EX SILENTIO

(1994-2004)

this work begins as an exploration

- if the inner experience is a reflexion of what is outside of the body ?

or

if the outer is a reflexion of the inner ?

- a projection of MIND ?

 

After spending 18 months in the Kumaon in the Indian Himalayas ( 1994-96),

sleeping under the stars, watching the clouds in the valley down below,

I realized what a tremendous impact

this change in surroundings had on my experience of REALITY.

Relating to this place as living in the sky or in the element of AIR

gave birth to the idea of exploring  5 elements in this way.

This led me to a year in

WATER ( Beara Penninsula, West Cork, Ireland 1996-97),

EARTH ( Vendel, Sweden 1997-98),

FIRE (central Australia 1999).

The idea of the FIFTH ELEMENT as consciousness

was explored in the cities of New York, Delhi and Stockholm.

 

After having spent 7 years in the city, I started to see how all my

surroundings were, to some extent, a second-hand experience.

Everything around me had been filtered through the human intellect,

even the night sky dusted with the satellites had the mark of man.

100 000 years of human evolution felt like

one misunderstanding based on another.

EARTH

...mother earth with the childhood trolls
walk through the forest like a song of forgiveness
through the cobwebs and ever transforming forest floor
a micro cosmos hidden to the eyes, organic civilisations that had taken
generations to build are destroyed by each step...
give up the idea of my seperation from nature and hear the human
complaints with the same ear that treasures the birds song..

WATER

Walking through pouring rain, the ocean opens up to my eyes
waves crashing in, up to my knees in foaming salty water
rivers filled to the brim cleansing its way
rain intensifies, dont know up from down
spend a year listening to the tireless song of the sea,
rain whipping against my face,
springs whisper calming words eating its way into the rock,
tilt my head to drink, empty my bladder, borders dissolve
no beginning no end...

FIRE

the red desert becomes fire
the wide landscape opens up, red wavy sea of sand dunes
through stony deserts, dried out salt lakes,
moving towards the beginning of time
feel like a stranger in front of this massive scale
respect and admiration seduces and frightens as in a dream
only the quest for water breaks the eternal.
Meet the flames in Tanami desert (never die), pillars of smoke
ash storms dancing through blackened landscapes
termite mounds like melting bodies
the end of time...silence
birds of prey fill the sky with the only sign of life
meet the first straw of green grass that forced its way through the ash covered ground,
like Phoenix it reaches for the sky...

AIR

..pulling my trunk up the hillside of the Himalayas,
like Sisyphus his rock
Wake up on the mountain, looking over endless valleys,
snow clad peaks, clouds like milk boiling over into the next valley
breath is clear, head is clearing
Nanda Devi transformed to gold by the rising sun
the air filled with the play of parrots, a frozen eagle,
insects singing praise, temple bells in the distance, a call from a shepherd
sleep on the roof like the softest bed of clouds,
the moonlight turns the view in to an ocean of liquid silver.
Stars within reach mixes with with the dancing fireflies
and sparks from the fire
vertigo from my inability to define this unexplainable absurd beauty
the inner voice forcing me to name, as a way to gain foothold,
the difficulty to just let the experience run through..

In India someone said; ” wheter from knowing or through unknowing,
all things take their reality from that which perceives them”
In Sweden someone else said; that the bottle is either half full or half empty
...I think they meant the same...?

How to know the knower ?

gb 2004