FREEDOM TOWER

LOWER MANHATTAN,  NEW YORK CITY

SMO©2012

Photographs has been taken during the short evening cruise on the Hudson River.
September 29, 2012

CATHEDRAL OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, RIO, BRASIL

ARCHITECT: EDGAR FONSECA

STUDENT OF OSCAR NIEMEYER

SMO©2010

CONSTRUCTION:1964 -1979

DIAMETER: 96M, HEIGHT 75M

LOCATION DOWNTOWN RIO DE JANEIRO

THE VILLA SAVOYE, POISSY , FRANCE

Last of Purist Houses 

1928-1937
"the icon of bygone modernity"

LIVING ROOM LOOKING TO GARDEN TERRACE

"...the outside always an inside....the hanging garden onto which the sliding plate-glass walls of living room and other rooms of the house  open freely: thus the sun is everywhere, in the very heart of the house"

Transitioning to the exterior , the ramp leads to  SOLARIUM, from which entire site can be seen"

EXTERIOR

SMO©2010

NOGUCHI II

AKARI SHINES LIKE THE LIGHT OF SUN...THEY SEEM TO OFFER MAGICAL UNFOLDING AWAY FROM THE SPRITUAL WORLD.

SMO© 2012

It was on a trip to gifu, Japan  in 1951 that Noguchi created

his first Akari designs, inspired by the traditional lanterns

illuminating night fishing on the Nagara River. He called 

these works Akari, a Japanese term meaning light as a

illumination, but also impliying weightlessness.

NOGUCHI

"To fight gravity is a tour de force. The nature of the stone is weight. In a sense
I am led against my better judgement in attemting out of contradictions to draw
new emphasis. The deepest values are to be found in the nature of each medium.
The question is how to transform not destroy this"
ISAMU NOGUCHI

SMO©2012

DOWN n UP

SMO©2011

DOWN n UP

SMO©2011

RELEVANCE

SMO©2012

Summer

At evening the complaint of the cuckoo
Grows still in the wood.
The grain bends its head deeper,
The red poppy.

Darkening thunder drives
Over the hill.
The old song of the Cricket
Dies in the field.

The leaves of the chestnut tree
Stir no more.
Your clothes rustle
On the winding stair.

The candle gleams silently
In the dark room;
A silver hand
Puts the light out;

Windless, starless night.

Poem by Georg Trakl

Translated by
James Wright and Robert Bly

CURTAIN

"Solve unto me the enigma that I then beheld, interpret for me the vision of the loneliest one."
Zarathustra

SMO©2012

Self Portrait

'The most eloquent testimony....may come from

those most reluctant to give.'(Geoff Dyer)

SMO©2012

where do you see yourself ten years from now?

A RECTANGULAR SHODOW LESS THAN A FOOT WIDE CROSSSED THE WHITE DUST OF THE ROAD . It lay at a slight angle from the perpendicular without quite reaching the opposite side: its rounded -almost flat-extremity did not protrude beyond the middle of the road , of which the left side remained unshaded. Between this extremity and the close -cropped weeds bordering the road had been crushed the corpse of a little frog, its legs open, its arms crossed, forming slightly darker gray spot  on the dust of the road. The creature's body had lost all thickness, as if nothing but skin were left-hard dessicated, and henceforth invulnerable-clinging to the ground as closly as the shadow of animal about to leap, limbs extended-but somehow immobillized in air. To the right the real shodaw, which was much darker, gradually became paler, disappearing altogether after a few seconds.

Mathias lifted his head toward the sky. *

**the Voyeur/Alain Robbe-Grillet

CORNER

"What makes your house a home is the artificial order you establish."

Gianni Vattimo

After the death of God

SMO©2011

TENT OF TOMORROW -NEW YORK- 1964- 2012

 SMO©2012

Remains of " Tent of Tomorrow " 1964 New York  World fair unanimously sits in the midst of Corona  Meadows  Park. Riders of the number 7 Subway can have panoramic view of the park as well as

a distant view  to Towers of New York State pavilion, along with few forgotten artifacts, Apollo and Mercury spacecrafts and the Port Authority Heliport building. If you driving along Grand Central Parkway, one can have a closer look to towers and Tent of Tomorrow. After years of distant watching

recently I found myself driving along the service road lead into the entrance of parking lot of Queens Public Theater.  The building also was build as part of NYS pavilion, after forgotten quite some time recently went through major renovation and open to Public. There, standing in front of pile of of concrete and steel ruins I impressed with the shear size and volume of these structures.Their aged materiality was increasing  the sense of drama. Rusted steel beams, layers of striped cables all floating in the air, perhaps trying to tell a story, a story about past yet their voice lost in the vastness of history.

