Gnōthi Seauton - Know Thyself

"Composers combine notes. That is all. How and in what form the things of the world are impressed upon their music is not for them to say."

 La Place Stravinsky

Thus spoke Igor Stravinsky when asked whether his "Symphony in Three Movements" was programmatic music.  I had to mention this quote when Nina told me after reading my previous blog post "La Vie En Rose" that she liked the pictures but that the captions were merely descriptions of how the images had come about.  She missed the philosophical deliberations of other posts (like "Parallel Universe").
 

Cercles Mystérieux Des Adolescentes

Do Stravinsky's words apply - mutatis mutandis - to photography as well?  Should I keep it to myself how and in what form the things of the world are impressed upon the "Images Of The Subconscious"?   

The answer is yes!  I will stop explaining my pics right now  :-)

 Quatre Etudes

According to the entry in Wikipedia, four is "the natural number following 3 and preceding 5".  Phew - I knew that!!!  I also knew that 4 is a composite number.  I could have possibly guessed that it is an automorphic number.  But admittedly I did not know that 4 was also a Smith number and a Motzkin number.

Oh boy, there's so much out there to know... You could spend your whole day (and life!) just reading newspapers or watching the news and documentaries.  And still by evening you would most likely feel like Goethe's "Faust" who famously complained that despite having graduated in law, medicine and theology he was no wiser than before.  Or like Socrates who knew that he knew nothing.

 Le Roi Des Étoiles

Being around people who (other than Faust and Socrates) claim to "know a lot" is not always fun.  Countless times have I been faced with questions or comments like

- "You do not know when and where and of what Napoleon died?!?"

- "Come on Robert, it is general knowledge that Kazakhstan has a new capital!!!"

 - "Did you not learn in school that the Hagia Sophia was originally a basilica?!?"  

Unfortunately you can not impress many people with a profound knowledge of pop music, but in a perfect world I would have answered something like "Okay, admittedly I do not know these things, but I know that Stevie Wonder's song "Happy Birthday" is a social activist song from 1981 that was aimed at having the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. become a national holiday (=that holiday become a reality in 1986, it is on the 3rd Monday in January of each year and this year coincided with the inauguration of president Barack Obama on January 21, 2013).

I agree: Even this information might have just the same relevance - namely none at all! - for my every day life, such as knowing that a certain someone passed away 1821 in St. Helena because of stomach cancer (which would explain why in paintings he's always shown with his right hand under his shirt), that Astana succeeded Almaty in 1997 and that a formerly religious building is now a museum.

So let me come to the point: knowledge is very important, there can be no doubt about this.  Education must be a fundamental right for every woman and man, not least because it helps you better realise your potential and makes you more open minded (and thus happier?).  But do not despair if you cannot answer all the questions in a Trivial Pursuit game or a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" TV show. 

En Passant #1

It might be more relevant for you to know that you have a skill which only few people on this planet have and which could even help solve some of the most pressing problems in this world and earn you money eventually.  Note that Sir Richard Branson's motto is "have fun, do good and the money will come".  Every one of us has unique skills, Richard Branson has them, I have them, and you have them as well.  In case you are not aware of them right now just think for a moment of the things that you really love doing and which you know you are good at.  Why be a passenger in your own life? Where your skills and the needs of the world intersect, that is where your might find your vocation! 

L'Empire Des Lumières # 2

Let' s hope president Barack Obama also remembers this during his second term and that he uses his skills in order to help make this a better (and "greener"!) world for all of us, irrespective of our race, religion or sexual orientation.

 This Is My Tribute To A Man I Admire

La Vie En Rose

 "Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose"

("When he takes me in his arms
He speaks to me in a low voice,
I see life as if it were rose-tinted")

Love is everywhere.  I dedicated my previous blog post to that magical feeling, Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke's movie drama "Amour" just got nominated for five Academy Awards (aka "Oscars").  And Nina and I spent new year's eve and the first days of 2013 in Paris, the world capital of love.  
 

 

Pensiamo In Secoli #1

 Pensiamo In Secoli #2

We spent the last minutes of the old and the first of the new Gregorian year in Montmartre close to Sacre Cœur.  That made sense insofar as our hotel was located nearby.  I made two closeups of my smart phone at the turn of the year.  A few days later we went to the biggest flea market in Paris, the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen where we bought some geometrical objects made from glass for photographic experimentation.

Okay we went to certain places like Montmarte quite often in the course of that week.  But I must admit that it strikes me to see a picture taken on Tuesday January 1st, 2013 at 2 minutes past midnight coincidentally blend with a (multipe image) picture from exactly the same location, only that it was taken five days and some 250 photographs later.  Obviously, the very first of four cartridges I used in Paris ended up as the last one being double exposed. 

