The Voice Of An Object

July 7, 2020 Carl Barnett

“An object speaks for the inner self that cannot voice its identity and expresses where words cannot fully define.”

An object speaks for the inner self that cannot voice its identity and expresses where words cannot fully define. It is both the mirror and the reflection, physical manifestation of the ephemeral and the capricious: map and bread crumb. Beyond the object is the space that contains it, manifesting itself as story book, archive to the lives we lead.

“Life is truly lived when the subtilities of beauty are sensed and seen, held beneath the skin: fully consumed.”

Rattling In Our Bodies

July 5, 2020 Carl Barnett

“The action of creating rattles in the body, sharing it rattles in another’s.”

The action of creating rattles in the body, sharing it rattles in another’s. It is a process of expressing ideas, a language and conversation, a ripple. To not put one’s work out into the world is to stifle the conversation, limiting it to one’s own body and mind, rattling, echoing and self relient: bird in a cage.

“To send out a ripple, that creates another, riffing on the original idea.”

The purpose of creating is to release the inner rattle of idea and desire, no matter the exprssive language. To send out a ripple that creates another, riffing on the original idea. This is who we are as sentients, creative beings that long to express our capricous emotions, which bounce within the cage of our bodies.

Perhaps this finds us in the realm of what matterrs, what speaks to our truer selves as we navigate the storms within and around, an attempt to resolve and understand, staying afloat, hope on the horizon.

A Bigger Picture

July 3, 2020 Carl Barnett

“The universe is thick with stars as is the Earth with sentient beings, all attempting to survive and expand their species, moving from place to place, gathering and devouring, creating and destroying.”

We are all small in comparison to the world and the universe that surrounds us. We are in fact a minuscule part to nature, despite our egos, yet this is where we came from, what we are made of: the stars, the sun and the moon. Clearly we are a part of a vast powerful energy, a circular pattern of rotations, cycles of seasons, life and death. Where we’ve come from is where we return to, where we are is our given home, our families and foes, responsibility and dependence: full of wonder and curious discoveries of beauty and the ugly.

The universe is thick with stars as is the Earth with sentient beings, all attempting to survive and expand their species, moving from place to place, gathering and devouring, creating and destroying. Each has their own particular way of being, our own way of doing, an inner compass of living between birth and death. We are not particularly aware of each other and the Earth would not cry if our species died out, but here we are, interwoven, each a part of the circle of life, pulled by the moon and warmed by the sun.

“Indeed we are a small part, but what the parts are, seems to be our destiny to find.”

We have created stories of the moon and chanted to the gods of the black night, ran from the wrath of thunder and succumbed to the blue-black seas. We’ve named our children after gods and the stars after our children, still wondering and fearing, going deeper into the waters and further out to the black holes of space and time. Never are we satisfied in our knowing, nor tire of our running, our need to survive and expand, controlling the uncontrollable, pacifying our ignorance and swallowing our fears. We’ve conquered the moon but not our selves, still repeating history and correcting our wrong doings. Indeed we are a small part, but what the parts are, seems to be our destiny to find.

We have toiled this planet for centuries, buried and dug up our stories of who we think we are, while still searching for the why of our existence. We’ve created icons, built statues and torn them down, all for the sake of identity and finding ourselves, searching amongst the stars, roaming our original history. To say that we are lost is a misconception, who we are is not limited to our selves, we are part of a bigger picture, of a shared identity: deep as the waters and the blackness of stars we spin within. One cannot be lost, if the purpose is to seek and to learn.

Time will only tell how deep and far we go, what we find and most importantly what we learn. We are specks amongst stars, with the same energy to burn, pulling us forward, pushing us to the brink. We are seekers and finders, but like stars we burn out, leaving the task for the newest to come, the newest to seek: light within the darkness, spinning as the world too, spins.

“Against this cosmic background the lifespan of a particular plant or animal appears, not as drama complete in itself, but only as a brief interlude in a panorama of endless change.”

Rachel Carson

Memory And Experience

June 29, 2020 Carl Barnett

“We consume time as quickly as we are consumed by history, gorging on immediacy, storing memories for the long trail ahead.”

Depending on one’s perception, life moves quickly or slowly, either way it leaves a residue that speaks to a bigger picture, the here and now. We consume time as quickly as we are consumed by history, gorging on immediacy, storing memories for the long trail ahead. We are constantly taking in information and imagery, far more than we are aware of, eliminating the unnecessary through dreams and the funnel of memory. We skim past moments in time as we stare down the coming future, sometimes unaware of what we are taking in or moving past.

“Time is held in the body, caught in the web of memory, though much is lost through the veil of fast consumption.”

We experience life through all our senses though we are not fully aware of each at any given moment. We slip through time on our way to building the future, constantly consuming, constantly adding memory. Time is held in the body, caught in the web of memory, though much is lost through the veil of fast consumption. If we think of a memory, we can recall how an object felt or its scent, think of lemon and we salivate, or think of a rose on a vine and we drift. This is what our scenes provide us, what memory gives, if only we slow our pace and perceive.

In this time of COVID-19 we are forced to stay in place, forced to slow or even stop our pace of movement and even our thinking. This has allowed us to perceive time better, to see ourselves and the lives we have created, to pause and pivot, or for some, to merely question. The memories of this time will hopefully pull us to make better decisions, to be more empathetic, to appreciate time and its passing, understanding life in its totality, our impact and the complexity of beauty that surrounds.

“Whether time moves quickly or slowly, we seem to be missing the bigger picture of life’s purpose…”

The essence of who we are, are memories and experience, what we perceive opens the door to memory, releasing the past as it documents the present. Whether time moves quickly or slowly, we seem to be missing the bigger picture of life’s purpose: experience and the process that living life entails, appreciating the moments in front of us, seeing our connected humanity, building memories that build a better future.

Wolfgng Tillmans