Central torsion ring, reminiscence of an alien ship comes out of 60's cartoon magazines hold by series 

of double layered steel cables. Original roof contained 1, 500 translucent panels was hung between 

the cables. The size of the roof has been said was bigger than the football field, largest suspended roof at the time of the Fair. Today these structures offers ghastly, more so a pessimistic look which is still questions the original intent of it's main advocator.

" The basic purpose of the Fair is Peace through Understanding, that is education of the peoples of the world as to the interdependence of nations to insure lasting peace.."*

*Robert Moses

The four horseman of the Apocalypse

SMO©2010

CONQUEST, WAR, FAMINE, & DEATH

VOLTRI VII

B. Human beings are so unhappy  that tey would be bored even if they have no reason for boredom, simple because of their nature. They are so vain that with thousands of legitimate reasons for boredom the slightest thing like tapping a billiard ball with a cue is enough to distract them.

Blaise Pascal
Pensees and Other Writings

     Photography :SMO©2008

VOLTRI -VII

David Smith

For a while I thought I lost these pictures,  it must  be few years past since   I took 

them. I remember  it was  summer of 2008.   Couple friends from Argentina were 

in town for a short stay. One day before their  departure we  decided to take a day 

trip to Washington DC, the plan was to see the National Galery and come back at 

same day. After few hours drive from New York, we  arrived DC early afternoon. 

I park the car as close as I can get to  East Galery, I didn't  want to waste any time,

the outside the hot air mixed with high  humidity made our short  walking difficult.

Atrium of the East Galery felt cool and refreshing. Angular stone walls of Atrium

covered with playfull reflections of light coming through skylight  above. Quickly 

we head up to second floor. There I saw the Voltri first time. It had a true presence 

It was a sizeable sculpture,   about 10  feet  long and may be seven feet high, built 

from Iron, yet it seemed weightless. Later, I found out this was one of the twenty-

seven  sculpture David Smith  produced   amazingly short  period of time; during 

the thirty day stay in Spoleto, Italy in 1962.

Below chronological information provided by David Smith Estate

1962-63

Smith is invited by the Italian government to make two sculptures for exhibition in Spoleto during the Fourth Festival of Two Worlds in June 1962. He is offered as his studio a decommissioned Italsider steel factory in Voltri outside Spoleto and provided with a team of steel workers as his assistants. With these resources, Smith makes twenty-seven sculptures in thirty days, using the tools, machines, objects, and materials he found in the Italsider factory. Before returning to Bolton Landing, Smith arranges to have material from the factory shipped to New York. Upon his return, he begins his Voltri-Bolton series (twenty-five sculptures, 1962 to 1963).

DOLMABAHCE SARAYI

CEILING SHOTS

One may ask-
 "What part of the palace is this?'
-it is the most utillitarian part
I would have replied-
you give me a confused look.
"It's the part that you get yourself
relieved from the all biological pressures."
I may add.

SMO©2012

FRAGMENTS OF NEW YORK STATE PAVILION

Observation towers of New York State Pavilion,  build for the New York World Fair 1964.
Towers was the tallest structure at the  fair (226'). Once beneath the towers is the Tent of tomorrow, worlds biggest suspension roof, comprised of hundred translucent panels held in place by elaborate network of steel cables, entire  roof structure supported by sixteen 100' tall concrete columns. The base of the pavilion covered by a giant map of New York State, pieced together by 4' x 4' terrazzo panels.
Almost half a century latter what left behind is rusted pile of steel, web of steel cables suspended in the mid air  and 16  concrete  columns circling around reminiscent to the ancient Stonehenge ruins
I visit the park last week to see a play at the recently renovated Queens Theatre in the park, which was originally designed by the architect Philip Johnson for the World Fair. Rotunda entrance hall of the the theatre surrounded by the high glass windows. Before the start of the show I bought myself  a cup of coffee, settled down on a chair  and watch the towers for a while. I felt that the rusted look of the structural steel, complex network of  cabling, pointed edge metal supports, all was giving these towers  mad max kind of futuristic look, in a long shot may be they were the left overs from a spaceship, accidently crushed on the earth some time ago.

SMO©2012

FOLD

"I don't have any idea of myself, not even the kind that consist in the lack of an idea of myself.

