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"In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before
me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the
rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other
eyes as mine see it"
(Michelangelo).
"Farnham Times
Series", part of mobile phone photography instagram
project is comprised mainly of images of walls and fences.
These images inspired me to
eliminate the conditionality character of the popular expression "Ïf walls
could talk" into an alternative view of "walls can talk". The challenge
however, as in Michaelangelo's quote above, would be to hew away the
conceptual association with the limited perception of what appears to be
merely a wall and allowing it to become a true expression of itself,
something that can only occur when the viewer is willing to listen.
The relation of these images with
the title of the series is based on two aspects, the fact that all images
pertain to walls located within the confines of Farnham , Surrey, my place
of residence during the year of the project, and the inherited features and
appearances resulting from the passage of time.
Once again, what appears to be the
mundane, functional walls and fences, to whose appearance we often pay
little attention, are transformed here into images of infinite possibilities
of suggestion. Walls and fences that we might not even notice beyond the
purpose of defining our boundaries can open up a whole spectrum of life,
with their intrinsic beauty, textures, colors, compositions and craft.
These images have led me to wonder
if is there such a thing as an empty wall? Where does such emptiness really
reside when the subjectivity of content and its association with the viewer
link both practices, of "staring blankly to a wall", and "staring at a blank
wall", with the emptiness within the observer, rather than that of the
observed?
We build and surround ourselves
with walls and fences, that define, confine, protect, restrict, secure,
impede...and are made to resist the passage of time, and yet, their purpose
and meaning of existence can so suddenly be deconstructed by the eye of a
viewer willing to listen...
Farnham Times, perhaps just
another metaphor of all those walls we build within that inhibit our
experience of existence...
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