FEATURE | THREE THINGS
THINGS I'VE SEEN, LEARNT OR THOUGHT ABOUT THIS WEEK
In all honesty, I found it hard to find three things to note this week, have I not been thinking? Or just acknowledging.. And then when I found them, I thought of loads more, and weirdly, I picked these three. And for that, I apologise. Read it, or leave it, this might be my descent into madness.
BRUISE
I have a very heart-shaped, very aesthetically pleasingly coloured bruise on my shin. I don't know how it got there. It's the beautiful colour of warm waters. Just where it goes from shallow to deep, turns from green to blue. Its colour comes from the haemoglobin in the blood being converted into Biliverdin - a green pigment - as it breaks down. My bruise that is, the sea is not bleeding.
I've always had a good relationship with bruising. I'm lucky enough not to have experienced them as remnants of real pain or shame-filled narrators to be disguised or hidden or lied about. I've always appreciated their presence, my body healing itself. That delightful gooey feeling of sending a dull thud under your skin when you press it, enjoying the little pause when the pain stops that you can only feel if you do. Always delicately balancing on the edge of nausea if done too heavily or god-forbid, by someone else - Yes only a deity can be invoked for such a heinous attack.
In humans, bruising occurs when blood leaking from capillaries pools in the spaces between cells, caught under unbroken skin. Once the haemoglobin begins to break down, this is where the Biliverdin is created and the colour flushes under our skin. Biliverdin is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, it feels very right then that it should blush green-blue.
Biliverdin is present throughout the natural world, it is a pigment-component in eggshells - specifically the beautiful blue-green shells have a higher concentration of it. It's also present in the wings of moths and butterflies, the blue-green blood of many marine fish, the colouration of grasshoppers and the bones of Cambodian frogs which apparently are turquoise (I'll take your word for it, I'm not eating the screaming little things again). Best of all - aside from the delicious Dalmatian-making appearance on us - in dogs, Biliverdin is present in the placenta, and so, in very rare cases it can lead to the birth of puppies with green fur. It's objectively adorable, if your week needs a little joy, google it. Don't google bruising, it can make you feel quite queasy.
FRACTICALLY POLLOCKS
The artist seemingly everywhere for me this week was Jackson Pollock. He was being written about all over the place. And or, once I noticed one occurrence, my thoughts were on him and it was easier to notice the others. One of these is true.
An article that caught my eye was discussing something new about what we see in his drip marks. Although in hindsight, it didn't catch enough that I actually opened it, so I am in the dark about these new observations. I'm still not sure these periodical investigations of meaning in his paintings is something we really need if I'm honest. Yes, he was good, yes we should remember that and look at his work, study it even. But I also can't help but think our time would be better spent thinking about current artists and exploring their motivations, inspirations and genius, in real time, rather than clinging onto new understandings of Pollock.
I'll admit though, having just said that, I spent a good deal of time this week thinking about his work - last year some time I became fascinated by the studies mathematicians did on his works and it's this that's been ruminating. They claimed the reason for us being drawn to Pollock's drip paintings is because of the fractal patterns which are present in his marks. His drips mimic these patterns, found in nature, infinitely complex shapes that repeat at different scales. You know, mathematical patterns, a known favourite of the intuitive alcoholic abstract artist.. I'm not sure you'll convince me he made them on purpose, but I'll happily believe they are there, and like all good moths be naturally drawn to them.
The reason we like them is because our brain is wired to recognise its kinship to nature. These patterns are everywhere from our lungs and blood vessels, to trees to coastlines, leaf veins, ferns, lightning and rivers. I could go on. It's a lovely thought. This one of connection. Of our place in the natural world. And I really would love to think Pollock had this in his mind as he threw around paint in a shed in Springs. I can very much believe the subconscious and subliminal powers at work as his brain sifted inspiration and reference from the world around him, but on purpose? Because he understood what was happening? I'm sorry. no.
But then, that's just my opinion. To me he'll always be the husband of Lee Krasner, who was also an artist.
BUTTER
This week I saw written, the singular greatest line ever spoken.
"Butter is a perception"
I'll just leave that there for you, you're welcome.
I hope it's life changing. I do hope in a good way, but also, late trigger warning, it may come with the onset of a deep profound existential crisis - I might have opened with that.
So credit where credit's due, the quote is from Kirk Haworth, head chef at Plates, the first UK plant-based Michelin Starred restaurant. He is now my new favourite person.
I can't lie, I was confronted by that line. While I'm occasionally a flirting vegetarian, I am also someone who read a book arguably entirely about butter. I took from it not the deep look at societal constructs being offered, but that buttered rice is indeed a marvel. So this guy, casually declaring that the concept of butter is just my recognition and interpretation of sensory information, and not in fact, the purest form of love, was at first more than a little jarring.
Then I deeped it, and it got fun.
If butter is just a perception, so too is a drawing or.. instagram. I can overwrite or change my mental grasp of these things and comprehend them in a new way. They are malleable, dexterous, something to be played with. I become a god, reinterpreting objects and ideas around me for fun.
But then it went a step further. If butter is a perception, so too is "Thursday", sure science dictates the changing of days, the whole traversing around the sun, time, thing. But who says Thursday is constrained by this. It could always be Thursday. And what about me? Again, science. But in the immortal words of Alice (different Alice this week) who am i? That comes down to my intuition, the way I or indeed you experience and interpret me. So what if you don't? Then where or what or who am I? Or just, am I?
So you see, this went too far. But I think I enjoyed the trip. The thought experiment if you will, crisis inducing or otherwise it took my synapses for a walk.
So thats just three of the things I've been thinking about this week. Seen or heard anything interesting, share the love!
Commenti