"You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." - Heraclitus
an exercise in revisiting -
PROCEDURE
- Think of a time you were truly happy. Walk yourself through this time, slowly and carefully.
- Draw the most beautiful river you can think of without looking at the paper -- real or imagined, experienced personally or vicariously.
- Look at what you've drawn for as long as you'd like, then put it aside.
- Spin 3x, slowly.
- Think of your drawing again. Without looking at the original, redraw it. Do not look at what you are drawing.
You can not step twice into the same river. - Heraclitus
These are two projects exploring the finite quality of experience and memory. In 2015, I became interested in how and why we hold onto souvenirs and attempt to recreate past feelings. This process of revisiting alters the memory itself and creates new understandings or manipulates its purity.
ONE - RECREATING, an experiment
Procedure:
- Draw from memory or imagination the most beautiful river in your mind. Do not look at it while you are drawing.
- Look at what you have drawn. Study it.
- Think of the happiest moment in your life. Walk through every moment of it -- see it, smell it, feel it, go through every motion of it.
- Spin 3 times.
- Now think of your drawing. Remember its movements. Draw a second blind contour, not of the same river but of the first drawing.
TWO - REVISITING
A motion study on repetition and attempts to revisit past.