View allAll Photos Tagged existential
Most every time I'm exploring the Columbia River Gorge I get this feeling of insignificance in the presence of such immensity, evidence of inconceivable amounts of time passage, infinite beauty and complexity of the natural world that is everywhere I look. I have been visiting the gorge all of my life. I've even lived within its boundaries and it never gets old or familiar to me nor is it any less impressive in it's excellence.
How long has this scene gone unchanged? How long did it take to create this scene? I would venture to imagine that after humankind has run its course and if the last man to exist on Earth were to visit here before his ultimate demise his photograph would look exactly like this.
We don't need time machines if we want to experience pre-human conditions here on Earth, unless you really have your heart set on checking out some dinosaurs, all one needs to do is take a walk in the Columbia River Gorge.
This is a photo of Elowah Falls on McCord Creek.
Happy Waterfall Wednesday! :)
"The Scream of the Perpetual Walker" portrays a lone man endlessly wandering the streets of Milton Keynes, his ceaseless journey symbolising existential angst and isolation.
The man's purposeless wandering is like a silent scream, a physical manifestation of inner turmoil. His directionless journey reflects the human condition - the search for meaning in an indifferent universe. The photograph's stark contrast and blurred background emphasise his isolation and detachment from the surrounding world.
The urban setting, with its commercial elements and indifferent crowds, further highlights the man's alienation from societal norms and values. The KFC advertisement in the background serves as a commentary on consumerism and the superficiality of modern life, contrasting sharply with the man's existential quest.
The blurred figures in the background suggest a world moving on, indifferent to the man's presence and plight. The repetitive architecture and monotonous landscape symbolise the routine and mechanical aspects of urban life, which the man seems disconnected from, emphasising his lack of purpose and direction.
The photograph draws parallels to Munch's "The Scream," evoking themes of existentialism, expressionism, and humanism. It captures a fleeting moment in the walker's endless journey, emphasising the impermanence of time and the ongoing passage of life. Despite his purposeless wandering, the photograph gives significance to his journey, acknowledging his humanity and the intrinsic value of his individual experience.
In essence, "The Scream of the Perpetual Walker" is a poignant representation of the universal human condition - the search for purpose in an indifferent world. The photograph's stark simplicity and powerful imagery, invite viewers to contemplate the complexities of existence and the isolation of the individual in a modern society.
Casey Riordan Millard | American, born 1973 | Shark Girl , 2013 | Painted fiberglass | Public Art Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of A. Conger Goodyear, by exchange and Product of the Public Art Initiative partnership with Erie County and the City of Buffalo, 2014 | Location: Canalside Buffalo
Shark Girl is the absurd, hilarious, and bittersweet creation of artist Casey Riordan Millard. While Shark Girl might appear sorrowful or lonely, there is also a comic element to this “fish out of water.” In Millard’s first public sculpture, Shark Girl patiently waits, legs daintily crossed, hands folded, for a companion to join her. Appearing in nearly all of Millard’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Shark Girl was originally conceived as the artist reflected upon the existential conundrums of life, love, family, and loss. Shark Girl can be seen as Millard’s diversionary tactic or as her mechanism for confronting the challenges of contemporary life. Shark Girl’s yearnings and desires for normalcy and acceptance trigger equal parts laughter and empathy. The boulder upon which she sits gives viewers an opportunity to bring the work to life by taking a seat and initiating a friendship—or taking a photo—with this bizarre half-shark, half-girl. About Casey Riordan Millard: Casey Riordan Millard (American, born 1973) earned her BFA from Ohio University in 1994. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including those of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the University of Cincinnati, and Ohio University. Visit Casey Riordan Millard’s Website: caseyriordanmillard.com/home.html
[Source: www.albrightknox.org/community/ak-public-art/shark-girl]
The Selkies Call
Selkie mythology, much like existentialist philosophy, grapples with profound questions of identity, freedom, alienation, and the ongoing search for meaning. Selkies, embodying a dual nature that forces them to exist between two worlds, directly confronts the existentialist struggle to find authenticity and reconcile their place in a world that imposes societal expectations. Moreover, these creatures' ability to reclaim their seal skins becomes a powerful metaphor for the existential emphasis on individual freedom and the necessity of autonomous choice in a world devoid of certainty. Yet, as beings caught between the human and animal realms, selkies experience profound feelings of alienation and displacement, mirroring the existentialist exploration of isolation and the longing for connection in a vast and seemingly indifferent world. The rich symbolism inherent in the Selkie myth—their longing for the sea, their struggles with belonging—mirrors expressionism's use of symbolic imagery and allegory to convey deeper truths about the human condition.
