Let me remind you that in Galeria Brwinów has its seat the art gallery of "Sarna" - a local association of artists from Brwinów. You can also see my works there, including two oils on canvas. All the works are for sale. Przypominam, że w Galerii Brwinów mieści się galeria prac artystów skupionych pod skrzydłami lokalnego Stowarzyszenia "Sarna". Można tam oglądać również moje prace, w tym dwa obrazy olejne. Wszystkie wystawione prace są na sprzedaż. Today I would like to share with you some photos of me. I generally don't do it. For a simple reason: I generally do not like when people take photos of me and I generally do not like to look at photos of myself. But this time the case is different. This time I would like to share photos that are not only portraits, but also inspiration to experiment in life. My intention is, of course, to inspire you to try new things. Here are some that I believe you should try at least once in a lifetime. Yes, I did it! I always wanted to do it and I do not regret. I jumped from a plane at the height of 14000 meters over the Tasman Sea. Quite an experience! Believe me. Personally I enjoyed most the very moment of jumping off the plane and the first minute when you sky dive without the parachute open. Very exciting 60 seconds of my life! I would surely do it again if I had a chance. It is a pity that you have to open the parachute at all! Of course, it was an introductory sky dive with an instructor. Big thanks to Jules from Sky Dive OZ in Moruya who took care of me all the way down! Diving was not a new experience to me. I have performed introductory diving at the deepest Polish lake Hańcza over a half year earlier. It had been already a remarkable experience back then so I just could not resist to repeat it again especially that I was at the Great Barrier Reef. One of the seven wonders of the world. Diving in the Coral Sea was a totally different experience if you realize that there are almost no boundaries to it. It was an introductory dive with an instructor during which I had a chance to see the depths of the coral reef, a variety of colorful fishes and even one of the small and harmless sharks. No stingers this time; though stinger suit would have been useful, cause I got really sunburnt during snorkeling. Big thanks to PADI Professional James from Down Under Cruise&Dive who was my instructor. I was lucky enough to dive alone with him and not as it is normally done in a group of four. Moreover I also did some snorkeling on my own. The most exciting moment is, of course, the very moment of dipping your head under water. A thing that took me as many as three attempts during my first introductory dive before I got used to the underwater environment. Here I would like to thank Jarek Bekier from Banana Divers who was my instructor at Lake Hańcza. Could it get more complicated?! I have not done all of these all together at once ever in my life. I only traveled across left-hand traffic Scotland, but by car with the wheel on the left hand side, which I thought made it a lot more easier than driving one of the British inventions. I have never driven a car with automatic transmission, because I always believed that it sort of kills the very idea and soul of a car (I still believe that manual transmission is a better solution for monotonous Australian roads). It was not that difficult to get used to automatic transmission and left-hand traffic, even the wheel on the right-hand side was fine, though to the very end I spontaneously wandered to the right hand side even if I was not really into driving then, but there was a thing that I just could not get used to and I could not understand why it has been designed so - I mean the turn signal and wiper levers. Yes, they also changed sides. I struggled with the tendency to confuse these two till the very end of the journey. Anyway I crossed this one off my list of life challenges in, I guess, quite a spectacular manner. My father can finally be proud of me! Lucky enough we did not get stuck. It was a real off-road experience with lots of emotions. Not only did we make it with not quite a four-wheel drive, but we also made it soon after rainfall and just before rainfall. We did not expect that it might really get that serious as the signs were telling. An unsealed road after rain generally looks innocent, but as soon as you end up driving on it, you realize that it is not quite as great as it seems. Firstly, a wet unsealed road is very slippery - it is almost as if you were driving on soap. Easy to lose control over the vehicle and end on the side of the road and it is not that easy to get your car out of a flooded field. What is more, the wet red sand has this unusual trait of becoming clay mud which easily sticks to all parts of the car and everything else, including your shoes, and equally easily dries up. It is not a matter of cosmetics by any means. This clay mud can simply immobilize your car, not to mention that you can just get stuck in the middle of the road and you will be very lucky to find help in another driver, because traffic on an unsealed road is simply not very big. And if by any chance rain comes, you should get prepared for even more emotions, because such a road can be as well flooded together with your car. Fortunately we did not get stuck, we did not have our car immobilized and we made it just before the rain having to cross a large water pool right in the middle of the road at the very end. I took it easy, but my friend could not resist to kiss the bitumen road.