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You

Trade?






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Curtains nailed in

Winter Produce

Chestnuts from the Tree Written About by Ishikawa Takuboku. Tomatoes from the Slow Tomato Plants. For Pickles. The Slow Basil Drying.

Cat Door to the Outside

Wood from the Produce boxes of the Greengrocery of Mr M.

Hole Courtesy of Ryobi Circular Saw. Drilling brought to you by Hitachi Power Drill. Hitachi. Electric Screwdriver an Earth Man Electric.

In the distance, Hitachi Twin Tub and Generic Red Plastic Snow Shovel. Besser Brick from Homac. Croissants: King Bake, Coffee: SeicoMart. Cigarettes - Caster 3, by Japan Tobacco. I wish to thank my cats for making it all necessary.

The Mayor of Hakodate (2009)

The snow bugs have arrived. Out in force last night. All cats and dogs were sitting up off the floor this morning, chairs couch and tables all filled. Time to put up curtains and push pieces of rolled-up felt into gaps in the eaves. Pots and garden ornaments into the shed. Green tomatoes into chutney. Busy times. People who live in cold climates have to change their entire households and gardens for winter. Shoes with grip. Tables with heating elements. Water pipes with layers of insulation and easy shut-down mechanisms. Hoes and rakes for snow shovels.

The Gate. Fence. From the fence of Mrs S. Ornaments from the bookends of Mrs M. Gate from the old hospital of Dr M.

The Shed. From the Fence of Mrs S.



Ceiling. From the fence of Mrs S.

Matsumae

Matsumae 1

During one of the uprisings of Southern Japan, a group of rebels aquired a ship and sailed off to Matsumae. They planned to secede from Japan and make their own Republic on the island that is now Hokkaido: they called it Ezo.

They built a castle there in Matsumae, up on the hill. But the castle was built to defend itself against swords and arrows, not cannons and guns. The Imperial Forces sailed boldly up after them to teach them a lesson, and the rebels were quickly defeated. I guess one could say that it was an early consequence of a failure to upgrade.

Eventually they moved to Hakodate. They were defeated there, too - their mothers' tears rained that year. There is a replica of that castle on the hill at Matsumae. It is built from concrete and glass, instead of paper and rock. I hear it contains a fine collection of seashells. Before this story, though, was an older story. Another story came after it, too.

There is a long and complicated story
behind these paintings,
and their title "Guilty Pleasures".

But my life does not understand this story.
My life is simply following instructions.
I instruct the tailor to make a dress.
I instruct the photographer to photograph the dress.
I instruct a painter to copy the photograph.
I repeat the previous command four times.

My life is a robot.

Life is imperfect.

Guilty Pleasures, by Lehan Ramsay, was shown at the Faculty Gallery, School of Art and Design, Monash University Melbourne Australia from July 13 - 24, 2009, as a component of a PhD in Visual Arts. The PhD was awarded in December 2009.


Doing this started me thinking about the problem of form - how the basic structures within which we catch information determine the information that accumulates, the meanings that those collections take on, and therefore the decisions we make. If in the pursuit of a new goal we do not consider the basic forms, the chances of real change diminish, because we are still likely to be dealing with the same basic information. And given our tendency to create known patterns, we have a greater likelihood of moving toward familiar outcomes, rather than new and unfamiliar ones. Perhaps this is the point where skill becomes form.

Lehan Ramsay, The Reserve, 2009.