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[Apr. 19th, 2011|03:25 pm] |
my first photo exhibition was this past saturday.
a looooong time ago, sil (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) theineffableme) took a picture of a female figurine (see photo above) and posted it on lj. i saw it and was like, "hey! we used to have that one at home, too, but she broke and now we only have her male companion." and she was like, "hey! we don't have her male companion -- that must mean our figurines are meant to be together!" so, we decided to have them meet through this photo series ^^
it is very common for mexican working-class families to have a shitload of these figurines on bookcases, in china cabinets, on coffee tables and dressing tables and wherever else it's possible to show them off. the reasons? i don't know. but we had ours, both of us growing up in homes filled with these things and all. so, a project was born ^^ we wanted to capture the personality of the figurines we grew up with or had eventually made part of our current homes as well.
the series is titled las almas vecinas ("the neighbouring souls"), and it consists of 10 photographs (five each) of the figurines that we felt attached to for various reasons. each photo is accompanied by a small text --mostly poetry-- which gives a little extra detail about the personality we tried to find in each figurine and have others see, through our eyes, what these wee things are able to express being inanimate objects. but, we believe otherwise -- these things have a sooouuul, i swear! and beautiful one, at that ^^
and, that's basically it :)
seeing that we formed a small art collective named DAISUKI with ale and isra (two other awesome and talented friends) last year, we decided on a collective exhibition: isra with his illustrations; ale with her macro photo series; and us with las almas vecinas.
with the buzz of it all, i couldn't get any good photos that day! :( but here are some i managed to take:
some of isra's drawings and illustrations.
he focuses his work on humourous story-telling graphics, very colourful and quirky ^^
ale's gorgeous macro photo series titled breve relato de la vida dentro de una botella ("a brief account of life inside a bottle").
she also had a human-sized photo book telling the story of a cat figurine of hers named felix, but i totally forgot to take pictures of it, waaah :(
what isra wrote for our series ^^
(he was the curator of our show, and i think he did a fabulous job!)
i had never seen my work up on a wall before -- so exciting!
this shot simply does not do the photo justice!
this was everyone's favourite from sil's part of the series.
it's my favourite, too! but not hers, heh XD
according to most attendees, this is the one they liked the most from my part of the series.
not my favourite either, ha! but i'm super happy it was appreciated!
i couldn't get any clear shots of our photos, but here's the screen size version of my five photos with their respective texts:
puedo escuchar el río desde aquí. casi puedo rozar sus orillas con estos pies que me ven recorrer campo tras campo su cosecha marcial de siglos. hoy cumplo 18 años y sigo ocupando el mismo lugar en la foto familiar, pero por lo menos visto un cheongsam más bonito al de la vez pasada. madre luce acicalada y acartonada, como es costumbre. papá también. mi hermano mayor no está, por eso estoy yo aquí. siempre me he sentido afortunada, aunque la culpa por ello la cargo en el género. ming me hizo sentir eso justo cuando regresó de su viaje a londres y me platicó de todo lo que no es china. pronto también lo sabré. papá sabe que soy más como un ciclón y menos como mi madre, que no busco significados en el cielo sino mi propio compás, mi propia voz libre en el camino del viento. pero papá dice que nada conoce mejor a mis raíces que mi interior, y que por más lejos que vuele, el hogar me regresará a su perfección, a su cobijo con todo lo que es necesario, preciso. ming me dice todo lo contrario, pero yo no quiero decir nada hasta estar segura de haber despertado en ese otro mundo que me espera a menos de una semana. ¡me muero de la emoción! el sol casi se guarda y el fotógrafo está listo para darnos el último recuerdo de mi infancia. el silencio preocupado de mis padres corre juguetón hacia mis labios y se acurruca seguro en mi sonrisa. ¡algo grande me espera, entonces! ¿lista? ¡lista! viendo directo a la cámara... espero no salir con los ojos cerrados.
¿cuáles son aquellos mensajes secretos de los que me hablabas? tanto ha sucedido desde nosotros que ni siquiera sé cómo buscarlos. las tardes regresan con sus paisajes grises, y te busco en los trazos de cada alfabeto que forjamos con tinta y piel. pero sólo hay silencio. silencio y un viento bruto que quiere arrancarme lo último de mis colores y arrastrarlos ola hasta tí, hasta el lugar donde seguramente te encuentras vigilante, queriendo resolver lo mismo, absolvernos pasado, olvidar.
siento en las venas
el fluir
de la vida,
el ritmo ancestral
de mi corazón
viajero,
y sobre las montañas
trazo
con un dedo
el espíritu luminoso
que unirá
hoja con piedra,
manos con tierra,
sueños,
certezas,
cielo con mar...
escucha:
un nuevo canto
ha brotado desde
adentro,
escucha:
un nuevo canto
está a punto
de comenzar,
para tí.
los poemas
que tocaron
tu mirada
siguen aquí,
escribiéndose
serenos
en tu ansia
de milagro.
and last but not least,
who does not have a written text because his anecdote is much more telling ^^
we also brought out the figurines so everyone could see them for themselves. it was quite shocking for a few!
i guess they thought they were bigger? or would look exactly as they did in the photos?
ah, the beauty of photography...!
we also had an entire hour of kamishibai!
the storyteller's name is enrique gonzalez, and he's one of the only four or five kamishibai storytellers in mexico.
he pretty much adapted this japanese form of narration to mexican folklore, and his work is the best!
lots of people showed up! not most of my acquaintances, though :| but my entire family showed up! and a student of mine with her dad! how awesome is that :D
even my niece went! it was her first art exhibition, aww... ^^
extra shots:
ale on skype with her dad who lives in israel. she's giving him a tour of the exhibition, aww... ^^
here's sil and isra making us breakfast!
here's said breakfast, yum!
and this is the day before the exhibition, when sil and i were typing our texts out on, yes, you saw right: on paper bags ^^
THE END.
(what a long entry, sheesh!) |
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accomplished
awake
cheerful
good
sleepy
ecstatic