☆nagai yoru - natten är lång 情報☆
この度 アムステルダム ハイブリッドカルチャーズにて
ルーカス・ゴースマンさんとの二人展を
開催させていただく運びとなりました。
ご案内・ご報告申し上げます。
ルーカスとわたしは、共に The Act Of Painting に所属し
2013年からいくつものTAOPのグループ展でご一緒しています。
今回の展覧会は TAOPの主催である
レイモンド・ケホパースのアトリエの一部を
ギャラリーとし、1ヶ月ほど開催します。
今回は、文字をキーワードとし
二人の異なる絵画言語で語られる
物語をテーマとします。
眞弥子は初日とその週末は近くにおりますので
もしもお越しいただける方は
お声をかけていただけましたら幸いです。
どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
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・・・・・
nagai yoru - natten är lång
Mayako Nakamura + Lukas Göthman
March 17th - April 8th **opening Friday March 17th 3pm**
HYBRID CULTURES open Saturday 11 am - 6 pm and by appointment
Donker Curtiusstraat 25 B, 1051 JM, Amsterdam, 0031614672978, www.hybridcultures.org
・・・・・
Hybrid Cultures emphasizes the importance of the personal story, in this duo show by Japanese artist Mayako Nakamura, based in Tokyo and Swedish artist Lukas Göhman who lives and works in Stockholm. Both tell their stories in divergent painterly languages.
In her Calligraphic Landscape series Mayako Nakamura employs traditional Chinese characters as a point of departure for intuitive abstract landscapes on scrolls and screens. Mayako worked on this series while taking care of her gravely ill father. The works can be read as a diary incorporating the narrative of her daily life into the abstraction. In her latest works Mayako comes to grips with the spiritual inheritance of her family. Both her parents quite recently passed away and their spirits are captured in these gestural works. As Mayako states: “My mother passed away a year ago. My father passed away a month ago. I often feel their spirits come and go- riding the winds, or scent of spring. I feel the elemental particles of my parents often dancing in the courtyard..
Whoever came to exist on this earth must pass away.
Using water and ink on paper, I am trying to paint the impermanence - the very moment I am here - over and over again.”
Lukas Göhman tells his story by painting texts. Each text fluid and painted in thick and colorful layers of high viscosity oil, can be interpreted as a fragment of an ongoing story; a journey of self experienced realities and auto-ficticious, poetic narratives, meanwhile exploring the painterly abstract composition on the canvas. A series of paintings by Lukas Göthman can be read as pages from a diary, sometimes fictionalized, sometimes merely abstract, but always telling the story of the life Lukas is leading or is aiming to lead, with all the joy, fear, desire, dreams, love, lust, anger and grief a husband, father of two sons and owner of a dog can embody. The travels Lukas makes and the resonating lines of texts in his works are a commemoration to Scandinavian life. So too the title of this show, The Night is Long, which can refer to the long and dark winter in the North but also relates to a dark and difficult period in life. And yet there is another more enticing connotation: the longing for a long night with loved ones. Lukas captures the essence of his art practice as follows: “All my art starts from a sort of existential journey in which places and memories are important to me.”
"If time frightens us, this is because it works out the problem and the solution comes afterward." -Albert Camus
But someday I might
Someday I might
♫♪♫ Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For? - Existential Crisis Remix - Rock / Metal Version
...and I mean the real hate crime: The way how "hate", the word, is used nowadays. How it has become the only way to express discontent that people still seem familiar with, across all ages and many demographics from the looks of it. They're all throwing it around nonchalantly for everything, from minor inconveniences to the most heinous crimes against humanity. "I hate it." I hate this, I hate that. Sometimes they say it loud, with emphasis. "I HATE it." When their car doesn't start, when they're stuck in traffic, when their new computer game has a bug, how expensive everything has become, how the trains are always late, how their favourite band released a new song they don't like, or indeed when entire cities get bombed to rubble. Apparently, that's all on the same level now somehow. A bit like people who barely can form two sentences in a row without using swear words, and then have no meaningful way to express when something really bothers them.
