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[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Black Threads by Kyra Hicks. Received this from my father for Christmas after seeing it at the African American Smithsonian for quite a lot of cash the last time I was home. It was behind glass and my introverted ass knowing I didn't have the money anyway just took a photo to remind myself later. With that it is not at all what I expected... though I wasn't sure what I expected really when I ordered it. There is an extreme poverty of black quilting books, so this serves as a comprehensive resource book to everything related to African Americans practicing the medium from phone numbers to black quilters guilds across the states to even art work that just revolves around black quilters. And thinking about it, I have never actually even met another black quilter in person, although through my hashtag I have since befriended a few on instagram. The ideas that I derive from their work hits just a bit closer to home which is really the importance of representation. Think I have mentioned it before but I only got into quilting in 2021 upon actually seeing an improvised Gee's Bend. I was left entranced...and I just wanted to wrap myself in it and thank it....as it literally warms you. I only managed to see it in Minneapolis because I won an artist grant for black artists (the institutions first of their kind) and post-George Floyd was really the only time I could see extensively collections of black art. Going into 2020 only 1.3% of the art in US museums was made by black artists. And now with DEI initiatives just as we were actually approaching 2%, they now cut funding to a lot of federal institutions if they even cared in the first place to exhibit our art. Aside from the fact statistically white women benefit the most from DEI, it just continues to make things more difficult after some marginal progress and really in the end we all lose. With art all these perspectives just expand our pool that we can be inspired by and create from as I get inspiration from everywhere...but they systematically restrict ours. So blessed I had a chance to see that quilt.

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+Aye new quilt post. This one I also made during my artist residency in Kagawa around this time last year. It is purely improvised using a simple technique of layering 2-3 squares of fabric on top of each other and randomly cutting curved lines out of them. Then just mixing the patterns and sewing the opposites together. The quilt measures out to roughly the size of a baby quilt (ok I didn't measure it lol) and the batting is made from 50% recycled plastic from the ocean. The fabric I bought specifically for this in wanting a pseudo military look off set by the floral pattern.

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#finishedbooks The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy. Picked this up from the free book store in Baltimore the last time I was home. I thought I had read all of Tolstoy (that is in translation) and fun fact I actually have not. There are four stories in this collection that are actually novellas making up the 350 some pages. The title story is often cited as a perfect example of what a novella should be starting after Ivan's death from the perspective of his co-workers who have to replace his position. From there we see his whole life and in particular his slow agonizing death that perfectly written just puts so much into perspective in regard to the inevitability of death the meanings we grope to find before. Such a intense meditation on death, I missed my stop on the Yamanote line and just decided to ride the full circle to take it all in ....the crux of the story is the consequences of living without meaning. For cinephiles, this is the story Kurosawa used for his 50s film "Ikiru." But on that same Yamanote train, I immediately launched into the next novella I really liked from this collection "The Kreutzer Sonata" that takes place entirely on a train beginning on a conversation between strangers on love. Through everyone's talking points on the matter you get fully fleshed out characters as they wait for their respective train stops. Finally one character goes so deep into the very carnal nature of love that he details what led him to actually murder his wife. The whole time I was just enthralled with such perfect writing...it is like not having seen a Jean Renoir film in a while, or listened to Beethoven's Eroica, or sat with an Atget photo...

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#finishedbooks Kadensho: The Book of Flowers by Teshigahara Sofu. This was the other book I picked up at the Sogetsu kaikan and definitely the better out of the two. I orginally read this around 2012 borrowing from @laura who's out of print version was much better constructed (bilingual) book that fetched an astronomic price.... so I am just really happy to finally own a version of it. This really the general aesthetic philosophy and history of ikebana whereas the previous was like a quick bulletin points (why I loathe self help books) which is never a way to really learn anything more than to remind oneself. I really forgot how much he goes into the idea of setting ikebana in that it is taken from nature and therefore shouldn't be replicated but humanized...that is given form. Isamu Noguchi (a close collaborator of Sogetsu) had a beautiful quote, " If you set a pine, it should not look like a pine. It is very difficult to make it not look like a pine." Appreciate the simple eloquence of that. Teshigahara goes on to apply his idea of "one flower, one leaf" which doesnt refer to a single leaf but signifies how the single elements of a plant can express the totality of nature. There is a notion that I do agree with that you have to begin with a dislike for nature as it means you are not free from it...for example a chrysanthemum is no longer a chrysanthemum after it is set, it is reborn in an ikebana setting who utilizes chrysanthemums. It is the work of the person that is their expression through the chrysanthemums. He does go into some more traditional Japanese aesthetic ideas such as "shin, gyo, so" which for those uninitiated describe the varying degrees of artistic refinement bridging the poles of art and nature. "Shin" is the most refined while "so" is the closet to nature... "gyo" is somewhere in between. All in all a solid reread and for 1,120 yen not a bad purchase to even have a philosophical notion of ikebana.

