Articoli di riviste sul tema "Turkish Figurative art"

The article examines the essence and content of folk decorative crafts in the system of art education, which is implemented in the country on the basis of such programs as “Cultural Heritage”, “Spiritual Revival”, “Seven Facets of the Great Steppe”. The manifestations of centuries-old Turkic culture in Kazakh decorative crafts are considered in detail, its character in the theories of Turkic ethnoculture is analyzed from historical, spiritual, artistic points of view. On the basis of the Turkic knowledge, the stylistic, symbolic and figurative features of some handicrafts, especially headdresses, such as saukele, takiya, and the use of ornaments in them, characterizing the features of the Turkic ethnoculture, are analyzed. The similarities of folk crafts of the Kazakh and other Turkic peoples in the Turkic ethnoculture are shown, as well as evidence that the development of folk crafts is in close connection with the worldview, beliefs, way of life, economy of the peoples. National ornaments, symbolic images, motifs in the crafts of the Turkic peoples are compared, their semantic features are described as signs of the Turkic ethnoculture. The special place of Kazakh crafts in the Turkic ethnoculture as a direct successor of nomadic traditions on the land of the Great Steppe is determined, historical, ethnographic and artistic scientific explanations are given to them.

In the 1970s, Turkey's artistic milieu was mostly influenced by socialist realistic painters who demonstrated political criticism with a figurative understanding. The oppression that came with the coup d'état of September 12, 1980 aimed at a depoliticized society, and artists were then politically diverted to implicit and indirect ways. While direct intervention from the military or the civil government under its control rarely came, the artists and art institutions have even ended some kind of auto censorship. In a demoralized and depoliticized cultural environment, the works that embodied the 'social ghost' have both raised emotional and reactive objections and ironically created a sense of guilt in the audience. Being a spectator meant to be a victim, a judge, a witness, or maybe -in fact- all of these at once. The artist imagination reproducing the notions of authority and power in silenced societies has made conspicuous human rights violations, tortures, and executions through works of art. Artists, who counted art as a vehicle to change the world, have provided a deep dimension in art environment with a wide variety of knowledge and skills right along with new techniques and materials. In this work, there shall be many examples of artists and works of art that combine 'art politics' and 'political art' as a single thing, which goes beyond traditional approaches to art and politics in the intense and subversive political atmosphere of the 1980s in Turkey.

This article is devoted to the use of the term "Besutun" in the works of Alisher Navoi. Throughout his life, the poet collects historical events, monuments associated with Mazi, and folk legends. He remakes them and uses them effectively in his lyric poems and epics. Navoi used every word in his work. This is evident from the use of words and terms in his works. One of these words is Besutun. The term is used by the Turkish and Farsi poet Devoni Foniy, Hazoin ul-Maoniy, to describe vivid images. In short, the poet uses this term in his own and figurative sense to create beautiful metaphors that play an important role in expressing the feelings of the creator in the spirit world. This term is used to describe elegant and unique examples of the word art.

Among the literati and scientists, the view is found that classical Turkish poetry prefers a separate literary expression, where literature when removed from society, reality, and sociality is at a certain level indifferent to the issues of society. Being involved with life will lead a poet to the reality of society and humanity, and the relevant art must have knowledge about signifiers to be noticed by the poet’s addressee. Metaphorical structures will increase the meaning of a text while evaluating literary texts. This article has come across depictions of war in their literal and figurative meanings in classical Turkish poetry and draws attention herein to the ethnosymbolist approach. The focus of Turkish classical poetry appears to be determinable as the metaphor of war. Based on this, metaphors in classical literature such as the image of a lover’s gaze as an arrow or her hair as a bow string are not meaningless. The flamboyant elements that a nation has stated have emerged in literature in its own language. The poets imply that the army is not in war for fighting but to clean the blood of the enemy with cupping or to shave their hair for free. For the poet, war is the natural healing that saves the corrupted world, and based on this idea, war is based on eliminating and correcting evil. This article will examine the couplets about war in the Divan of the Bosnian Alaaddin Sâbit, a 17th-century poet, in terms of embellishment and concretization.