Though, come to think of it, I don't recall anyone ever claiming they "hate" the wars that are going on at the moment. Or the corrupt and incompetent politicians and corporations that keep them going. People criticise and condemn them, and protest against them, yes, but "hate"? Not that I'm aware of. People hate homeless people a lot more than the system that keeps producing ever more of them. Probably because the system might hate them back if it finds out. It does that anyway of course, but if you keep quiet, maybe you'll be able to fly under its radar. As long as that works, the system doesn't look like a threat, yet the homeless remind you it very much is.
Looking at it like this, it only makes sense. Hate is intricately linked with love, they're two sides of the same coin. Hate happens when something you love gets existentially threatened, and only then. It's a fear reaction, fear is alleviated by faith and hope and all those nice things, not by punishment. The easiest cure to hate is to stop loving, albeit that would be more akin to an amputation than to a cure in the common sense of the term.
I guess a war in someone else's country just isn't threatening enough; it's just a nuisance to the sense of morality if any of that has survived, but not a threat per se. Not in comparison to someone else's favourite soccer club scoring more goals than yours. Or indeed to you needing to change your workflow because the new mandatory eco bottlecaps work differently from the ones you're used to.
At least with the younger generations there's some hoping they "hate" everything literally as much as they know what "literally" means... but I'm not sure.
What it all boils down to is a choice between, scrambled, poached, or hard boiled.
*Please view LARGE for best detail.
WAH Theme: Existentialism
Existential double crisis for me... "The Meaning of Life", Artist unknown.
And as a side note I ask:
If I make an image and do not post it, does it exist?
Garden wall, New Plymouth, New Zealand
beholding
ceaseless watcher, behold your triumph,
apathetic eyes prying into weary flesh,
the beholding, isn't it an accurate name?
you have seized what little I had left.
and as I step onto the street,
I feel them stare into my every thought,
every dark impulse, every light deceit,
all this and more finally, horribly caught.
what else does a man have except his mind?
what can he depend on but privacy in contemplation?
the recorder clicks on, I hear the tape start to wind,
even now you record my damnation.
watching, watching, always watching,
from the eyes of the birds, from cameras mounted high,
I have never known such existential pain,
than to lose the little solitude I prized in my life.
and I have never felt such loathing,
and I have never felt such fear,
I cast my thoughts away, unknowing,
and it is with vile exultation you hear.
ALEXANDER PALMER
"All the world is but an eye, that watches, never bends."
created with Google Gemini AI
The prompt had been 'enhanced' before on Nightcafe. Originally it consisted of these lines:
what brings life also brings death, and what brings death also brings life.
A man carries the sun over the horizon on his back, always moving forward, one foot after the other in hopes of seeing the light, unaware that he has to let go.
I copied these from my son's Facebook status. When I asked him about where it came from, he said that it was his interpretion of a Maori Haka.
REVISED PROMPT:
Surrealism. A man walks along a desolate path carrying the sun on his back. Medium shot. Psychedelic art, swirling patterns, vibrant colors. The sun glows intensely, casting long shadows. A sense of cosmic duality. Golden hour lighting, warm tones and deep blues. masterpiece, intricately detailed, dreamlike, symbolic, existential, philosophical, visual metaphor, enigmatic, ethereal glow, emotional depth. 85 words.
"When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity. No room for problem-making. Just this moment as it is." Eckhart Tolle.
In a place as beautiful as Capri, with so much luxury around, visiting places as incredible as the wonderful Villa San Michele, one might think that there is a kind of life that is escaping from us. Society constantly pushes us to dream of a better reality, but that world does not have to be something external or material, if the improvement is personal and internal, we should be much more grateful. There is a certain existential danger, when that search for greater excellence in our lives leads us to lose the value of the present, to not appreciate the path, but simply to wish for a hypothetical final result.
