Posts Tagged: Love

Exhibition 2015 – Reflections

I approached the theme of the exhibition in three different ways:
A reflection on passing from Life to Death as both my parents died this summer
A question : Was the naming of the planets a reflection of man’s observation of himself, or does each man/woman reflect all the planets?
Looking for reflections of light and objects, I also found a reflection of a dream I had had ten years previously.

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Reflection on passing from Life to Death

Both my parents died this summer. My mother, unconscious in the last days of her life, seemed to draw from her own source but she also seemed anxious. To my eye, her hands shaped a question mark.
My father, also unconscious, held the hand we gave him with surprising force. There was a strong sense of communication, of receiving and passing on.

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Vigil as dusk is reflecting on the table

Reflecting the Planets?

Is there a set of qualities that can be described very powerfully with the name of one planet?
Could I make ten self-portraits, one to reflect each of the planets?

Click on the cover to see a preview (the photos are a little distorted)

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Too desirable Madam? or HRO IN(2015)

More than ten years ago, I had a dream in which my family was robbing a bank, looking for a treasure in underground passages; it felt half-heroic, half-dishonest. A man stood up and died. Then a young woman and I had to hide in a flat and as we were trying to enter unnoticed a small crowd was looking at a yellow sports car. As I was describing this dream in the following days, I was asked what that yellow sports car could represent. More than one idea came to mind. After this dream whenever I saw a yellow sports car I was reminded of the dream and thought of a more showy, more visible part of me, and why not?
In May 2015, I had to collect my passport from South Kensington and saw this car in a showroom window. As I was trying to photograph it without my reflection the woman on the photograph said goodbye to the man and turned; she must have seen me and this was her reaction.
It is only when I was working on printing it that my friend Peter commented on the number plate. The name of the showroom is
H.R. Owen but of course it could be heroin or heroine.

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Love by George Herbert

LOVE

Love bade me welcome ; yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From m’y first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here.
Love said, You shall be he.
I, the unkinde, ungrateful ? Ah, my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply :
Who made the eyes, but I ?
Truth, Lord ; but I have marr’d them : let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love ; who bore the blame ?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat.
So I did sit and eat.

George Herbert (1593 - 1633)

Simone Weil, the French philosopher, dearly loved this poem by George Herbert, and it was instrumental in her approach to christianity. She wrote in a letter to Joë BOUSQUET:

Je vous mets ci-joint le poème anglais que je vous avais récité, Love; il a joué un grand rôle dans ma vie, car j'étais occupée à me le réciter à moi-même, à ce moment où, pour la première fois, le Christ est venu me prendre. Je croyais ne faire que redire un beau poème, et à mon insu c'était une prière. (799)

I hereby include the English poem that I recited to you, Love; it played a big role in my life, for I was busy reciting it to myself at the moment when, for the first time, Christ came to take me. I believed I was merely resaying a beautiful poem, and unbeknownst to myself, it was a prayer.

10 weeks after my mother, my father died.

They had first met, 91 years ago, aged a few months and 3 years old.

Do you know where you are going to?

“Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)”

Link to the song at the end of the text

Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know

Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open doors
What are you hoping for
Do you know

Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how I loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me

Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know

Now looking back at all we've planned
We let so many dreams
Just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long
Before we'll see
How sad the answers
To those questions can be

Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know

Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open doors
What are you hoping for
Do you know

To Sophie

Sophie K L
27 août 1955 – 2 juillet 2012

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Elle court, elle court…

LA MALADIE D’AMOUR – MICHEL SARDOU

Elle court, elle court, la maladie d'amour,
Dans le cœur des enfants de 7 à 77 ans.
Elle chante, elle chante, la rivière insolente
Qui unit dans son lit
Les cheveux blonds, les cheveux gris.

Elle fait chanter les hommes et s'agrandir le monde.
Elle fait parfois souffrir tout le long d'une vie.
Elle fait pleurer les femmes, elle fait crier dans l'ombre
Mais le plus douloureux, c'est quand on en guérit.

Elle court, elle court, la maladie d'amour,
Dans le cœur des enfants de 7 à 77 ans.
Elle chante, elle chante, la rivière insolente
Qui unit dans son lit
Les cheveux blonds, les cheveux gris.

Elle surprend l'écolière sur le banc d'une classe
Par le charme innocent d'un professeur d'anglais.
Elle foudroie dans la rue cet inconnu qui passe
Et qui n'oubliera plus ce parfum qui volait.

Elle court, elle court, la maladie d'amour,
Dans le cœur des enfants de 7 à 77 ans.
Elle chante, elle chante, la rivière insolente
Qui unit dans son lit
Les cheveux blonds, les cheveux gris.

Pierre, Antoine et Olivier

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Une vie bien remplie

Après une vie bien remplie, Maman est morte le 1er Juin 2015

Maman montage

 

 

La jeunesse

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“We make His love too small”

A poem by Malcolm Guite

An extract of the explanation Malcolm gives about his poem is:

"We sometimes make his love, and the object of his love too small! We diminish and dwindle it down to some small time religious patter about the way we feel. In this sonnet I am trying to be open again to the literally Cosmic dimensions of John 3:16!"

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For God So Loved the World

The whole round world, in Greek the total cosmos,
Is all encompassed in this loving word;
Not just the righteous, right on, and religious,
But every one of whom you’ve ever heard,
And all the throng you don’t know or ignore,
For everyone is precious in his sight,
Chosen and cherished, loved, redeemed before
The circling cosmos ever saw the light.
He set us in the world that we might flourish
That His beloved world might live through us
We chose instead that all of this should perish
And turned his every blessing to a curse.
And now he gives himself, as Life and Light
That we might choose in Him to set things right.

More about his poem here For God so loved the World on Malcolm's blog.