meditation_0029 [poop and sloven/eng dictionary]

meditation_0029 [poop and sloven/eng dictionary]
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

meditation_0029 [poop and sloven/eng dictionary]

I'm becoming quite fascinated by this series of poop-covered books and their meaning... is it the rebel in me, is it the questioning mind, the non-acceptance of things at face value...

Is it because I've been reading "DaVinci Code", and finding that all my very Catholic up-bringing may have been a lie... was I fooled into believing the bible, a bible that was apparently compiled by a group of "religious" men in the third century... recording events (hearsay, really)... well... I'm feeling very betrayed and outraged...

Am I pooping into the bible? into books in general? Am I questioning the "written word"?

...all this... and maybe more....

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Happy Happy Birthday, Sol Lang

Happy Happy Birthday, Sol Lang
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

Today is, once again, Sol's birthday... this is a celebration of all that is kind and good... creative and courageous... artistic and rebellious... This is what Sol Lang stands for.

He is my hero...

...and my husband.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOL LANG

...and many more...

(This photo, of course, is one of Sol's, View Large)

Join the Sol Lang Fan Club
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recycle or reincarnate_4073

recycle or reincarnate_4073
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

recycle or reincarnate

Last autumn, we went to the cemetery as an outing on a Sunday afternoon, having heard that it was absolutely frightening up there... that is to say, the union city/cemetery workers had been on strike since the spring and there had been no work done up there in months... the whole city was up in arms, not only because the cemetery was very unkept and completely over-grown, but because the newly-departed loved ones were unable to be buried, because of not being able to cross the picket lines... crazy stuff... It's totally amazing to us that this was part of our everyday world and no one could do anything about it and so it became part of our common experience. It's amazing to me that we as a society can accept things and allow them to happen and somehow put our hands in the air and say, oh well, there's nothing we can do about it... but bitch...

And so, after having avoided the situation for months, (we don't get the paper or listen to the news at all... and so get our daily events from family and friends...) we decided to see what all the fuss was about... and what an adventure it turned out to be.

The place was a wonderland to an artist's eyes... but, not so fun for family members whose loved ones were buried under feet of tall grasses. We found a complete mess... what a great statement it all made: decay, disarray, death, memorials, all along this wonderful mountain top at the center of our fabulous city. And so, I began to think about the necessity of taking these incredible amounts of acres of beautiful land and burying dead bodies there... with all the graves stones barely visible it seems questionable to me about the value of this long-standing ritual... why was it necessary to us as humans? what was it about?

And so as we moved through the tall grasses, further and further up the hill we found an open field with nothing... I was intrigued and went straight for it... once I got there and as I walked around, I fell into a slight hole, and then another and another... it took me a while to discover that there were small flat graves under my feet... older graves stones, flush to the ground that had been buried under several feet of leaves and tall vegetaion... what a find!

I proceeded to unearth these markers one by one in a row! my hands filthy from the wet soil and mildew! But, I LOVED it...

I cried out to my husband to record the moment, and so, these photos were originally taken by my husband Sol Lang for me. I tweaked them... working on these photos lovingly and respectfully until their meaning became clear to me.

This is about recycling and reincarnation. We are recycling our bodies and feeding the earth. Giving back in a sense. Allowing our souls to also recycle or reincarnate!

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meditation_0026cc

meditation_0026cc
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

From the meditation series... continuing onto the grassy area... where one needs to tread carefully (dogs have been around)...

So, I just took advantage of the situation and environs and combined the two... book and dog POOP ( "found objects" )... Thought this was poignant...

...and so this series is beginning to reveal itself to me...

grass clumps and poop... mathematical tables

To Marit Cooper: yes, you're absolutely right, in some places I may be stoned for my brazen opinions. But, I live in fortunate times (a flickr world) where an artist may speak freely and clearly... my meaning here is that not all that is written is "written in stone" and that we each individually must find our own way... obey our hearts and speak truthfully about our humanness and our spiritualness... there is a blending that needs to take place.