It is really important to have goals in life in order to not lose motivation in our present, but when you give your best to develop as a human being, reaching those goals or not, should never be the most important thing. Success is too often magnified, and failure almost always sadly punished. Let us value more the dream of the present life. Now is our moment!
Our YouTube Travel Video with Behind the Scenes of this picture:
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"Cuando tu atención se mueve hacia el Ahora, hay un estado de alerta. Es como si estuvieras despertando de un sueño, el sueño del pensamiento, el sueño del pasado y el futuro. Tanta claridad, tanta simplicidad. No hay lugar para crear problemas. Solo este momento tal como es". Eckhart Tolle.
En un lugar tan bello como Capri, con tanto lujo alrededor, visitando lugares tan increíbles como la maravillosa Villa San Michele, uno puede llegar a pensar que hay un tipo de vida que se nos está escapando de las manos. La sociedad nos empuja constantemente a soñar con una realidad mejor, pero ese mundo no tiene porqué ser algo externo o material, si la mejora es personal e interna, deberíamos estar mucho más agradecidos. Existe un cierto peligro existencial, cuando esa búsqueda de una mayor excelencia en nuestras vidas, nos lleva a perder el valor del presente, a no valorar el camino, si no simplemente a desear un hipotético resultado final.
Es realmente importante tener metas en la vida para no perder la motivación en nuestro presente, pero cuando se da lo mejor de sí para desarrollarse como seres humanos, llegar o no, a esos objetivos nunca debería ser lo más importante. El éxito está, demasiado a menudo, magnificado, y el fracaso, casi siempre, tristemente castigado. Valoremos más el sueño de la vida presente. ¡Ahora es nuestro momento!
Obligatory existential, up-nostril picture for a cologne ad. Not sure what a cologne from Wilmur would be named or even smell like. Mothballs, most likely.
For those men who are just satisfied to draw a few 'What is that smell?' at the holiday office party. "Yes! She noticed me!"
Someone get that boy a sandwich!
Fabulous free gift from COCO DESIGNS. TY! <3
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/COCO%20DESIGNS/107/209/22
*COCO* Gift : Reindeer Outfit 2016 (Fitted Mesh)
Rigged Mesh [Copy / No Modify / No Transfer]
Either / Or
Shadowgraphs; A pshychological pastime. As explained by Søren Kierkegaard.
Or
Sein und Dasein. As explained by Martin Heidegger.
Either
Beyond good and evil; Prelude to a phylosophy of the future. As explained by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Take your pick. Existentialism is al about free choice.
We're here visiting Existential
through spacetime i have travelled
to arrive here
after all these years
in yet another terminal form
noting both
joy and despair
abounding;
emotions requesting both
resistance and surrendering;
a vertiginous universe,
a paradoxical balancing.
((Existential Crisis Induced Emo Science Poetry™))
POSTER - LOCANDINA -
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Phrases from “The Good News - Frasi da “La Buona Novella” –
In the pity that does not give in to rancor, mother, I learned love.
Nella pietà che non cede al rancore, madre, ho imparato l’amore.
(il testamento di Tito);
I don't want to think of you as the son of God, but as the son of man, my brother too.
Non voglio pensarti figlio di Dio, ma figlio dell’uomo, fratello anche mio.
(Laudate Hominem);
If you had not been the son of God, I would still have you as my son.
Non fossi stato figlio di Dio, t’avrei ancora per figlio mio.
(Tre Madri);
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Alda Merini:
“The Cross is not a Roman pole, but the wood on which God wrote his gospel”.
“La Croce non è un palo dei romani, ma il legno su cui Dio ha scritto il suo vangelo.
