i'll see you along the way baby

Traveling and waitressing (as well as running, biking, driving, drunkenly skipping, etc.) have made me realize that not only do I like moving, I'm most alive while being anything but static (..whether this means moving in a certain direction, knowing where I'm going, wandering wherever my whims happen to take me, or being carried by the wind). In fact, it was while running and listening to this song, that I realized how true this stillness-is-a-move-business is.

This exhibit builds off of this concept, beginning with quite literal stillness (i.e. abandoned homes and death) and then takes a look at a more abstract stillness, found in nature and religion. From there, it examines stillness as a physical movement, stillness in love, and finally stillness in its most innocent state.

Hope you've enjoyed the ride- and aren't going anywhere too far away, cause round two is coming right up.

-d.m.m.

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

on top of every mountain..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMPF6lpM0XM

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

velocity = the root of centered-ness

"You imagine a spinning top. Stillness is like a perfectly centered top, spinning so fast it appears motionless. It appears this way not because it isn't moving, but because it's spinning at full speed. Stillness is not the absence or negation of energy, life, or movement. Stillness is dynamic. It is unconflicted movement, life in harmony with itself, skill in action. It can be experienced whenever there is total, uninhibited, unconflicted participation in the moment you are in - when you are wholeheartedly present with whatever you are doing."

-From Erich Shiffmann's "Moving Into Stillness, the book"

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

to be three..

"The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still."

-Fred (Mr.) Roogers

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

then again, stillness might not be the move you should be going for..

"Mamihlapinatapai" is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as "the most succinct word". It is also considered one of the hardest words to translate into the English language. However, "mamihlapinatapai" generally refers to a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.

(The above picture was part of British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare's installation at the Parisol Unit Contemporary art space in London. You must wind your way through an indoor labyrinth before stumbling upon these headless figures in African wax-printed textiles, posed in French, landscaped gardens. Read more about Shonibare and how the exhibition came to be at: http://www.quaibranly.fr/uploads/media/DP_Jardin_d_amour_EN.pdf).

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

"men are from mars, women are from venus" presents the rubber band theory

So the rubber band theory, John Gray's slightly corny breakdown of the intimacy cycle, goes something like this:

Men sometimes need more intimacy but at other times, they become saturated with it and need time to cool off. A woman will then tend to react in one of three ways:

1. She freaks out and starts chasing after the guy, which in turn freaks him out and pushes him to run further away.
2. She becomes bitter and starts pulling away herself, and their both pulling in separate directions puts a strain on their relationship.
3. She relaxes, realizing this is just a normal stretch in their relationship and things will come back around.

Soo- what exactly does this have to do with an elastic band? Not a whole lot, to be perfectly honest. But! an elastic is often used as a metaphor to represent this theory.. If the two partners are on the inside of a taut elastic, on opposite ends, then the woman chasing after the man will cause the elastic to collapse. On the other hand, if the woman starts pulling away, then the elastic will eventually break. Therefore, Gray seems to be suggesting here that stillness is the ultimate relationship move- if you care at all about that elastic.

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move

when the stars align

"If it doesn't have ambiguity, don't bother taking it." -Sally Mann

(Photo taken by John Denne)

Exhibit A: Stillness is a Move