conversations with bricks and concrete
January. 28. 2012
“And if you think of Brick, for instance,
and you say to Brick,
“What do you want Brick?”
And Brick says to you
“I like an Arch.”
And if you say to Brick
“Look, arches are expensive,
and I can use a concrete lentil over you.
What do you think of that?”
“Brick?”
Brick says:
“… I like an Arch””
-Louis Kahn
rum boogie cafe
January. 28. 2012
what I miss most about the dirty south is the music (and the biscuits)…
the highway series
October. 25. 2011
fueling my timeless dance with displacement, wheeling out of Boston-
“Never wish away distance. Never wish away time.”
-Bruce Weber
freedom from fear
September. 11. 2011
“All material in nature,
the mountains and the streams and the air and we,
are made of Light which has been spent,
and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow,
and the shadow belongs to Light.”
– Louis Kahn
I came to the United States as a student on August 30th, 2001. 12 days after my arrival, the WTC was bombed.
Still jet-lagged, skipping Ms. Olin’s 9am class, I was asleep when Alli barged into my dorm room and exclaimed, “Ishi! They bombed the WTC!” But in my fitful fever, my mind couldn’t parse through the information well enough to command consciousness and I zoomed back into sleep. It was only later when I answered the phone to my new best friend’s quivering voice that I realized what had just happened.
Even as I stood trembling, incapacitated by shock waves of horror flowing through my being, living the crash in my head, I couldn’t entirely fathom it all. And somewhere in my trembling, I realized I knew this feeling all too well. It was the first attack on American soil, but the Indian soil in me had quivered before in the face of the same terror, many a time.
Before that morning, I did not know what WTC stood for and had never been to New York. Shy in my newness I wondered if I could honestly be a part of the grief? In which capacity does a legal alien console her 12 day old friends?
Although it wasn’t all 9/11 that did it, since that fateful day, I have grown up. The event gave me a premature preview into the American psyche and this society’s mechanisms of dealing with grief and disaster, very different from the fatalist nonchalance I was used to in India…With typically American efficiency, meetings were called, we were given phones to call home to re-assure our parents and cautioned against going out into town alone. Caught off-guard and cornered into switching points of view, my sense of self questioned itself and for the first time I contemplated my being as the Other.
I have lived and loved, won and lost and surrendered pieces of my heart to souls deep within American folds while nurturing them into mine; I have watched the dispersion of fear and the struggle to overcome it in an intoxicated, unpredictable dance which moves us all through the darkness, through the light. Resilience is a beautiful thing, grace under pressure, that is what defines a great civilization, or a human being.
“I have no fear at all at all, I have no fears at all.”
stranded
September. 6. 2011
I have this love affair with trains that just won’t die. Found this stranded cargo train on the road to Marfa, TX (iphone shot hanging out the window)…ingredients for a swell weekend in West Jesus Nowhere-
1. one good friend+
2. the desert sky+
3. a tent to pitch (w/ hammocks)+
4. minimalist art+
5. falling stars+
6. an unusual bookstore+
7. and serendpitious reunions
= Ishi heaven!
falling up
July. 7. 2011
and staring into the whirlwind atmosphere at 27,000 feet
she almost fell upwards, head on the ground (fast dissipating) and feet in the clouds
there was nowhere to go but up, and she had no fear of falling
and there is much to be said about that.
song for the earth
April. 22. 2011
Happy Earth Day! Rain it is you, my soil that I crave even here around the bends of this faceted world where edges seem sharper than some I have known, I listen to rain seep through your furrows my ears to your parched skin and my breathing with it in unison I cannot, but love you for your breath was my beginnings
roppongi
November. 9. 2010
Roppongi is known as the foreigner district of Tokyo…one of the places where ex-pats and the likes settled, and gaijene run amuck. Except- I saw maybe three foreigners on my three trips out to Roppongi.
Regarding my proposal, with Roppongi I was concerned with the local reflections of international trends- and rest aassured that didn’t dissappoint. There were malls scaling city blocks full of merchandize familiar to any cosmopolitan metropolis- the same brand names that plague the world abound in Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Mid-Town (not neighborhoods as their names may suggest, but more like giant developments).
It was the in-betweeen-ness found while roaming the backstreets that really became interesting to me. Small scale shops with foreign flavors nestled in the messy blocks scattererd around the larger developments haphazardly hold treasures like the shrine above and even create community spaces where people gather to catch their breaths…
tskuiji
November. 7. 2010
If you follow my blog or know me, you’ll know I love corrosion in general and rusting in particular…
Weathering marks the passing of time, and I enjoy the reminder.
In the back-quarters of the Tskuiji district old meets new. This is one of the last few spaces where remnants of old style Japanese houses still remain. Guess, what dominates what?
wooden
November. 2. 2010
The Port Terminal in Yokohama, port-sister-city of Tokyo, is one of those mind bending system of planes that makes you want to run around barefooted and strike a yoga pose or two. Ships set sail to all corners of the world from this gorgeous piece of shore…and you can see travelers lined up around the block waiting to board.
The success of the construction is reflected in the fruitful use of the public space by people engaging with the architecture, and contemplating what lies outside of it.
