time that touched them and let its footprints through subtle material alterations (ex.: the color change of the varnish depending of the amount of sun they were exposed to; the wear of the surface according to how much and in which manner was used the object; the appeared smell created by the aging of the chemical structure of the material etc). All the objects owned by somebody they behave sort like ego extension, so that’s why those are animated by the soul of its own owner.
The last story is the one created by me through this installation; it is about the order the objects are put and how they were connected – explanation in another article.
Maybe there are other echoes of another narrative threads, but this is what I can tell now: the installation says at least 3 different stories.
It was such an experience for me to assume the responsibility of the taken decision, as I have intervened irreversible on those objects (like the time, right?). In the same time I learned how to gild different other materials than wood (plastic, glass, ceramics). More details in this article.
Letting the real starts to shine…
What I heard was that…
“I got It from my mother; mother is the one who raised me up, meaning my grandma`. Please take care of it, it is valuable, it has maybe over 100 years”, but also “Oh, they cut my tree where I had my first kiss! Those modernizations are without sense and aesthetics!”
So what I gilded was…
The lateral decorative elements – because they were looking like two pillars: one of the past (mother) and one of the future (daughter); pillars that allowed to the familiar values to be transmitted from a generation to another. The object being held in the attic, it doesn’t mean that it was forgotten somewhere, but it was kept with a lot of care away from every source that it could damage it. But you, my reader, what are you keeping there hidden (inside of you), so precious, that you don’t want to give it to nobody outside you, but you would trust to give that value only to another piece from the same essence as you?
What I heard was that…
“I always traveled with my own home: friends or cousins – so never alone”
So what I gilded was…
A continuous line – unifying the faces of the tree depicted girls. The line changes its width, the radius of the semicircle that is drawing, the sharpness of the angle on which it bends, alike the happenings had with the people belonging to the same “tribe”
What I heard was…
“I was doing it in Italy too; here I have continued with my hobby and now there are some Germans in our group. Our community grew up.”
So what I gilded was…
The helix – because it is about mobility, continuity, passion, about what keeps you plugged in, or literally what elevates you.
The juice cap (partially) – because I was impressed by the benefits that the recycle is bringing, in this case: the connection with other people and the fun.
“Birds of a feather flock together (whoever resembles himself gathers)” sounded like that saying. So, for al those who want to join the flock, visit:
What I heard was…
“For our family the symbol of the home is the freedom”.
So what I gilded was…
The outline of the bottom and of the top of the flower vase – it is not about a line along you travel, above or below, but about to be yourself among the others (the dot in the middle of the circle), to be able whatever you want, when you want, to exist! remaining in harmony with the other (the bigger circle of the vase – the lip, in framing the smaller circle – on the bottom of the vase)
What I heard was…
”This I purposed myself to bring it in my first own home”
So what I gilded was…
The story is long and full of emotion, as is the crack on the back of the plate that I filled with gold. How can we show that we care about something if we don’t maintain or repair it? And with every scratch or crack that was repaired, it was at the same time an opportunity to better understand where the weak point was, to strengthen it and look back at it with love, but not with contempt. Like when one of our peers got emotionally wounded, we jump in to support, to include, not exclude.
What I heard was…
“My home is my home, so I always return here; I like my country, flat as it is, with its swamps and its nature. I know what to give to you! A heart-shaped leaf from the flower from my home!”
So what I gilded was…
One heart – on a heart shaped leaf.
What I heard was…
“I’m using it daily; I think that it would look super gilded! Uuuh?”
So what I gilded was…
The decorative elements – both with real gold and imitation, because on time the alloy which imitates the gold will oxidate and it will create a contrast with the real one.
What I heard was…
“I cannot live without it. It was veeery expensive, good, and I use it on daily basis. My bangs would be horrible without it.”
So what I gilded was…
The hanger – it is not always about what good tools you have, if you don’t have a good technique (hand). More over, it exist that saying that “human sanctifies the place”. Day by day, the routine that we have (at the workplace, in our hobbies, at home, in relationships, in autodiscipline etc) it is bringing us some kind of outcomes, which mainly they are the result of our repetitive actions more than the exterior force of the “randomness”.
