Prayer
Proposition 4. Red is the Colour of Pomegranates (Video, Walker, 2020, edited 2022)
The Colour of Pomegranates, part 2—the digital space, was a discussion that began with an exhibition in 2018, when the artist Genie Poretzky-Lee emailed an image of her pink stained hands to Rosalind Wilson as she was casting a sculpture of an open pomegranate. A connection was made that extended to a shared appreciation of the Soviet director, Sergei Parajanov and his film, The Colour of Pomegranates (1969), a visual poem dedicated to the life of 18th-century Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat-Nova, (1712 –1795).
4 videos became my contribution to our collective digital residency. My original intention was to utilise the opportunity to revisit Sergei Parajanov’s film and delve deeper into the poetry of Sayat Nova. I was drawn to small segments of Parajanov’s imagery and just a couple of Nova’s phrases and used both as a repetitive thought, or mantra, a refrain that runs through all of the 4 videos, each one a Proposition: Red is The Colour of Pomegranates. They link Parajanov, Nova and the environment I inhabited in 2020. My preoccupation with Covid and lockdown was unavoidable, it seeped into me and therefore into the work, to the tap tap tap of the keyboard, the laying down of thoughts, words, images and sounds. The ritual of making was a comfort, as was contact with Genie and Rosalind, and a watching audience that followed the work on The Digital Artist Residency pages and Instagram.
The fourth video is the one I present here about death, closure and grieving, and represents a prayer to the earth.
For the other videos: https://www.digitalartistresidency.org/pomegranates/4/
And other artists: https://www.digitalartistresidency.org/pomegranates/
4 videos became my contribution to our collective digital residency. My original intention was to utilise the opportunity to revisit Sergei Parajanov’s film and delve deeper into the poetry of Sayat Nova. I was drawn to small segments of Parajanov’s imagery and just a couple of Nova’s phrases and used both as a repetitive thought, or mantra, a refrain that runs through all of the 4 videos, each one a Proposition: Red is The Colour of Pomegranates. They link Parajanov, Nova and the environment I inhabited in 2020. My preoccupation with Covid and lockdown was unavoidable, it seeped into me and therefore into the work, to the tap tap tap of the keyboard, the laying down of thoughts, words, images and sounds. The ritual of making was a comfort, as was contact with Genie and Rosalind, and a watching audience that followed the work on The Digital Artist Residency pages and Instagram.
The fourth video is the one I present here about death, closure and grieving, and represents a prayer to the earth.
For the other videos: https://www.digitalartistresidency.org/pomegranates/4/
And other artists: https://www.digitalartistresidency.org/pomegranates/