Sitting at Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris. The flight to Torino, your final destination is 5 hours away. Plenty of time to kill.
You’re always nervous when you transfer at this airport, since when you were here once with plenty of time to waist, and still managed to loose your flight.
You had a window sit on the plane coming to Europe.
The night flight amplified the sense of crowding-ess. The sparkling cities down there went on forever,
descending on Paris you couldn’t see the end of the illuminated metropolis.
Posters for the incoming international Earth Hour got duplicated in a different language: English in Australia, French here.
Sure enough, and soon enough, you are going to see the Italian counterpart.
On the flight you divided your time between tetris, chess (which You’re afraid to say was a bit boring, as even the expert setting of the game was far too predictable), and films.
If it wasn’t for the occasional international flight you wouldn’t ever see the current blockbusters, You just don’t go to popular screenings.
So here you were, looking at a couple of Italian films (Mio fratello e’ figlio unico was quite good) and Australia.
What you got of the Buz Luhrmann’s epic were not comments on how good or bad Kidman’s acting was, you were far more fascinated buy the side caracters.
King George, the Aboriginal elder, was being portrayed with great respect.
Respect for the metaphysical connection with nature and esoterical phenomena.
“King George is teaching me how to sing magic”, said repeatedly the young half-cast boy.
Lurman (who wrote produced and directed the film) manage to instill in the script the essence of ancestral connection to the environment, such a far cry from Harry Potter’s wizardry.
…
Image from Varied Noisy, Rachel Ormella, 2008
During the week you had several conversations with other artists, friends, writers and even gallerists (even though they were the most shallow) about your practice.
The fact you won this scholarship put your argument in the spotlight, and other critical thinkers are now intrigued by weedyconnection.
Who, what, how and -mostly- why questions have been used to decipher your drive.
Raquel was very keen to find a philosophical placement, despite your objections. Bringing examples like the Myna Birds ‘plague’ in Camberra, she probed your motives: “What would you do in such a situation, where an introduced species population blow-up to such proportions and aggressiveness to de-facto create an aviary monoculture.
Over and over again you sneaked out of conceptual corners explaining that you are not a conservationist or an acclimatiser, you do not advocate for or against darwinism. You just want to acknowledge reality.
Lucas decided at the end of a great chat (which he recorded for post-Lempriere assessment, he says) that the best way to describe what and where you’re at with Weedyconnection could be compared to the modus-operandi of Socrates.
The ancient philosopher used debate as the building material for investigations.
So much that no resolution was presented as statement, but rather as a progression of questions and confrontations.
In his famous “Dialogues“, Plato -himself student of Socrates- present the practice of the master of rambling presentation of uncertainties, which frame a philosophical standing based on negotiations, and open ended.
So there you are Raquel.
More happened too.
Hopefully it will get recorded.
