Heliconia
On Sunday I went driving with two friends, Ian 'Angelboy' and Sharlene 'Fairygirl'. These two friends are both lawyers ... and very artistic, unique and interesting ones at that. They take their roles as angels on this plane quite seriously.
The purpose of our drive was for me to shoot footage for a long overdue continuation of the project I embarked upon some time last year: Shooting Angels 
Location: Salybia
The working title for the piece is Heliconia. Some time last year I was doing research on the origin of the name of that flower and came across one source which stated that the flower's name was inspired by Mount Helicon (in Greece), one of the sacred mountains of the nine muses. Not that this video is about Helicon or the nine muses, but I feel they must be at work here for inspirational guidance.
Thus far I feel I will leave the video silent, as this gives it a more ethereal quality. Generally people tend to be dependent on sound (whether words, music or atmospheric noises) - or to expect it. When something is silent for too long (especially on screen), impatience can result. It happens when two or more people are gathered as well. Too long a silence and someone will get uncomfortable and either cough or say something to fill the space: "Sooooo ... the weather is lovely, isn't it?"
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Elspeth
posted by Elspeth at Wednesday, March 08, 2006
7 Comments:
I read about your Angel Project in the blog archives and I wondered if it was connected in any way to something that was done in Perth, Australia some years back...think it might have been done in other countries too...but I have never heard of it being done in the Caribbean. Anyway I saw a documentary about the process in Perth and was really impressed with how it turned out.
Cannot wait to see what those white angel wings will look like against tropical backgrounds as compared to traditional depictions where they are often backlighted by blinding rays or are fanned out against against blue skies and white puffy clouds...Will your angels wings also come in tropical colours?...like the heliconia flowers or in emerald and hummingbird hues..I remember the first time Minsahll brought out those white Pierrots, how startling they seemed and that was because we had become so used to the vivid colours associated with our masquerade...the shocking black and blue devils the glitter, the motley coloured pierrot, blah, blah blah...to make a long story short..would a tropical angel be recognised as an angel if it appeared with brown bat wings and a tail?
About that silence thing, it's funny that you are discussing the presence of angels and you mention that when there is too long a silence, someone will get uncomfortable and either cough or say something to fill the space. In our family we'd say, "An angel is passing" So, we do associate lulls with the presence of angels.
You are right, most of us feel uncomfortable with silence when in the presence of other people. Not sure if I'm remembering correctly but aren't the Scandinavians perfectly comfortable just sitting in complete silence with their guests?
I don't know about the project in Perth. Do you remember where you saw it? Sounds interesting. And yes, I know the saying " an angel is passing". Didn't think about it, but you're right.
I was living in Australia at the time and it was at the Perth International Art Festival that Deborah Warner produced the Angel Project. I remember just falling into that documentary and loving the effects that were being achieved. There was something other worldly,eerie, magical,reassuring, disturbing about these silent, pensive, motionless, models perched around the city wearing the huge angel wings...really beautiful. It wasn't just that, it was the silence of the rooms where there were no angels but maybe some clue or some symbolic arrangement of objects...It was organised like a bird watching event but instead of birds the "audience" of individuals went about the city following the instructions, looking for angels and other clues.
She'd probably love to learn about what you are doing here. Things happen like that often in the arts and sciences, similar projects/inventions happening without any collaboration between the creators. Sometimes I think that creativity is a common pool and when two or more artists come up with similar ideas it's because they had a similar receptiveness when they tapped into it. Wish I had more information to pass on.
INteresting. I did a quick search and found these: http://www.hotreview.org/articles/somebodyswatching.htm
http://arts.abc.net.au/news/arts_11022000.htm
This one is an interesting coincidence, given the origin of the name Helicona - (note "Project MUSE") - http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/theatre_journal/v056/56.1carlson01.html
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/3660
There are more. Will read the links later.
why is your friend a "fairygirl"? just wondering 'cause two of my friends and me have a fairy society. two fairy girls and a fairy boy.
When I first met them he was dressed as an Angel and she was dressed as a Fairy and that's how they introduced themselves to me.
Oh good! There was a bit in that second link you found about the Perth production, but I liked the first article for the detail that it went into. All so interesting.
11, what do you do in your fairy society? Why did you start it? What first brought about your interest in fairies?
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