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Tag: Mysterious

The Shape of Silence

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

Dr. Sara Bunting, SILICON VALLEY INTERNIST and Tess Sinclair, ARTIST

“We hear the rain, but not the snow. A day well lived must know the shape of silence.” –K. Nerburn

Competent. Dedicated. Compassionate. Multitasking… Exhausted.

So many women from so many different circumstances live these words. Women are tenderly caring for those in their stead, watching and vigilant for sounds of an aching heart. Dr. Sara Bunting is one such woman. And she is tired.

Reclaiming time for recreation…re-creation and solitude is the task awaiting us. Take time to know the shape of silence.

Celebrate the Meeting of Life…

I am attracted to the fine color of the dawn, sunbeams flickering through the leaves, broad colorful sunsets,  stars shining in the sky…the mysterious harmony of all these things, so this is what I try to make.

I love both light and darkness, and wish to celebrate the splendid harmony of their meeting. I hope opening this ‘box’ will lead you to see the harmony of light and darkness… and the meeting of you and me, or anyone.

Welcome to the Forest of Dreams

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.

My Favourite Things

My most recent work has been installation-based amalgamations of photographic images and text, the result of which is a cross-over into an almost cinematic form and aesthetic. My practice has shifted from an analytical approach to the concepts outlined above to a more personal exploration of them. My use of image and text alters the codes which are usually brought to bear in ‘readings’ of these mediums. Each form is pushed aside in favor of the other, forcing them to jostle each other for primacy. The text is always my own writing, which consists of nightmarish vignettes (real and imagined), frequently including references to some popular cultural homily, in order to insert some humor/irony, and to suggest that there are certain pleasures to be obtained from the so-called negative aspects of culture/existence.

I decided to base my box on work I am currently exhibiting in a group show titled Fear Incorporated. I have closed and enclosed my box to suggest the mystery of that which is hidden (psychological/cultural, whatever). I then re- inscribed the surface of the box (or the cube it has become) in two layers. The first layer – photographic flowers, dissimulating nature – seduces, as only images of natural beauty can, yet forms a surface which shuts off investigation. The next layer – the text touches on the mysteries of the subconscious. The box spins around on its chain to laugh at the simplification of these complexities inherent in such ideas produced within popular culture (albeit a somewhat nostalgic, dated form of it) as “I simply remember my favorite things.” At the same time it suggests the potential for a kind of pleasure to be found in that which is relegated to the negative.

 

To Know People Outside

If I shut the lid tight, can anyone know for sure what it is in the box?  The outside of the box is decorated attractively as a person intentionally embellishes their appearance to conceal their inner life.  The ancient Vietnamese had a saying, “It is easy to know a man from his appearance, but difficult to recognize his thinking.”

Ripened Fruit

“This world is a tree to which we cling–
we, the half-ripe fruit upon it.
The immature fruit clings tight to the branch
because, not yet ripe, it’s unfit for the palace.
When fruits become ripe, sweet, and juicy,
then, biting their lips, they loosen their hold.
When the mouth has been sweetened by felicity,
the kingdom of the world loses its appeal.
To be tightly attached to the world is immaturity;
as long as you’re an embryo,
blood-sipping is your interest.”

– Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi

A fascination with seeds, seed pods, fruit of both tree and vine accompanied my own struggle with fertility. What appeared to be fallow in my life gradually evolved into a period of regeneration and rebirth. At present, these familiar forms reflect the renewal of my work and symbolize the opaque and marvelous mystery of the human life.

This box is lovingly dedicated to Mary Interlandi: May 20, 1983 – February 10, 2003

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.

A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft

My recent work is focused on issues of identity, sexuality and language. I am also interested in women’s history and in women’s roles throughout different cultures.

To address these issues, I explore a variety of media, whatever I feel most appropriate to convey a specific feeling or experience. Confirmation And Discovery Of Witchcraft is an homage to witches and their wisdom and to their power to combine magic, mystery and wisdom.

The box is smoked; the top of the lid shows a young witch casting a love spell. Inside the box are burned matches, inscribed with the names of real women who were burned because of witchcraft accusations. In the mirror is a scroll, in the shape of an uterus where oral language reads: ‘ar yu squerd of mai tiars an mai blod?

Posibilidades

What is this piece about? For me, it’s about the danger of sensuality. How we are beckoned by the flesh. How our desire can become our anguish. How a wrong decision can mean death, be it of the spirit or the body. How the need for self-destruction can be initiated in a seemingly healthy person from the hurt and pain of a relationship. Thus — the presence of the sword. Although I also see this sword as positive, perhaps a form of protection or an attribute, like that of Saint Agnes. *

The question of violence enters in here, too. This woman — in all her sensuality — is in a coffin. Why? Was she a victim of violence, of rape? Can our sensual self die under certain circumstances? Is our nudity kept hidden away in a dark, quiet place?

The veil also invokes the mysteriousness of Muslim women, their eyes being their only available sensual feature.

* (Saint Agnes was very beautiful, but she rejected all of her suitors, one of whom became angry and had her condemned to death. Since it was forbidden to execute virgins, she was first sent to a burdel. Nevertheless, no man was able to touch her. After being tortured, she was finally decapitated. She is often portrayed with a sword piercing her breast. She is the patron saint of virginal innocence.)

The Distance from Time #2

In Japan it is believed that people are able to keep supernatural, mysterious and precious things in a box. It is prohibited to show them to anyone.

When the lid of the box is raised, it is supernatural and mysterious time, isn’t it?

Additional boxes by same artist

Modoka Hirata, The Distance from Time # 1

Bluebeard’s New Room

Continuation of the Bluebeard Legend:

In a crystal-clear night in February 1996, Bluebeard suddenly appeared in front of me and asked me to design for him a new and secret room which would no longer bring a woman misfortune, but would fan the flames of her yearning. I nodded assent and immediately started working. I built a blue-shimmering space out of mirrors and semi-translucent walls with numerous peepholes. Deep inside I enclosed my secret. I nailed tight the transparent entrance doors. In the pale light of morning, Bluebeard returns. In his curiosity he bent over the little box, — and then he dissolved in blue smoke. [Bluebeard’s Redemption]

Time Capsule

The objective of the project is to approach women of all ages, from all walks of life and of different nationalities, to express their views about what it means to be a woman in this age and time.

They were asked to express their concerns, worries, happiness or grouses, et cetera; basically, any subject that touches their lives and how their lives are affected as a result.

These expressions are kept in the Wbb box which is the Time Capsule.

It will be sealed for now, and it carries an instruction for the curator of Wbb permanent collection to open it fifty years later on 8 January 2051.