SubscribeApril 14th, 2012
locating your self__odd to think about that
The viewing room will alternate two films. Diary is a short film that collages original footage taken by Hetherington throughout his career. Hetherington described Diary, which he directed in 2010, as “a highly personal and experimental film that expresses the subjective experience of my work, and was made as an attempt to locate myself after ten years of reporting. It’s a kaleidoscope of images that link our western reality to the seemingly distant worlds we see in the media.” The film’s editing and sound design are by Magali Charrier. Diary will be screened in the gallery’s viewing room daily, along with Hetherington’s 4-minute 2009 film Sleeping Soldiers.
This describes a new exhibition of Tim Hetherington‘s work. There are some examples of his “sleeping soldiers” here and here.
The thing about his work seems to require a shift in focus – from the point of view of the viewer to that of the one who has been the target of someone else’s fear and rage. I love that about his work and it seems apropos for a man who was seeking to find his self after so many years witnessing, and participating in, violence.
September 23rd, 2011
our relationship to the land
is a bit strained I would say.
There are the devastation occurring (and yet to occur) in the American south and, of course, in many places of the world. As our climate shifts it will get harder for us because the patterns we know and depend upon are being upturned.
It made me think of the Land Army women of Britain and their stories. All those women; all the dead men who would have been their friends, husbands, co-workers.
These are the women posted to Hulcote Moors. The caption says they are waving to visiting American soldiers. Their men gone, these others come to take their place, temporarily.
But really, many of these women were on their own after that war. So many men died that it must have pushed at the ways women handled their lives. How they thought of themselves, how they met their needs, much had to be negotiated anew, I suspect.
This isn’t a marriage, or at least not a traditional one. The woman in white – a May Queen. I really do wonder how much of our current feminist spirituality came from these women (and those like them) meeting their needs as best they could.
We can never really know all the consequences of those things we do. I wonder, if the male leaders of that time could have foreseen the vast changes in women’s power and the cultural shifts toward all things Gaian, whether they would have been so eager to foster women’s labour and give them the notion that they were, in fact, a female army?
September 11th, 2011
for all that war is
For all that war is, its politicizing, its greed and hate, its despair and rhetoric of higher purpose, this little story presents war’s broken heart.
via Wimp
January 5th, 2010
Writing war
I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recently. I devoured it, which as lovely as it is, didn’t take very long. I felt comforted by the book, which is odd since it is about war and the effects it has on an occupied people. I’ve been thinking about it since and wanted just to give you some idea of how I’m thinking about it, since I haven’t come to any conclusions about this.
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