imagined-community

I walked past this retail / political display in Nomad’s window the day after Patrick won the primary. Post election day the display seemed especially bright and festive.

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Outdoor sculpture is a wonderful thing. Amazingly, we often take it for granted or just forget that the sculpture looming above us is something special. As I was taking the above photo of a 46 foot sculpture outside the Porter Square T stop in Cambridge, people kept shooting me bemused looks. First they would look at my camera, then up at the sculpture, and then back at me with a “why are you taking a picture of that?” expression on their faces. Porter Square’s giant, red, spinning wind sculpture has become so familiar that it doesn’t even seem like art anymore!

“Gift of the Wind,” which was created in 1983 by the Japanese sculptor Susumu Shingu (b. Japan, 1937), consists of three giant red metal wings that shift with the movement of the wind as the sculpture turns and tumbles in different directions. Shingu is a world-renowned kinetic artist and has designed wind sculptures for cities worldwide. You can find Shingu’s work at two other sites in Boston: the New England Aquarium and Logan International Airport.

If you’re not in Boston you can explore Shingu’s website (in English & Japanese) from his 2000 - 2001 sculpture project “Wind Caravan - Observation of Our Planet “:

An attempt to find out how we can live in harmony with nature and what is true happiness through artistic activities and cultural exchange with local people….Wind activated sculptures by Susumu Shingu will travel around the world in one year and a half, visiting six of the most characteristic natural environments on the Earth.

Are you in Paris? You can see Shingu’s current work at Galerie Jeanne-Bucher. If not, you can do what I do — look at the photos of Shingu’s recent work on artnet.

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Happy Citizenship and Constitution Day! You know, that holiday when United Statians reflect on their rights and responsibilities as U.S. citizens? And while you’re at it, you might also take a few moments to think on your role as a global citizen. Back during the Cold War, when many thought that the United States and Russia would soon be going up in big bang of nuclear fire & ash, President Kennedy struggled to find a path of co-existence at a time when open warfare was tantamount to annihilation — a co-existence that linked U.S. citizenship with global citizenship. On Friday, January 20, 1961, Kennedy said:

So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms—and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah—to “undo the heavy burdens … and to let the oppressed go free.”

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

To my mind the cost of war is always too great, and hence war should only be undertaken in desperate circumstances — not because war is the easiest, quickest solution to a problem, but because there is no other way. This week’s video goes out to Lebanon. The song is “Lebnan fil Alb,” sung by the Egyptian singer Sherine and is dedicated to the victims of the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Today is also Global Day for Darfur, you can read more about the worldwide rallies here and view pictures of the rallies in the U.S. at the BBC.

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