The structure is sited so craftily that it seems to emerge from the end of a small peninsula automatically, somewhere losing the distinction between natural and mechanized in its wooden splendor. Attention to detail goes above and beyond the call of duty- even the parking garage is beautifully designed.
elektronik
November. 1. 2010
Greetings from electronic city- if in retrospect!
Akihabara is a celebration of electronic consumerism- if it involves electricity or silicon chips- you will find it here. Promise. Oh and did I mention the vending machines with shrink wrapped wet dirty panties you can find middle aged men crouching around? Let’s just say the veils come off to a degree in this part of town…
Everything glows, moves or screams, and the people that come with it are no less interesting- Manga girls in costume, reduced to reflections of imaginary provocative characters can be found luring customers in. The consumers, the followers, the geeks and nerds, the loud and boisterous, the quirky and gimmicky, and of course, the onlooking traveler like me…one big cluster of GO!
I found the only sign of dissent in Japan here- a well organized, policed, civilized way of protesting- this being Japan- with a snake chain of people winding through the crowds with loudspeakers and chants…Have no idea what it was about- but if you can read Japanese, maybe you can give me a clue~ or crue- as they would call it!
ginza
October. 30. 2010
TOP: Ginza on a busy evening BOTTOM: Ginza on Sunday morning- streetspace handed back to the people
For the HOGI Scholarship, I had one week to spend with the Miyamas, and one week to research my thesis. I added a third week to spend time with friends and see more of Japan than just Tokyo which is where my study was focused, but more on that later.
The thesis of the project is to understand the architecture of cultural hybridization, in the urban fabric of an essentially old city. I call it Inhabiting the Global Anonymous, because it can be argued that in the end, that is what assimilation/ globalization does, if secretly. What becomes interesting then, is the manner in which foreign cultures and forms are appropriated….there was mayo and seaweed in my McDonald’s breakfast sandwich!
My work in Tokyo began the day the Miyamas sent us on our way, and my first stop was Ginza- a place to eat, shop, and do some business- wherein lies the most expensive corner of our planet (a block away from picture #1). Tokyo is the world’s largest megalopolis, so much so that I hesitate to even call it a city. It’s more like a cluster of cities within a city- at 23 million people- each neighborhood is like a small Tokyo with its own flavor. Ginza is the most expensive land in the world, and as our host had pointed out- about half a square meter costs you about a million USD. Ouch!
Walking down the busiest and swankiest street in Ginza gives you a look into just how integrated and cosmopolitan the city has evolved to be- gone or buried are the remnants of the Edo period in such places.
Although Tokyo is so different from any other place I have ever been, there is something about the big city feeling where globalization makes strange streets look vaguely familiar in all big cities in so many ways…
smoulder
October. 23. 2010
prada
October. 17. 2010
it glows like the jewel it is…
I still don’t think I’m done with it yet.
simple complexity
October. 15. 2010
or complex simplicity?
the Tokyo Forum- simple but intricate- throws some off.
not as “crazy” a building as you may think…
onsen
October. 14. 2010
ohio gozaimasu! kirei desyo? (good morning! beautiful isn’t it?)
or so went conversation at the onsen
early morning dip into the hot springs
the warmth of the water
crisp against the cold goosebumps on my skin
fuji-san playing hide and seek in the distance…
some shed inhibitions and therefore clothing- mine went in reverse order, but vaporised soon enough into the morning mist.
freeing, for sure! so much so that I snapped up this quick one once the crowd cleared…
a good morning indeed!
volcano
October. 13. 2010
the sacred volcano: fuji-san
no matter who you are, it is breathtaking in its solitude.
no other like it in the whole range…so typically japanese- meticulously symmetrical in its rawness…
this country never seems to lapse into disorder. Thus far…
it-oh
October. 12. 2010
tama art university- toyo ito…more back at studioish
there are buildings, and then there are buildings. this one just happens to be the latter.
tangled
October. 3. 2010
Sometimes life can get so tangled up that unwinding seems out of reach, doesn’t it? But then you always get out of it and find your feet. The art of grounding, I call it.
For the past couple of summers, we’ve gotten in the habit of hauling out to a friend’s aunt’s ranch-house in east-jesus-no-where: the middle of hill country. Somehow, the summer feels more languid when you live in a place where your mailbox is 2 miles away.
My idea of luxury is not money and things, but time…easy mornings…living at my own pace.
This is a corner of Aunt June’s house, on a cool summer night. When I shot it I wished the web was more complete- prefect, symmetrical, eye candy-ish…in retrospect, I’m glad it wasn’t.
Did you know spider-webs are stronger than steel?
the dweller II
September. 28. 2010
India to some seems like an uncontrollable attack on the senses. Somedays, I understand. But others, I wonder if in those stories, time was taken to enjoy the space and time it affords- far removed from regimented confines…
India is a sensuous river, and it floods every once in a while, but it is teeming with life and irrigates a billion people with a life that is really connected to the rhythms of the earth and sky. Time, it goes on, but once in a while, you realize that here- there are no schedules, there will be no 5-step process described for prsuing your mundane goals- here, you can take the flow of time just a little lightly and therefore find room to fly a little.
The photo above is one of a series I call the Dweller- here he is, rising to till his land at dawn, as I stood on the edge of the mustard fields in search of stillness on a December morning…