Among the literati and scientists, the view is found that classical Turkish poetry prefers a separate literary expression, where literature when removed from society, reality, and sociality is at a certain level indifferent to the issues of society. Being involved with life will lead a poet to the reality of society and humanity, and the relevant art must have knowledge about signifiers to be noticed by the poet’s addressee. Metaphorical structures will increase the meaning of a text while evaluating literary texts. This article has come across depictions of war in their literal and figurative meanings in classical Turkish poetry and draws attention herein to the ethnosymbolist approach. The focus of Turkish classical poetry appears to be determinable as the metaphor of war. Based on this, metaphors in classical literature such as the image of a lover’s gaze as an arrow or her hair as a bow string are not meaningless. The flamboyant elements that a nation has stated have emerged in literature in its own language. The poets imply that the army is not in war for fighting but to clean the blood of the enemy with cupping or to shave their hair for free. For the poet, war is the natural healing that saves the corrupted world, and based on this idea, war is based on eliminating and correcting evil. This article will examine the couplets about war in the Divan of the Bosnian Alaaddin Sâbit, a 17th-century poet, in terms of embellishment and concretization

The paper deals with comparison constructions of the Turkish language on the base of works of fiction of Turkish writers of the 20th century. Reflecting figurative (simile) and non-figurative (correlation between qualitative and quantitative characteristics of two objects) collation of two or more objects comparisons in the Turkish language are examined from the lexico-semantic point of view and though their syntactic role in the sentence. Comparison remains a relevant and interesting topic of research despite the large number of works. It is a mean, a way of investigation and knowing of reality when unknown object is collated with the well-known one. Comparison may be represented as an act and a result at once. As the act of knowing reality comparison, represents such stages of exploration of the real world as identification of an object, its correlation with already known categories and groups of objects, definition of common features and juxtaposition of their intensity for further classification of the object explored. While resembling the result of act of cognition comparison demonstrates the degree of manifestation of a particular feature on a scale from complete identity to absolute difference. As an act of logical operation comparison consists of four elements, having different nominations in research works, they resemble object that is compared, object to which something is compared with, ground of comparison (some common feature for both objects) and result of comparison that describes identity, resemblance or distinctions between objects. Since logical operations of world’s investigation find reflection in language as a linguistic category comparison also has four elements in its structure. According to the lexico-semantic group of object and subject of comparison, Turkish comparisons may be divided on such groups as human-human, human-animal, nature-human. Comparisons are mostly used to express nature, human’s appearance or character, size of items, to make some estimation, to describe the way something is happening like or to resemble someone’s condition. Turkish works of fiction use both figurative comparison (simile) and non-figurative comparison. The syntactic role of comparison in a sentence depends on which member of the sentence the comparative part of the comparative construction belongs to. Mostly, comparisons act as attribute or adverbial modifier of manner, but also may act as predicate or grammatical object.

We study the correlations between figurative-characterizing verbs in Turkic languages of Siberia (Altai, Khakas) and Kipchak languages (Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Bashkir). In these languages, we distinguish a small ancient group of figurative stems common for all Turkic, and sometimes also Mongolian and Tungusic languages. In the Altai and Khakass languages, there are commonalities and differences in the formation of complex words from figurative bases both between these languages themselves and with Kipchak. One common trait of these languages is the simultaneous formation of figurative-characterizing verbs and their Aktionsart meaning defined by an auxiliary verb (in analytic word formation) or certain affixes: =y characterizes a state while =ŋda ~ =ŋna ~ =ŋnaa denotes an evenly distributed meaning of action. The =(а)y affix is also found in the Mongolian language while =ŋda ~ =ŋna ~ =ŋnaa is typical for the Siberian and Kipchak languages. The difference in the formation of complex verbs with figurative-characterizing meaning lies in the usage of different verb components: Alt. et= ‘to do’; Khak. tüs= ‘to go down’, pol= ‘to be’, it= ‘to do’ (rarely); Kyrg., Kaz. et= ‘to do’, ber= ‘to take’, qaq= ‘to knock’, etc. The analysis of correlations has shown their small number among complex words and greater number among synthetic words, with a high number of Mongolian loanwords common for Siberian and Kipchak languages. In figurative-characterizing verbs, most correlations found in Siberian languages (without those in Kipchak) are derived from all-Turkic stems. No Altai-Kipchak correlations without their presence in the Khakass language were found, while there are a few correlations with Kyrgyz language. Also, no Khakas-Kipchak correlations were detected.

