Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Silence Awareness Existence program / JANUARY 2020
Gaylene Anne Barnes
New Zealand
www.gaylenebarnes.com
About
Since completing a Diploma of Fine Arts on an Amiga
computer in 1991, I have worked as a computer graphic artist,
video editor, animator, painter, writer, designer, director and
producer. I have freelanced on many creative projects in
New Zealand, as well as developing my own practise as an
artist and filmmaker. My recent work includes the feature
documentary film Seven Rivers Walking Haere Maarire (NZ,
2017), a solo exhibition of paintings, Origins (Nelson, 2019),
and a book of poems and images, Circumscribed (London,
2020).
I’m also a farmer with an organic vegetable family farm (and
a small flock of Finnsheep!). As with most farmers, I have a
born-n-bred impetus to ‘produce’ and to be a caretaker of
nature, as one creates. Discovering and painting the icon,
with it’s methodology of sacred matter, has been a major
influence. I am currently curious about the sacred and the
story in art and nature; the unfolding of conscious thought
and form; the potential for miracles; the zero-point; and the
many hands that create the evolving image/s on this planet.
Whilst I have brought several projects to work on during
my Arteles residency, including a screenplay, I will also
take the opportunity provided by the theme, and evolve my
contemplative meditation practise, and see what happens in
the cloister! When in NZ, you are welcome to visit my studio
in the upper room of St John Anglican Church, Woolston,
Christchurch, NZ.
Filaments and Durations
A thought struck me on day three and it was a blessing to
nurture it at Arteles. Those branching veins, these braided
trees, in this living forest – I thought – Angels track across
these filaments. From the proto-filaments of our cellular being,
to the massive galaxy filaments of the universe. Along these
routes that surround galactic voids and magnetise our body,
we track. We are one, of this filament, coalescing in space,
with the trees. The artists here at Arteles, and creative souls
everywhere, are connecting threads in endless co-creation
of this universe – except, perhaps, when we stop, to spend
20 minutes twice a day in quiet emptiness, in the meditation
room.
On this day of silence, I watch a fly. I give this living creature
time. In this moving image project I film beings in longduration.
Attending to life. To watch and be with. An openeyed
meditation? How hard! We come to nature with our
stories, an agenda, some myths, a narrative. I want to see
change, action, I want to be doing. So, I was filming. I was
seduced by the images of nature – the low angle light, the
frosty ground, the tall trees swaying in the wind. Seduction
first, followed by distraction – the need to see it in another
way, a new angle, and always this anticipation, waiting for
change .... I am only beginning, to learn to Be. Thanks you
Arteles and Finland.