* Funny enough just upon entering the town we saw a big sign warning that road trains, the big trucks, have to stop and drop the mud before entering the town. Yeah, good luck! But believe me, they drive unsealed roads and they make it, and beware to meet such a monster on your way, because they just do not stop! * As opposed to my friend, I was more or less familiar with such extremities, because the street I live on in Poland could actually be classified in Australian terms as an unsealed one. There are many grid roads in Poland that can become unpassable especially in early spring due to thaw period. This was one of my biggest dreams. The dessert interior. We did not quite explore the Australian Outback, but we made it to its gateway in Bourke, New South Wales. As opposed to what people said, there was a lot of rain on the way, not that many flies and the temperatures were bearable. This time summer gave all Australians a flick in the nose, indeed. There was quite a lot of rain and the temperatures were unusually low. I enjoyed it a lot out there and would surely like to go further, but in order to do this one needs simply a good four-wheel drive, money and time. Australia is a vast land. There are places where one can drive for hours and hundreds of kilometers, and not meet a single car. What is even more important, sometimes there are no petrol stations for hundreds of kilometers. Generally life concentrates in cities, so forget about any place with cold water on your way. You can travel for days and you would expect that you have crossed a great distance, but compared to the map, it suddenly turns into just a short length. So frustrating for a person who would like to see it all. Let me thank here my friend Chris! Without him all of the above would never be possible. If you ever happen to end up in the opal mining heart of Lightning Ridge, you cannot leave without finding at least one opal. I was lucky to find one by complete coincidence. At the camping we were staying in, there was sort of open-air mining area, where the inhabitants of the camping could go and search for the precious stone. I went there more of curiosity for the sake of taking a few photos, I took one of the stones lying on the ground which miraculously turned up to be an opal. Funny, isn't it?! I love opals. They sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow. I have a ring with one and I love the way it changes colors depending on the temperature from milky blue when cold to rainbow blue when it gets warmer. They say opals bring bad luck to those who receive them as a gift. I guess this bad reputation is connected with the history of opal mining. After all opals are second after emeralds to be believed as most precious stones in the world. I guess people who came to this desert area in search of them might often become victims of theft or even murder. To look for and carry opals was for sure a risky business. Nonetheless I believe that they are my lucky stones. I got some rough stones from a man I met and I keep them in a glass full of water. Gradually the water disappears and the stones become more and more clean. The water dissolves the sandstone they have been covered in for ages.
7/ Exploring a coastal sea cave The whole exhibition required walking along the rocky seashore and climbing it up at some point. Of course the bottom of the rocky shore was also quite slippery, so you had to walk carefully especially that the sea waves could easily cause imbalance. Walking with water high up your waist was inevitable. Not to mention constant fear of the high tide. It is always good to reassure yourself about tidal timetables in the place you are going to visit, because as I have already realized once it is easy to get yourself cut off the shore in a matter of minutes. Swimming can be equally dangerous as you can never predict the strength of the current, not to mention the venomous blue bottles wandering around. Nonetheless the experience was worth it. The interior of the cave, though small, had a very special micro climate. It was much more humid and damp there. The walls of the cave clearly showed that during high tide the cave is possibly totally filled with water. You could see some sea beings moving in the grainy sand covering the bottom of the cave. I wondered if in the past ancestors of indigenous people were coming here. Surely the place stirred up imagination. That's not all. To be continued... Documentary film "Contact" by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler. Absolutely touching! Tears in my eyes! Yes, quite so! And then a moment of reflexion when you try to imagine yourself in a similar situation. What would you do? How would react? What would you feel? Hard to compare even to warlike experience, because it is just as meeting people from a different planet while not knowing what are their intentions. What do they want? Do they want to hurt you? You have to live it in order to understand. This documentary attempts at bringing this unique experience closer to you. Certainly worth watching as you can see shots from the first encounter of the desert people with the white men. Though after a moment of reflexion I was more curious of how white men reacted to this first encounter. Synopsis:
