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BOXES beyond borders

Tag: Animals

Rhino Blues

Man, always satisfying his external passions, has no compassion regarding the sovereignty of our land, devastating, polluting, annihilating.  His only urge is to satisfy the emptiness of his soul, feeding it with all sorts of possessions and pleasures, little by little forgetting the search in his spirit for answers.

The fauna and flora die at his feet, dedicating their horns, nails, and bones to unending sexual gluttony.  Thousands and thousands of little seahorses, tigers, and rhinoceroses disappear from the planet becoming powder and potions that man will later use to ingest and, as a result, feel manly, virile, or fertile psychologically.

These three blue horns represent nostalgia of the rhinoceros at the feet of man.  They are the ghosts that circulate his bed after he, man, has proven his virile fortitude once again.

 

Untitled

The scrolls contain the following of my poems in free letter distribution:

Enfold                                          
the planet earth
world-encompassing
make it resound
with the small
and stammering voice
with the stammering
and gathering call
with the word
that was in the beginning
and worked with the breath
of regeneration
within you and me
enfold the planet earth
And do not forget the animals
our wordless siblings
do not betray them
for they crave justice
just as we do
return their dignity
return their rights of life
to them only thus may
the secret of human being
be rediscovered
as a light in the darkness
in the name of all
that lives and breathes
do not forget the animals
our wordless siblings
do not betray and market them
take not their dignity
away from them

Hope Chest

If wishes were horses, then little girls would ride… we bind ourselves with chains of obligations, decorate our selves with symbols of the things we cherish, the very things that tie us to life and yet keep us from our frivolous dreams.

Following Examples: An Exhibition

Because I am a curator and not an artist, I decided to organize a miniature show for Women Beyond Borders. The 10 featured artists were given a dimension of 1-1/4 x 2-3/4 inches and told to make something flat. The visual artists I invited are people whose work, lives and friendships have inspired and informed my life in a meaningful way.  This is an extremely personal project and I wish I could have included something by all the others whose creative lives have proven to be exceptional examples to follow.

Barbara Berk
Angie Bray
Karen Brown
Jacqueline Cooper
Eileen Cowin
Kim Cridler
Kathy Haddad
Danielle Imperiale
Sari Roden
Liza Ryan

Dolores Huerta: Social Activist, Labor Leader, and Founder of United Farm Workers

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Dolores Huerta, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, LABOR LEADER AND CO-FOUNDER OF UNITED FARM WORKERS and Terry Acebo Davis, ARTIST

These trophies are awards to the plights that we face as women.

Dolores Huerta wanted to help her students who came to class barefoot and hungry. Through her community work she co-founded the United Farm Workers Union. At 76 years old she continues to lecture and lobby for the UFW, a model used by global labor unions as a testimony to the rights of workers.

In our endeavors, our lives can be in danger, our pasts can haunt us, our vulnerabilities can be exposed.

Unselfishly, women strive to be all things to everyone; we endure the odds guided by our passion to care for our world families.

Copper Fish

A simple wooden chest, crudely decorated, is uncovered. What is inside? The lid is pried open to reveal the legendary Copper Fish floating in a sea of bubbles.

On the 25th of November 1922, the first stone was removed from the walls sealing the entrance to a pharaoh’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Six years of painstaking archaeology work was rewarded by the discovery of wonderful and curious objects housed in an array of boxes. One can still imagine the thrill that the explorers felt.

The rediscovery of a forgotten or lost box never ceases to inspire curiosity and optimism.

 

Laurie Dolan

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Laurie Dolan, DIRECTOR OF WASHINGTON STATE GOVERNOR’S EXECUTIVE POLICY OFFICER

Because Laurie had twice run and lost close State Senate races, my first impulse for this project was to create political art that is stark and confrontational in the style of outsider Bible-literalists — using red, black, white, block letters and simple but expressive figures.

Laurie is genuinely engaged in and faithful to the political process, seeing herself as glue, as a relationship builder. Laurie underwent a successful stem cell transplant in July 2003, and her illness and recovery impressed on her how little time we have to touch the world, and how important it is to touch our children. The text on the box runs together and reflects the impact of Laurie’s illness on her life, her desire to touch the world, and the importance of her family.

 

Keeping On Course

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Barbara Boxer, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA and Barbara Leventhal-Stern

The first words I associate with Senator Barbara Boxer are passion and courage. In my mind, I saw an image of a boat that “keeps on course”.

Because the exhibition serves to inspire young women who could be faced with adversity or hard decisions, I inserted excerpts from our email dialogue so they could read about the sources of her commitment themselves.