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click to activate the small icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream (it means the monitor);
or…. Press the “L” button to zoom in the image;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi il tasto “L” per ingrandire l'immagine;
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Good Friday is an anniversary which in Sicily acquires a cathartic meaning for those who are searching, not only photographically, for popular traditions (we find them widespread throughout Sicily), which are nothing other than a social, cultural event, which merge into a single past and present; from the web "popular traditions are a historical memory linked to customs and rituals that have given shape to the values and beliefs of that culture". Easter in Sicily can be a source of research, it can appear not without contradictions, citing the thoughts of that great Sicilian thinker Leonardo Sciascia, for him Sicily cannot be called Christian referring to the Sicilian festivals, at most it is only in appearance, in those properly pagan explosions tolerated by the Church; Sciascia addresses the topic as an introductory essay in the book "Religious celebrations in Sicily", illustrated with photographs of a young and still unknown Ferdinando Scianna, a book that did not fail to raise some controversy due to the Sicilian thinker's introductory note, thus being in open controversy with the sacredness of that popular Sicilian devotion (the book was criticized by the Holy See newspaper, the Osservatore Romano), Sciascia writes: “what is a religious festival in Sicily? It would be easy to answer that it is anything but a religious holiday. It is, first of all, an existential explosion; the explosion of the collective id, where the collectivity exists only at the level of the id. Since it is only during the celebration that the Sicilian emerges from his condition of a single man, which is the condition of his vigilant and painful superego, to find himself part of a class, of a class, of a city". Another Sicilian thinker, writer and poet, Gesualdo Bufalino, provides interesting indications on the meaning that Sicilians give to these traditional popular events, he says "during Easter every Sicilian feels not only a spectator, but an actor, first sorrowful and then exultant , for a Mystery that is its very existence. The time of the event is that of Spring, the season of metamorphosis, just as the very nature of the rite is metamorphic in which, as in a story from the Puppet Opera, the battle of Good against Evil is fought. Deception, Pain and Triumph, Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ are present."
In short, Easter in Sicily is a deeply felt anniversary throughout the island since ancient times, it has always had as its fulcrum the emotional participation of the people, with representations and processions which have become rites and traditions which unequivocally characterize numerous Sicilian centres, which they recall the most salient moments narrated in the Gospels and which recall the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, with processions formed by the various brotherhoods (sometimes with theatrical re-enactments) which have within them contents and symbols often coming from the Spanish domination, which took place in Sicily between the 16th and 17th centuries
This year, for Good Friday, I was looking for traditions that were "outside the most well-known circuits", in the past I have alternated traditional religious processions known, with lesser-known ones; I considered various possibilities, then I decided to go to a town that is described as being located in a remote and isolated location in the province of Messina, the town is Capizzi. Good Friday in Capizzi takes place in two phases, there is the daytime procession in which three floats are carried on the shoulders, that of the Ecce Homo, that of the Sorrowful Virgin, and that of the Pietà (with the Virgin Mary holding her Dead Son in her arms), then there is the afternoon procession, which continues until late in the evening, in this evening procession the float carrying the Ecce Homo is missing, while two others are added, there is the one with the Urn carrying the Dead Christ (this figure, that of the Dead Christ, in Capizzi, is called "Father of Divine Providence"), and there is the float carrying the "Holy Cross", on it, during the route along the streets of the town, you can see the villagers placing long linen sheets, who often lean out directly from the balconies or windows of their houses to place them over it. The procession is made up of devotees and local personalities, the police and Capizzi's musical band, and two brotherhoods, that of the SS. Sacrament (the brothers are recognizable by a light yellow cloak), and that of the Good Death (whose followers wear a black cloak); the procession advances along the route in absolute silence, silence is Sacred, the bells stop ringing, the procession walks slowly, an exception to the silence comes from the sad, mournful music played by the band and the drumbeats played in mourning; the route includes steep descents, and equally steep (and tiring) climbs. The afternoon-evening procession reaches the locality of "Tre Croci", here the Archpriest, Don Antonio, delivered his panegyric, using profound words, full of Hope, Charity, Love, remembering that Christ always forgives everyone. In the afternoon, in the Mother Church, the celebration of the Passion of Christ takes place; we witness the rite of the Adoration of the Holy Cross, and the veneration of the "Father of Divine Providence", subsequently there is the rite in which the Archpriest sprinkles the body of the Dead Christ with rose petals, and anoints it with perfumed oils (to recall what is written in the Gospel of John (19:38-42), Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate for permission to take the body of Jesus, Pilate agreed, but Nicodemus also joined Joseph, carrying about thirty kilos of a mixture of myrrh and aloe, sprinkling it on the body: they took the body of Jesus, wrapped it in bandages together with the aromas, according to the funeral custom of the Jews). During the rite of the Adoration of the Cross, in the Mother Church (and also in the Tre Croci area), there is a song sung by the young people of the village, who in chorus sing the “song of the improperia”, which would be in sung form the reproaches that Jesus Christ addresses to his people, because they were responsible for His crucifixion: it is therefore a plaintive dialogue between the crucified Christ and his people; this song dates back to the sixth century, having arrived in the West from the Church of Jerusalem.