[imnothinginparticular]

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#finishedbooks Matsutani: Currents by various. Picked this up at the artist's show at Tokyo Opera City. They didn't yet have the exhibition catalog for that show but an older one. For artists like this you really just try to get what you can before the prices raise. Also, you could pre-order the exhibition catalog but unlike the other exhibitions where I pre-ordered by just paying cash and giving them my address, they wanted me to download a clunky app and I just gave up. With that he is a member of the Gutai movement distinguishing himself by applying vinyl glue to his relief paintings before going into graphite. He came to this from Gutai's head, Jiro Yoshihara, who emphasized, "Do not copy anyone! Do something no one's ever done before." I feel he further distinguished himself by volunteering for a student exchange to Paris where he ended up staying solidifying himself representing Japan as an international artist. This is very similar to another Asian avant- garde art group who I incidentally also saw at Opera City over a half decade ago in the Korean movement, Dansaekhwa. I feel like they became lesser known than what one could loosely call their contemporaries in gutai and mono-ha. With dansaekhwa, most of the artist remained in Korea essentially all but one in Lee U-Fan perhaps the only artist most would know from the group that comes precisely from going west. The pros and cons of which are certainly debatable but the resulting exposure is evident. And specifically to Matsutani, he picked up from other artists particular Hayter and his method of printmaking in France and in New York Ellsworth Kelly. He eventually came back being reenamoured by his own country's traditions especially the blacks in calligraphy and brush strokes involved that was evident at the exhibition. But also just big shout to Opera City for introducing these artist as for me an American I certainly wouldn't have to many other chances otherwise.

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#finishedbooks The Fifty Principles of Sogetsu by Teshigahara Sofu. Picked this up at the Sogetsu kaikan while looking for a replacement flower bag. Had never actual been in their shop on the fourth floor so wandered a bit. I ended up finding this that I didn't know existed and another book that had been out of print in my wishlist for 12 years. This, the former, I really wish I had found 16 years ago when I first started studying ikebana. It is 50 principles, so essentially a page with the rule and a concise paragraph explanation. A lot of the rules pertain to the basic what we call kaikei styles going as far as giving pointers on the first 8 variations, so rather specific than possible universal axioms that these books can sometimes offer. This is the basic structural arrangement of ikebana conistsing of three lines called shin, soe and hikae that can either be done with a needle point holder for a flatter vase or a series of systems for a longer vase set. So ya it served as a good reminder of things that we do forget as your first half decade or so (roughly) of ikebana you only do these styles before you can begin actually free styling which is mostly what I share of my ikebana. With that there were a few tidbits, for example I constantly compare the mediums I work in and I never saw anywhere written that ikebana is essentially based on triangular compositions. I started getting it when I intuitively understood the compositions are in fact 3-D (easier said then done as simple as this would seem) and its subsequent layering...as with photography I always saw based on squares/rectangles since to begin it is about the frame line and within it learned to intuitively place objects on the golden ration, etc within. But ya pretty basic really, again wish this existed in print when I first started. But if you are ever near the kaikan, head up to the fourth and get it if you were ever curious about ikebana...although it is not as universal as a similar book like "101 Things I Learned in Architecture School" where although you may not be studying architecture you can take away a lot and relate it to other mediums for fresh ideas and perspectives.

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+collage on paper, 2024

"containers for emotion" 210mm x 297mm.

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#finishedbooks John Ford: The Man and his Films by Tag Gallagher. Picked this up from Suichuu my favorite used book store near my ikebana school in Mitaka. I got into Ford after studying Renoir and Kurosawa back in 2007 and moved to Ford after reading some of those classical Cahier du Cinema reviews. What then struck me was that I had already seen all his best films with my grandfather when I was a kid: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, My Darling Clementine, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and my favorite in The Searchers. And I remember them specifically because of the pathos that my grandfather liked them for and would always impart on to me. Which that's one thing about American compared to spaghetti westerns was the exchange of pathos for violence that Peckinpah did eventually bring back to the US with his string of nihilistic "let's go to Mexico" westerns of the late 60s-70s that really were clever Vietnam war metaphors. But it was the pathos that brought about the Fordian heroes that after seeing them as a burgeoning cinephile that I noticed the long ASLs, deep focus staging, minimal but impactful camerawork, and beautiful spatial contrasts especially in his westerns between interior and exterior spaces (like that architectural cues of Wright of his Usonian houses etc). One of the style queues I didn't know before reading this book was how much he loved Murnau, especially "Tabu" (1931) that he periodically references throughout his career down to his third to last film in "Donovan's Reef." Beyond little tidbits like this the big takeaway was Ford as person. Traditionally I think many people saw him as a hard nose anti-intellectual who magically turned out good pictures...which to find was just a part of his complex character. There was another narrative to his character when looking at some of his 1930s films like say "Judge Priest" and his on screen persona that John Wayne essentially represented in his presumed bigotry (which was inherent in Wayne). Since his films deal obsessively with themes of race, ideology, and class it seems on surface understandable, yet what Ford sought so persistently was to uncloak society's noxious patterns and to sift out existential freedom. It was a questioning into the tensions and adhesions between an individual, their origins, and present situation and he did before it was commercially fashionable to do so. Also look for example his well known association with monument valley, was actually do to the fact he really just did it to give his Navajo friends much needed money for their reservation projects...he was anti-McCarthy at the time, etc etc. but ya he was just an individualist who made some of his best films in a genre that served as an ode to it.