Abstract Ceramics is one of the most important materials that carry the traces of past. Kitchenware, architectural elements and religious forms that are made of ceramics carry the important traces of cultures, which they belong to. In this context, the art of ceramics is a field where symbolic statements exist as a mean of expression and it establishes an organic correlation between past and present. One of the most important of these forms that belongs to this expression is the ‘tree of life’. The form of the tree of life differs stylistically and figuratively from culture to culture and it has great expressional richness. In this study, which was supported by Anadolu University as a scientific research project, the pattern of Metepec, which is the centre of ceramics in Mexico and still continues to produce pottery, and of Turkish art of ceramics were analysed and compared historically, stylistically and technically.

This article presents the results of the study of the genetic cultural code, reflecting the spiritual values of the people on the example of the traditional dance-plastic art of the Ka- zakhs. As a research method, the author uses a semiotic analysis of movements and pos- tures of traditional Kazakh dance, which is part of the Turkic culture. The article provides definitions and functions of such terms as «art», «figurative language in art», «arche- type», «semantics», «semiotics». It also gives an analysis of the art of dance as a semiotic system, based on the fact that the language of dance, expressed by body movements, is non-verbal, containing signs and symbols that reflect, among other things, the subcon- scious thoughts and feelings of the dancer. The author, based on the symbols of sacred geometry and sign language, compares Kazakh national patterns and movements of Kazakh dance with similar names with the interpretation of the meaning of symbolic forms reflecting the cultural code of the people. In comparison, the author relies on the fact that the basis of the Kazakh ornament is made up of signs-symbols, for the development of which the folk masters are the source of the phenomena and objects of the surrounding world. As a result, elements of Kazakh dance are identified, which are common not only for the eastern peoples but also for the dances of the peoples of the Middle East and Egypt, which is indirect evidence of the common roots of the above cultures. The conclusions are partially confirmed by research works in the DNA genealogy of mankind, as well as by the works of a number of Türkologists

Language is an invaluable treasure of the people, an indicator of national character, national wealth, the history of its customs, traditions, worldview. When we take into account the spiritual values and cultural treasures of our nation, its golden source begins with the art of speech. The eloquent reflections of the ancestors, which reconcile the endless dispute with one word, poems and epics that bring the life of each period to our eyes, become the treasures of the sea of today's generation. Perhaps one of the most important branches of this are proverbs and sayings, which have passed from mouth to mouth and accumulated over the centuries. It is clear that the system of spiritual and cultural values of the Turkic peoples as a whole is a holistic phenomenon, which is continuously connected with the worldview, history, life experience of the Turkic peoples of their ancestors. Proverbs, being an integral part of the language, reflect the culture, originality, worldview, basic values of this people. Therefore, the study of proverbs helps to understand the national characteristics of a particular population. Proverbs are a good material for getting acquainted with the peculiarities of the national character, because they have preserved the image, the imprint of the originality of the people. The study of proverbs in any language can contribute to understanding the mentality and national character of a person who speaks that language. The article analyzes the place of proverbs and sayings in the reflection of the character, national identity and identity of the people by specific examples. This article will help young readers and their parents, as well as everyone who loves the native Kazakh language, replenish their knowledge, enrich and revive their speech with figurative, concise, concrete words.

The article is devoted to identifying the origins and regional features of the technology of high-relief coinage in the Kazan-Tatar jewelry tradition. The main source was the electronic database of Tatar jewelry from museum collections, collected within the framework of the academic project “Jewelry of the Turkic peoples of Eurasia: general and special” (Russian Foundation for Basic Research 2013–2014, No. 13-06-97056). The research was based on a systematic technical and stylistic analysis of traditional jewelry and a detailed synchronous-diachronic examination of Bulgar-Golden Horde and Tatar products with three-dimensional images. Reconstruction of technological techniques related to this type of artistic metal processing made it possible to identify specific features of the formation of decor. The manual method of obtaining a unique relief using punches with a figured striker predominated. The decorations are characterized by the following: two or three-level bas-relief, the absence of a “locking” profile, the principle of “compositing” that underlies the conventionally interpreted floral and plant motifs, geometric orderliness, subject to the laws of the central-radial composition. The completed form of the decoration corresponds to the typical features of “notch chasing”, which is a marker of the Tatar craft tradition: smooth relief and “grain” background. An integrated approach allowed us to conclude that the origins of the existing artistic and figurative system can be traced in artifacts of the Bulgarian and Golden Horde silver of the 11th–14th centuries, made by embossing, stamping, and punching on a matrix. The formation of technological features was influenced by the traditions of high-relief coinage, which received regional development among Kazan silversmiths in the 17th–18th centuries. The specifics of Tatar relief coinage as a whole were formed in the context of Islamic art.

