THE GLOWING HOMELESS
We could not say this better than ignantblog.com…the following is an excerpt from their piece on Fanny Allie’s, The Glowing Homeless
“It is this ghostlike existence, the state of being absent while being present, which is of interest to the French artist Fanny Allié. ‘The Glowing Homeless’ is an installation of neon tubes which represents the silhouette of a sleeping human. It precisely refers to the figure of a homeless person who chooses to perform the actually intimate act of sleeping amongst the park’s crowd but still stays excluded. He becomes a part of the surroundings of trees, benches and playgrounds and is thus almost invisible. Using the warm glow of the neon tubes, the artist creates an alluring object with the aim to bring light in to the darkness of New York’s parks and to change people’s attitude from avoidance into curiosity so they are drawn towards the figure on the bench. Thus Allié brought an object into being that represents the thousands of homeless that face social exclusion and the troubles of street life every day and night and, without becoming monumental, she also manages to aesthetically confront the difficulties of the ongoing art theoretical debate of the merge of private and public space.”
she had been dead for perhaps three years; her unwrapped Christmas presents were around her…
the rest of the story is here > http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/25/lonely-death-joyce-vincent-fuels-denial
And there I was thinking I want to move away from home to some unknown place. This story gives me the creeps seeing as she only lived a couple of minutes away from me. It’s important to have real friends and family.
(Source: i-nconstancy, via lencilovechild)
“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves.When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.”
- John (Fire) Lame Deer, Sioux Lakota, 1903-1976.
(Source: girlinboyclothes)
You Know What I Love?
When a conversation calls for it and I mention that I don’t want to have kids and the listener(s) DON’T instantly assume that I’m being selfish or that I’ll change my mind or that ‘I just feel that way now’.
I love it when they don’t actually insist that every woman is meant to be a mother, that…
bit of truth
I’m not sure if it’s all part of the growing up and maturing process but I like who I’m becoming. A while ago I was too afraid to be myself. Everytime someone would disapprove of something I did or mock me after I’d express myself honestly I’d just cower away and supress my thoughts. I was more worried about pleasing people and being accepted by the majority than being truthful to myself. There’s still a bit of this person in me but she’s quickly fading away.
(Source: spacecadet, via whitetigerblackjaguar)
I ‘m still awed at our universe, earth, the milkyway, other galaxies. It’s just so unreal. I always wonder why people don’t stop in the street to look up at the sky whether in the day or night. It’s all so incomprehensible. We’re so tiny and insignificant in comparison to the rest of what’s out there. It’s so real too, so real that we can actually see it. It really bothers me how easy it is to get lost in everyday life with all its problems when we’re surrounded by such beauty.
Hat 2 Da Back
(Source: youtube.com)
My childhood. I hope they find the videos..
Tales by Moonlight on NTA
This was one of my favorite TV shows on NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) when I was a little girl. I looked forward to watching Tales by Moonlight every Sunday evening when ‘aunty’ told folktales to a group of boys and girls perched on the floor listening intently to her story. Each tale was enacted by actors (and some of the kids) where they played many animal roles (the folktales were full of tortoise stories) and the acting may have been poor (as someone pointed out to me recently) but I loved it. At the end of each tale, the kids took turns to tell ‘aunty’ what they learned from the story.
I went looking for information about the program, perhaps there is a story archive somewhere. Instead, I ran across this forum where someone alleged that the Tales by Moonlight videos are lost.
“I recently spoke with a family friend who says when he went to visit, he went to NTA to ask to buy the Tales by Moonlight videos. They told him they were all lost.If true, as they say then, only in Nigeria”
However, with some more searching, I was able to buy a Tales by Moonlight book published in 2002 from the African Books Collective at Michigan State University Press. The book is a collection of eight Tales by Moonlight stories representing each of Fulani, Urhobo, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ijaw, Ibibio and Efik ethnic groups (just a few of the many ethnic groups in Nigeria). Now I would like to contact NTA to seek permission to post one or a few of these stories on allfolktales but alas, the Contact Us link on their websitedoes not work and I see no email addresses anywhere. Similarly, theforum is currently unavailable. I hope these are fixed soon.
