elephantangential

elephantemporal

elephantalisman

 elephantaedium vitae
 

furtive states...

raincloud suddenly rents the embroidered walls...

the feast over, emptiness asserts itself once more... 

souls dissolved in the dream seek each other without end... 

 

[selected lines from 'To the air of "Mulan Hua"' by Li Yu, the last emperor of the Southern Tang dynasty]
 

alight upon the season...

we know where we are...

we float a lit cross to let others know that they have arrived at a juncture...

the red star on a green cone is incidental, inscriptive of a seasonal adaptation...

and beyond the lights, it is not so dark over there after all...

esoteric corners

In a time when the idea of attending a place of worship seems a quaint and almost antiquated activity, such places still continue to exist and flourish with their own dedicated followers, often tucked into residential neighbourhoods where they sometimes crouch inconspicuously on quiet corners and where their architecturally diverse edifices do not overwhelm the scale of the houses on their streets...
I have always admired the minimal nordic variant of art deco styling of the church above on the corner of East 19th and Prince Albert Street built by the local Danish community in the 1930's as the first Danish Lutheran Church in Vancouver - Saint Ansgar's congregation has long since moved out of the city to another location...

The Shiv Mandir-Shree Sanatan Dharam Ramayan Mandali of Fiji has served as a Hindu temple for the last 30 years after being a Presbyterian church when it was raised in 1908 on the corner of Napier Street and Salsbury Drive...

Hidden behind the trees on a high corner above 810 East 13th Avenue is the mysterious Russian Synodal Orthodox Church with its small but distinctive blue onion dome and gilded icon above the entrance doors...

Around the corner from the bustling produce stalls of Norman's on Commercial Drive and Graveley Street is the slightly forlorn looking Chinese Grace Mennonite Church housed in an old apartment building...

And in a tranquil pocket above Clark Park on the corner of East 18th Avenue and Fleming Street stands the always immaculately maintained German Saint Markus Lutheran Church bestowing its touch of Teutonic flavour to our multi-ethnic neighbourhood...

stay awhile...

to free land...

to free office...

to free art...

 but stake out all claims...

 even if stacked up against...

 to stay awhile...

leaves-leaving...

"leaving one tree for another...

like these birds, never to fly again..."

[paraphrasing the last lines of Prévert's 'Les Désespoir est assis sur un banc']

 leaves-leaving above Trout Lake and leaves-left on the ground...

"Un cheval s'écroule au milieu d'une allée

Les feuilles tombent sur lui

Notre amour frissonne

Et le soleil aussi." 

'L'Automne'

Jacques Prévert

the vines remain...for now...

A generation's worth of summers tending to the meticulously trained vines on trellises that span the length of a standard city lot...

A verdant canopy of an urban vineyard to supply a family with enough grapes to crush into a few dozen bottles of home-made wine a year...

This season's bounty will not be harvested by the same family anymore - the house has been sold and who knows if the new owners are wine lovers, grape eaters, pruning enthusiasts...

I have walked by this suspended viticultural endeavour [at the corner of Victoria Drive and the East 14th laneway] on the way to Trout Lake [John Hendry Park] for almost three decades now and have always admired the enduring dedication in the maintenance of their elevated grape production and their old world attitude towards using their whole property - including the space above their land - to yield what they need...

the house sits empty now, the grass unmowed... but the vines thrive on without the hands that have known them for so long, and even without the required sunshine hours so sadly lacking in this non-summer of ours...

 a left behind concrete table that would have known many a bottle and cluttered glasses and bearing stains from more then a few spilled drops...

the path to the [almost wine-coloured!] front door of the large Vancouver Special house is edged by sedum-filled pots fashioned from cut opened rubber tires...

when I walked by on the weekend, I spied the clusters of green grapes dangling demurely from the tangle of vines and leaves, their pulp slowly sweetening in the already fall-like sunshine...
in the garage where the large wooden barrels would have been rolled out in anticipation of the juice to be fermented, renovation work is underway - and I was hesitant to ask if this expansive grape arbour will remain, not wanting to know the negative response...

granville island:: rounded up

 During these spring-like days of summer [only in Vancouver!], the living is easy and I am quite quite lazy - but I managed to wander around Granville Island one recent breezy day and take in some sculptural forms with a circular theme - starting with the lucky boy sinking into multi-scooped balls of ice cream...

 "BLISS" by Ron Simmer

 "HONKFEST" by Douglas Walker

[sorry, missed the title and artist's name]

[the titled pieces are part of a temporary exhibit "REVISION: The Art of Recycling" featuring art made from recycled, salvaged, scrounged or found materials...installed around the Creekhouse building and courtyard]

lonetree standing

 sometimes it is enough to be a lone botanical sentry stationed high above it all...

[on West 1st Avenue off Burrard Street]

 sometimes it is enough to be the one well-groomed specimen gracing a modest yard...

[at East 38th Avenue and Rhodes Street]

sometimes it is enough to be a sidewalk loner unperturbed by a neurotic stronghold...

[on Powell Street]

seaforth detailed

75 years forth and the Seaforth Armoury still commands its whitewashed and castellated presence at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge - a protective fort and comfort zone for The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, a Primary Reserve Infantry which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year...

It is a building that I have been curious about but never had the urge to go right up to and really train my savage eye upon until this sunny weekday morning when I was nearby and had the time [and courage!] to approach...

There was a recruiting board set up outside the large front and side entrance doors and as I rode up on my bike to peek through the grated side door window, the door opened and a friendly reservist* welcomed me in...

He was kind enough to give me a tour of the great hall and adjoining rooms and  let me take some pictures...

I am always excited to be in an older building with its original interior still intact and retaining the atmosphere from another era...

The Seaforth Armoury was designed by the long-standing architectural partnership of John McCarter and George Nairne, [who had also built the downtown art deco landmark Marine Building in 1930 and who would eventually erect the modernist General Post Office building on Georgia Street in the 1950's], with the completion date in 1936 [the Armoury is now listed as a Class A Heritage Building]...

 

within the sparse gymnasium room hangs a lone black punching bag, almost poignant in its symbolic and literal stoic-ness, while the silhouette of an armed soldier lurks above...

[I was told that the recruitment age is from 16 to 55... - so I still have "lots" of time to think about it!]

*Thank you to Michael the Reservist for his time and generous info session.