The object of the analysis is the word pearl in the Russian language. The subject of the study is to consider the functioning of this lexeme in Russian poetry. The analysis uses descriptive, comparative, and stylistic methods. The word pearl was borrowed by the Russian language from Chinese through the Turkic mediation in the 12th century. The Chinese word 珍珠 [zhēnzhū] con-sists of two syllable morphemes 珍 ‘rare, expensive, valuable’ and 珠 ‘glob, bead’. We examine the appearance history of this lexeme in the Russian language, reveal the original and figurative meanings of the word and its word-forming and combinative activity. Lexeme pearl is entered the active vocabulary of the Russian language, became widely used in the speech of Russian people, acquired a large number of derivatives and stable phrases with them. We analyze the functioning of the word pearl, the lexemes formed from it, and the stable phrases containing these units in Russian poetry. Pearls have become a favorite means of expressing ideas about beauty, value, love, and emotions among Russian poets. The word pearl, its derivatives and phrases with it are found in the works of most Russian poets, they are noted in the poems of A.S. Pushkin, M.Y. Lermontov, M.I. Tsvetaeva, V.Y. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont and many others. We found that in the works of poets of the 18–19th centuries, the word pearl is regularly found in the singular with an oxytonic accent, and in the twentieth century, the accentuation becomes penultimative, transferred one syllable forward. The perspective of this research is to study the use of the pearl token in translations into Russian of works by foreign authors, including Chinese ones.

Eastern (including Kazakh-Turkic) philosophy differs from classical Western philosophy in that it does not make a major distinction between the universals of culture and philosophy. For Kazakh traditional society, philosophizing is characteristic of a non-abstract, extremely generalized, figuratively complete form of reflection. For the most part, philosophical categories and concepts are reflected and enshrined in artistic and religious texts. Therefore, the study of Kazakh philosophers should be conducted in a broader socio-cultural context. A holistic conceptual understanding of the worldview universals of a nomadic civilization is one of the most urgent tasks of modern Kazakh philosophy. To accomplish this task, we have at our disposal a huge amount of material from the monuments of the Orkhon-Yenisei runic writings, to priceless samples of oral folk art in the form of folk legends, heroic epics, proverbs, and sayings, the poetical and musical heritage of the zhyrau-akyns, etc. Traditional Kazakh culture is the quintessence and reflection of a special nomadic type of economy. Nomadic civilization is an example of a favorable coexistence between nature and man. An eco-friendly lifestyle was a reflection of the internal attitude towards maintaining harmony between man and nature. At the same time, the Kazakhs managed to create a special socionormative culture based on deep spiritual traditions that widely regulated social relations. The genus origin was the fundamental principle of the individual's self-identification and linked him by inseparable blood ties with the community and the territory of residence as a continuation of his social and natural existence. A nomadic collective was a hierarchically designed social organism, where human life was strictly regulated. Every action in everyday life had not only practical, but also spiritual meaning, value. Sacralization of actions took place through the ritual. Almost every single thing in everyday life was endowed with symbolic meaning. Having mastered the methods, principles and categorical apparatus of Western philosophy, modern Kazakh philosophy has become capable of deeply analyzing and actualizing the past examples of the spiritual culture of the Kazakh people. At the same time, it opens itself up to other cultures and thus new opportunities for intercivilizational dialogue appear.

The purpose of the article is to determine the origin of the color term kөk / kӧk in the Kazakh and Altaic languages, to trace the development of these tokens in Turkic languages and cultures, and to identify their specific usage. The research was conducted on the basis of the dictionaries of the Kazakh and Altaic languages as well as the samples from Kazakh and Altaic prose. A historical comparative and descriptive methods have been used. The study highlighted the main meanings of the color designations kөk ~ kök in the Kazakh and Altaic languages: blue, green and grey. They are equally common in the Kazakh and Altaic languages. Based on the meaning ‘green’ developed the meaning ‘unripe’. As for the meaning ‘gray-haired’, in the Altaic language it is used to indicate the color of the hair, while in the Kazakh language – only a beard and mustaches. In general, this meaning is manifested in contexts related to age: in the Altaic language it is old age, in Kazakh – mature age. Further the article describes synonyms of color designation kөk ~ kök. It has been shown that the color synonyms kөgіldіr, zеngіr (‘blue’) are used only in the Kazakh language, in Altaic kӧk means both blue colors. In the Kazakh language comparison of the color with such natural objects as the sky, ice, and salt was found to be more developed, for example: aspan (dai) kөk (lit.: like blue sky). The paper presents an interesting function of color designation kөk / kӧk which is intensification. It is observed in both languages; with the help of these tokens negative characteristics of the object are enhanced, for example: kaz. kөk zhalkau (lit.: blue lazy – bones), alt. kӧk tenek (lit.: complete fool). More significant differences are manifested in phraseological units, i. e. by further development of semantics in the languages. In the Kazakh language, the lexeme kөk functions as a component in phraseological units, denoting thinness and emaciation of a person, for example: kөk jambas (lit.: blue thigh) 1) very thin; 2) weak from old age, a feeble old man. In the Altaic language, such use of the lexeme kөk has not been noted. In general, we can speak of rich idiomaticity of the color scheme kөk in the Kazakh language in contrast to the Altaic language. There are also differences in the figurative use of these tokens in the structure of phraseological units: in Kazakh, these, as a rule, denote negative values, negative emotions, or associations with height, a cherished dream; in Altaic – they are used as the intensifiers ‘quite, completely”: kӧk ӱlӱsh (completely wet; lit.: blue wet). Comparing the two languages, we came to the conclusion that their greatest specificity is observed in phraseological units, which confirms the ability of phraseological units and fixed word combinations to reflect an ethnic world view and to be true keepers of the culture of the people.

This article discusses the new effects of New Image Painters, of the pluralist environment of the 1970s, in the context of postmodernism and explores the formal and conceptual situations in their art during these dates, when the change in the spirit of the time is clearly felt. New image painters that are not frequently encountered in Turkish literature, came to the fore with their exhibition in 1978. In this article, the reflections of these artists, who are in a kind of transition period, on their works, which cannot completely break away from the modern but also carry traces of the postmodern, are examined. Since the 1960s, there has been an increase in conceptual-based approaches to art, and with the disfavor shown to figurative painting and narration, the idea of art as a commodity that can be exhibited, sold, and bought has been also interrupted. By the 1970s, this situation had started to change and with the arrival of the 1980s, figurative painting and narration had come back. The defining character of the 1970s was pluralism, a term translated in Turkish as “çoğulculuk” in its sociological sense and as “çokçuluk” in its philosophical sense. Many writers and thinkers described the pluralistic structure of the 1970s era as ‘postmodern’. These artists, who approach the figure with an abstractionist, reductionist understanding rather than realism, and who do not deny the aesthetics of caricature, also pointed out the differences in the approach to the 'new', the ground shifts in the transition from the 70s to the 80s, as they did not see the 'bad' as an inferior form in art and started to move away from the idea of 'successfully completed works'. It can be said that the new imagers also herald the exhaustion of the 'master artist’ and 'genius' narrative.

There are two hundred and thirteen fountains belonging to the Turkish period in Uşak. Floral, geometric, figurative, architectural depictions and motifs containing various objects were generally preferred as decoration elements in Uşak fountains. It has been observed that figurative decoration, which is used less than other ornament types in Islamic art, is not preferred in Uşak fountains. The decorations are given in bas relief or scraping technique. The animal-style figures used in the fountains in the city are the animal figures that we can see in nature such as lion, deer, snake, fish and bird. Apart from these figures, humans are also depicted in only one fountain. Aslanlı Çeşme in Hacım Village is the only example among the fountains of Uşak where the lion-bull motif is used in the decoration programme. In our study, it is aimed to compare the lion-bull motif in Uşak with similar examples in Anatolia, despite the limited numbers. The fact that the widespread belief that the water flowing in the lion’s mouth is healing and that the drinker will find healing and strength, which has been seen since ancient times, comes to life in Aslanlı Çeşme, and the meaning attributed to the lion in different cultures and geographies is seen in this village of Anatolia, shows the parallels of an intercultural belief system.