Thanks to Senator Boxer, and Michael and Adrienne, her talented staff.

Pandora a Broken Myth

In doing this box I decided to see what the original myth of Pandora was. I was struck with the beauty and the imagery of Hesiod. I laughed at the obvious fear and envy that men have had at the creative female. I felt we could look at this myth and break it open and show women in all her creative force without fear or envy.

“as a favor to Zeus the father,
On this had been done much intricate work,
a wonder to look at:
wild animals, such as the mainland
and the sea also produce
in numbers, and he put many on,
the imitations of living
things that have voices, wonderful,
and it flashed in its beauty.
But when, to replace good,
he made this beautiful evil
thing, he led her out
where the rest of the gods and mortals
were, in the pride and glory
that the gray-eyed daughter of a great
father had given; wonder seized both immortals and mortals
as they gazed on this sheer deception.”

Hesiod translated by Richmond Lattimore

Outside the Box

To know who I am is the quest.
To learn lessons is the school of life
To see emotion as the road least traveled.
To find the path past mind is the road to the soul.
To see life as a continuously unfolding process
To live life to the fullest is to live in the present.
To open to humaness is to see life’s treasures
To live in the present is going outside of the box.

From: If Life is a Game, these are the Rules
The Rules for Being Human
Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott

 

Welcome to La La Land

Culver City Highschool. Grade 11.

My box represents my life and being a high school student in a modern world, which is all crazy. I titled this piece Welcome To La La Land because my nickname is Lala and I wanted to show a glimpse of my life. Well, what I wanted to say about myself was that, I am a quiet person but inside I am crazy, confused and talkative, but I keep it locked inside most of the time. Inside, I put little things that represent me and keys, which is the thing that will open the box (myself). I see finding the keys is like finding you, the key that will open you to the world. I have little things that can’t remain in the box like my creativity, self-expression and friendship. I feel that most people are like me and until you find yourself, you can’t find the key that will help you open up and allow you to be more yourself.

The monarch trapped in their expectations, reducing the imperial ruler into a mere puppet controlled by golden strings.

Washed Up

Culver City High School. Grade 12.

Through the open seas
Now I am being driven
By an old rusty ship
The winds beat down on the deck
And the sails are always slipping in my hands
To the places I want to go
And there where I shouldn’t go,
But the ocean has chosen the way.

Radical Profiling

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Joan Takayama-Ogawa (artist) and Elaine Tajima (CEO, founder at Tajima Creative)

We live in times of war, where racial profiling threatens the freedom of Arab Americans. By transforming this wooden box into a shrine representing my family’s internment in Japanese American relocation camps, I hope that racial profiling will not happen again.

Symbols of the highest decorated American 442 Regimental Combat Unit, the luggage tags with family numbers for the Takayama and Ogawas, rotate around the box symbolically, tied with barbed wire. Along the perimeter of the black tray, a plant revered by Japanese Americans, connects with barbed wire symbolizing their incarceration. A gold crane perched on a post, represents the Hiroshima bomb.

Thirty-seven last names along the edge of the tray represent hundreds of my family members who were incarcerated during World War II, remembering freedom is fragile, and racial profiling is intolerable.

 

Dreams of Dancing

Idee Levitan, an artist and patron of the arts, world traveler, lifelong philosophy student, adventure seeker, mountain climber, wife, friend, and proud member of a most independent sisterhood of polio survivors, died before she had the opportunity to work on the Women Beyond Borders project.  The virgin box was among the mementos Idee’s husband sent to me.  My dearest soulmate, Elena Mary Siff, invited me to create a tribute to Idee’s spirit so that Idee might be a part of an intriguing and profound exhibition she would have heartily embraced.  The Wheel Chair could not contain her Dreams of Dancing…

 

A Cricket

I used to think, in my childhood, if the wonder and beauty of flowers I see is the same as the one my playmate sees. Though I regard their color as ‘yellow’ and so does she, can our ‘yellow’ be the same?

When you see an object, you see not only it itself, but also some experience and memory which you picture to yourself by seeing it. If the brightness you see is different from one I see, and if so, are the views, the climate and the smells you have seen and sensed also different? This work of mine you’re looking at may be different from the way I see it.

But such a difference can make our lives more complicated and richer and reveal who we are.

Lost Butterflies

Where have all the mothers gone?
Off like butterflies in the wind.
All to great deeds of glory
Then on to new beginnings again.
The chrysalis of life is a never ending bond
Until the end of time.
Where have all the mothers gone?
Lost the most precious gift, a child of mine.

