Mirena Rhee, Hands of God - acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96 inches
A Giant Hands of God painting, It's a kind of a puzzle actually, a hand conversation.
I took a rhizomatic view of Michelangelo's hand of God, almost a Tesseract.
In other words nothing here is an accident and there are no 2 gestures the same color.
We hold the world in our hands, we can create we can destroy, it is only about the other side of the hand, the mind. The mind can gesture things into Oblivion or conjure miracles, especially today with the press of a button.
Pushing paint around, it gives me the kind of adrenaline rush which is inexplicable. it's a natural high, a byproduct of producing single wavelength of color with your fingertips. I think Dali talked about this in the past that the high of making artwork is so intense that really can't be matched but taking any drugs - not that I've ever taken drugs it's just I feel intensity about anything in the world without any external means
We don't want to be replaced but we want to be changed.
The soft touch of a wing, The light touch of a brush and a light stroke. The word of a friend, the whisper of a soft fold on a wing. A nod to a future with beauty, a reflection on color and gesture of goodness and friendship. A soft stand against violence. We draw brushes and our holsters hold paints.
Happy Thanksgiving!! I am thankful for all of you who painted and for all of you who will paint on the 200x.
I had a bit of a calm this thanksgiving to think and plan and as always reflect on what was and what is coming. One of the greatest insights I had in the Silicon Valley is that reproducible work, even work of the highest quality, diminishes in value very quickly. One of this things I wanted to do is work that is highly irreproducible. A mix of materials, quality, process, ideas, actions and results that may not be easily reproduced. Even work of ephemeral nature which requires a special set of circumstances rises in value owing to its rare nature. I am very grateful for that insight, as well as for being able to follow up on these ideas, and which I have been able to further with the graceful and generous participation from all of you. Thank you.
Memory Replacement - Roaming Installation and Performance with Public Participation at the World Trade Center Memorial site in New York city. Making of Leftovers.
Memory Replacement - Roaming Installation and Performance with Public Participation at the World Trade Center Memorial site in New York city - Final look of the Dress
Hands Dry Waterfall
First of three site-specific installations I created in Central Park.
Named this installation after a poem from Hyakunin isshu that read: “Though the sound
of the cascade
long since has seized
we still hear the murmur
of its name”
Did three installations yesterday, started 6am on the south east side of central Park and hung the last in the middle, didn't want to annoy the central Park staff as I worked without a permit so I let installations stay for an hour or so/ let people take pictures before I took them down and moved on. Had great conversations with people's from all walks of life, ages, and corners of the world including fishing for caper s with a 10 years old.
The first in a a series of impromptu efimero structures around Central Park that I did yesterday, I haven't really picked locations prior so when I saw something that looked interesting I decided to throw the hands in, with the generous non interference from the park staff, it was a very peaceful day with a lot of energy and interaction with a lot of people.
I did not have a permit so very glad Central Park staff did not really harass me but they did start cutting grass at some point so I had to leave. I wouldn't really know what to ask a permit for since I don't work with a plan I basically decide on the spot what to do with the environment based on that very environment so the work is very spontaneous and efimero and I'd like to keep it that way I don't want to plan it and I don't want no execute a plan it's just not interesting.
I wanted to thank nature for allowing me to do this, because it could have been much more difficult for me - I have a phobia of bugs, insects etc so any sort flying things like bees, wasps, bats ( other than mosquitoes ) would have sent me off. Also wanted to thank the local police and the local bullies for only showing up one time.
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Giant Hands in Beacon - it is getting dark, a bit more loud and the hands are slowly turning. As evening approaches in Beacon - i have to fold everything up before it gets dark, and all the hooting starts.
The paint is not looking right because it is almost 4 years old paint. The yellow paint is still great and the pigment suspended - but the red and blue is little separated. I just laugh it off - old paint is okay. Better than no paint.
A journey into zen - a year after I returned from Japan I left my six figures job and the beautiful apartment by Golden Gate bridge, donated my car & sold my possessions and moved to New York. It is not that I decided, upon returning to America, to throw away everything out of the windows, instead the ideas and images of zen reverberated and made me ask questions.
I started asking what it is to have? Which became part of the I have everything project and questions.
You are not going to find Nirvana if you get rid of your possessions. But you are going to find out everything about yourself and the people around you. Guaranteed. I personally did not want to find Nirvana, the best things can’t be said, can’t be had - but I sure didn’t want to spend the precious moments given to me by whatever process is responsible for self-awareness, I didn’t want to spend these moments worrying about particle board.
So here's me getting rid of the rest of the particle board I own, in the dumpsters somewhere in central Florida.
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I have been working on my Japanese Garden book on the train and someone asked me if I am into horticulture. I am not into horticulture, I have had plants in the past but never really invested my time into the care and observation of plants. I like people, and that area I find extremely interesting. I realized that in Japanese gardens there is the absence of horticulture, there all seems to have been carefully arranged to invoke a natural feeling.
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You are not going to discover yourself if you sell your couch, but you will discover yourself if everything you have is yourself. It all ties back to Thoreau and goes all the way back to ancient times. You don’t sit on the couch for Nirvana, it is human nature to seek comfort from the unknown in possessions.
This is not a recipe for happiness and often is the recipe for all kinds of disasters, but is the recipe for truth.
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I have always been fascinated with objects, they are to me artifacts and I study them like an archaeologist would.
Objects are like little octopus, it holds strings that reach back to the very moment it was made. The strings wrap around various objects and spaces and hold tightly onto the owner. Then they create memories and experiences for the owner and grow more attachment strings. The octopus can move between owners and spaces and its filaments reach further and wide. Until discarded. The lives of objects are fascinating to me, I imagine that in the grand scheme of things in the universe each object we humans create is quite special. An artifact of a civilized existence. I realized that my I have everything project is not really about getting rid of objects per se but rather about the fascinating lives of objects and their termination and conversion into other matter.
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I highly recommend poverty for a little while.
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You have to remember that there are very few people that would understand, there is one thing you need to know and that is that you will need to take the journey alone, very few people would be willing to willingly come along. Don't force them.
My dad never really forgave me, leaving behind everything anyone ever really wanted, six figure salary, beautiful home, great job, beautiful area to live in. All this on the surface sounded great but
I was oppressed by possessions and the bourgeois way of life.
