A History Of Reading

A History Of Reading as a Contemplative Practice

The paintings and drawings are a visual-poetry that results from long sessions of mark-making and of repetitive reading aloud and of mindfulness walking outside-- working methods for deep encounters with texts that are borrowed from the traditions of contemplative practice in eastern and western religions. They are abstract maps of places and portraits of writers that I intend as objects for inviting viewers into engaging in their own active meditation. For the photographs, I  am using sheets of slow-speed negative film and Litho copy film as bookmarks. Each touch-photograph represents my performance of reading the book, recording my hands and fingers in their passages over and through the pages, as well as detritus and germs from my travels on public transportation, in coffee houses and bars, and at friends’ apartments. In the final images, the tactile and visual experiences of my reading of the books become mixtures of light and personal touch on the surface of the sheets of film, also picking up dust, fluids and scratches. A limited number of large prints are made from each resulting negative image.