silence

silences in groups can be awkwardly funny, when everyone notices the silence and waits for it to be broken. it can be funny too when you’re meant to be silent, in some kind of ceremony or function, but the laughter just builds up inside and you struggle to hold it in to keep quiet.

there can be a silence of waiting for something to say, processing thoughts, of tact and diplomacy. though, in other circumstances, the words are just needed and have to just flow out spontaneously, and there’s no space or room for silence.

and then there’s the silences found or made for thinking, for being still. but some silences can also be boring, hurtful, existential/deathly even.

‘happiness is egg shaped’

as not seen on tv (anymore)… deconstruct

sitting

rain fell solemnly, sat watching wet greenery
mind unpicked memory’s patterns
the grey brought lushness
drops of rain spread, shaping into words

signs

‘cyclists of the world unite…’

landmarks

‘Banksy for the banks of the Dee?’

Swarms, lines, wings, sentinels, or postcards… these are the 5 proposals for the piece of public art on the banks of the river dee in Flintshire (having been prompted to very briefly scan them today)

I don’t do art criticism or reviews but, erm, here are a few brief and random questions:

• Is a picture postcard scuplture upon entrance to Wales by car (over an expanded motorway that is going to destroy over 50 households on the Aston hill) a bit of an insult to the residents affected? Would RS Thomas be turning in his grave and mumbling something about ‘tourist ants and machines crawling over blooded landscapes’?

• Do the Slate sentinels and earth mounds offer any genuine or even symbolic protection (from economic colonialism and corporate globalisation) along the road of Shell, McDonalds and Walmart? Or will they be built by an Offa of the 21st century?

• Does the ‘eco’ swarm-city sculpture offer any substantial ideas and practical technologies that build and expand upon the genuine eco-centre that already exists in Machynlleth?

• The red lines surely must have just been a designer’s accident with their biro and ruler? And the same applies to the wings too – but with their biro and protractor?

Why not do the following instead: informally invite banksy to create something by stencil on a spare wall for free (or a nominal sum) and then invest the £1.7m (or whatever the budget will be) into community and youth arts projects in the local area?