The Inbetween
Updated: Feb 23, 2021
It has been about 1+1/2 years since starting this elongated drawing on the floor of the living room. Since it took me 1 year to complete, with a few breaks and relocations, I by now don't really know what to write about it. Maybe I remember a little. I think originally it had something to do with communication. And friends.
We had this game when we were little, I don't know what it's called in english, but you sat somewhere in a line and the first person whispered something in the next persons ear, the second person to the third and on to the last person in line, who had to say it out loud and everybody laughed because of what came out. What happend inbetween was a line of misunderstandings and misinterpretations, sometimes even intentional, just to make us laugh more.
Why is this important? The inbetween is important, the space from the point of forming something inside yourself, to choosing a way to convey the message, a part of you, to the other person, while being surrounded yourself and the receiver with interferences from the inside and outside world. What happens from point A (you) to point B (your friend), how much information is lost, how much is percieved as it was ment to, while it was being formed, and how much gets accepted in a different colour?
Now, imagaine this information traveling through a line, a phone line, through stretched distances and different territory, like when we made toy telephones out of tin cans and strings. My friend is far away and all I hear is his voice. I cannot see him, I don't know where he stands, I don't know if his feet are on solid ground or he's up to his throat, drowning. I cannot pull that line up and set him on land, I can only listen. If I am any good at this, I will hear his voice with every little detail in it, with every colour, even if he tries to paint it over, I will not be hearing my own thoughts while I listen, I will not be thinking of the past or be making future plans or think of solutions for as long as he speaks, I will try to get as much of what he needs from me in this conversation. If I hear water I will not conclude he is drowning, maybe he just went for a swim. If I hear laughter I will not conclude he is swiming, maybe he needs my hand. If I listen well.
I am starting to remember a little, but my surroundings right now are loud enough to be labeled a disturbance. So my message might be loosing important information as well...
Two worlds, one string. My friends world and my world are connected only through an old string and some used cans. But I made it red, so don't worry, I borrowed some fate from the East, because I like the story.
I am not always my best, I don't always give my best and my friend has those times as well. Sometimes our worst happen at the same time and sometimes we get a load of pressure from the outside as well.
I change. My views change. The way I express myself changes. My world changes. I can look back at myself and not recognise that person. I can look at my future self I am supposed to become and know why I don't want to become her. I can also look at her and know why she knows why I will have to. Can I judge my friend for suddenly speaking in a way I do not recognise? Do I leave him out of my life because he has changed? I have to have patience with myself and realise my friend is his own Universe, running through his own World, I need to understand his purple sky while mine is green.
This invisible string connecting me and my friends makes us come together, it does not understand time and space as we percieve it. We crash together and bounce back, sometimes we break some roofs, sometimes whole buildings collapse and we have to rebuild, it takes time and sometimes we are on our own. Sometimes decades pass, but we still recognise our friends. If nothing else, if this life cannot bear your changes and has to wait for another, there are still some parts of your hearts that remain as they were, understood and connected. The inbetween didn't affect them.
As for two crocodiles, they also represent me splitting of from my first collection of drawings, "Under_water" and progressing to the third, which I named "Above_the_sky". Crocodiles can live in the water as well as on land, so they work well here, they combine two worlds. They are also drawn in black and white, which is how most of my work has been constructed previously.
The colour scale running up and down represents the future collection, intended to contain more colour. For the duality I also used water-based inks as well as acrylic inks. On the symbolic level they represent the different colours of a conversation, of the people involved and the messages received.
There are a lot of Soulies around the two crocodiles, either making a phone call or waiting for one, maybe just randomly relaxing in their worlds.
As always it is up to you to make this story your own and decide, what they might be up to. Your interpretation is as valid as mine.
(OK, two hours, some breaks and thinking hard, managed to write something nearly forgotten, yeey me! 💪😂)
P.s.: Peter Pan's crocodile had the coolest little tune arriving to the scene, that's it for the title, he was a cool looking crocodile, I did not read "The true and deeper meaning of Peter Pan", because I don't want my head to explode.
That's it for now. Thank you for reading, stay safe cookies!
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