The Future: Past and Present

Past. Present. Future.

Present. Future. Past.

Future. Past. Present

Past + Future = Present

Without acknowledgement of the past the present could not exist.

Without an idea of the future the present could not exist.

The present is a collective idea of the past in a particular moment which projects an image of the future in its wake.

Our current idea is of a Utopian past; blind to the irony of the notion of 'Oh what a lovely war'; preoccupied with kantian notions of the sublime; desperate to return to 'nature'. This desperation is epitomised by the craze of 'the festival'; a retreat into nature serenaded by music, surrounded by craft, sleeping under the stars and drinking ambrosia. Yet these weekend escapes are underlined by capitalist ideals; people are sold the dream; mobile phone charging units are available at £5 an hour and people queue, slavish to their consumerist command for contact with 'the outside world'- the very world they purchased an expensive ticket to escape.

Souvenirs de la Mer

"A Woman Speaks"
Audre Lourde

Moon marked and touched by Sun
my magic is unwritten
but when the sea turns back
it will leave my shape behind
...



"To One in Paradise"
Edgar Allan Poe 
 
...

No more—no more—no more—

   (Such language holds the solemn sea

To the sands upon the shore)

 ...

And all my days are trances,

   And all my nightly dreams

Are where thy grey eye glances,

   And where thy footstep gleams—

In what ethereal dances,

   By what eternal streams. 

Susan Hiller, Dedicated to the Unknown Artists, (1972-1976)
305 postcards, charts, maps, one book, one dossier, mounted on 14 panels

Carolee Schneemann, Water Light/Water Needle, (1966)

'Venice dazzlingly situated the reversible figure and ground, water and sky, light and shadow, solidity and transparency. "This mirroring of water and sky introduced my visual concept of bodies moving within an anti-gravitational frame." A sensation of floating and suspension provoked Schneemann's imagery of layered ropes on which performers seemed to be 'rising out of' rather than 'being upon' actual space.



'Schneemann saw the ropes as "flesh extensions"...'


'Suspended above the audience, the arrangement of the ropes still mirrored that of Schneemanns visions in Venice, and on adjoining pulleys, were 'clouds'; large orbs of paper and plastic filled with lights...'

http://www.halesgallery.com/exhibitions/60/installation_shots/

Film still from  Beautiful Girl Montage: Singin' in the Rain

Shoes on the Danube Promenade Memorial, Budapest