12 DAYS 12 NIGHTS / VIENNA

9th day

DAY NINE: MARCH 9, 2006

THE SHOOTING OF THE STYMPHALIEN BIRDS
ROARING (THE NOISE OF THE WORLD)

Wetsuit, tuning fork, sand, mixed media on canvas
100 x 200 cm

MYTHOLOGICAL INFORMATION

The raucous noise of the birds was driving the Stymphalians crazy. Hercules shot all his arrows at the birds, but they had feathers of iron. He then thought to beat them at their own game. He put wax into his ears and created a noise still more horrible than that of the birds. They fled.

DAILY DIARY

The attempt to filter out the sound from the noise of the world, the constant roaring that surrounds us, had become the essence of the day’s thoughts and talks when a wetsuit was brought to the gallery. Torn into two halves it was soon integrated into that day’s painting.

In the center of this protective cover, now torn down the middle, was a tuning fork (A 440) brought by a young woman, a musician.

The body - a resonance box for the sound.

There were also talks about the revelation as encountered at mount Sinai by Israel. There had been a tremendous roaring, a noise that had been too much for the people to bear; they only were capable of hearing the sound and understanding the “Aleph”, the first letter of the first word of the first Commandment: “Anokhi” “I am”.