Observations from the Periphery
Periphery as physical, mental and theoretical
Geographical space, Ideological space - the artwork
Epilogue
Is it a coincidence
That in this country [Malta]
[the word]Art means floor?
Is it a country
That in this coincidence
Floor means art?
See what I did there?
As exhilarating as it sounds
It does not appear
The pause between events
Makes time sit still
It goes nowhere
But its there
Like a loaded spring
Potential temporal energy
Waiting to be deployed
But waiting is a function of time
It depends who is watching
If no one is watching
Time sits still
If time sit still
No one watches
Literally livid l retire
Move back, regress
Too fast, too soon
Its always ‘too’
Too loud
Too much
Too big
Too complicated
Too too too
Trying to make
Failing to make
Failing through making
Failing through succeeding
I would have given up
I should have given up
Success sets you up for failure
Success however
Unlike failure
Is temporary
Outside//Inside
Within/Without
You cannot be part of the landscape
And be part of it at the same time
Its an impossibility but a reality
You are always part of a landscape
Someone else's landscape at least
A landscape is a point of view
But also a pictorial code
A landscape is a picture
A picture against time
That never moves
A landscape is an artificial concept
Mainly attached to ideas of the natural
Nature is man made
It is a Western concept
A landscape therefore relates to humankind
To human activity
Versus:
The lack of it
Thyme against time
The horizon is a visual limitation
Maximum perceptual distance
It is an endless point
Unreachable
Unattainable
A measure of distance
And a measure of hope
The unknown lies beyond the horizon
No matter how far you walk towards it
You will never know what is beyond it
A landscape in portrait
Can only exist in painting
Landscape as a pictorial code
Is a compression on distance
On a single plane
Painting however represents a landscape poorly
A landscape is in constant motion
It never lies still
But its only important when we look at it
The landscape only exists in the eye
That is why you can have a landscape in portrait
Sky, Sea
Earth, dust
Trees, concrete and tarmac
Landscape soup
The sky is at least 50% of most landscapes
Yet it will never fit in a pot
The sky is another concept
A real unreal object
It has a fixed orientation in space
On the image plane
But is made ip if the same material that surrounds you
The sky is a colour
That is why you cannot touch it
At best as you go up
It is a change in temperature
A change in state
But not in matter
The sky is an idea
Unlike a soup
On Geography
An island is not a garden
When you are tired you cannot walk inside
You cannot walk away
You cannot walk
Flowers never grow in this garden
Not for everyone
Not the same
Sometimes flowers grow on their own
Away from the sun
But you cannot touch them
Sometimes you can
But no one will ever see them
You see these are not the same thing
However one does not exclude the other
Making and talking are separate strands
They relate but impair the function of the other
It goes without saying
Minor and major are not opposed
Identical in parts, one degree away in others
Prominence and invisibility, the larger and the smaller are equally apart
From the centre
The neutral centre
The root, the origin
Mixing modalities can be confusing
But also useful, it dislocates the centre from the centre
Allows for the minor and major to exist
To coexist
In the same space, in the same time frame
They are simultaneous, the same
Coexistence is an interesting concept
Especially if what is coexisting is the same, with a different name
This is not a question of the pot calling the kettle black
Its a question of the pot calling the kettle a kettle
Again there is a difference between a kettle and a cattle
That throws any logic we were getting at out of the window
Between rock and a hard place:
Sculpture Between the lines
On sonance, dissonance and resonance.
Listening is tactile, touching is aural.
Audition is structured, composite, laminated in layers of the felt and the remembered
The past colours the ear, the ear the mind
Futures are expressed in distance, and distance in time.
Something versus nothing, on or off
Everything breaks down to the absence of something
Light needs dark to be detected
Something needs nothing to stand out
Sonance needs silence
Silence is multi dimensional
No orientation, no motion neither in space nor in time
Machines feel, a machine reacts but does not attach
Attachment and awareness are elusive
Which could mean the two are related
This could also suggest that doughnuts and armadillos are related
Because they make very useless furniture
We find links everywhere we look for them
Where there are't we make them up
Everything is imagined
Everything is imaginary
We did not bite the sun
But we could
If we wanted to
If we believe
If
Writing is hidden sound
It not hidden just mentally occulted
Text is the answer
Its visual sound
A cross modal abstraction
So evident
Its invisible
Like the sun
On a sunny day
We call it sunny
But we think beach, sand and ice-cream
We might think sun
But we never look at it
Until its going away
Then its too late
The future of the image
Resides in the past
The future is thus a mere memory
Of a more glorious past
Images are made that way
Vision is image
Vision is a nostalgic romance
No wonder it goes nowhere
Its cyclical
Repeating it self
I believe
In the end
Where one cannot say
Because of the freedom we have
It restricts movement
Erases history
Re writes it to someones liking
Self administered restrictions
In the name of freedom
In the end
I believe
They pretend to know
To know more than you
They are unique
Visible
Important
But so is a wart the shape of an armadillo
On your left testicle
It doesn't make it good
Or desirable
They decide
If you do is what you say you do
What you believe you do
