#52 MOUNTAIN mountain2019

The I CHING is an ancient oracle that started out in a pictographic “language”, so there is no definitive “meaning.” That being said, language itself is a living thing that constantly changes. One of #52’s most basic associations meant “tending”— tending to one’s Triadic nature of body, soul and mind. It revolves around “stopping” when the situation calls for it; but also “moving” when the time is right. It revolves around quieting one’s heart and mind, so the is no “self “and no “other”. It may have referred to yoga. As a primal symbol, “mountain” is connected to China’s Mt. Tai one of 5 sacred mountains, that was seen as being a Gateway to the Underworld. I chose purple as the color to represent “mountain”, as it seems very quiet and contained — the type of energy it represents.

The I Ching (1000–750 BC) or Chinese Book of Changes, is a classic text, describing an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy, which set the heart of traditional cultural beliefs. It is a "reflection of the universe in miniature." It describes specific states or processes, using the essences found in Nature as the basis for its descriptions. It calls these 64 different yet archetypal forms of human energy, “hexagrams”. Invisible, non-the-less alive, their potential appears in the empirical world, acting in it. What humankind perceives are the effects. My films interpret hexagrams, based in gestural performance derived from “authentic movement technique”. This improvisational dance practice allows a type of free association of the body. Impressions from the interior, unknown surface, validating a non-rational knowledge birthed through the body, rather than the thinking, parsing mind. This exploration of liminal space residing next to “consciousness,” eliminates explanations like those sought by a crime solver. The figure no longer human, becomes a “personage”, framing the actions that occur. When editing, the figure connects to intuition, imagination, and I Ching references from its beginnings in neolithic times, into the present. Pictures from collective memory, and associated images found in mind and body, recombine into cinematic imagery “painted” with computer techniques, presenting a dream logic.