Dare to flow?
Seven sculptures smile at our resistance to the river of life.
It all started with the «Captain. «Norah’s Ark» is currently floating as number seven on the same river. They could all let themselves be carried by the river of life, but they prefer to steer their canoes themselves, their legs stubbornly on the ground. They are in control, supposedly.
So, with these sculptures, I smile about myself and about being human in general—about my ambitions and my judgements.
If life throws something undesirable at me, I steer my boat sideways because I don’t want to feel the pain or anger. Thus, I have to find an alternative route quickly.
For this, we all have our own personal strategies.
Sometimes, I can see myself in this forcing and jamming. Seeing only opens new options if I do it without self-criticism. Otherwise, it would be the old forcing strategy again, simply directed against me.
If the conciliatory realisation succeeds, I pull my legs back into the boat and trust what comes. That takes some courage and trust, because the feelings I’ve been avoiding will bubble up from the inner swamp.
The seven works shown at the end of this page do not stand for a haphazard «after me, the deluge». Plans and decisions are important. The less constraint there is, the less my canoe gets stuck. John O’Donohue puts my insights into a these wonderful words:
I would love to live
like a river flows
carried by the surprise
of its own unfolding.
(Presentation on Youtube, quote at about minute 40.)
Perhaps Norah will soon carry her ark to the nearby Rhine from the exhibition in the park of Villa Sommerlust Schaffhausen. The video (mobile phone at the bottom, PC or tablet on the right) shows her growing out of a larch tree in fast motion.
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