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Il Venerdì Santo è una ricorrenza che in Sicilia acquista un significato catartico per chi è alla ricerca, non solo fotografica, delle tradizioni popolari (le troviamo diffuse in tutta la Sicilia), che altro non sono che un evento sociale, culturale, che fondono in un tutt’uno passato e presente; dal web “le tradizioni popolari sono una memoria storica legata ad usanze e ritualità che hanno dato forma ai valori e alle credenze di quella cultura”. La Pasqua in Sicilia può essere fonte di ricerca, essa può apparire non priva di contraddizioni, citando il pensiero di quel grande pensatore Siciliano che fu Leonardo Sciascia, per lui la Sicilia non può dirsi cristiana riferendosi alle feste Siciliane, al massimo lo è solo in apparenza, in quelle esplosioni propriamente pagane, tollerate dalla Chiesa; Sciascia affronta l’argomento come saggio introduttivo nel libro “Feste religiose in Sicilia”, illustrato con fotografie di un giovane ed ancora sconosciuto Ferdinando Scianna, libro che non mancò di sollevare qualche polemica per la nota introduttiva del pensatore Siciliano, essendo così in aperta polemica con la sacralità di quella devozione popolare Siciliana (il libro fu oggetto di una stroncatura da parte del quotidiano della Santa Sede, l’Osservatore Romano), Sciascia scrive: “che cos’ è una festa religiosa in Sicilia? Sarebbe facile rispondere che è tutto, tranne che una festa religiosa. E’, innanzi tutto, un’esplosione esistenziale; l’esplosione dell’es collettivo, dove la collettività esiste soltanto a livello dell’es. Poiché e soltanto nella festa che il siciliano esce dalla sua condizione di uomo solo, che è poi la condizione del suo vigile e doloroso super io, per ritrovarsi parte di un ceto, di una classe, di una città ”. Altro pensatore, scrittore e poeta Siciliano, Gesualdo Bufalino, fornisce indicazioni interessanti sul senso che i Siciliani danno a questi eventi popolari tradizionali, egli dice “durante la Pasqua ogni siciliano si sente non solo uno spettatore, ma un attore, prima dolente e poi esultante, per un Mistero che è la sua stessa esistenza. Il tempo dell’evento è quello della Primavera, la stagione della metamorfosi, così come metamorfica è la natura stessa del rito nel quale, come in un racconto dell’Opera dei Pupi, si combatte la lotta del Bene contro il Male. Sono presenti l’Inganno, il Dolore e il Trionfo, la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Cristo”.
In breve, la Pasqua in Sicilia è una ricorrenza profondamente sentita in tutta l’isola fin dall’antichità, essa ha sempre avuto come fulcro la commossa partecipazione del popolo, con rappresentazioni e processioni divenuti riti e tradizioni che caratterizzano inequivocabilmente numerosissimi centri Siciliani, che rievocano i momenti più salienti narrati nei Vangeli e che ricordano la Passione, la Morte e la Resurrezione di Gesù Cristo, con cortei formati dalle varie confraternite (a volte con rievocazioni teatrali) che hanno in se contenuti e simbologie spesso provenienti dalla dominazione Spagnola, avvenuta in Sicilia tra il XVI ed il XVII secolo.
