I like James Hillman's writings, even though I often find them disturbing and not so easy to read if you don’t know what he refers to (here : alchemical psychology). They always bring new perspectives into my thinking and imagination and seem to be echoing deeply within me. In his book, The Dream and the Underworld, he brings new perspectives to the “conventional” interpretation of dreams. Here is for “water”. Bodies of water Concerning bodies of water in dreams (oceans, rivers, lakes, pools, baths), let us bypass the symbolisms of lustration and baptism, of doctrinal wisdom and uterine mother, and also the too general meanings of life energy, Mercurius, and the unconscious. Instead, let us take a lead from Heraclitus (frg. 36) : "To souls, it is death to become water ...," and (frg. 77, Freeman): "It is delight, or rather death, to souls to become wet..." Jung has expanded upon the death of the soul through water in his classical work on the Ro...
This month, I visited the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, near Brussels. The context in which this museum was created is very heavy. I started with a walk along the site where the 1897 colonial exhibition took place and where "African villages"/"human zoos" were built. Ce mois-ci, j'ai visité l'AfricaMuseum à Tervuren, près de Bruxelles. Le contexte dans lequel ce musée a été créé est très lourd. J'ai commencé par une promenade sur le site où l'exposition coloniale de 1897 a eu lieu et où des « villages africains »/"zoos humains" ont été construits. Aerial view of the site where the 4 "African villages" were built. Vue aérienne du site ou les 4 "villages africains" étaient construits. Sites of the "villages" - site des "villages View of the park - vue du parc One of the cast-iron statues that were displayed at the international exhibition in 1897. Une des statues en fonte qui était exposée à l'exposition I...
Synchronicities .... As I took part in the second artbook fair in Nottingham this year, I met Rosemary Watson who invited me to talk about my work in her group Artists Book Club Sheffield . Jude, one of the participants, happened to be a volunteer guide at the Sheffield Botanical Garden. She kindly invited us for a visit last May. We admired and smelt all the flowers and I pretended to know the name of a few ... I would say that my knowledge of plants is more emotional than horticultural.... While it is generally recognised that the problems of urban overcrowding and epidemics in the nineteenth century eventually led to a realisation of the need to provide open spaces in industrial towns, it is interesting to note that the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society Garden was open only to subscribers and the site selected was in a spacious middle class suburb, well away from the overcrowded working class area of the city. Even as late as 1852 a motion to admit the working clas...
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