What I heard was…
“Our symbol might be the brushes and the wooden wheels, because we are artists and projectants, symbols that created the Pegas” (link) – citat exact
Paint stains – because the material you work with is precious (for example: opportunity; events that have been arranged in such a way as to benefit you)
Finger marks from how the brush is held – to highlight that what you create with your own hands (ex.: vigilance; the fact that you acted and went to that energy channel whose frequency you were looking for)
The bottom of the brush brushes – to illustrate how the route left by a human after his passage is marked, and finally, the grounding, the materialization of a decided path. (ex.: materialization of the union between the two above plans)
What I heard was…
“Uuups, I forgot to bring you one object…”
So what I gilded was…
What I could. The object was very small. But it was funny! I had one key ring with the bird Tweety, received from my grandfather along the first keys of my home, when I was around 5 years old. How its hands and feet moved by a string (huge technology for that age!), I loved and cared for it even after it broke, even after 23 years. Yep, this Batman has his limbs moving, too. It was an echo of what was already inside me regarding the notion of ”home”. But you reader, what echoes have you heard in yourself reading through these lines?
What I heard was…
“But I don’t know…”
So what I gilded was…
In fact, I’ve passed the twine through the remains of gold sheets previously used for the other items. I came into possession of this object through play, not necessarily a conscious donation for the project. I was with this participant in the park when he found the twine by mistake. It was much longer, but he broke it so I could show me a game that came from the Chinese tradition: you knot the two edges of the twine to get a circle, then put it between the thumb and forefinger of both hands. The game starts from a rectangular figure with this twine. The first player, too, sticks his fingers through the string to get another figure (maybe an X in the middle). The second player comes in, takes the string off the fingers of the first player maintaining its shape from that round, but because it’s his turn he changes the shape of the string as he pleases. And so on.
After our meeting was over and we went each of us on our ways, I realized that I was all in a smile and that I felt like… home! Look what this trickster did! :)) He didn’t tell me what ”home” was, but made me feel in my own ”home” way, even after he left.
INSTALLATION INSIGHT
– my own vission –
I would have liked that before reading those rows, to take a look to the existing photos to make an idea by yourself (the first ideas say about what you have there inside, what is already existing, much more than the intentions of the author), otherwise I am at risk to impose directly my perception of the idea and notion of “home”.
If it would be to retake this project in another place, the installation would present itself under a different face, because people would have sewn the stories of their life differently, or the reasons to stay in one place would be different, or the entrusted items to be given to me would be different, and the connection of all of them in the installation in a defined space would be unique. The beautiful parts are many, mostly it is about the human part that animates everything.
But what did the author mean?
So I begin my explanations:
In a straight horizontal line…
Standing in front of the dome door: in the mirror on the opposite side of the door, you see yourself with the outline of the glass door behind which you are looking, as well as the tree in the middle of the installation. That tree is a reflection of you. What you see in the mirror is also a reflection of yourself, superimposed by this reflection of the tree, echo of self – of self-awareness.
Behind the mirror whick back is hidden by a blue curtain, is a window with a white frame, on the glass of which a swallow is painted over the gold leaf. The Swallow is a symbol of the soul, which is free to travel, and for the connoisseurs, the outline of this frame resembles the Japanese Torii gate, the gate that makes the transition from the profane to the sacred.
All this way, it is an inner dialogue with the purpose of returning to yourself to the depth at which you know yourself, and going through these gates is to remind yourself that first of all YOU are your home. You are at home where you can be yourself.
In a straight vertical line…
Then, on the frame of that white window is put a brush to which the hardened paint is gilded. It is about the matter that has been given to you to work on in this life. The brush being suspended in the air, it shows something that cannot be controled – like the rain that drenches the ground on the land on which agriculture is done.
In the middle, a brush is placed on the dome frame, which has gilded finger marks from how it was held in the hand.