Quest’anno, per il Venerdì Santo, ero alla ricerca di tradizioni che fossero “al di fuori dei circuiti più noti”, in passato ho alternato processioni tradizionali religiose note, a quelle meno note; ho preso in considerazione diverse possibilità, poi ho deciso di recarmi in un paese che viene descritto essere situato in una località remota ed isolata della provincia di Messina, il paese è Capizzi. Il Venerdì Santo a Capizzi, si svolge in due fasi, c’è la processione diurna nella quale vengono portate in spalla tre vare, quella dell’Ecce Homo, quella della Vergine Addolorata, e quella della Pietà (con la Vergine Maria che tiene in braccio suo Figlio Morto), poi c’è la processione del pomeriggio, che prosegue fino a sera inoltrata, in questa processione serale manca la vara che reca l’Ecce Homo, mentre se ne aggiungono altre due, c’è quella con l’Urna che reca il Cristo Morto ( questa figura, quella del Cristo Morto, a Capizzi, viene chiamata “Padre della Divina Provvidenza”), e c’è la vara che reca la “Santa Croce”, su di essa, durante il percorso lungo le vie del paese, si assiste al poggiare di lunghe lenzuola di lino da parte dei paesani, che spesso si sporgono direttamente dai balconi o dalle finestre delle loro case per deporle a scavalco su di essa. La processione è formate, oltre che dai devoti e dalle personalità del paese, dalle forze dell’ordine e dalla banda musicale di Capizzi, da due confraternite, quella del SS. Sacramento (i confratelli sono riconoscibili da un mantello giallo chiaro), e quella della Buona Morte (i cui adepti recano un mantello nero); la processione avanza lungo il percorso in assoluto silenzio, il silenzio è Sacro, le campane smettono di suonare, la processione cammina lenta, una eccezione al silenzio proviene dalla musica mesta, triste, suonata dalla banda e dai colpi di tamburo suonati a lutto; il percorso prevede ripide discese, ed altrettanto ripide (e faticose) salite. La processione pomeridiana-serale giunge fino alla località “Tre Croci”, qui l’Arciprete, Don Antonio, ha proferito il suo panegirico, usando parole profonde, colme di Speranza, Carità, Amore, ricordando che Cristo perdona sempre, tutti. Il pomeriggio, in Chiesa Madre, si assiste alla celebrazione della Passione di Cristo; si assiste al rito dell’Adorazione della Santa Croce, ed alla venerazione del “Padre della Divina Provvidenza”, successivamente c’è il rito nel quale l’Arciprete cosparge il corpo del Cristo Morto con petali di rosa, e lo unge con olii profumati (a rievocare quante scritto nel Vangelo di Giovanni (19:38-42), Giuseppe di Arimatea, discepolo di Gesù, in segreto per timore dei Giudei, chiese a Pilato il permesso di prendere il corpo di Gesù, Pilato acconsentì, ma anche Nicodemo, si unì a Giuseppe, portando circa trenta chili di una mistura di mirra e di aloe, cospargendone il corpo: essi presero il corpo di Gesù, lo avvolsero in bende insieme con gli aromi, secondo l'usanza funebre dei Giudei). Durante il rito dell’Adorazione della Croce, in Chiesa Madre (ed anche in località Tre Croci), c’è il canto intonato dai giovani del paese, che in coro cantano il “canto degli improperia”, che sarebbe in forma cantata i rimproveri che Gesù Cristo rivolge al suo popolo, poiché si è reso responsabile della Sua crocifissione: esso è quindi un dialogo lamentoso tra Cristo crocifisso e il suo popolo; questo canto risalirebbero al VI secolo, giunto in occidente proveniente dalla Chiesa di Gerusalemme.
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Excerpt from www.mississauga.ca/arts-and-culture/arts/public-art/tempo...:
a sky for peoples and a space for us by Karly Cywink are two of over 35 public artworks on display across the City of Mississauga.
Karly Cywink, 2023
Digital Illustration, printed on vinyl
IDEA Square One (Square One Mall, Second Floor)
“a sky for peoples is inspired by my recent obsession with the sky and everything that it can hold. I’ve been taught that the sky provides a place for guidance in many different aspects of life; from practical resources, identity, to the observation of spiritual beings. It’s a place that I often find myself gazing up at subconsciously. It’s a place I know I can sit and stare at and ponder the mundane, like what I should get for groceries this week, as well as the existential question of what our meaning is. I don’t truly know what the skies tell me, but I get lost in thought every time and often come away feeling better. To me, this piece inspires thought and question, innovation and creation, and an overall sense of want and yearning for something new and exciting.
a space for us is both the counterpart and opposite to a sky for peoples. Just like its sister, a space for us is inspired by the thought-provoking beauty of both natural and manmade objects that surround us, in our everyday life. As someone who has spent the better part of my life living and visiting rural spaces, landscapes have always been something that I find quite captivating. They are something that I often find are unfortunately overlooked in the urban spaces, that most of us find ourselves in. There are views that can inspire flow and thinking, in a multitude of contexts. We let go of the privilege to see and marvel at these mundane landscapes, in favour of the busy and sprawling landscape in our urban environments.
