According to Harriet Baskas, in her article “Museums are opening slowly – and differently – but one-third will likely shutter for good,” before COVID-19, “museums, zoos, science centers, and other historic and cultural attractions across the United States welcomed more than 850 million visitors a …
My Home is a Museum project which aims to create an ongoing conversation around the weekly prompts inspired by the events happening the globe. Everyone who sends submissions to weekly prompts can suggest prompt ideas for the following weeks. The proposed themes are used in …
The concept of time has occupied the brain of the human kind for millennia’s. The history of timekeeping is just as ancient. Nowadays, the passing of time can be observed through the changed in the environment, therefore it can be related to the concept of space but it can not be fully studied, for example in a lab. Therefore there is no universal explanation of time. Contrary to the highly concrete understanding of time, Cambridge professor Huw Price, argued that the basics of time stem from the inter world of an individual rather than the physical world. The fundamentals of time and its perception are related with the unique sense of a moments, its passage and the direction.
Despite the critical debates on the subject of time, I believe that the outbreak of the Pandemic and the global lockdowns is on the track of reevaluating certain, previously rigid concept of it. For this reason, I wanted to challenge the readers of the blog to find material representations of such complex concept as time without leaving their living environments. I am happy to share with the responses of the readers below:
Zahra Mammadova
Baku, Azerbaijan
Curatorial/educational assistant at YARAT Contemporary Art Space
I would like to share my object relating to the topic of “Time” as a part of online exhibition.
Although there should be nothing difficult about sharing this object, still I felt a little bit uneasy, even mysterious while preparing myself to it, which leads to an obvious thought – it matters to me very much.
This little angel, that you see from the photos below, was bought by friend of mine, more specifically by our family friend in London, UK, in one of his trips. This person was a professional mountain climber, who was lost in mountains 3 years ago with his fellows and then was found dead thereafter a year.
The last time I had any connection with him, was 10+ years ago, when I was still a little child, and barely remember everything. I had very much sympathy and respect for this intelligent person, but sadly then our families stopped communicating for a while. After roughly 10 years, we reconciled and I was planning to meet him one day after such a long time, when I grew up to into an adult, and he was successfully doing his career in industrial alpinism. I still has this words sounding in my mind how his mother would tell me several times “come visit us, Namin have a lot of books to share with you, you will find so many topics to talk, it will be exciting” And every time I would respond “I will come in recent days definitely , but unfortunately now I do not have TIME”. I was thinking in my mind, “yeah there is no reason to rush, hopefully we will meet soon” After he went missing, and then found dead his mother shared his belongings with people. And this little angel she gifted to me. She said that he bought 2 of such angels, one of them is his sister’s the other was kept untouched. She explained the reason: the two angels were bought for individuals who he considered special to him, one of them is the sister, as for the other – he was waiting for right person to give it to them. And, ironically this one was forgotten in its package for a lot of years. Now it is placed in the shelve above my bed. This is strange, how life can turn events in unimaginable ways, I still find it mystic why and how this little angel which was meant to be given to a special person ended up in my hands.
The lesson that I learned from this story and what this object symbolizes to me was the following: never, ever postpone meetings with friends, family, significant people in your life that you plan. Always be in touch with them and share your kindness, care, and time with them – do not be greedy in this regard. By doing this, you double good emotions and gift them to your loved ones. And now, sometimes I feel like this object angel is with me for a reason, I feel a spiritual connection with it.
I have been thinking about the passage of time recently. I find it amusing how sometimes this passage is unnoticeable while other times even a second takes forever to go by. Personally for me, the moments associated with positive emotions tend to disappear quickly. In …
For many years, issues of the deaccessioning of works in museums’ permanent collections have garnered much attention. Since the pandemic, these concerns have only increased as museums struggle to stay open. In recognition of these struggles, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) – an …
Last week’s theme was slightly challenging. A lot has happened in the lives of all of us especially in the last past 4-5 months. So I think it might have been hard to cherry pick one particular event from that myriad. Nevertheless, I am glad to share the following submission.
Fatima Huseynli
Student
Budapest, Hungary
An mage of an electric piano on a stand against a wall.
“The object that fits the theme perfectly for me, is definitely my piano. I remember back in March, when the pandemic was just picking up and the lockdowns and preventative measures were partly in place, I purchased an electric piano from Amazon. Boy, oh Boy, was that an incredibly important, dare I say, perfectly timed an extremely impactful event in my life. I would be lying if I said what to expect from the following few months. What I did know for sure, was the pure joy, sweet, nostalgic melancholy that I felt while practicing my scales for the first time in over 5 years.
I never picked my piano before. During and after music school I only played my mom’s old, “BELARUS” that was perhaps 35 years old at the moment I took my first piano classes. It was and still is (it’s back at home in my hometown in Azerbaijan) a very reliable instrument (except for the C5 key that often got stuck to my frustration). It was also very large and hard to move due to its fully wooden carcass and mighty inner mechanism and stringing that made it overall a tad intimidating for little me. The grand and imposing silhouette of “BELARUS” seemed to judge me and longed to be played by a better, more experienced and skillful musician. I cannot say I never enjoyed my companionship with it, but I cannot say it inspired me and supported me-we lacked a deeper connection. Certainly, I am not blaming the old soviet piano for discontinuing my musical education on an academic or professional level, no there were many factors at fault there. However, it did play a role in my eventually deliberately emotionally distancing myself from music.
How incredible is it, that when a few years ago having grown up to appreciate a lot of my prior experiences, I have gotten a newly formed passion and ecstatic almost feverish interest in music theory. I found myself on a quest to understand music, any music classical, baroque, contemporary, eastern, western, folk, techno, psytrance; you name it, I wondered what goes on within it. This time around I was taking a completely different approach that strangely does not have much to do with performing an elaborate repertoire. So I started using different online tools, got a few materials of the internet and started to learn about harmonics, tonics, modes, genres, compositional elements and structures, that composers and songwriters alike use in the magical process of creating a musical piece or song.
Not long after I decided I simply cannot do without a piano. My piano to be more precise. A companion and friend who will help me further analyze the intricate weaving of the fabric of the nature of music itself.
Ana Perez
Boston, Massachusetts
Looking for a job and teaching art online. I paint almost every day.
My painting: “Opportunities” is a response to the theme “Pivotal Life Events”.
Art matters to me, I can express there what I am feeling at the moment. Also, beauty in general is not the same to have a print (what used to be in the same frame) than a real painting on the wall.
A friend moved away to New York and I made the painting for her room one week before she left, I thought it was an opportunity to show her how much fun we have had these 2 years and even if she would see it just for a week I thought it was worth doing it. It will give the opportunity to a new roommate to enjoy it when she comes into that room.
An abstract painting in a gold color frame.