beauty

Back from Japan

art, beauty, time-out

Get up early. Leaving Tokyo from Narita Airport at midday. First passing over red mountain ridges, meandering rivers and roads, then the deep blue for a while. Clear day.

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Another shore. Marshlands. Patterns much like marbled paper in old books; running water under ice and snow – going this way, that way.
Then the highlands, watershed.

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Floating high above Siberia for hours and hours, hooked between the progressing afternoon in Tokyo and Scandinavian morning. An outstretched present, clock jumps back and forth. North of the polar circle; night at noon.

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Rivers running north. The surface bears witness of forces working from below, exposed to those working from above. Geology, meteorology. Interface like a text which I can only vaguely guess the meaning of. Sometimes – but rarely – tracks of human activities. A broad, straight road. A military base? A single light shining from the shore of the Kara Sea.
Light, temperature, time; basics.

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In the Garden

art, beauty, recent work

Cecilia’s adapter doesn’t work.
No cellphone, no laptop, no Internet. Just eyes and ears and presence. Pencil and paper, too.

Take the local bus to next village. There’s a temple, with a steep hillside garden behind. There’s a mountain brook, running quietly,  and a stone reservoir offering its clear cold water to visitors. Bright sunlight sieves through the deep red foliage of maple trees, reaching down into the water. Delicately indented leaves scattered on threadstones and thick green moss. In the garden, two hundred and fifty Buddha’s disciples carved out of rock; each human figure caught in movement, in meditation, in anger, in story-telling, in rest, in laughter…

I like it here.

Three stone sculptures in Choanji Temple garden, Sengokuhara;
graphite pencil on paper.

Bonus: In the Garden by Van Morrison (from the album No Guru, No Method, No Teacher 1986; this version played live in Norway 1988. Sweet intro!)

“…

No guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father in the garden

Listen

…”

2012 meet the artist @ Åmells Möbler I

art, beauty, DADA, recent work

This is Gnesta Konstrunda 2012, a local ‘Meet the artist’-event. Just like a year ago, I’m invited to exhibit some works at Åmells Möbler – a company showroom for skilfully handcrafted furniture. I mount the recent #I triptych and place it between two cabinets… Right.

#I (work in progress) displayed at Åmells Möbler;
oil on canvas, app. 200 x 200 cms

And next, 14 prints representing the Zurbaran Santa Casilda are hung at the approximate eye-level of a young girl.

 


Santa Casilda reproduction;
risograph print on recycled paper, 42 x 29 cms each

The legend of princess Casilda, discovered when carrying bread to the imprisoned martyrs held by her father, echoes in black and white images against the backdrop of stylish furnishing. Or, from another viewpoint, the prints provide a modest background for the items on display.
Ok, this is it. Now for two days of meeting the public…

ART LAB gnesta opening

art, beauty, recent work, time-out

From Kiev and Lviv back to Swedish countryside; last week was the opening week for ART LAB gnesta. Recently being appointed a board member of this artist-run space, I plunged head-on into five intense days of preparations, press meetings, art management conference, opening party and network meetings.
Here’s one of the absolute highlights – Nils Völker’s sculpture Thirty Six… air, light, technique and peace.

@ ArtLab Gnesta II

art, beauty, recent work

installation at ArtLab Gnesta, Aug/Sept 2011; photos HHW.

The installation space in itself is interesting: a very narrow staircase leading from the main entrance up to a tiny lounge corner. Wrought iron balustrades enclose the floorspace on two sides, leaving open some five or six metres of height on the other side and giving the feeling of an indoor balcony. From up here, one can watch people go by downstairs and look down upon the ground floor exhibition space.
A calm space; secluded, yet connected.

I decide to leave the balcony’s walls empty, just placing a round, black piece of felt on the floor. Upon the black mat: an armchair. It’s an old one, made to support sitting in an upright position. It couldn’t really be called an easy chair… it seems designed for wakeful rest.
On the walls facing the balcony, I add some items: a charcoal drawing and some written paragraphs on the wall surface; a model study from long ago; a more recent motif treated in two tempera paintings; a plummet; two (self)portraits – one by me, one by a friend; and some mirrors. I make sure that one of the mirrors reflect what’s going on upstairs for those who have to stay below – since there is zero accessibility for those who cannot climb the stairs. Finally, for those who will look for an interpretation key, I leave some reading beside the armchair.

This is it.
Feel invited to sit down for a while, next to art.

Voice of Colour – Colours of the Voice

art, beauty, recent work

light falling through painted silk screens; photo by HHW.

And today is the grand opening day for see!colour! – a multiple exhibition in Järna with works by James Turrell, Hilma af Klint and Rudolf Steiner, along with colour experiments in the spirit of Goethe – all surrounded by Ytterjärna garden park by the Baltic Sea.

The four parallell exhibitions and the living light and spaces of the garden offer a range of experiences. I am very happy to be a part of this event; together with singer Sinikka Mikkola, I will stage two workshops where listening is the artistic core – Voice of Colour /Colours of the Voice; one at Midsummer, June 23 – 26, and one by the end of September.

Sinikka is a long-time experienced Werbeck singer and pedagogue. As for myself, I have carried out artistic works in different social settings since the mid ’90s – since 2007 documented on this website. Both of us aim to practise a listening mode in our professional fields, something we wish to develop further by this joint workshop.
In the mornings, we will practise to uncover the fullness of voice, individually and as a group. In the afternoons, we will explore the life of colours perceived through the personal temperaments, painting outdoors on large silk screens in the garden. For the evenings, there will be time for reflections and the deepening of artistic themes as well as for improvisational vocal music.

Interested to join?
Leave a comment below, and we’ll contact you for further information. Welcome!


calling Apollo; installation in Ytterjärna garden park 2008; HHW.

LICHTWECHSEL XV

art, beauty, recent work


light and shadows in the corridor; photos by HHW.

For three weeks, The Åbo Akademi University Business School became an art gallery: its walls mirroring an artistic journey through Europe, captured encounters of light, places and people.
The LICHTWECHSEL exhibition closed in April, but some of the works – among them Erika Lojen’s Das Licht das Ich Suche – will stay. And so will the memories, for all of us who were part of the process. Art comes to life in our minds, it is there whenever we recall it.

LICHTWECHSEL XIV

art, beauty, recent work

Orchestra rehearsal in Auditorium I; all photos by HHW.

In Auditorium I, the Academic Orchestra is rehearsing under Das Licht das Ich Suche – a photo series composed for this space by Erika Lojen.
The River, a piece by Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, searches its way through Sunday morning hours; begins, then halts to take another direction and unfold anew, over and over. As day turns towards afternoon, sun reaches in through large windows and the orchestra tunes their instruments for Claude Debussy’s La Mer.