2015 Season Greetings | Searching for Light from Darkeness

The lesson learned from 2015, which has been indeed a challenging year, is that we can find somewhere else whatever we are searching where we currently are. Metaphorically and literally I was able to find compassion and understanding in the side of the planet, where the longest and brightest day of the year correspond to the shortest and darkest day in the opposite side.
After all, everything is relative.

Camminando and Thoughts | Listening to the Body, During the December Solstice Meditations

The Sun setting framed by the ruins of the 69th Street Transfer Bridge at the Hudson River Waterfront, 20 December

The 2015 December Solstice has just happened, on December 22 04:38 UTC. It is a special time of the year, the moment when the sun inverts its apparent path from north to south in the south hemisphere or from south to north in the northern hemisphere. The etymology of the word solstice clearly expresses the astronomical properties: solstice comes from the Latin 'sol' (sun) and 'sistere' (to stand still). It is the shortest day and longest night of the year marking the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere the solstice marks the beginning of summer, with the longest day and shortest night.
The solstices, such as the equinoxes, are also an astonishing proof of how geometry is not only an abstraction to assist in the understanding of the physical world, but has a crucial role in the functioning of the universe. The geometry of the sun is an example in how day-night cycles and seasons are determined by geometric properties, namely the 23.45° angle of the axial tilt of the earth axis —that is the angle between the orbital plane of the earth rotation around the and the equatorial plane. This angle also defines the tilt of the ecliptic plane and the plane of celestial equator.

 It is a time of the year marked by celebrations in different cultures, including Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.  Holidays and celebrations almost seems to compensate for the lack of light and cold season in the northern hemisphere. 
The solstice it also a time for reflections. 2015 has been another difficult year, marked by divorce and harassment, which have experienced in different forms and from different people from my husband and my New York neighbors. Celebrating the solstice it for me it has become another metaphor, where the darkness of this time of hatred will change path toward light of compassion and support.

A pale sun rising in Central Park, during the solstice day, the shortest day of the year

camminando | Sunset at Dog Rocks

 

happenings | December 13, Impermanent Vessels at Dog Rocks

The latest installment of Michael Morgan's Impermanent Vessels  took place at the artist's studio/residence in Batesford a few hundreds meters from Dog Rocks. The theme of the transformation of the cast of the artist's head was transition of matter from ice to water. The ice head slowly melted in a sunlight reflecting swimming pool, accompanied by the transition of the sun from daylight to the night darkness. Three cameras surrounded the ice sculptures, to record a time-lapse sequence of light-matter transition. Two other ice sculptures from the same mold were part of the Melbourne COP21 event held at Arts House two days earlier.

making & moving | December 4, Installing a 'Movement Infrastructure' in Burwood

My fourth 'movement infrastructure' based on the icosahedron, has been installed in one of the Deakin University dance studios, in the Burwood campus. A few facts:

• The icosahedron is inscribed in a circumsphere with radius of 142 cm. 
• The 30 edges are grouped in three symmetric systems, each comprising 10 edges of the same material. 
• Three different materials are used for the edges to differentiate the anatomical planes: black PVC, chrome plated metal, oak. Each of the edges is a road with a diameter measuring 16mm.
• Each of the twelve connector is 3D printed by the Makerbot Replicator 2X, using ABS plastics of three different colors.
• The icosahedron assembling required about about 1.5 hours, not including the parts procurement and 3D printing.

After assembling the icosahedron I performed several movement explorations based on the octahedron whose edges coincide with the midpoint of the icosahedron defining the shorter edge of the golden rectangles. I also performed the yoga inspired sequence "Finding the Axis Mundi".

 

Art Fairs | Miami: Scope

Art Fairs | Miami: Design Miami