I'am a nomad in my self -awareness. The herds of my inner riches scattered during the first watch

The only tradgedy is not being able to conceive of ourselves as tragic. I've always clearly seen that 

I coexist with the world. I've never clearly felt that I needed coexist with it.

That's why I 've never been normal"

Fernando Pessoa- The Book of Disquiet

SMO©20012

What is immanence? A life... No one has described what a life is better than Charles Dickens,
if we take the indefinite article as an index of the transcendental. A disreputable man, a rouge,
held in contept by everyone, is found as he lies dying. Suddenly, those taking care of him manifest
an eagerness, respect, even love, for his slightest sign of life. Everybody bustles about to save
him, to point where, in his deepest coma, wicked man himself senses something soft and sweet
penetrating him. But to the degree that he comes back to life, his saviors turn colder, and he becomes
once again mean and crude. Between his life and his death, there is a moment that is only that of a
life playing  with death. The life of the individual gives way to an impersonal and yet singular life
that releases a pure event freed from the accidents of internal and external life, that is , from 
subjectivity and objectivity of what happens:  a " Homo tantum " with whom everyone empathizesand who attains a sort of beatitude. It is a haecceity no longer individuation but of singularization: a life
of pure immanence, neutral, beyond godd and evil, for it was only the subject incarnated it in the midst
of things that made it good or bad. The life of such individuality fades away in favor of the singular
life immanent to a man who no longer has a name, though he can be mistaken for no other. A singular
essence, a life...*

Gilles Deleuze

Pure Immanence

Reservoir Bridge

SMO©2012

Reservoir Bridge* crosses over the West 86th Street, near the Resorvoir. The wood cover walkway offers, quite moment of meditation for the pedestrians, exquisite cast-iron floral scroll which are design to emulate the surrounding green leafs, cordially salutes the life. There, in a brief moment, experience of a transcendental field comes back to live. It is not because of me, or the next one; nor  that of the bridge itself is perpetrate the experience; but  an impersonal  consciousness....without a self  does it for us.

*Designed by Calvert Vaux, 1864 

Urban Landscapes

     Manhattan is a utilitarian polemic.

REM KOOLHAAS

Thirty-four years passed since the first publication of Delirious New York in 1978

The book itself was a polemical manifesto of an unrestrain, and uncontrolable 

progress of the Metropolitan dream. I  always kept the book close promixity to my reach

over the years read and re-read without hackneyed, until the begining of the new 

millenium, around that time I changed the places, I moved to perimeter of the Urban sprawl, 

to a place where everything seem and feel like a suburbia, wide tree lined streets, 

two-three story wood and masonry  houses with a close porches and sizeable front yards 

lined up with a respectfull distances to each other. The place was quite calm and green

most amazing part of; it was only 27 minutes train ride away from the Delirious New York.

SMO©2012

SIDEWALLS (MEDIANEROS) 2011

¿DONDE ESTA WALLY?
 A lazy, sunny, Sunday afternoon in April,  I shelter myself within the confines of my leaving room.  The curtains are closed.  TV is on, streaming through the Internet. I came across  Sidewalls, I have not heard anything about the movie before, not recognize the neither director nor the casting..  I'm immediately captivated by the series of tectonic images on the screen, City of Buenos Aires, Capital of Argentina, second largest city in Latin America continent, streets are busting with the people,  every corner a new construction going up. Narrator's voice over the images tells the story of the city as well as their own...  What do you expect from a city turns her face against the river? asks Martin, one of the main charter in the movie, this is the metaphor for the same city, turns back to her citizens. His voice continue to talk over the images of decay and isolation.The more cities grow, the more technologies becomes available our alienation to outside world becomes more evident.  Quality of human lives reduced to technology driven virtual living. This is the story of two lost souls, Martin and Marianna, they live in the opposite blocks, their 3 x 3 illegal windows becomes their first self acclaimed independence act against the unstoppable urban menace. Marianna search for Wally through out the movie full with iridescent  moments.  Result is a thoughtful and funny movie by an Argentinian writer, director Gustavo Taretto.

"How I wish, how I wish you were here

We're just two lost souls

swimming in a fish bowl

year after year

running over the same old ground"

Pink Floyd

Cappadocia

Geologist believes that the formation of these lands goes back 30 million years. When the volcanoes erupted the land covered with a blanket of ash. Over time ash solidified into tuff,  more time past

tuff worn away creating symphony of shapes, and some called them  fairy chimneys who believed
that once fairies lived there.

Photography:AydanAkalin©2006