Sharing perceptions #4
YOUR COMMENTS
Licht ist also Farbe, sagte William Turner, und gab sich gar nicht erst mit Perspektiven und
ähnlichem ab. Wen interessieren schon Strukturen, die genauen Proportionen der Türme von
London. Leben ist nie nach Maß. Leben ist Gefühl. Wenn ihr meine Bilder seht, dann soll der
Dornbusch für euch brennen. Die Augen sollen euch füreinander aufgehen. Ihr sollt eure Herz
glühend wieder fühlen. Ihr sollt euch erinnern an die durchgeliebten Nächte in den Betten von
London. An das Warten auf die Schiffe, die eure Liebsten nach Hause bringen nach Jahren der
einsamen Nächte. Ihr sollte spüren, wie das Herz ganz eng in euch wird und schreit, ich will fort,
fort in die weite Welt, wenn ihr meine Bilder seht. Ihr sollt aufbrechen wollen aus dem Dunst der
Stadt, wenn ihr meine Bilder seht. Ihr sollt die Sehnsucht wieder spüren, in diese Natur zu
gehen. Was nützt euch der haargenau dargestellte Busch? Was nützt euch das Abbild der Welt.
Ihr sollt die Welt in eurem Herzen fühlen und das Herz soll euch füreinander aufgehen, wenn ihr
meine Bilder seht. Ihr sollt wieder weinen können, weil ihr soviel geschwiegen habt und stumpf
durch die Welt gegangen seid. Ihr sollt euch erinnern an das Kind in euch, das jedem Morgen
noch ein Wunder zutraut. Ihr rauen Gesellen, ihr Hirten, ihr sollt wieder am Feuer eurer Träume
sitzen und euch erzählen, was euch glücklich macht, wenn ihr meine unscharfen Bilder seht. Ihr
sollt singen wie die Vögel in der Nacht. Ob das Schiff dort brennt? Wer kann es sagen. Ob es
einfach nur im Abendrot nach Haus gekommen ist, wer will das feststellen und sagen? Wichtig
ist nur, was ihr fühlt. Wichtig ist, dass ihr was fühlt. Häuser, Bäume, Sträucher, Takelagen im eins
zu eins – niemand braucht die Nachzeichnung einer Welt, aber jeder braucht euch mit eurem
Herz. Mit einem Herz, das noch etwas fühlt und einem Verstand, der die Welt begreift als
unfassbar schönes großes Wunder.
YOUR COMMENTS
“Light is color,” said William Turner, and didn’t bother with perspectives or
the like. Who cares about structures, the exact proportions of the towers of
London? Life is never by the book. Life is feeling. When you see my paintings, may the
burning bush blaze for you. May your eyes open to one another. You should feel your hearts
glow again. You should remember the nights spent in love in the beds of
London. Waiting for the ships that bring your loved ones home after years of
lonely nights. You should feel your heart tighten within you and cry out, “I want to go,
away into the wide world,” when you see my paintings. You should want to break free from the haze of the
city when you see my paintings. You should feel the longing again to go out into this nature.
What good is the meticulously painted bush to you? What good is the depiction of the world to you?
You should feel the world in your hearts, and your hearts should open to one another when yousee my pictures. You should be able to cry again, because you have been silent for so long and have walked
through the world with numb hearts. You should remember the child within you, who still believes
in a miracle every morning. You rough fellows, you shepherds, you should sit by the fire of your dreams again
and tell each other what makes you happy when you see my blurry pictures. You
should sing like the birds at night. Is that ship burning over there? Who can say. Has it
simply come home in the evening glow—who wants to determine and say? What matters
is only what you feel. What matters is that you feel something. Houses, trees, bushes, rigging in
exact detail—no one needs a replica of the world, but everyone needs you with your
heart. With a heart that still feels something and a mind that understands the world as
an incomprehensibly beautiful, great miracle.
YOUR COMMENTS
Ich sehe ein brennendes Piratenschiff.
I see a burning pirate ship.
YOUR COMMENTS
Ein großes Piratenschiff auf stürmischer See. Mystisch & wunderschön spannend zugleich.
A large pirate ship on stormy seas. Mystical and beautifully exciting at the same time.
