Drawing a line, without needing it to be the start of something else, but to be itself.
watching.
I listen. I needed to know more about being.
When I was young my Mother bought me a portable cassette player. I played tapes in the garden. Once I pressed 'record' instead of 'play' and found that I had the sound of the garden on the tape. It was more interesting than the music I had taped over. Since then I have listened like this.
How many people truely appreciate and respect the opportunities that travel affords them ? How many go to locations other than thier usual place and yet try to carry on living in the same way ? How many keep thier ears tuned to the same sounds they hear every day ?
I am in Mooste, Estonia. The sounds are all different from anywhere else. I take photographs and they remind me of the visual differences. I make recordings and they remind me of this place.
I explore sounds through the location and the location through the sounds. I take photographs more in the way I make music - my emotions are at play not just my eye.
I explore my life too. Things that have been stressful. Things where I have not done well or have made mistakes. I work things through.
I eat.
always alive and glad to be so.
I create stories to send to my daughter and this is a wonderful experience. I talk to her as often as I can. I miss her and I miss my home, but they will be there to welcome me when I return.
I will go back with all of the experiences and explorations of this time in Estonia - so something has been added to life. To mine and therefore to those who I share it with.
I won't write a thesis for my work. I am interested in people knowing something about me - thoughts are only a very small and somewhat clumsy part of who we are. We invent them. If I use the word 'art' to describe my creativity then I hope that my work speaks. The theory might well be there but I don't feel it needs to be stated. I might miss reaching some people that way, but I am happy to reach the people who can respond on an intuitive and emotive level. If this comes first there is the freedom to think more about the work. If we arrive via the theory it is not possible to connect in the same way. - see ? I said thoughts are clumsy.
- Jez riley French, May 2009
