I like these two options. I wonder if they’re the same. To endure, or to continually recur. They seem kind of different – and, once again, [I’m looking at and thinking about something that is] very similar to photographic processes. A photographed, filmed or videotaped image/instant/moment endures in its singular reproduced state (but its lifespan is variable, depending on how archival the materials are), and can also continually recur as multiple copies can be made at pretty much any time.
So, I guess the reproducible image is like a perennial. But endurance is definitely not the same as regeneration. To endure suggests a longer kind of duration – maybe a sort of slogging through. Slow. And those speedy little recurring younger bits just keep surrounding the old stuff – tormenting and reminding.
And this is all stemming [no pun intended, really] from my continued fixation on the yew tree. I’m here in Oregon gathering imagery and imprints of various Pacific Yew. PALEOTAXUS REDIVIVA is the ancestor yew that all others are descended from. Fossilized specimens date the tree as having lived over 200 million years ago. Paleo [ancient] Taxus [yew] + Rediviva [perennial]. Hence, the above ramblings related to the definition(s) for perennial.
There’s been a lot of thinking and doing since I arrived here on the 1st of June, and more to come before I leave later this week. The somewhat disparate yet related threads I’m following currently relate to:
- Yew tree / symbol of both death and rebirth / protection
- Women’s diaries / experience on Oregon Trail / “pioneer” as construct
- Brechtian epic theater as anti-sentimental and socio-historical
- Helene Weigel / Mother Courage / feminist perspective (self-directed woman)
- Classical epic structures / mythology
From ALL of this, I convinced a group of musician friends to collaborate on a few pieces of music that I can respond to as I form whatever visual material I collect into a new video and photo-based project. The main directive was – something brutal, please. They delivered beyond belief. More on all of this to come…
A few early proofs are below along with some stills from the studio session:
