Flower Petals From My Mother's Garden
“Flower Petals From My Mother’s Garden” is a collection of photograms made with dried rose petals collected from Irma Heckerman’s garden. Organic waste is recycled as art. The title specifies what the pictures are literally of, so as to dismiss the otherwise inevitable guessing games that abstract photographs provoke. The title also hopes to imply that being kind to and honoring one’s mother, the starting point of generating compassion for all sentient beings, is something primary to be cultivated. I made these images in complete darkness, a very simple chance procedure, and cherry picked thereafter. A small selection is presented here.
Detailed Ektachrome close-ups of these images were assembled into a slide show with live music in collaboration with the Swiss musician Jürg Zurmühle. They are intended to be experienced as image projections rather than prints. Many mandalas become one image constantly in flux as coupled flow and arrested flow. Aside from that they’re just pictures to be enjoyed as an ambient presence, as one image that keeps changing, rather than as something imperative and determinate that demands attention.