Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Gates / Patience and Action















"I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country - where you could breathe it and smell it every day.  And I've always worked with it in one form or another.  Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow.  They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow.  They can shut you out or shut you in.  And in some ways there is no difference." (Bob Dylan)

"Patience is also a form of action" (Auguste Rodin, sculptor, 1840-1917)


My photo of "Gates of Hell," by
Auguste Rodin, from September 1982 
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:



















7 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

Cold Irons Bound… Gates of Eden...

am said...

Gate won't close, railing's froze ...

The Solitary Walker said...

You left me standing in the doorway crying...

am said...

Will you be going to London to see the gates in person? I'm hoping he'll show some of them in California in the future, as I'm not likely to get to London (-:

Take a look here, too:

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs

... My dreams are made of iron and steel
With a big bouquet
Of roses hanging down
From the heavens to the ground ....

And here:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-inscription-over-the-gate-n03352

... Behold the gates of mercy
In arbitrary space
And none of us deserving
Of cruelty or the grace ...
(Leonard Cohen)

Now I'm alerted to gates and doors everywhere. The funny thing is that even if Bob Dylan had never written a single song, he might have gotten my attention with these gates because they remind me so much of the mobiles that my Richard used to create out of pieces of rusted iron that he found along the California coast south of San Francisco. Richard would have loved Bob Dylan's welded gates and shelves and shelves of rusted iron. Bob Dylan's got my attention again in a way I never could have imagined.

I'm impressed, too, with John Shearer, the photographer of the recent images of Bob Dylan as welder.

The Solitary Walker said...

We most certainly will be going… and, if by any chance you can get to the UK between now and the end of January, we would be delighted to accompany you to the exhibition.

I, too, am impressed by John Shearer's photographs.

'Bob Dylan's got my attention again in a way I never could have imagined.' Indeed! He never fails to surprise and delight us, and shock us into new ways of thinking.

The Solitary Walker said...

PS And gates, doors etc. are such resonant symbols, aren't they? A whole book could be written about this, about entrances/exits, prison/freedom, thresholds of experience, liminal places…

You can step back from the threshold, or you can go in. Or you can hover on the step for life. And sometimes you can return through the door, or a different door. And sometimes you cannot.

am said...

I'll be there in spirit when you and Carmen go to London to see the gates. Will certainly look forward to the blog post that follows your visit!