petroglyphs

A few days ago two America travelers visited me and shared their passion for petroglyphs. They travel each year to different locations in the USA to find the most remote, the most impressive of these old native American messages. Not withstanding their age they go in slot canyons, venture through crevasses, jump down a couple of yards, next to a deep ravine. They photograph each and everyone of them and later at home write an extensive report about what, where, when and how. They have already a huge archive. I share their fascination and have visited  some sites. Yet these people do scientific work and work hard at it. I just enjoy them, try to know what they mean and do protect them if I can. I even bought 10 acres of land because there were some petroglyphs on it. If you click on the picture you'll see some of my favorite petroglyphs in Chloride across from the murals...

Kathe Kollwitz and her contemporary artists

 Jan is architect and my preferred partner to visit exhibitions. He doesn't only look at the objects shown but notices the relationships of the objects to their environment and comments on how they are placed. The statues on the black pedestals are by Kollwitz, those on the natural wood are by 19 contemporaries some working in different styles. Avant-garde as in the work of Jean Arp, piètas as the one by Ivan Mestovic' a sculptor whose work I have admired because of the large Prophet - preacher in Split in Croatia, Emiel Jespers, Zadkine....

 Kathe Kollwitz's son fell in Flanders fields on the first day of World War I. She then created the statue 'The grieving parents'. And spoke out against war and violence. Many of the pieces shown at the Bream Pavilion in the Middelheim museum in Antwerp are militant. The artists show us that war brings suffering, that it is filled with mass and personal  suffering. This composition of artists and work shown is a true pacifist statement.  I find the small statue with women and children wave at husbands and fathers who are going to war very moving. The women had to keep the family together, feed the children, work and make money... They also lost their jobs after the war because work was for returning soldiers in all war torn countries. I love the light in this pavilion. The war in sculptures is to me deeply moving and a fitting reminder to work for peace. Some sculptors created work in the trenches with the material the enemy fired at them applying all their craft to turn battle field objects into civilian objects. Another great exhibit at the Middelheim museum.

Walk in the park- The sculptures in Middelheim

 A visit  of the sculpture collection of the Middelheim Park in Antwerp is a joy for heart and soul. The collection holds older work by Meunier, Rodin, Moore, Zadkine and more.

 This is Orpheus by Zadkine and then there is the variation on a horse as Pegasus. The park itself is wonderful and the entrance is free. It is used to stroll, sunbathe, read and to look at the art.

 This sculpting shows that two parallel lines always are at the same distance, whatever form and shape they might be in.

It feels nice and warm, smooth almost loving when one caresses the sculpting.

 The light under the trees and the spacing of the sculptures is perfect, it adds to attraction of the sculptings, some of which inspire kids to play with them...

 Here the bridge by Wei Wei. Pretty, yet hard to walk on. Some artists have polished and planned to the smallest detail and others let drop iron or steal beams at random and that also has its charm.

Sometimes old statues are no longer part of the collection, or were standing somewhere in town, but serve no more

 It is also fun to give new names when one is a bit disillusioned by what is written on the nameplates. The discarded statue left here I feel inclined to call the end of patriotism...

 These two octogenarians sit like the King and Queen by Moore.

The prophet by Pablo Gargallo has been a long time favorite of mine. I could have posted  fifty more pictures, but the best thing to do is get up and go and visit for your self.

Don't forget to look at the different pavilions made by architects...

Rooftops and change

 Living in a high rise, yet not on a rooftop, I tend to look out of the windows a lot. Since a couple of month I have noted a definite change in the city. From my vantage point I spotted at least four buildings where an extra apartment is added on the roof. If they aren't creating new living quarters, people have turned their roof into an urban garden or have installed solar panels.

 Here, on the left, you see a new apartment under construction and behind it on the slanted tiled roof, new solar panels. The small dark gray corner top apartment is brand new and is offered to students as a good place to stay. This tells me that in an urban setting people will create gardens, green refuges or overflowing balconies where ever they can and also that the price of land is so exorbitant that it is cheaper to just add an extra floor. Interesting what one sees from a it higher up.

On the road again- Up the flyway - Las Vegas and down the highway

Flying over Colorado and Northern Arizona the sun catches some mountain peaks. here and there still patches of snow.

Touching down in fun and gun crazy Las Vegas

The contrast between the architecture of opulence and beggars on the sidewalk, between a perfect world based on greed and habits supposed to bring joy... I did sleep once with my dog Vee in the motel 8 across the street. The door of the room was repaired with cardboard and everything was screwed down... Hookers and dealers walked around all night.

The photographer takes his job seriously taking in the surroundings sitting not on a manicured lawn but on Astroturf.
Even the hedges on the Tropicana are plastic

Inside view of the MGM's dark, rich ambiente. Light flashing, Internet gambling with Internet croupiers talking to the people strolling by.

The grand scale and life games of craps... and then to the car leaving Las Vegas crossing the by pass over the Hoover Dam and the glorious desert landscapes no Casino can compete with.

Small park, architects and artists

 A small park, a bunch of kids, architects and artists nice weather and a convivial atmosphere in a troubled neighborhood in Brussels. The park had been closed for a long while and was opended on Friday. Immediately a flurry activities took place. Kids made excellent mint thé, two cups for 1€, sold their mom's delicious cookies 4 for 1€, artist devised activities...