YOUR COMMENTS
Ich sehe auf dem Bild eine Windmühle, die sich im Sonnenuntergang dreht.
In the picture, I see a windmill turning in the sunset.
YOUR COMMENTS
Eine große beeindruckende Kathedrale bei dichtem Nebel fotografiert und auf Insta gepostet.
A large, impressive cathedral photographed in thick fog and posted on Instagram.
YOUR COMMENTS
Auf den ersten Blick erinnert mich das Bild an einen Flügel, man könnte Federkiele und Federn erahnen. Von der Farbgebung her ist es wie ein Feuer mit Holzscheiten und der weißen Unschärfe von Rauch oder aber auch einer Pusteblume. Ich tendiere dazu, dies Bild senkrecht zu stellen, das Schwarze zu unterst.
At first glance, the image reminds me of a wing; you can almost make out quills and feathers. In terms of color, it resembles a fire with logs and the white haze of smoke, or perhaps a dandelion. I tend to place this image vertically, with the black at the bottom.
YOUR COMMENTS
The trees we used to play under. Witches hauting the skies above. So sometimes it is better to turn the grounds upside down.
YOUR COMMENTS
It really makes me think of the Turner Painting The Fighting Temeraire. The 'ship' feels like it's on fire!
I find it fascinating that, although it's an abstract, it immediately made me think of a painting I know. I love the contrast of the dark and the gold.
I look at it and I sense the sound and smell of fire and smoke. I can hear the sound of the fire hitting water.
I immediately thought of the Turner pic and once that was in my head that's all I could think about.
Source: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fighting-temeraire
YOUR COMMENTS
The first thought I had was of the Burning Man Festival.
When I rotate it I see fire and my immediate thought is the great fire of London because it looks like Tower Bridge to the right. It looks to me like smoke and fire in a city...possibly the City of London but it also makes me think of the arches on the Golden Gate Bridge.
There seems to be a lot of chaos going on from the black to the elements of white. When it's in profile with the black at the bottom there seems to be something desperate and ferocious about it.
Heat, wind, sound of crackling like a firestorm. A roar of flame. Taste - charcoal, smell - roast pork cause burning human bodies smell like roast pork! (Sorry!)
One picture that comes to mind, when looking at it in portrait, there is something about the top that looks like an open mouth. And it's horrified. Without sounding horribly pretentious it does remind me of Ilya Repin's Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan.
Greatly impacting, hellish, there is something other wordly...no...not other wordly..our world. Set ablaze, burning and the image was screaming.
Picture source:
Ilya Repin, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsTretyakov Gallery, Moskow
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iv%C3%A1n_el_Terrible_y_su_hijo,_por_Ili%C3%A1_Repin.jpg
YOUR COMMENTS
When I look at this, I see both the construction and the undoing of a building — as though every moment in its lifetime has folded into one. Time gathers here, suspended. The air hums with motion and memory; I can almost see the clock hands spinning as the structure drifts through its own becoming and unravelling.
Changing the orientation is fascinating. Turned one way, I see a stately home on fire...as if I’m standing at the edge of a field, watching it from afar. Upside down, the same building reappears, but now its construction and undoing shimmer as a reflection in water. Turn it again, and a field burns, fierce and fleeting.
I think I like my timeless building best...caught between becoming and disappearing.
What draws me in most is the feeling of a life caught in a moment...a whole existence paused mid-beat. It’s as if time itself hesitated, allowing us a glimpse of something usually unseen: the quiet pulse between becoming and vanishing.
It would sound like wind moving through an empty house, each room holding a different note of memory. The air would taste metallic, like dust and smoke. The scent? Old timber, wet soil, time itself breathing.
Other pictures come to mind...the swirling skies and luminous turbulence of Turner, where light seems to dissolve the world into pure emotion. There’s that same sense of atmosphere here, of something vast and elemental moving through the scene. I also catch glimpses of ruins half-lost to mist, like Claude’s fading temples or even the ghost of a city remembered through smoke. It feels both historical and dreamlike.
The very first thing I felt was a sense of time folding in on itself — a structure both emerging and dissolving, history and possibility sharing the same heartbeat.YOUR COMMENTS
I find the light and dark most interesting.
First thing I thought of was my Gothic Alma Mater, Glasgow University and University Avenue in the winter.YOUR COMMENTS
Windmill on a stormy day.