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[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Tanaka Isson: Light and Soul by various. This is the exhibition catalog from Isson's first Tokyo retrospective after the artist's death in 1977. Relatively unknown throughout his life working odd jobs while painting (à la Rousseau), this exhibit comes full circle as he made it known in his lifetime how much he always wanted a Tokyo exhibition. Going through many career progressions, he ended up in Amami Oshima where his most known paintings were created. He also has a museum there, essentially where most of the works were borrowed from. Kinda funny as my friend went to the Amami museum during this time and didn't get to see the majority of his famous works because they were in Tokyo. With that though, the exhibition like the book spans his whole life starting with teenage works to his last Amami works. So you get his entire progression from his early Chinese styled paintings of traditional Japanese motifs through a mid-point that saw more space while retaining the traditional flattening effects of Ukiyoe that the impressionists adored so much (so should photographers really). But it is entirely the late paintings that will continue to grow his reputation long after his death. Curious for me was their format, where these style of paintings are typically horizontal as if opening a scroll, however Isson's were all vertical like the iPhone you perhaps are reading this on. This created for some avant-garde framing often with birds or any possible subjects placed at extremes within the composition. This format combined with the sudden depth, going away from the flattened backgrounds traditionally done; there suddenly are so many layers that they almost become surreal a lot like the aforementioned Rousseau who we know was simply making up these jungle settings from travel books. I personally really enjoyed his photographs that he took and then later painted an interpretation of. Both stood out and took on a character of their own with his photography being equally as impressive. Finally, at the exhibition itself I was surprised how packed it was midday during the week. For such an unknown artist the enthusiasm was unique and I this is what you want from an exhibition. A country highlighting work you never would see giving us something new. The gift shop line took 35 mins lol but I had to get this book.

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[imnothinginparticular]

#finishedbooks Hitchcock Truffaut by François Truffaut. This is a re-read, I had read this back in 2007 as one of my first film books. It was this book, then Donald Richie's 100 Years of Japanese film, and a random French New Wave book that kinda started my cinephile ...I don't know journey lol. Guess to explain Hitchcock, there was a great essay by André Bazin in his best work, "What is Cinema?" where he essentially cites two types of auteur directors. One that makes films with the audience in mind and one that makes films for themselves. Neither bad but the former he used Hitchcock as an example and think Godard was the latter...but that's what Hitchcock does and with this book you essentially are given a chance to sit in on one of the greatest conversations on film by two of the greatest minds in cinema representing these opposite motivations. It was well known that Cahiers du Cinema, who Truffaut wrote for before making films himself, loved Hitchcock at a time when he was seen as a camp director certainly not to be taken seriously. Reading the book back in '07 I remember my biggest takeaway that Truffaut highlighted was Hitchcock's lack of plausibility in his films, most notable being for example in say "Birds" where there happens to be a bird expert in the room right before the birds attack lol. The truth though is that he is rarely implausible. What he does is hinge a plot around a striking coincidence which provides him with a master situation where his treatment from there consists in feeding maximum tension and plausibility into the drama...building toward a paroxysm then boom he like lets go suddenly and allows the story to unwind swiftly. I never been much of a fan of plot in favor of what prefer in story for the possibilities and more realistic rhythms of reality it represents...but I love his plots because they are so absurd often utilizing what became none as a macguffin (an intentionally meaningless device to advance a plot). But more importantly is how he avoids being a simple storyteller nor an esthete...he is one of the greatest inventors of cinematic form like a Murnau to me or Eisenstein who I am always surprised doesn't draw more comparison when thinking of say the staircase scene in Potemkin. They share this mind in which the analytic and synthetic are simultaneously at work making its way out of the fragmentation of shooting, cutting, and the overall montage of film. Hitchcock then to me underlies this genuine artistry of anxiety that I can only relate to in literary terms a Kafka, Dostoevsky or Poe... as absurd as it would seen with Hitchcock. Another underrated point is his general economical approach that I always compare to Ozu. Take "Rear Window," opening scene is a slow pan of the apartment and through one shot it established the film's entire background. We see he is a photographer, he has done a lot, he shot a race and had an accident, he has a girlfriend we see in a photo, we see his room, and boom we end up on him on a wheel chair with his cast on and camera in hand looking out his rear window before his girlfriend enters the apartment. We get everything without a single word spoken...that is he showed instead of saying which is cinema...a purely visual language. I find these directors that came into silent films toward the end (late 20s) who all peaked post war especially because they truly understood the significance of this as silent films directors. A comparable Ozu scene would be from say "Late Spring" in the middle of the film where we realize the father might be marrying and leaving the daughter through precisely 20 scuts during a noh performance they are attending where a single word is never uttered. The cuts simply reveal her observing her father and his potential suitor watching the play, to cuts of her suddenly realizing, ensuing sadness, then a cut to the tree that is painted on noh stage wall, and finally a cut to a real tree blowing in the wind that in haiku symbolizes a permanent change. This is why I love cinema haha, I could ramble on but ya, this is a must have book.

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