REVISITATION • Tripping Over Perspective
⊛ Tripping Over Perpective
⊛ cut washi + chiyogami paper / wood
⊛ 10 x 8 in • 254 x 203 mm
Do you feel the tug,
gentle and persistent,
plucking at the edge of you,
urging you towards the bolted door,
spinning the compass arrow in your hand,
stoking the lust within your crystalizing bones,
rendering ragged the borders of your realities?
Do you hear the whisper,
spiraling up your spine,
circling around your soul,
singing you to wander?
It’s been a while since I’ve revisited a piece of art, particularly one that is still on hand here in my workspace, but Tripping Over Perspective has been bouncing around in my head recently. And the truth is, I’m not entirely sure why. But I have a guess or two.
This piece was originally created for an exhibition called the Sound of Scissors (paper-cutting reference! …I don’t actually use scissors, but they let me join anyway), and the theme was Travel.
I never thought there would be a time in my life when 'travel' might be a sensitive topic, but here we are.
Many of us, for reasons, are not traveling these days. Many even dread the inevitable trip to buy groceries.
Japan’s Golden Week holiday (a stingy 5 days this year, including a weekend) takes place next week. It’s one of, if not the biggest travel times. People plan trips overseas or to visit their hometowns. We were looking forward to seeing my wife’s family on their wonderful little island (not their island, as in “they own an island”, unfortunately).
That’s been cancelled.
We’ll be staying home, which isn’t much of a change for me. I’m pretty sure the last time I left town was at the beginning of the year. And this is a small town. Come to think of it, I haven’t even been up to Osaka proper since last year.
Generally, there are three kinds of travel.
There's the concept of travel, the romantic ideal of breaking away from your everyday, of casting aside the mundane for adventure. New sights, new people, new loves. Discovery!
There's actual travel, which has the potential for all of the above, but also includes jet lag. Optionally, food poisoning (which I get plenty of in and around home, thank you). Also, really weird roommates. Ask me about youth hostel stays sometime.
And then there's the kind of excursions that I most find myself involved in - those within my own mind.
All three have the potential to alter the way you see the world. But not all in the same way.
It looks like this Golden Week, my travels will be limited to the third type, much like our pink-hued friend above.
⊛ Tripping Over Perpective
⊛ detail • seeing myself in a new way
⊛ Tripping Over Perpective
⊛ detail • grass, so much grass
The last time I traveled any significant distance was to revisit (huzzah! A theme!) my own hometown.
If you were to ask me what I miss from the land I grew up in, the least likely answer has to be grass. Yet, looking at this piece and others I’ve made, the fields and lawns clearly influenced me.
The grass in the nearby Osaka park is stiff and sharp. I actually cut my hand on it once. You'll want to bring a sheet to sit on for a picnic.
Now, wild grasses, there're a ton of, scattered throughout Japan. As it turns out, both timothy (おおあわがえり) and orchard grass (かもがや) both grow hereabouts, which is ironic because
These were the two grasses we seeded to grow hay on the farm, and
I am wildly allergic to both, due to 1.
Given my allergies, it is strange I am at all nostalgic for grass, and that I like drawing it. But both are true. The human mind is a riddle.