 

Slick Chick – A Balancing Act

Age takes slick and chick
But eggs so perfect go on
And on
To feed the fragile Universe
And return and recharge and provide
Time and time anew
The best nests everywhere.
Beyond borders
Or difference we nurture
And yet strut our stuff.
No dumb clucks- we chicks!
You know…we have something worth crowing about…

 

Remnants

Remnants references my many, may years as a working artist, particularly as a printmaker. I selected remnants from 30 years of art-making into the contained box, making my own sort of small “retrospective”. Working on this piece brought up a wide spectrum of memories, thoughts and emotions – and the toil and labor that go into a work of art. I consider myself a very fortunate person.

Creation

This piece of art represents a woman with a steadfast and proud posture. She sits and carries in her lap the continuity of life: her own children. Her face reads of dignity. She carries on her head a pot with a dove: the symbol of love and peace. She creates and conveys life, pride and peace.
 
Medium: clay mixed with copper oxide, cobalt oxide, magnesium oxide, iron oxide and some kaolin as well as a wooden box

Dreams Fly

Inside this box, within a bird, a dream is sealed.

Please PICK-UP and hold this wise, matriarchal creature. Shake her gently and listen. Hear her dream stir? What is within her; within you? Permit your vision to awaken emboldened, released with wings spread and soar beyond every limitation that you impress upon yourself.

Goethe said, “Whatever you do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Truly, all women have dreams and passions pleading to be set free on the wings of imaginary flight.

Fannie’s Soap Box: The Story of an American Cheerleader

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box. 

Fannie Flagg, ACTRESS, COMEDIAN, AND AUTHOR with Ramona Otto, ARTIST.

When I was told that I would be doing a piece on Fannie Flagg, I was honored. We are from the same generation, and I’ve always enjoyed her TV and film work, and was impressed that she was also a brilliant author and screenwriter. Because word play is often a part of my work, my original thought was to make the box into a soapbox, and then I could make the theme into whatever message was important to Fannie.

Fannie’s wish was to have a positive art piece because she was tired of all the negative art and energy being released into the world. She hoped her piece could reflect that life was good.

I hope my title gives a whole new meaning to the word “cheerleader.”

 

 

Leaving Home

from the time my soft head crowned
through the red hole
and my mother’s spent muscles squeezed me
out of the watery place,
i began leaving home.
the empty tunnel that led me
from my first home
closed up and healed.
as i grew, i sloughed off years
like discarded snakeskin.
she saved the skins.
she wears them around memory’s neck,
to mark time to the cadence of
an ancient song
her mother’s mother’s mother once sang.

The Myth of the Spider

For years now, being taught by the spider, I weave webs.  Small ones and large ones using all kinds of materials.  To me it is an infinite source of spiritual codes. I chose the ancient myth of Goddess Athena and the Spider. From the little box arises what has been marking us for centuries, the challenge of becoming Gods.

Two women comprise the myth…Goddess Athena, holder of wisdom, protectress and teacher of the weaving art and the Spider, mortal, outstanding weaver, daughter of Idmon the colorist, mother of Clostiras. Spider challenges Athena to a weaving contest. She creates a beautiful, flawless tapestry. This image insinuates the desire of mortals to reach the divine qualities of the gods to desire to live up to their level.

Athena infuriated by this, punishes the spider sentencing her to live from then on and forever hanging from a thread, transformed into an insect. Being an insect now, the spider weaves its beautiful webs till this day, still creating.

Art contains arrogance.

Art challenges the gods.

Art creates little gods.

Box-Bird and Branch

The cosmos of my work is in a forest. Flights of birds grow on silent trees and huge seeds take different positions. The leaf is the poetic unit which allows the magic passage from the world of plants to the one of animals and from there to the geophysical world.

When I begin my work, I spend a lot of time minutely observing the physical world. Then this state of vigilance is changed through a more distant positioning in which the object I observe is the parallel motion of my creative process to that of nature.

Is there an ecology of conceptual and creative phenomena? I often tend to incorporate ecological concerns by contrasting elements (birds on trees without foliage, seeds with burning interiors) to suggest the interplay of human interventions on natural processes.

Weasel

For centuries, women in Bosnia have been telling fortunes by looking at the bottom of their cup from which they drank coffee.  This is a sort of white magic.  They turn the cup upside down and then different shapes from out of the coffee  grounds left in the bottom of the cup. Each ‘figure’ represents a symbol; dog-fidelity, horse-strength, rabbit-speed…

The weasel has a special place in the history of Bosnia.  It represents the protector of the Bosnian rulers.

The weasel, which is a very blood-thirsty animal, amazes us because of the gentleness of the mother.

I started thinking about this after I had seen this ‘figure’ in my cup.