I am away.
I don't think I have ever felt such a need to leave as I felt lately. I didn't even pack. I was ready. I have been ready since July, I think.
The choice of my destination was tactical, emotional, analytical, spiritual, instinctive, alchemical, and sensual. And also a trip down memory lane. It was felt. It was lived. It crawled under my skin. It has lived there since 1995.
Which is all the better if I think about the readings for this week: all on phenomenology. This week made me sit and really think. I found myself visualising myself while I was typing "stuff" about my MRes and also about the essay I have to prepare for my clinical supervision course. And then I stopped in my tracks and asked myself: why don't I just type?! And so I did. And it was good.
Because there have been many thoughts and elucubrations about the overlapping of my thinking and processes: therapeutically, artistically, spiritually it all makes more sense. Jung popping into my art studio while Deleuze checks on my work with clients and supervisees, while Hekatē at all times smiles and nods. And it feels "good" because it is not rushed. They all have a cup of coffee; the men both smoke - in my visualisations - and they all take time to sit with me and allow me to come to my own conclusions, which normally are just a bunch of "ah... ah ha!... now I... ooooooh!". And at times I utter the "mmmmmmmm..." which is very revelatory. I remember the first time I used plaster: I came out with this smile on my face and the sentence which is now, I have to admit, recorded in the annals of the college: This is so much better than sex!". Which has nothing to do with the prowess of my partners, but a lot to do with my fascination with materials and sensations [less to do with feelings and emotion]. And all to do with alchemical processing.
I have been thinking about how the language we use is so sterile and aseptic and not embodied and carnal; it doesn't fill a space, and it doesn't have dimensions. It is not concrete, real. Instead, it feels mainly theoretical, imaginary, illusory, and totally abstract. Probably these elucubrations are going hand in hand with whatever is going on within me; which is all good!
I am continuing to write this, sitting on the Abbey grounds. So, I would kindly ask you to follow this writing in the next post! >... >... >...
onwards and upwards,
mx
READINGS:
Paraskos, M. (2014) Bringing into being: vivifying sculpture through touch. In: Sculpture and touch. Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, pp. 61–69.
Thomas, J. (2013) Phenomenology and material culture. In: Handbook of material culture. London, SAGE, pp. 43–59.
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