I hope these pieces inspire us, as creatives and innovators, to take a step back and revisit the not-so-obvious beauty of the land that allows us to be here.”
– Karly Cywink
The We're Here! gang is getting existential today.
The central claim of existentialism is that existence precedes essence. That means our essence – our purpose in life – is neither given to us nor dictated to us. We make our own choices and find our own purpose.
There's a fantastic eight-minute crash course in existentialism in this video.
Welcome to Venice, where the main attraction isn't the 500-year-old architecture—it's watching tourists photograph other tourists photographing tourists.
Up on the bridge: a firing squad of smartphones and cameras, all aimed at the gondolas below like they've just spotted a rare species in the wild. "Look honey, authentic Venetians in their natural habitat!"
Down in the gondolas: passengers craning their necks upward, returning fire with their own cameras. "Look at all those people on the bridge! This is SO Venice!"
And then there's me, photographing the entire circus, which means someone behind me is probably photographing me photographing them photographing each other. It's like a Russian nesting doll of tourism, except everyone's holding an iPhone.
The gondolier in the red dress has clearly given up trying to figure out who she's supposed to smile at. The answer? Everyone. And no one. We're all just taking pictures of people taking pictures at this point.
Venice: Come for the canals, stay for the existential crisis about whether you're experiencing the moment or just documenting other people failing to experience it.
Neither leaning backwards or reaching forward. No past to mourn, no future to fear. Relax into the present moment-- it's a fleeting gem in the river of time.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio and Lightroom Classic.
Know your Exits
Emerging from the dim light of the underpass, where the city's heartbeat pulses faintly against the cold concrete, everyone seems lost in their thoughts. What paths lay ahead of you? This direction is not just a way out of my place of shadows and echoes but a chance to make an existential choice. Exits in my urban chasm are not merely roads and streets; they are the decisions that define me, the moments of truth where my very being is distilled into action.
As I ponder existence and essence, I question whether freedom of choice is the most authentic expression. My choice carves a path that leads me back to the same variant of existence, and I never seem to leave. What are the invisible threads that connect my choices to a predetermined destiny?
I take a step forward with a deep breath, embracing the uncertainty that ensures my return. Lost in the labyrinthine streets, shadowed alleys, and false exits, I promise myself liberation and self-discovery as I take the next step that could redefine me.
Blogger: www.jjfbbennett.com/2024/03/messages-under-bridge.html
Keywords
urban art, existentialism, street art, cityscapes, choice and consequence, introspective art, philosophy in art, meaning of life, finding your path
the last light of the week cuts sharply through the city, carving out silence where noise has been. christopher, the bookseller, sits in its path, framed by the weight of his own stories. smoke curls into the cold air, dissolving like unfinished sentences. his wristwatch catches the light—a quiet reminder that time moves even when he does not. in his hands, a book, pages worn, read by others before him, waiting for those who come after. the moment feels borrowed, as if palma itself paused for just a breath.
Two days of debates and only a few identified climate change as our most pressing existential threat. Which tells me that some of our candidates don't have a basic understanding of science and what we are facing.
Also - it is disgusting that our election season is now a year and a half long and costs billions of dollars.
Abstract expressionist philosophy painting dedicated to my existential trip sidekick, Rusty Gentry of South Carolina. Image represents THE TOTALITY OF REALITY UP TO NOVEMBER 24, 2012.
Le cri ... version Marseillaise. Symbolisant la mouette moderne emportée par une crise d'angoisse existentielle à l'approche de déconfinement.
The cry ... Marseillaise version!
Symbolizing the modern seagull carried away by a crisis of existential anxiety at the approach of deconfinement.