In 1964, Yuwali was 17 when her first contact with whitefellas was filmed. Contact is her story and it brings together two vastly different civilisations - the last remnant group of Aboriginals still living traditionally in Australia's Great Sandy Desert...and Space Rocket Research. Set against the countdown to the launch of the Blue Streak rocket test, authorities are sent to clear the potential crash zone of inhabitants and capture their extraordinary first meeting with Yuwali's group in 16mm colour film. Yuwali's is probably the fullest and most revealing account ever caught on film, of the 'first contact' experience. Now 62, Yuwali is a natural storyteller, who gives a riveting personal account of her first contact with the twentieth century and the moment in time when she made the giant leap of faith from a subsistence lifestyle to cars, fresh-baked bread and space travel. Source: https://abccommercial.com/contentsales/program/contact A boomerang - probably one of the things that would first come up your mind if you were asked about things iconic to Australia. Apart from the fact that it is made of wood and that it returns, one hardly ever realizes the real function and meaning this wooden tool really carries for the indigenous peoples of Australia. As you will learn here, boomerangs play a far more complex role in the Aboriginal communities than you could have ever expected. On the photo above you can see boomerangs made in a traditional way. The piece of A4 format paper on the right is to help you get idea of the size. The four boomerangs from the right hand side are hunting boomerangs. The first one of them is covered with paint based on ocher. The boomerang most to the left next to the shield is a killer boomerang used for fighting. On the other image you can see ocher rock. As I am interested in the subject at the moment, I decided to devote a post to it within this webpage as I always do with more or less specialist subjects that are of interest to me. This time I have decided to make it also more comprehensive than I had been doing so far. This post is written with the intention to bring the subject closer to an average reader. To sort of sum up and organize a wide range of information in one text. Please note that if you are familiar with the subject you will probably not find it revealing. Though they say miracles happen. Let me also stress that this is not a piece of highly academic writing as I am by no means educated in the fields of Australian history, culture or archaeology. Let me explain to you my motivation for writing this post. I have traveled to and spend two months in Australia with the hope of having a chance to learn about Aboriginal people and their culture, only to discover that it is not that accessible to an average tourist as I would have expected. It became immediately clear to me that in order to experience Aboriginal Australia to its full authenticity one needs to have connections with people who really have access to and sustain direct contact with or are members of Aboriginal communities. You cannot buy this kind of experience in any tourist agency or native art gallery. Just as my Australian journey was drawing to an end, when my Australian dream was just about to perish and it seemed as if I was born a bit too late to get a taste of real Aboriginal Australia, I have been lucky enough to meet an archaeologist who has been working with the Aboriginal communities for over 30 years now. If I have not met him, I would probably not be writing this text now. Loose yet fascinating talk we had these couple of evenings combined with a chance to see his collection of authentic boomerangs of different functions, ocher stone used to finish the tool, paintings made by Aborigines native to Central Australia, other examples of Aboriginal tools, and have insight into literature concerning the subject of Aboriginal history and culture were enough to stir back fire of hope in my heart that the end of this journey was not at all closing the chapter of my Australian adventure, but opening a chance for further exploration of the subject of Australian history, culture and people. When I came to Australia I had no idea how a real boomerang looks like. Not to mention what is its function and meaning. Gradually it became clear to me that it does matter what wood it is made of and how it is shaped. Still I had a feeling that I am moving on the surface of the subject matter - talking rather about physical characteristics of the tool than its actual function and meaning. At some point I learned that there are different types of boomerangs which vary in shape and function. I could hardly imagine contemporary Aborigines using killer boomerangs, but I could imagine them hunting for with a returning one. Other functions I learned about later were totally beyond my imagination. Here you will be able to learn all that and even more. THE ORIGINS According to archeologists, the origins of a boomerang range back to the early stages of the great flood some 18,000 years ago. It was a time of great creativity. The representation of a boomerang can already be found in the Guyon and dynamic art of the time. The oldest wooden boomerang in the world is 9,000 years old and was found in Australia. You can see it in the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Victoria, Australia. RETURNING BOOMERANG AS A HUNTING TOOL Hunting boomerangs have been found in other parts of the world, but the returning boomerang is a solely Australian invention. It is an extraordinary invention. Making of one required knowledge of quite complicated physics. Until today scientists are not sure how the people of the time came to make it. Supposedly by trail and error method. First, people must have discovered that flat shape on one side and convex on the other side might have aerodynamical properties. Then they must have discovered, what we know today as the precession of a gyroscope, that the boomerang can turn and come back. In good conditions one could launch a boomerang at a distance of 100, 200 or even 300 meters and it kept coming back to hand. If you