In portait I see a grey sky, rainy. Very dark foreground. In Landscape I see a figure lying doen, arms raised up, mouth open. I prefer the portait.
It changes from solid object to figure when turned.
I hear wind and the swish of blades rotating.
It makes me think of a landscape in Holland.YOUR COMMENTS
I see a sailing ship in the middle of a battle, about to fall. The sails are on fire, with one mast fallen to the side, it's sails engulfed in flames. Charred wooden masts and struts appear through smoke. The ship is still majestic in it's destruction, and still holds on, despite it's impending doom.
However, with a rotation to the right, in landscape, the image changes to resemble a stately mansion, or castle illuminated by the last rays of the evening sunset, just before darkness descends. The dark third of the image suggests dense woodland. Oddly, a left rotation offers a similar impression. I say oddly, because I didn't expect that.
I prefer the 'portrait' orientation with the light at the top and the dark at the bottom. Somehow it gives me a more exciting narrative.
I love the play of light and shade in the image. The darks really create a delicious contrast that emphasises the light and particularly the golds. The dark areas make me want to look deeper into them, to see what is hidden within.
The image draws me into the picture, my eye following round and coming back to where I started, seeing more as I look and firing my imagination. I imagine the smell of wood smoke, and burnt cloth, the sound of cracking as the wood burns, the roar of an inferno as the wind fans the flames, and the smell of damp wood as planks fall into the sea, with a hiss, adding steam to the smoke.
The image made me think of Turner's two paintings - 'The Slave Ship' and 'The Fighting Temeraine'. The colours and atmosphere, to me, are similar.
My first thought when I looked at the photograph was 'Wow, that's spectacular!'.YOUR COMMENTS
I thought of tall ships.
When I turn it I am looking out a window and I can see flames with a river in front it. When it's in portait, it's quite scary cause it's night time and there is this tall ship going into the night and I can see it there against the dark sea. It's quite interesting but also a bit scary.
The sounds would be wind in the sails and the taste would be salt and in landscape form it would be burning buildings and fire.
It's hard to get the vision of a gallion out of this picture. A ship in the night. And there is a very strong sunset because the sea is so dark but there is the sunset higlight on the sails. The big tall sails and the smaller sail at the front. It's quite moving...and there is a lot of movement in it. There is a lot of darkness with the light.
I don't like the idea of going out at sea in the dark with no land around. Beautiful picture thought.YOUR COMMENTS
I see a historical event from way back.
Ruined fields.
Person like a straw man and starvation. I think about the devastation of war/mankind.
Landscape - Castle being rescued by an angel, long golden hair on left hand side.
I prefer the portrait.
I see two aspects - war/devastation and peace/angel.
It makes me think of burning smell - wood.
Landscape - Happiness (angel)
What comes to mind is war - Gaza. And then a Spirit over the world.
I saw a straw man standing upright in the wreck of a tree. (Portrait). I saw the rescue of castle occupants. (Landscape)YOUR COMMENTS
Der Turmbau zu Babel.
The Tower of Babel.
YOUR COMMENTS
It looks like a sailing ship heading for harbour. The sun is coming up but there is a storm brewing.
Both landscape and portrait are interesting. Landscape looks like the Houses of Parliament in fog.
There is movement in the image, implied by the ship.
Sounds would depend on orientation but sounds of the sea and gulls would work with portrait. Shouts and river sounds with landscape. Taste - salty or chips! Smell - sea (brine) or city smells - traffic, fast food. Very interesting image.
Fighting Temeraine by Turner. Houses of Parliament by Monet.
I liked it. It is something you can find your own meaning in.YOUR COMMENTS
Die Wasa. Das gesunkene, schwedische Kriegsschiff.
The Wasa. The sunken Swedish warship.
YOUR COMMENTS
Turner! Can you see it? It is a close-up to Burial at Sea by Turner. :-)
By J. M. W. Turner - picture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74288464YOUR COMMENTS
Odysseus tied to the mast as they passed the sirens
YOUR COMMENTS
That reminds me of a shed we once built. It was a structure made of beams, and you couldn't be sure it wouldn't collapse at any moment. In the right upper corner I can see the beams starting to collaps…