Down, there’s a brush put on its feet that has its hairs gilded. It tells the story of reality, of grounding, of the path created by yourself through your exploration, your passage through life.
As you look from the door frame at the beginning, on the left side of the mirror are some old suitcases, stacked on top of each other vertically. The last (from top to bottom) is maximally open and gilded, the bottom one is partially open, and the first (in contact with the floor) is closed. To the left of them is another suitcase, smaller, red, placed vertically. All this refers to the legacy that you have come up to the present moment, either given by someone from the past or collected by you.
Above them is a clock suspended in the air. Simple to interpret: time. And even more above, above the clock, there is a photo on which the word ”freedom” is written in gold. This photo is part of a series of other photos with different other values that are part of the notion of *Home*: ”stability”, ”support”, ”belonging”, ”peace”, ”comfort” photos in the same style of the painting that it surrounds.These are all created moments and memories.
Ah, how fast time flies, life, right? That’s why the plane is there: to show the vector that starts from simplicity (maybe ”play”), and rises to more complex things (like ”career”).In the tree…
It was a bracelet with wooden balls. Have you seen it? The balls looked like seeds strung on a thread, so that they would all be gathered together… as in a united community! There could have been a bracelet of wooden balls on each branch, like a family tree for each tribe.
On the right side of the mirror is a brush for hair.
Remember the brushes you used to draw your life with? The brush is for how you draw on yourself.Then followed by a little cord of hair, which again shows the time, but this time the Daily investment on ourselves, or others (do you have memories of braiding pigtails to your sister or cousin? – grooming).
And further to the right is a tiny ceramic pot suspended in the air.Next to it is another set of ceramics, made of two pieces: a mug and a saucer. Out of the Cup comes a blue string, like a stream of water. The mug is joined to the saucer by this twine. Just like humans: they seem to be made for each other, offering support to each other just like the ying-yang symbol, but there is support for a third entity, unseen in the physical plane. The idea of this ensemble is union through the ultimate goal.
Next to all this is a flower vase holding a leaf with a gilded heart. The vase is surrounded by three glass lighting objects in the same style as the vase. These objects have pieces of gold leaf inside them. The meaning of this group is *familarity*.The installation could even be a song, not just a story; it depends how you look at it:
For long objects = long sounds
High objects = sharp sounds
Wide objects = Echo
Overlapping objects = overlapping sounds
Space between objects = pause between sounds
PROJECT CONCLUSIONS
Reminder:The theme of the project was * the home *. One of the plans that was worked out was the investigation through a free interview with questions such as: “What is the house for a traveler?” / “How does a traveler establish his home?” / “What made the traveler stay in one place?”, Etc.
It was a project about community. The chosen target group was composed by those who were originally born in Panevezys, but stayed abroad for a (long) period, and eventually decided to return to live in the original place, as well as those who came from abroad to live in this city.What did I gain from this project?
T E C H N I Q U E.~ I learned to gild on more surfaces other than wood (e.g. paper sheets, photos, plastic, ceramics, metal, glass) by the technique with mixtion, and how this technique behaves according to different conditions (e.g.: the type of substrate on which it is applied, the thickness of the applied layer, humidity and air temperature).
~ I tested different materials/work products than we had in college.
~ I found people with whom I resonated (whom I can hardly wait to revisit, and at the same time I wait for them to come to my place!), and in the little time left of this residency, we spent it together.
I N S P I R A T I O N and L E A R N I N G.~ Listening to people’s stories, I had the opportunity to think better about what I want and what I don’t want in my life.
~ I understood better why people behave in a certain way, I empathized and understood better where certain emotions arise, being able to judge less certain situations.
~ I’ve learned to listen more, to understand how much detail a story has, and how little time we have to understand them all from the first conversation on one topic. Human memory resembles a spiral interspersed by other spirals, more like a single straight line.
~ I found the passion for painting as much as I was tempted to try other people’s hobbies.
~ About taking decisions.
~ About transforming objects and conveying an artistic message.
~ Practiced storytelling.