Whatever a work of art may be, the artist certainly cannot dare to be simple. (Rebecca West) Van Gogh's Sunflowers is [not] considered worthy of inclusion in a new selection of the world's finest art. The compilers of the Folio Society's lavish and expensive Book of the 100 Greatest Paintings believe that some works are so overexposed and have been reproduced so often that they can no longer be viewed with a fresh eye. The Independent, 24.8.2001. Sometimes the day just falls down on you. One day they'll measure the weight of a day. One day science will be able to measure the density of 24 hours. And then I can claim the burden of getting through a day as part of my fitness programme. She imagined filling in her exercise diary. Lifted three fallen days from shoulders. Pumped up biceps, triceps, amassed muscle gain in legs. Strengthened heart tissue. Deepened lung capacity. She shouldn't joke about it. But of course she did. Sometimes it was how she coped. She'd tried not joking, joking, paying attention, ignoring, running away from, facing head on, talking, not talking, sharing, selfishly selflessly, hopefully hopelessly, alone and in company. Of course some methods of dealing with it were more fun than others. She used to have sex a lot when she felt most depressed. What she'd liked most about the sex was the feeling of being what she called underneath, somewhere darker, more primal. Crawling around on the inside of things. That was how she eventually looked at it. As if it was a special sort of art she had created, woven through the threads of her brain cells and tendrils of her nerve endings. Sometimes profoundly scary, sometimes just a cheap thrill. Why can't you just be happy? she'd heard people ask. People who cared and those who didn't particularly. As if she had willed it upon herself and could just as easily will herself out of it. I choose. Or I do not choose, she might say. Either way it remains because I have understood it ultimately is not a matter of choice. I will be happy when happiness comes around again. Just the same as the sunshine comes out after the rain clouds disappear. It is a cycle and I am part of its nature. And I haven't yet learnt to control the weather. Of course shamans could do it. Certain sorts of yogis. Witches. Tap into energy flows and seismic quivers. Even then it was not a matter of controlling shifts in temperature but rather surrendering to it. Making them not just observers of natural phenomena. But participants. Adding their own energy to the natural energy. Bringing about change through focus and attention rather than resistance and will. It would be hard to stay that sensitive in the city. Too hard with all the relentless metal, the swabs of smoke and smog blinding the eyes, the clang and grrrs of the smashing traffic, all the urban thoughts circling your brain like gangs out for some kicks. She made herself scarce when the days fell like this one. Right on top of her like a mountain of collapsing ash. Even though the others had what always seemed a grudging respect for it. As if she limped. Or was blind in one eye. They sensed its genetic implications. And almost admired the way she wore it like a piece of dark, sombre clothing. Instead of letting it wear her. Still These dark days. These black moods. Like a monstrous pet She had to walk Endlessly through the city streets Until it had walked off Its rage. She closed her eyes. Somewhere in the distance she could faintly detect the scent of a certain sort of coffee, which she craved. She opened her eyes and headed up King St, peering into cafes as she passed, twitching her nostrils like a sniffer dog, nosing out the secret stash of illicit nectar that would, of course, be the momentary answer to all her problems. She walked past Café Bleu. Too stark, too gloomy. Past El Bache. Too fluorescent, too sugary. Straight past CITRUS. Too friendly, too trendy. Criss-crossed King St to Macro Whole Foods. Too positive, too pure. Back over the other side to the Marleborough Hotel. Oh no, too desperate before midday. Turned left, walked down past the hospital, briefly thought about their cafeteria. But no, way too hopeless and pessimistic. Back onto City Road, past the Uni. Way too cool and know it all. Across Broadway, past IKU. Same problem as Macro, and almost up to Badde Manors. Eek! Way, way too hip. She got herself back down almost to Paramatta Road and stopped. She briefly wondered whether she should go back to Essential Energies and see the Clairvoyant. But she was sick at the idea of handing over forty bucks for someone to tell her that everything, even depression, eventually had to pass. She may as well go up to a complete stranger on the street and ask them: Tell me what to do, please tell me what to do. In certain cultures she was sure this would work. Older, more spiritual ethnicities, which had long ago given up the idea that human beings could control everything that happened in life. They'd even laugh at the concept. They might say something ancient and wise and comforting. Something about death and rebirth and transformation and illness being a sign of health and everything the other way round. But here, pioneer's children, building, growing, planning, committing, grasping, holding on, they'd tell her to pull herself together and get on with it. If you'd just tell me what IT was, maybe I'd be able to get on with it. She might answer them if she was in the mood for a conversation. But of course she wasn't going to accost anyone. Not today. Not in Glebe. Not just down the