free-not-free

Today, 13th November 2010, Aung San Sui Kyi is released from house arrest. She is a beacon of hope for the people living in Burma, and a beacon of moral strength shining around the world. I’m sure its why I’ve been in a good mood all day.

In London yesterday, by the Royal Festival Hall, I was captivated by the large portrait statue of Nelson Mandela. Imprisoned for 27 years his mental strength continues to reverberate across our peoples. Now 92 (or thereabouts) his close friends have called for people to lay off him (I think I could word that better) as he has 4000 approaches every day (for signature, blessing, attendance). Did I read that right? Possibly it was 4000 a week. Anyway I’m digressing. What’s fascinating is the power of individuals such as Nelson Mandela and Aung San Sui Kyi to reverberate postivity across the borders and inspire so much hope to so many.

So I’ve been looking at the press photos of Aung San Sui Kyi’s release today. I’m looking to see if I can actually see ‘freedom’.

Perhaps that’s a silly thing to do, but I think I know why I’m doing it. How can we visualise freedom?

The images are from http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/13/2427846/myanm…

Train journeys are ideal for playing. With i-stop motion, with digital photos in photoshop. I had a happy 3 hours this afternoon from Paddington to Exeter. I was excited the find the ‘print as flip book’ option in i-stop motion. Now that gives me ideas.

Back to the point of this post.

I’m working through ideas for a book arts project I’m involved in. Artists are being called on to create 3 books in response to the bombing of Al Mutanabbi street in Bagdad March 2007. Al Mutanabbi street is the cultural and literary hub of Baghdad, and of Iraq and has been so since the 9th C or so. A San Francisco bookstore owner Beau Beausoleil started the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, a growing group of local writers, artists, poets, and printers, who create awareness about the bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street through print. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85909663901#!/group.php?gid=85909663901&v=wall

These are digitally created using photographs I took originally to create an animation called ‘The house that Jack built’ that I haven’t the patience for right now. Using cut offs of lino I was interested to use them in printmaking also.

Possibly I’ll now use these images in traditional print, possibly photoetch. Possibly I’ll leave them as they are.

tell me I’m not going crazy

Like the internet can do so well, I’ve been journeying tonight. Generally I avoid TV but tonight among The Antique’s Roadshow and Mastermind I watched ‘Unreported World’ on C4. Here goes the route that I took online once I turned off the TV:

1. unreported world website

2. 2009 programme on burning coalfields in Bihar (India). Tells us how coal fields 360 km sq burn uncontrollably and that two years ago this area was forest and farmland. Now villagers live among the mines, children and adults work in the mines, and the government run coal mining organisation is planning a removal of 500,000 people from the area so they can get on with the businness of enriching India’s economy.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-worl…

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-worl…

3. comments on related blog ask for ways to help/ charities that may operate in this area

4. searching for this brings me to ‘Guernica’ online politics and art magazine.

http://www.guernicamag.com/art/1035/wasteland/

and a film made by Bombay Flying Club ‘Their recently-launched Wasteland project is a series of web documentaries about industrial pollution, and the story from Jharia is the first chapter of this ongoing project.’

5. another search brings me to “Snowdon Group” a consultancy to mining and exploration services, and their 2010 photography competition including photographs of the ill/poverty stricken miners of the burning coalfields in Bihar (Jharia region).

Am I really reading that this competition is “Celebrating the Mining Industry”? How exactly can the poor working practices that abuse the most basic of human rights depicted here be part of a celebration of mining??

They really need to think about their wording.

http://www.snowdengroup.com/SnowdenContent.asp?CID…

Tonight I’ve also been consumed by the truely celebratory stories in Chile.

mining… freedom from containment – the fascination for us public is how the 33 men kept their sanity (freedom of mind) through their imprisonment

mining… fire and ashes – free burning coal fields

mining… containment in poverty – villagers unable to move away from collasping land and scavenging for coal pieces

The Littlest Print Exchange

This is the smallest print I’ve made – and the largest edition. It was a good discipline for me to get 50 small prints close to the same. Satisfying though. A fellow printmaker thought they looked like biscuits baking.

I’ll get 50, or its is 49? prints in return. It’ll be like all my christmases together!

This work ‘Fire under the Ashes’ is inspired by a blog posting on the Tehran bureau website. It was a captivating piece, made all the more so by the responses and comments from other readers. This is my response.

Fire under the Ashes is a Persian saying. I felt its a pertinent way to describe..

rebirth to change

tension of peace waiting

the tension between freedom and containment which is what my practise overall explores.

I’m continuing research into women as activists.

Here’s a monotype drawing, and a couple of photographs of the monotype negative left on the glass surface (now cleaned away, so just the photo remains).

It shows the home of Aung San Sui Kyi. Her home and prison for more than 11 years out of the last 20 years (though this statistic does seem to change between 11 and 16 years).

I’m in awe of the mental freedom she must need to maintain while in captivity.

It highlights how the only freedom we need can be found with us already.

Aung San Sui Kyi is one of thousands around the world imprisoned for their belief in human rights.

Her are some web links I’ve seen for ASSK, but I’m sure you can find masses more.

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/ab…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1950…