He praised his own achievements, not without cause…
This week has seen a change in temperature! It is hard to believe that last Wednesday I was climbing the Grind blissfully unaware that it would be the last one of the season. The sun was shining, the sky was a bright blue, and despite a slightly chilly wind the temperature was a pleasant- well at least for running- 55F. However, come Thursday morning a storm had appeared, the sky was gray and a snow flurry signaled the start of the winter season, or at least the Grind had been closed due to snowfall. Before the weekend the skating rink was open and the skiing had begun. So, instead of climbing the trails this week I found myself standing in 2.5 ft of snow and lacing up my skates for some outside ice skating. The rink may not quite be infinity style but rather than an edge it the ice seems to rather turn into snow, which makes skating harder! However, despite the two years it has been since I last hit the ice I felt I had a handle on things. I’m still no better at dealing with the cold, but I did really enjoy myself, until small children appeared and thought they could share the rink- don’t they understand who I am?
Saturday brought about some indoor activities and I headed back into town for a lecture and a presentation at the art gallery. Owen Kydd, a Vancouver local, had a photography and film installation/ selection of pieces that he was discussing. Kydd was exhibiting three pieces if work, “Mission”, “Night” and “Joshua” and all three took the same form and were shown on three connected walls. A triptych of videos displays a series of still lifes, portraits, vignettes and tableaux, all out of sync. Each one linked to the title of the piece. “Misson” shows the city of Mission, one of the many postagricultural communities at Vancouver’s periphery, “Joshua” is a California version of the same small town story and “Night” is from the East side of Vancouver. At times an image may appear still: one shot taken across a parking lot has the feel of a still photo until a car arrives into the frame and stops in front of a movie theater, reminding us that we are watching something unfolding in time. While depicting innocuous items and seemingly unimportant moments in time I found the concept to be intrusive, as though invading thoughts and catching people unprepared and vulnerable, maybe exposing a way of life they felt contented in, and a community they felt connected to. In contrast, I found night, although evoking the same expressions and emotion within me more accessible. Maybe this was because I expected people to be more alone and vulnerable at night, more lost in their own thoughts, feelings and concepts of reality. At night, and in the dark individuals in stillness and lost in their own musing seemed more at ease with themselves and a normality I could identify with than those ‘lost’ during what I would supposed to be an industrious, social experience during the working day.
One other photographic exhibition that I do feel deserves a mention was Scott McFarland’s take on Constable. He had an exhibition on the same floor as Kydd and was where I happened to find myself later in the day. His recreations of ideas based on Constable and shot on Hampstead Heath had me reflecting on summer days in England and the pleasantness of lying on the grass watching the clouds blow and change overhead as a world gets on with its busy day around you. Possibly some of my enjoyment of these comes from reminiscing about childhood memories from Greenwich. I don’t think they invoke the same response as the Kydd works, but in my shallow opinion, much more the kind of thing I’d hang on my wall… in case anyone want to buy me a Christmas present…
Saturday brought about some indoor activities and I headed back into town for a lecture and a presentation at the art gallery. Owen Kydd, a Vancouver local, had a photography and film installation/ selection of pieces that he was discussing. Kydd was exhibiting three pieces if work, “Mission”, “Night” and “Joshua” and all three took the same form and were shown on three connected walls. A triptych of videos displays a series of still lifes, portraits, vignettes and tableaux, all out of sync. Each one linked to the title of the piece. “Misson” shows the city of Mission, one of the many postagricultural communities at Vancouver’s periphery, “Joshua” is a California version of the same small town story and “Night” is from the East side of Vancouver. At times an image may appear still: one shot taken across a parking lot has the feel of a still photo until a car arrives into the frame and stops in front of a movie theater, reminding us that we are watching something unfolding in time. While depicting innocuous items and seemingly unimportant moments in time I found the concept to be intrusive, as though invading thoughts and catching people unprepared and vulnerable, maybe exposing a way of life they felt contented in, and a community they felt connected to. In contrast, I found night, although evoking the same expressions and emotion within me more accessible. Maybe this was because I expected people to be more alone and vulnerable at night, more lost in their own thoughts, feelings and concepts of reality. At night, and in the dark individuals in stillness and lost in their own musing seemed more at ease with themselves and a normality I could identify with than those ‘lost’ during what I would supposed to be an industrious, social experience during the working day.
One other photographic exhibition that I do feel deserves a mention was Scott McFarland’s take on Constable. He had an exhibition on the same floor as Kydd and was where I happened to find myself later in the day. His recreations of ideas based on Constable and shot on Hampstead Heath had me reflecting on summer days in England and the pleasantness of lying on the grass watching the clouds blow and change overhead as a world gets on with its busy day around you. Possibly some of my enjoyment of these comes from reminiscing about childhood memories from Greenwich. I don’t think they invoke the same response as the Kydd works, but in my shallow opinion, much more the kind of thing I’d hang on my wall… in case anyone want to buy me a Christmas present…
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