Sir Roland Penrose, "Portrait" 1939
June 15, 2008
"His Hand An Encyclopedia"
I saw this at Tate Modern a few years ago. That phrase, "His Hand An Encyclopedia," is one that I think about a lot. And I love that image and I want to think that about my own hands--how they can be an archive of the small histories my life has learned. I also love that he uses poetry to depict his body. It is something I want to try very, very soon.
Sir Roland Penrose, "Portrait" 1939
Sir Roland Penrose, "Portrait" 1939
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2 comments:
oh my, oh my! amy - you never fail to impress and invigorate me. i am suddenly desperately in love with the idea of my hands standing as a sort of archive for my life.
actually, i've had a reoccuring thought that's vaguely connected to this: when i was young and first starting advancing in the piano/violin, i used to stare at my hands in a kind of shocked way, thinking that they held some sort of magic power disconnected from my brain. especially when they would start playing things that i couldn't even remember (muscle memory, i suppose, but that's a far less romantic idea).
a few weeks ago i was thinking about the current value of my hands in the creation of art. quite without direction, they seem to be able to make images that sometimes seem completely alien to me - something more like a gift than something i've made myself.
i suppose in a more figurative way, my hands stand at the center: both as the encylopedia of my past works and the nourisher of the works to come.
lovely image, amy.
i think that wonder and awe at the mystery of how our bodies function--especially our hands or faces (like everything just moves, you don't have to consciously think about moving this finger that way or anything like that) is so valuable. that physical connection to anything we create is necessary in so many ways. i love the hands rodin sculpts. a friend told me she thought they were a little sentimental and that may be true but i see the tender deliberation of that marble being smoothed into something so realistic i want to reach out and take them in my own hands. you know, art/connect/etc. it is a wonderful thing.
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