   Refined Refinery

 Still Life #1

That very same thing happened also in relation to the Centre Georges Pompidou (which the French also like to call "La Raffinerie").  Photographed at the beginning of our vacation through a glass ball (which I had bought at yet another "biggest flea market", namely the Naschmarkt in Vienna one month earlier), that image blended with a still life I took a few days later in the "Le Georges" on the 6th floor of the Centre Pompidou building after visiting the Salvador Dali exhibition.

I messed up the picture following the "glass ball" image, as no image got superimposed with "Still Life #1".  Perhaps I mistakenly pressed the shutter button in a dark place, I don' t know.  What came out of that "mistake" however is a "Refined Refinery" image without a refined refinery...  I decided to call it "Still Life #1" because I expect more still lives to come in the future.
 

 La Vie En Rose #2

On the tables in the "Le Georges" they have artificial roses.  A picture of such a fake beauty superimposes the "glass ball" image which I took on Place Georges Pompidou just before taking the "Refined Refinery" picture.

 La Vie En Rose #1

The artificial rose merges with the view from our hotel room and makes me think of that famous Édith Piaf song from 1945.  The lyrics were written by the singer herself and today it is hard to believe that Piaf's songwriting team did not think the song would be successful.  I would like to finish this post with my favorite words from this beautiful tune:

"Des nuits d’amour à plus finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Les ennuis, les chagrins s’effacent
Heureux, heureux à en mourir"

("May the nights on which we make love never end,
A great joy which takes its place
The trouble, the grief are removed
Content, content to die of it")

http://lyricstranslate.co

http://lyricstranslate.co

Love Conquers All

The other day while I looked at "Images Of The Subconscious" that I had not used for the blog yet I realised that there were some photographs that in one way or another made me think of love. 

 Heartbroken

A slightly out-of-focus picture of young men on Corniche seafront in Beirut during a beautiful sunset in August 2012 blends on its left edge with part of an upside-down image of a poster (of Bashir Gemayel, who is not visible in this photo). 

  

 Forbidden Fruit ?

A strawberry in my hand gets superimosed by a page of the English version of Rajaa Alsanea's "Girls of Riyadh", a book which was banned in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) shortly after its release in 2005 due to its unadorned description of the (complicated) experiences of four young Saudi women with men in a conservative Islamic culture.  The short stories are written in the form of e-mails and are based on the lives of real people.  In my view the book makes for a very interesting read, especially if you (like me) have no clue of what life is like for women in KSA.  And in a way the book confirms my hope that the internet can be a tool for positive change in society.

On the page I used for the photograph, the author cites the lyrics of a song by Abdul Haleem, an Egyptian singer of the 1960s, which read as follows:  

Rid yourself of woe and tears

Instead of crying years and years

Oh you who’ve wept the traitor man

Weep on today, if you well can.

But watch that no one sees tears fall

For such will please the traitors all.

 

Could Love Be The Washing Machine Of Our Souls ?

An inviting public wedding photo session in the heart of Warsaw merges with a picture of an old washing machine exhibited in the Polish Museum of Technology ("Muzeum Techniki").

Good Day Sunshine

The beautiful paper in which "Girls of Riyadh" had been wrapped by the kind person who made me this original gift inspired me to a photo shoot.  The title of the resulting picture - a blend of the wrapping paper with some of my favourite CDs - came very naturally given the CD in the centre of the image: the Beatles' 1966 album "Revolver" which features a song of the same name as the photo title.

Tickled By The Unknown

A painting by an unknown artist from Palestine and a smiling Nina find their way into the same image.  It is hard for me to imagine that there is anyone out there who does not love to be happy as often and as long as possible.  By the way did you know that adults laugh 17 times a day on average whereas children laugh about 400 times a day?

War and Religion Are The Two "Greatest" Antagonists In The Whole Universe

One evening I decided to take photos of two certain religious items which are to be found in Nina's and my living room: a hand-sized statue of a smiling Buddha and a cross that a relative of mine made from a piece of wood found in a coal mine in Apliki/Cyprus and which stems from a tree that existed at around 400 B.C..  Seeing those two spiritual pieces combined with the backs of Austrian soldiers got me thinking about the extremes that we encounter in this world:  life versus death, love versus hate, Republicans versus Democrats.  Or the time-freezing nature of photographs versus the aging and eventual “disappearance” of all things they portray...

...including religions and soldiers?

Music Conquers All

Yet another part of my CD collection merges with members of the "Guards Music Vienna".  I believe that music - like all art - ultimately is an expression of love.  But maybe I am turning a blind eye to a "dark side"?

