Glenys has invited me to share her wonderful view.
Month: April 2014
I look forward to visiting some more windows
The dreams of yesterday are the eyes of tomorrow.
The dreams of yesterday are the eyes of tomorrow.
Taking a simplistic view I will say that the city of tomorrow is shaped by the children of today, and today’s children are shaped by the adults. So all of us are the architects of our future.
Dylan Thomas saw the Ugly and the lovely in Swansea town long before it was bombed in WW2. Through little boy’s eyes, he looked out through bedroom windows and saw the ugly on one side and the lovely on the other.
We continue to share the ugly and the lovely view – in fact we are all just that – both ugly and lovely – We are complex.
When I ask people to look out their windows, and what do they see? I am asking for a perspective on life. Two people might see different things, and what they say, reveals as much about them as about what is out there.
Swansea City centre was shaped by the Second World War – it was bombed during the Blitz, by the Luftwaffe under the command of Adolf Hitler.
Hitler as a child was obsessed with ‘Parsifal’ – the blameless fool, the champion of the Holy Grail, and the healer of the wounded King. And as the leader of the Third Reich the image of Parsifal and the image of the Fuhrer became enmeshed.
The children of today walk down Swansea Kingsway, rebuilt after the war – Were it not for Hitler their feet would be treading on different ground and their eyes would perceive different sites.
The psychologist Karl Jung wrote about many complexes; he believed it perfectly normal to have ‘complexes’, because everyone has emotional experiences that affect the psyche. These experiences can bring comfort, and they also bring pain: Hitler’s father was brutal to him, and like Parsifal, he lost his father at an early age, Jung reacted to his father’s views, and Dylan Thomas longed for his father’s approval.
The experiences of these men as children shaped their later work; they shaped the world as we know it.
It is our views that shape the world; the planners and the politicians make decisions about our cities, but what were they thinking long before they rose to those positions? And what will our children think when they take their place?
So when you look out of your window, what do you see? Is it ugly or is it lovely? The way you see the world is the way it is – change your view, then your experience will change too.
Apparently the Opera ‘Parsifal’ by Wagner was conceived on a Good-Friday.
On Easter Sunday children all over Wales will be searching for Easter Eggs. The eggs are a symbol or a promise of ‘new birth’, the festival became a Christian one; celebrating the resurrection of Christ, but its origin was pagan; coming from Germany and the Goddess ‘Eostra’, the goddess of renewal and fertility, her symbol was the Hare.
So why not take a look out of a window over the holiday, and consider your view?
Synchronicity and the window of time
For anyone interested in synchronicity this was an amazing day… Strange but true: ” A childhood mantra of the shipping news – and all is safe and well”.
First a private look and a secret uncovered at Dylan Thomas birth house, where the ugly and the lovely shaped his childhood view, then onto the opening of Civic 2014 and my Swansea peeps exhibition, at the Mission Gallery, where a few people shared their views with me:
The first saw Swansea as a divided City, the second enjoyed a colourful view of people passing by – dressed like a Dragon, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, and a man on a one wheel bike. These are characters that frequently pass-by her window on the way to the Mumbles shore. Finally ‘Angela’ the artist who will occupy the gallery space after me came to say hello; and what seemed so odd at the time was later to reveal a bit of magic in that day:
Her next art work was to be a great big Knitted piece, and she had just finished reading her last knitted piece in the voice of the shipping forecast:
‘ Lands End to St. David’s Head… 3 to 4…fair or good…becoming variable…’ I doubt she used those words, but certainly the tone – Strange but true!
Stranger still that one hour later I was in a North Gower house to do my first Swansea peep consultation. My subject was Kate and her Study window: I asked the significance of the map on the window. It was a map of the shipping forecast, and her father had drawn it, he recently passed away and this was her treasured item – As children when they were all just about to sit down for tea, the shipping forecast would come on….
“it made a real connection – I was a little girl in a safe family…. Listening to it I am really glad to be inside and safe”.
It’s been months since I heard the shipping forecast, and usually it would not interest me; then to hear it mentioned twice within one hour and in the context of peeps-windows – it caught my attention:
Two women connected by a one hour window in time and through a Swansea peep at windows. Angela wants to engage people through the art of knitting, and whilst getting people to pick up the thread that went before, the threads of story are connected. Kate has experienced loss and looking back to a place and time when she felt safe and well; she now wants to learn to thread together the knitting that she has made that came from garments worn by her mother and her grandmother.
Is this coincidence or is it synchronicity? Are we three following storylines that joined in this window of time? And should Angela and Kate meet to join these threads?
I think so! What do you think?
Opening and Private View
A peep at the peeps – a brilliant Opening and Private view
Dylan’s ugly and lovely view
The Ugly and the lovely was a childhood view – not through the eyes of his parents, but through their bedroom windows. Through their bedroom windows Dylan would have seen two views; on the left the urban industrial and on the right the scenic coastal view. From the comfort of his parents’ bedroom he could take these two sides in.
In the winter of 1941 long after Dylan left home, the bombing of Swansea made 7000 people homeless and 230 people died. The window with the lovely view was blown out and bricked up, and Dylan said; “Our Swansea is dead”. His view of ships sailing over rooftops was lost to memory and a storage place in the attic, until recently Geoff (the current owner and custodian), uncovered this secret window and restored this lovely view.
For a peep at one of your windows contact Lindsay to arrange a free consultation in Swansea
The first peeps
I have come to believe that life is a journey and that whatever we need to know along the way is within our field of vision – the difficulty is being able to see it.
So take a peep through your windows, and maybe you will see something that you have not noticed before – A peep may reveal a secret.
A window may reveal a view of life that is a constant theme within your life story.
My Swansea peeps Journey starts today at the birthplace of Dylan Thomas, in the childhood home that must have shaped his adult view. In this house perhaps I might uncover a secret of his life and home. Then to Civic 2014 for the opening event at Mission Gallery, and to close the day with a private look through a North Gower window to see what that might reveal. We all have a private view and a personal story, and collectively these views and these stories create the life of our culture and the form of our cities.
So today I will begin to get inside the City, to see Swansea through the eyes and the windows of its people –the citizens – the ‘peeps’.
So what’s your view?
If you would like me to take a peep with you; then please contact me to arrange a free consultation at the Gallery, or even at your home.
I think this will be a great first day… Lindsay
Swansea peeps – Young artist views
I was fascinated to see and hear the views of young artists exhibiting at The Elysium Gallery Swansea until 6th April.
Tirion Haf painted ‘A reflection in time’; there is something hauntingly nostalgic as I look toward her distant window. Charlotte Halton-Davies reflects that; ” things are not always as they seem – The Devil is in the details”, in her woodblock print ‘Dirty Dishes’.
And there are many other pieces of fine art work from inspiring young artists. This exhibition will move to the Norwegian Church in Cardiff on 7th. April – Definitely worth a closer look.
CIVIC 