what is seen and heard through windows...

close eyes - open window

open eyes - if daylight is not satisfactory: close eyes again

and close window

and try another window

image and text by the fluxus artist arthur koepcke / addi kopke as an insert in the danish furniture/design magazine mobilia, 1970.

the text and image recalls the work of peter hutchinson whom i've posted on in the past. thinking about the notion of closing eyes and opening another window i was reminded of a morning a month or so ago when i was awakened by a strange sound while still having my eyes closed. it was very early but the sun was bright and even with eyes closed i could see that reddish glow of bright light falling on eyelids. i grabbed my phone and opened the window to discover a woodpecker in the tree in front of the house. such a thing i've never heard, nor seen, living here now almost 11 years. fortunately, and this is why i grabbed my phone, i was able to record a tiny bit of the uncanny sound on my phone, before the cars beginning their morning commute enveloped it.

i hadn't heard nor seen wing nor tapping until yesterday when the bird appeared just outside the window in the afternoon in a tree. he was not tapping at all, but standing still as a statue. the first time i'd only heard him, and this time he was completely visible - a red tufted head, black and white body - standing in complete silence as seen through a window that doesn't open. each view a different window, a different direction, different time of day...

somehow all seeming to make sense with the flipping through the pages of this old mobilia magazine this morning in the studio and happening upon koepke's piece. a reminder that with eyes closed, ears are perhaps a bit more open...or perhaps ears themselves can be that other window.

click here to hear the low fidelity recording of a woodpecker in the city...