The kids were asked to write down what their wish was and the in a photomaton their picture was taken while holding the message. They played, enjoyed themselves, no screaming, no fights.

A meeting was held. The about twenty year olds, many out of a job, implore the people to keep the small park open so that their younger brothers don't have to grow up on the streets. They would like a guardian of the peace to keep an eye on the park, they would like fun and stimulating activities, so that in playing their siblings would learn certain necessary skills/

Artists presented some of their projects like a robot-drummer. Fun. It would be nice to have a bunch of them playing together somewhere in a public  space.

The locals build this climbing tower for the kids to play on with scrapped pallets. I was impressed by the task the guardians of the peace fulfill. They are not part of the police, they are responsible to the federal minister of the interior. They are mediators, are a presence in the neighborhood and seem well trusted. They have quite a task in this neighborhood with an impressive mix of nationalities or ethnicities: all kinds of North Africans, black African, Pakistanis and Indians. Some of the kids were three lingual speaking French and Dutch and the language of heir parents. Belgium is a strange country an the countries of the Arab spring look it how it works. There is no government since over a year, there are three official languages and the distinction North/South going through the country. The people who come and visit want to know why there is no civil war, how the Belgians do this... I think it is because people and groups keep talking to each other. Communication and exchange, sometimes heated, but it is understood to be a way of learning to respect the other and to eventually work together. All this can be learned in a small park in Kuregem/Cureghem. The local people have the key to the park for  four months, there is hope for a gentler way of living together thanks to these small scale projects.

Desert View: Watchtower at the Grand Canyon

 Ann Coulter not only was responsible for the Museum of Northern Arizona, but also for la Possada in Winslow and the Watchtower at Desert View, on the desert View drive, either from Flagstaff or the visitor center in the Grand Canyon. Her buildings harbor you, make you feel good. Her sense of place and material is wonderful.

 

In the watchtower, and in the other buildings I have seen, she uses strong local materials incorporating all the variations she can find: slate, pebbles, rocks.

Elements of surprise are petroglyphs, natural statues, wood, whatever would give the building  beauty and substance. 

I should have called this post Room with a View. She chooses cut outs, interesting perspectives and even adapts the shape of the windows to the landscape. That is respect for the spirits of the place. Her windows draw you out and immerse  you in the grand beauty of nature.

Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona just out of Flagstaff in its idyllic surroundings is a soul-soothing stop when one is in need of nourishment. The archaeological work supported and shown by the museum, the changing exhibitions, always centered on the regional nations : Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Hualapai, Havasupai and other Pai people.  Beautiful ancient pottery, jewelry in its distinctive  styles, a partial mural of an ancient Hopi kiva. All that is there.

The museum is nestled  on the high plateau leading up to the Grand Canyon. Ann Coulter's famous and bold South western architecture is still instrumental in making it look and feel like it is just perfectly balanced in it's surroundings.

Navajo rugs, which I'll never be able to afford do please my eyes. And of course the bookshop is well stocked, so one can find some contemporary Navajo and Hopi poetry by Luci Tapahonso and by Ramson Lomawatewa. The heritage program features dances and programs from Hopi, Zuni and Navajo. Saturday 25, You can enjoy  Hopi dances at the Museum.

Typical representation of Hopi, Navajo and Zuni.

Memories

This shop, the church, the general layout of the village, the ground plan of the cemetery and the local inflection and pronunciation of German is about all that is left in the material world of my mother's youth. Of course the new village will never replace the memories of a happy childhood during years of holidays spend here. That place will magically always exist, maybe just as a myth. So I felt lost and forlorn. The ravages of WW II are still visible, legible in these German towns. Their hearts have been ripped out by allied bombs and the cheap modernity that came instead is sad testimony to it all. In most cities it was a chance lost, in Duisburg the fountains and the water in the city and the walk made it all alright. Just as did a meeting with a poet and a pick nick in the park. Thus new memories are made.

Beauty and strength

Emile-Antone Bourdelle , architect and sculptor, was student of Rodin and teacher of Giacometti. His Atelier is to be found in the stables of Montparnasse when Montmartre got too expensive. He designed and decorated the 'Theatre des Champs Elysee", Place de l'Alma.


His pre-modern expressionist huge volumes made my hart tremble. The World War horror is well expressed in the screaming heads before Munch. Pain, strength and beauty overwhelming and uplifting.





Through a rainy Paris I ended up at the Trocadero where Anais Nin had an apartment. There international solidarity was
shown the indigenous peoples of Peru defending their land, the Amazon forest against greedy developers of palm groves destroying the forests and livelihood of the Indians. I added my voice: Un peuble unido jamas sara vencido.

Respect

The structures and statues in the park are a sign of respect. The half round building is dedicated to Galileo. It is a small observatory. 5Did you know that already in 600 BC people knew the earth was round and was circling around the sun?)


Here is Dante, with the Divina Comedia open on his lap on a page against the then rulers of Firenze who banished him forever from his beloved city.


Of course I read the Bell on top of the Pantheon as the bell of freedom.

Here you see a prime example of trompe oeil in the Pantheon. and the declaration of intent: no immages of tyrants.... only of those who brought hope for futere lives.