Marja-Leena Rathje
Home ::: if walls could speak

if walls could speak

   
brokenwall2.jpg

   

brokenwall1.jpg

   

brokenwall3.jpg

   

(from my photo series of the Britannia Shipyard in Steveston)
   

Marja-Leena | 02/11/2008 | 9 comments
themes: Canada and BC, Photoworks, Textures


9 comments

That first one I keep going back to, I can't work out what comes forward and what goes back! It also has a distictly spooky look, like a hooded figure...

Can't help thinking that the shipyard's ruined state, combined with its name, form an admirable metaphor for the banking system of Dear Old Albion. Or is this a case of Icelandic revenge? Our government behaved quite unpleasantly towards Iceland recently (A cash matter over which we invoked anti-terrorist laws) and whereas I know that Finns don't consider themselves to be Scandinavians maybe there's a little bit of Nordic sympathy here.

Lucy, the same things intrigue me about the first one, too.

Barrett, a good metaphor indeed! Though Finns are not ethnically Scandinavian, culturally and economically they are very close as you note. Maybe it's partly the little guys joining forces to stand up to the big ones. Shocking what happened to Iceland, so I'm glad the Nordic brothers are helping. Come to think of it, Brits have a lot of Scandinavian blood in them...

That top one is begging to be turn into something more. Maybe add to the bottom one? since it does looks like a an arch to a doorway or door itself

The top one does look like a hooded figure - a penitent or pilgrim holding a lantern.

Monks in hoods, I thought. Wonderful abstractions!

Cathy, yes, that one has been on my mind. How to use it...?

Leslee, as in praying for change in the US elections today? The whole world seems to be.

Joe, thanks. Makes me think of how we see figures in knots in pine walls, cloud shapes, and other, as if we're wired to read images in everything abstract.

Marja- I would keep any added artwork simple. Maybe just another rectangle of a dark texture underneath it.Maybe from a picture of a stone. That way you can keep the main focus on the figure.

Cathy, thanks for the good suggestions!