water dragon leapyear

The old man from Shao-ling,

weeping inwardly,

Slips out by stealth in Spring

and walks by Serpentine,

 

And on its riverside

sees the locked Palaces,

Young willows and new reeds

all green for nobody;

 

Where Rainbow Banners once

went through South Gardens,

Gardens and all therein

with merry faces:

 

Where limpid River Wei's

waters flow Eastward,

One goes, the other stays

 and has no tidings:

 

Though Pity, all our hours,

weeping remembers,

These waters and these flowers

remain as ever;

[selected verses from "Lament by the Riverside" by Tu Fu (A.D. 712-770) Translated by Arthur Cooper, 1973]

DTES SEREENA

a garlanded name hangs unceremoniously from a chainlink fence on a side street off no-man's-land east hastings...
a public declaration of love for sweet Sereena who lives or works nearby perhaps -
or a poignant commemoration for some sad Sereena who is missing or lost or worse...

once in a while I come across one of these evergreen name garlands strung out from a derelict setting - a mysteriously handmade reminder of the somber reality of such a being with that particular name -
who is she, who was she... is she still?

[BRENDA from two summers ago...]

*postscriptum:: I have since discovered the artist and the raison d'etre of this project posted on this site www.evergreen26.blogspot.com

carpetcity

a miniature ghost city rises from a magic carpet site - its buildings' floor plans determined by the intricate geometrical patterns of the woven designs...
the architectural style is complex-contemporary-monumental and the models are elaborately detailed with multi-leveled towers and zig-zagging side protrusions...
the pure whiteness of the forms contrasting solidly with the rich colour scheme of the persian carpet, and yet the constructed pieces seem all the more fantastical...

from the self-contained compactness of the area specific carpet city, the gallery space expands with partial full size undulating walls as outlined in some of the maquettes...
the white-washed wall constructions are suggestive of Malevich's suprematist vision of abstract  geometric forms soaring in a white universal space, as their white on white structuring floats seductively as cubistic apparitions around every oddly angled nook and corner...

Babak Golkar  'Grounds for Standing and Understanding" at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, 

Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 

Granville Island

January 18th to Frebruary 26th, 2012

dot dot dot... stripes---

without the perkiness of such contagious red spots the modest post-war bungalow and her attendant garage above would be plainer than jane...

and without the bright  blue and green horizontal banding on these humble eastside apartment buildings below they would be much less average that joe...