Deep and sound asleep in the dark night.
Covered with the colours of black, red, and gold of security.
Mother said, “It’s a guarantee. Sleep. Sleep. adorable little baby.”
Sailing, sweet sleep little piggy
Even inside the dark box
Safe and sound asleep in the dream with guarantee of smiling
Sweet sleep
With beauty and good health guarantee.
When I received the box I thought, “Why me? I’m not an artist”, but the box itself intrigued me. I loved its fragrance, its smooth lines and the fact that it could hold my secrets or be open with the story I wanted to tell. Almost immediately, the box became a train for me.
Growing up in Denmark I was very familiar with fairy tales, and I thought the train would become part of my own fairy tale. But as I worked on the train, it took on the intensity of the American children’s book, The Little Engine That Could.
I came to the United States when I was twenty-one years old with the dream in my heart that I could start my life over again. And I could. And I did. I am a wife to a wonderful husband, I have two beautiful grown children who love me. After years as a psychotherapist and consultant, I decided to become a toffee maker. It gives me great joy to create something sweet that brings joy to so many people.
After the train was finished I was on board as The Queen of Toffee, waving to the crowd. I was right back in my Danish fairy tale where I had started out, and I think I’ll stay there.
Once, I saw a fishing boat speeding through the waves of the sea. The foam beat against the sides of the boat and splashed up into the air. I watched the scene attentively and believed that the fisherman going to the sea in that boat must have brought with him a dream, a hope for a good haul of fish that day.
Remembering the scene, I have crafted a white model boat made from thin threads of white glue, which also create an illusion of foam floating in the air. I name it The Dream Boat. I hope that in the near future there is no war, no famine, and that no one will suffer from poverty, children will enjoy more care and attention, women will receive equal status and more recognition and that the deadly disease AIDS will be wiped out so that it would no longer destroy lives.
Those are my dreams and my boat is the vessel carrying those dreams along for an everlasting world peace.
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.
I look at the space around and expand to the infinite
All my senses curve in delight as I grow in the vacuum of non-event
Non-happening, non-existence.
I occupy the blue vastness of my dreams and become
Fatherless, motherless, a virtual Non-Being.
A hole in the lining of man’s memory.
A mere flight of particles liberated from density.
A definite escape.
And in the pulsating silence, I finally lift Isis’ veil…
Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.
Rita Ryder, PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, YWCA
Our sculpture represents the day-to-day work of the YWCA, providing hope and opportunity to women and families. Our ceramic hands represent our entire, diverse community joining together to help women and families overcome critical issues that undermine their lives: homelessness, poverty, domestic violence and unemployment.
Working together, we move women and families forward—breaking the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, and improving the quality of their lives.
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…
The critical point that reflects
and fuses inanimate sensitivity
with nature’s understanding.
The differentiated shadow of dreams.
The resonation of conception.
The shearing of thought.
Spiritual Evolution.
Inspirations more archaeological than literary.
I have built a place of healing and repose.
Though small enough to fit in your hand,
it is a place to soothe and comfort the weary sojourner.
May you enter and find your peace.
Enter the forest, its cool green breath,
its embracing boughs, its mystery.
Enter the shadows your spirit longs for,
follow the labyrinth.
Enter the heart of the ancient forest,
wander until the dusk surrounds you.
until you find you have come to a place of rest.
Dream until you have found contentment.
Dream until you have found your own way
home, into the light.
Withdrawal into a coffin, which feels like a tub that may only be locked from the inside.
Withdrawal like a hurt fox withdraws into her fox-den to lick her wounds to put one’s dreams in order.
One, who is carried inside by some people anyway, becomes only rarely visible for the outside. (Only few can feel and understand the distance originating thereof, and are therefore especially close) from life, from the existence.
To bring dying to an end & to begin anew.
I wish to get married and have kids.
My box sculpture represents my past and my hopes and dreams for the future. Now I am caught in the middle as I work in Singapore as a domestic help.
It is the thought of my children back home in the Philippines (that’s why their picture is here) and my dream of having my own restaurant in Manila that keeps me going.
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.
Let’s hope
There will be no more wars and differences among countries… and instead, peace…
The world will be free of the evils of human nature–greed, fame and vanity…
The word cancer will be erased from our world with advancement in medicine…
The pearls of hope will illuminate our world, and help us realize our dreams…