road from Gleebooks. Too literary, too secure. She bought some Turkish bread from the Lebanese place next door, intending to feed the ducks in City Park, but slipped back inside Essential Energies, with the bread tucked under her arm, just to stand for a few moments near the oil burner. The scents were Orange, Marjoram and Lavender, a soothing combination, the sign said, to calm the troubled mind and open the third eye. Jesus, she thought to herself, suddenly laughing out loud, on days like this I'm lucky if I can keep one good eye open. Let alone two. Without realizing it, she'd been making a racket. Aware of the shop assistant staring disapprovingly at her, she backed out the door, chattering to herself like a madwoman, fleetingly remembering how being in a church always seemed to create the same sense of misadventure as being in a New Age Shop. Too clean, too quiet, too affluent, too aromatic. Back on Paramatta Road she felt like crying. Some days that was all she felt like doing, tears gathering inside her, not like great thunderstorms about to explode, but grey sheets of drizzle with their slow, maddening incessant drip drip drip on the brain. She remembered Emerald Green telling her that depression would be the Super Disease of the Millennium. Sometimes she wondered how she would last that long. If you chart your course through it, you'll mark the map for others, Emerald had told her. Maybe the true pioneers of tomorrow are those with the courage to go out alone into the most forbidding terrain and return intact. It sounded encouraging when Emerald said it, but it never helped when she was standing at crossroads such as these wondering which way to go. Walk down Broadway into Chinatown. Wolf down a Laksa for lunch. Burn her mouth and body back to life. Halfway down Broadway she stopped as she always did, at the Broadway Framers. They'd taken down the Whitely that had been in the window for ages, and replaced it with the usual assortment of famous and popular prints, framed unnecessarily, she'd always thought, in ostentatious gold. Matisse's Blue Nude, Picasso's Harlequin from his Rose period and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. When she was younger and more easily impressed, her post modernist friends had told her painting was dead and that figurative art was bogus. They seemed so sure of everything, she'd never been sure of anything and so she'd been almost ashamed to admit that one of her favourite pictures was Sunflowers. She'd never analyzed why she liked it. If pressed to give an intelligent answer it would have been something along the lines of the visceral textures of the flowers, still so apparently immediate even in the hundreds of flat prints that had crowded the waiting rooms of her life since she was a little girl. It would have had something to do with the extravagance with which the stems were stuffed into the case, the overloaded slightly bedraggled, lushness of nature crammed by the artist into the humble little pot on which he'd scrawled his name. It could have been the energy of the brush strokes, which seem to thrust the flowers towards you with such force, as if Vincent is saying to you personally: LOOK LOOK. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? He was just doing his job, Painter Bob had said, the job that artists do. To make us look at things that mostly we're too distracted, too busy, too depressed to see. The stars in the sky at night. Swirling clouds. The sloping downwards of a face and all the stories which that particular angle tells. She thought of Van Gogh whenever she saw that picture. On his lonely road to pure painting, too crazy, to stubborn to do anything else. Painter Bob had said he'd been a shaman, a channel through which his subjects passed in order to be delivered onto paper so that … we, the rest of the world, us, the rest of history, decade after decade of casual and not so casual observers of art, could see, feel, absorb through the nerve endings in our eyes the essence of what is was, not just to see the sunflowers but to be the sunflowers. Yellow, she thought. And amber. Orange. Bits of gold. They've always made me feel so happy. It couldn't be that simple, she thought. To have the courage to cross the gap that separates the subject from the object. To become the thing which you see. To empathize. To inhabit. To break down the disconnection between matter. Plump, healthy flowers, slightly past their prime. Still, she thought, they'd cost a packet at the florists. She liked sunflowers. Despite their larger than life, exotic qualities they'd always seemed to her to be completely and utterly ordinary. ..in the end only someone who suffered deeply could see the radiance in such simple things Painter Bob was right. He was after all an expert in such things. Sometimes she felt as if she didn't know much about anything at all. Here she was looking at reproductions through plate glass windows, while above her the sun was almost coming out. Feeling hopeful, she put on her sunglasses. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Neil, Linda. "Sunflowers " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.2 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php>. Chicago Style Neil, Linda, "Sunflowers " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 2 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Neil, Linda. (2002) Sunflowers . M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(2). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php> ([your date of access]).