after this walk i began to follow people (based on the work of sophie calle and vito acconci - i follow until i lose them or they enter a private space), i do this when i feel lost...it is a way to escape decision, to change direction, to change pace, to have a focus, to be loosely attached to someone else...i don't want to know where they are going or where they came from, i am interested in the information i receive in the moments when we are attached. i purposefully join our paths.
an old lady leaves the tabac with a lotto ticket in her hand. she is in a blue coat and has a grey bob that is tucked behind her ears. we both witness a car crash. the silver car hit the parked blue van. it is stuck in the middle of the cross roads and is steaming...she stays to watch the scene pan out - she gossips with the gathering and stays long enough to tell the late comers what has happened. the driver is obviously drunk and there are two young children in the back. he tries to restart the car but is taken out by a policeman and helpful civilians...the policeman leaves and so does the old lady. i attach myself to a black coated lady who moves to fast for me to keep her...she runs her hands along railings and pushes her fingertips together when she walks. i lose her around a corner. i cross the lady with a lady who has a see-through bag...she enters the dry cleaners and i wait. she leaves and enters the pharmacy. i wait. green brooms sweep the small yellow leaves, that rest on the ground like fallen confetti - the scene after a wedding - after it all fell...i lose sight of her. i left the car crash rehearsing how i would tell its story... a man with crooked legs and a cigar - he is easy to follow as his cigar stink lingers far behind him. i am a sniffer dog with a path to follow. we return to the street of the crash and the car is being towed away, soon it will be like nothing happened in this quiet area of the city...i look up from writing and he has gone...i am left with high pitched drills, a group photo being taken outside restaurant lupin and a man trying to balance his bike laden with bags.
TODAY I WALKED WITH WILL IN TOKYO...(instruction: film whilst walking)
prewalk (7am) - i wake at this ungodly hour. i watch the street i will enter, it looks unprepared for my arrival. he is in the midst of his day and i have just been woken from a dream. i am excited about seeing sunrise. i have thoughts of a wartime wife - she wakes up when he does just to feel joined to him - so they can at least keep breakfast time together. i wait cloaked and backpacked for the clock to strike 7 and i will enter that familiar smell of morning, i will witness the beginning.
post walk (10am) - the early morning belongs to the homeless, deep in dreams in cardboard boxes, makeshift cocoons, or rising out of tunnels woken by the first ruptures of city traffic...i can walk in the middle of the road...i watch the sky change colour from black, to navy, to grey. i watch it change with the rooftops. a man was being sick and a woman unconscious. people checked in to hotels, tall and being tailed with wheeled belongings...i cross the river alone..i walk through the vast space which is usually so populated...jogger jogs towards me jogger jogs away from me..it closes in on 9 o clock and i find my self muttering 'i just want a croissant' but Paris is in no hurry to open. this time is for dog walking and jogging - no hurry at all. i have ventured west and so am in a rich area. grand flats where arguments leak out but cannot be pinpointed...on passing a large red oriental building that jumps me straight to Tokyo. its corners flick out like an 80s hairdo...the park is beautiful, with a ring road of determined joggers and two women with suitcases who look lost...the streets are wet but not from rain. he kneels on the curb - the early bird.
1 comment:
Probably not a useful comment, but you look very much like a secret agent, but you need a brief case! Sounding good tho so far. I will perhaps attempt a more academically inclined comment in a little while. X
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