Parallel Universe

Parallel Universe #2

The section to the left in yellow got exposed to light when I put the cartridge into the camera, indicating that this was the 'warm up picture' I took when starting the portrait session with Avida on a Sunday in November 2012.  What strikes me is that the image of the 'parallel' universes (in fact the search results I got when using Google Images to look for the term 'universe') made it onto the film in its entirety.  I cannot explain how this is possible.

 

Blue Planets

Gottfried is at eye level with our planetary system as he stares directly into the 'sun'.  Which brings me back to Nicolaus Copernicus (see my blog post 'warszawawarsaw'), the first man to present a fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system.

The Dice Of Destiny

Seeing the poker dice in my hand ending up in the same picture as Avida's little boy made me wonder about the extent to which and by what forces our lives are predetermined and whether there is something like a 'free will'.

 

The Man-Machine (Or: A Clockwork Orange)

Speaking of free will: In the 1960s Benjamin Libet conducted experiments on consciousness which seemed to demonstrate that supposedly conscious decisions are already settled before we become aware of them (to find out more about this experiment click here).

Parallel Universe #5

Gottfried looks at the light in his kitchen which again is reflected in the window.  All that blends with a famous fractal also known as the ‘Mandelbrot-Set’. Fractals are visual representations of the mathematics that defines the physical universe.

 Parallel Universe #4

A double exposure of Avida and an explosion-like image I found on the web make for a psychedelic and almost symmetrical result - thanks to Avida's ability to keep her smile for two consecutive photos.

The Red Thread Of Destiny

Shoppers in the mall at Vienna's 'Westbahnhof' superimpose yet another "Mandelbrot set".  The mathematician Benoît B. Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw and studied in Paris, which makes for a great link between my blogs, because the former city was the setting of my blog post 'warszawawarsaw' while the latter will play a crucial role in one of my next posts :-)

First IOTS Exhibition!

In general I would say that I am an impatient person, but this time things happened faster than I expected.  I hadn't even started contemplating the possibility of publicly showing my "Images Of The Subconscious" when in November I was asked by artist-friend Petronilla Hohenwarter and her partner Nigel Stonham whether I was interested in having some of my pictures displayed as part of an exhibition called "PLAYGROUND 7" at "artspace 191" in Vienna.  

I immediately agreed.

One day before the start of the exhibition Wolfgang, an old friend of mine who writes for Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" asked me per SMS to "see page 31" of their Saturday edition.  When he sends me such a message my initial guess is that he wants to draw my attention to an article he wrote or an interview he gave, e.g. about the 1982 Falkland war, or about the hopelessly tasteless "Fete Blanche" in the South of Austria where everyone is supposed to be dressed entirely in white and where one could only imagine what the reaction of a guest would be like if his or her clothes were stained e.g. with drops of Styrian pumpkin seed oil (admittedly I share Wolfgang's doubts about this ultra-posh event).  "D'accord" I replied and went to buy the newspaper.

 

When I finally got the "Presse" and opened it on page 31, I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, for what Wolfgang had written about was the exhibition at "artspace 191" - as always in his own unique style and featuring "Triple Word Score", one of my "images of the subconcious" which blends a portrait of his son Max with an old Scrabble board.

 

 

The exhibition of my work alongside those of six other artists went very well, people seemed to like the exhibits, asked about my technique and gave me very interesting and highly creative interpretations of what they were seeing in those images. 

At artspace 191, Nina managed to take an almost surrealistic picture of a man looking at the exhibits while his head appears to get sucked in by the wall.

Here Nina is having a chat with poet Hannes Kirschbaum, a good friend of ours.

Nina took this picture of me just before we were leaving the exhibition.  I guess the satisfaction I felt was written in my face  :-)  

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone - especially my friends - who took their time to pay a visit to artspace 191 between December 16 and 18, to Petronilla and Nigel for giving me this extraordinary opportunity, and last but not least to Nina, for being such a wonderful wife and, well... "manager"! 

Sending out season's greetings to everyone!

warszawawarsaw

A few weeks back I felt like my life had become a monotonous routine.  I needed new impressions.  So when Nina informed me that she had to go to Warsaw for a workshop my brain started working.  Warsaw - could that be a place worth visiting?  What did I know about the capital of Poland?  Very little.  The first things that came to mind were the "Warsaw Ghetto Boy" and the iconic photograph taken in 1970 of German Chancellor Willi Brandt kneeling down in front of a monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

And then the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship...

Anything else?  Not really.  "Shame on me", I thought.  So I spent an hour "virtually exploring" the Polish capital using Google Earth. The next day I bought a travel guide.  Four days later Nina and I were on a train to Warsaw. It was Friday night, the trip would last 8 hours. Nina's workshop was due to start on Monday, my train back to Vienna was scheduled to leave on sunday evening already.  That left us with roughly 36 hours to explore the city.

warszawawarsaw

Modern buildings right next to the Warsaw Central railway station ("Warszawa Centralna") blend with a green vertical line, in fact the divide between two other, for some obscure reason totally invisible pictures.