I named this series "meditation", not "prayer"... because I feel we must abandon the old ways (blindly following a book or a leader), but step out and step up as an individual who can change the world...

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meditation_0025cc

meditation_0025cc
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

i would have, now love is over,
a end to all, an end:
not, having been your lover,
to become your
perfume doth remiain
folds where it hath
thought of you
in my
all

symons - trench - woodrow - yeats 789

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meditation_0024.1cc

meditation_0024.1cc
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

This is a composite of the last few photos... tweaked...

From the meditation series... continuing onto the grassy area... where one needs to tread carefully (dogs have been around)...

So, I just took advantage of the situation and environs and combined the two... bible and "found objects"... Thought this was poignant...

...and so this series is beginning to reveal itself to me...

impatients salvia grass clump and poop... psalms

To Marit Cooper: yes, you're absolutely right, in some places I may be stoned for my brazen opinions. But, I live in fortunate times (a flickr world) where an artist may speak freely and clearly... my meaning here is that not all that is written is "written in stone" and that we each individually must find our own way... obey our hearts and speak truthfully about our humanness and our spiritualness... there is a blending that needs to take place.

I named this series "meditation", not "prayer"... because I feel we must abandon the old ways (blindly following a book or a leader), but step out and step up as an individual who can change the world...

view large

Sanctuaires: Photography Exhibiton by Sol Lang & Eric Dupuis

Sanctuaires: Photography Exhibiton by Sol Lang & Eric Dupuis
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

you can buy the exhibition catalog here: www.heutekunst.com.

Sanctuaires Exhibition Catalog, by Sol Lang & Eric Dupuis

Sanctuaires Exhibition Catalog, by Sol Lang & Eric Dupuis
Originally uploaded by Mary Bogdan

PRESS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sanctuaries, a photography exhibition
by Éric Dupuis and Sol Lang at Arts Sutton Gallery

Sutton, Friday, February 1, 2008 – Arts Sutton Gallery announces the official opening of Sanctuaries, an exhibition of recent works in photography by Montreal artists Éric Dupuis and Sol Lang on Saturday February 9th.

The vernissage will be held on Saturday, February 16 at 2 pm, with the artists in attendance. The exhibition continues until March 9, 2008.

In the figurative sense, the word sanctuary means “protected, closed, secret, sacred place” (Petit Robert, 2004). This is without a doubt what these two artists want to express.

On one side, Éric Dupuis placed his camera at the heart of places that are without question perceived as sanctuaries- the churches. Yet this vision takes us into looking anew at the interiors and to pay attention to the quality of the light that penetrated them, its subtle play on the furniture, the materials, and the set-up of religious artefacts. “When I was a kid, mass was somehow a sensual rite for me, a mix of wonder for the light and sensations collected from the burning incense, the chants, the music, and the people”, quote the artist. Éric Dupuis is observing with interest the place worship has taken in our contemporary lives. It would seem other values, other rituals, are filling the landscape of society has we can see with churches that are converted into luxurious condos.

On the other side, Sol Lang brings us to a place that seems hostile at first glance, an abandoned factory in Lachine, Quebec, now completely demolished. This building was a haven for young graffiti artists where they could express themselves through their art without interference from police or the law. “I scream out, silently as my voice falls on deaf ears in the abandoned, waste of this environmentally hostile site, where polluting by-products of this facility are slowly seeping down and penetrating the soil underneath.” With this series of photographs, Sol Lang brings a reflection on the “sanctity” of religion, as he draws a parallel between it and the secret evils of greed in our society.

Two intimate visions with radically different aesthetics that merge through their perception of place.

A 50 pages catalogue of the exhibition featuring the works by those two photographers willl be for sale at the Gallery. It includes reproductions of all the images in the exhibition, plus extra images that follow the show's theme for a total of 36 full color images. The price is $19.95. The calalogue will be available in English and in French.

The Arts Sutton Gallery is located on 7 Academy Street in Sutton and is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.



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Source: Catherine Audet, Gallery Coordinator
450.538.2563 | info@artssutton.com | www.artssutton.com