Profiles of Contemporary Art and - ARTisSpectrum

Dr. Caroline Josephs PhD
Sydney -- summer-heat-humidity to…
New York -- flurry-scurry-hurry of a blizzard-building Boxing Day… Snowflakes fluff pell-mell, kissing faces, dit-dotting spaces
between verticals…white crystalline blurry furry on grey pavements… Coated figures, wind-bent, hailing cabs… Snug studio,
sky of yellow glow, glowering thunder, lightning – roaring through white night …
Madison Avenue early morning wears thick pristine blanket coat…Softly speechless no traffic. Solitary bus stranded – beached
pale whale cuts road… Tiptoe, boots pick-pock slowly through the crunch crunch snow piles -- Food Emporium … provision fossicking.
Ledge, ridge, banister, branch, stair -- highlighted by unseen painter’s white oil tube extrusions… Listen! Silence…New
Yorkers brave storm aftermath, work-ways, mobiles to ears…
Central Park…café -- omelettes, mushrooms, spinach, fetta, wood fire, warmed hands -- for a few dollars – dark wood tables,
chairs, frozen lake view…Ear-muffed walkers, runners, dogs romp, children bundled in strollers, couples - skis on shoulders,
bike rickshaw drivers lounge, hug themselves, awaiting customers …Young man proffers helping hand at patch of ice, noticing
my hesitant steps. Music -- sounds sublime, melancholic, draws me in, a hooked fish… Beneath a bridge, domain of frescoes,
tiles… deepest velvet tones – an African-American man singing soulful spirituals; companion bows a double bass. Walking, walking,
gingerly -- a squirrel scampers close - in expectation of breakfast. An abstract artist’s patterns -- snow on rocks, sun glints on
stone… John Lennon, the Dakota…‘Imagine all the people, living for today…uh uh uh uh…’
The subway…the city’s mythic subterranean life. Figures helter skelter up stairs scramble shamble down escalators, stairs, waiting,
patient, still, queuing, strap-hanging, faces lined, faces youthful, faces in myriad manifestation -- sleeping, reading, chatting,
bumping, along … Four young men startle our carriage. Rap. Caps akimbo. Portable player bites out. Insistent rhythms. Muscles
glisten. Dyads somersault. Legs leap, dart, dance, rip, rap, roar … Raw leopard prowess… Applause! The carriage opens its
purse. Performers, sweat-soaked, ‘The more you give, the more we have!’
Guggenheim. Wrapped, rapt, in a giant conch shell curving cavern of whites, yellows, darkly moving random figures -- Pina-
Bausch-like ballet… sculpt inner space…breathless, with excitement.
Museum of American Indian. Menatay (Manhattan)…The spot where American Indians sold off land. Walking trails…of old…
now Broadway, main thoroughfares. Where are their people? Wondrous artefacts in eerie spaces -- the old Customs House…
The Y’s indoor swim pool refreshes… Ms. Mermaid enters her home realm – intricate tiling walls, turquoise water…return to
evanescing body…
Agora. Sparkling white bays of artists’ delight…Angela offers choices, guides… Being, held here… Questions tumble. Women
of the gallery…Sabrina, Clara, Nellie… midwives of emergence -- a May exhibition…Departing into snow of Chelsea… heartened.
Storyteller, Buddhist teacher, Laura…Hours slip by, weaving stories. Says the listener to the storyteller…’Isn’t there even one
happy-ending-story in your land?’ ‘Oh yes’, says the storyteller…There was a man. He loses everything. He goes… into the
desert. Throws up his hands, says, ‘Who cares!’
Recalling September 11, 2001, peering into construction hole, cranes -- -- from lookout at World Financial Center…Here ... a
constantly re-generating city -- with verve, with ‘attitude’, humming, vibrant, sassy -- New York!
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Caroline_Josephs_Phd.aspx
63 ARTisSpectrum