Zeberka

As far as I can tell the only inedible thing in this picture is my train ticket from Vienna to Warsaw :-)

  

Here & There

Buildings and a stone-surfaced path with people walking blend into something almost esoteric.

 

 His Father Was A Merchant From Kraków

The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in front of the "Staszic Palace" (the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences) superimposes two pictures of buildings in the center of Warsaw.  

 Rycerska

Two images - both taken in the Old Town ("Stare Miasto") - together create a surreal street.

 

Poland Loves One Direction

Polish fans of English-Irish boy band "One Direction" almost seem to be standing on the stairs in the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

 

The Fate Of Man Lies In Woman's Hands

An upside down picture of soldiers marching on the Polish National Independence Day ("Narodowe Święto Niepodległości") blends with an image of a female statue holding a football in front of the Palace of Culture and Science ("Pałac Kultury i Nauki").

 

Time Is Marching Out

An old station clock at the Railway Museum ("Muzeum Kolejnictwa w Warszawie") shares the space with yet more soldiers that marched the streets of Warsaw on November 11, the Polish National Independence Day.

  

 Blurred Visions Of Our Past

An old TV exhibited in the Museum of Technology ("Muzeum Techniki") merges with a slanted Palace of Culture and Science, the building which in fact hosts that museum.

My Least Creative Pictures Ever?

What happened to me?  Have I become a total hypocrite?  

When I was still writing my own music I often complained about "those uncreative so-called artists" who have big international chart hits with songs whose only really interesting component is a melody that was stolen from a well-known song or, even worse, from some ancient composer's piece.  What comes to mind are tunes like:

- "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" by Sweetbox
Based on the "Air On The G-String" by Johann Sebastian Bach.  To do something like this could never "be alright".  At least so I said in 1997  :-)

- "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio
As he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, Coolio stole from a song called "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder.

- "Happy People" by Marky Mark
Sounds just a bit too much like "Eleanor Rigby", the (back then) highly progressive song by the four guys from Liverpool.  (Yes I said progressive! Or can you think of any song recorded until 1966 by a rock band where none of the band members play any instruments but instead hire a classical string octet?)

- "Millenium" by Robbie Williams
As Wikipedia rightfully states, the song heavily borrows the musical arrangement from  John Barry's "You Only Live Twice".  I still remember how angry I was when that song came out, not only because of the 007 quote but also because at the release of "Millenium" too many people (and apparently also R.W.) seemed unable to count to ten and believed that the millenium ended on December 31, 1999.

So why on earth am I now committing that very same "crime" of creative theft, with the images below, the only difference being that I am doing it in photography rather than music?   

Picasso once said that good artists copy and great artists steal.  Not that I am so full of myself to believe that I can compare myself to people like Picasso or Magritte or, more realistically, my hero photographers Philippe Halsman and Man Ray.

Of course I do not believe I can compare myself to these geniuses, just like I do not expect the guys from "Sweetbox" to compare themselves to Bach.  Frankly, I was simply having fun with my camera while enjoying the works of some of my favourite painters on "Wikipaintings" (www.wikipaintings.org).  The self-critic in me would fully understand if you considered the pictures featured in this blog post utterly uncreative, reason being that the only interesting thing about each photo is the "thing" that I stole from that famous painter!

If that indeed is what you're thinking then please let me know!  Not because I love to be bashed but because I want to improve.  And I can only do so if I learn where I am going wrong and what I am doing right.    

So here we go: 

 Being Seduced By Magritte

Nina's got her head in the clouds (of Magritte's "The Seducer").

 Falling In Love With A Past Master

In this one, a portrait of Christina superimposes a section of Dali's "The Ecumenical Council".  

 Ignoring The Passage Of Time #2

"Liebe" ("Love") by Gustav Klimt blends with an hourglass that totally hides the male person in the painting.

 Shop Till You Drop

Two works by Victor Vasarely blend with an advertisement for a shopping mall.

Why Your Heart Should Be Not Only Partially Green

The monochrome version of a design by Sonia Delaunay partially (un-)covers the calm and beauty of Schönbrunn Gardens of Vienna on an afternoon in fall.

Constellation: The Morning Beanz

Two cans of "Heinz Beanz" find their way into Joan Miro's "Constellation: The Morning Star"

 

 House In A Can

Here, those quite famous aluminum cans superimpose the also quite famous cubist painting "House In A Garden" by Pablo Picasso.

Trying To Can Happiness For Later Consumption #1

Leonardo da Vinci's "La Gioconda" ("the jocund one" aka "Mona Lisa") merges with yet another legacy of mankind (?) and does so twice.