threw and make the boomerang turn over a flock of birds, the birds perceived it as a predator and could get disoriented, consequently lowering their flight and down there were already hunters waiting for them with a net. It was an example of a very sophisticated way of hunting with the returning boomerang as a central player. Source: First Footprints. Series 1, episode 3: The Great Flood: 18,000 to 5,000 Years Ago, 13:40-15:55. THE MAKING OF A BOOMERANG TODAY Let me introduce an interesting video about making of boomerangs by the representatives of the Mudburra-Jingili tribes from the 80s. The tradition of making of boomerangs is transferred from generation to generation. Young men learn how to make boomerangs by watching the elders working and by helping them. The choice of the tree and branches is not coincidental. Not every tree can be used for this purpose. Not every branch is good for a boomerang. Let me also attract your attention to the music and singing in the background performed with the use of boomerangs. I like it a lot. I wonder what are they singing about. The above webpage does also include a gallery of unique photos concerning the making of and trade and exchange of boomerangs. You can find the gallery here:
http://www.deepeninghistories.anu.edu.au/sites/pelican-dreaming/index.php?action=gallery&subject=Boomerang&gpslocs= Pelican Dreaming is one of the projects developed within a larger linkage project Deepening Histories of Place: Exploring Indigenous Landscapes of National and International Significance. The latter was funded by the Australian Research Council, and backed by a consortium of Industry partner. It aims to render some of the deeper layers of Australia’s history more accessible to the public. Source: http://www.deepeninghistories.anu.edu.au/ This article has a status of a "work in progress" project, which means that it is going to be constantly updated and complemented. For the time being it might seem chaotic and full of gaps, but I will try to do my best to gradually improve it so that you find the text both nice to read and acquire new information. So keep on coming back. I will signal every new theme with a note in red capitals at the top of the post. I do not know why, but today in the morning when I was preparing tea suddenly the first couple of seconds of this musical piece came up my mind. I used to have similar experiences before. Sometimes I failed to bring out from the tortuous meanders of my memory the name of the musical piece or at least the author. The latter makes it a lot more easy to find out the musical piece in question. This time I was successful. And you, do you also have it that way sometimes? I have never really seen the videoclip to this song, which has been known to me before very well. The sequence with the men catching butterflies which turn into nymphs reminds me of Norman Tindale's initial fascination with butterflies. A total coincidence or something more? I have just studied his work a day before.
What is more, it has been only today that I listened carefully to the lyrics. I liked it a lot. Especially the reference to different gods and names of winds in one that carry different symbolism: Zephyrus is the Greek god of the west wind. The gentlest of the winds, Zephyrus is known as the fructifying wind, the messenger of spring. Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air. His name meant "North Wind" or "Devouring One". Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as a winged old man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak.[1] Pausanias wrote that Boreas had snakes instead of feet, though in art he was usually depicted with winged human feet. Eurus (Subsolanus in Latin), the unlucky east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons. He was thought to bring warmth and rain, and his symbol was an inverted vase, spilling water. Afer ventus ("African wind"), or Africus, due to Africa being to the southwest of Italy, was the Roman equivalent of Afer ventus ("African wind"), or Africus, due to Africa being to the southwest of Italy Lips, the Greek deity of the southwest wind, often depicted holding the stern of a ship. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi Lyrics: "Caribbean Blue" Eurus Afer Ventus So the world goes round and round With all you ever knew They say the sky high above Is Caribbean blue... If every man says all he can, If every man is true, Do I believe the sky above Is Caribbean blue... ... Boreas... ... Zephryus... If all you told was turned to gold, If all you dreamed was new, Imagine sky high above In Caribbean blue... ... Eurus... Afer Ventus... ... Boreas Zephryus... ... Africus… Source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/enya/caribbeanblue.html |
Hej! Mam na imię Victoria. Wycieczki Osobiste to mój dziennik podróży, spełnionych marzeń i ulotnego piękna. Podróżować można nawet w kropli wody. Dzisiaj jest tylko dzisiaj, więc nie trać czasu: "podróżyj" tak, jakby jutra miało nie być!
O mnie
Z wykształcenia tłumacz i montażysta filmowy. Z zawodu kameleon, a w praktyce przede wszystkim włóczykij z dziennikarskimi ciągotami. Niespokojny duch. Trudny charakter. Towarzyski samotnik. Poliglota, gaduła i gawędziarz. Niestrudzony ogrodnik. Z zamiłowania piszę, fotografuję i maluję. Uwielbiam podróże, aktywność na świeżym powietrzu i kontakt z naturą. Szukam szczęśliwych wysp. Wierzę, że jest przede mną jeszcze wiele do odkrycia! Oto moja bajka o życiu! WĄTKI
All
ARCHIWUM
July 2023
Victoria TucholkaYou can change the skies but you cannot change your soul |
VICTORIA TUCHOLKA |
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