Research is a Bitch
#152: Research, Collage, Stephanie Syjuco, Arturo Herrera, Duane Toops, Ae Hee Lee, Robin Taylor, Flowers of Fire, Betty Reid Soskin, Sissoko & Gripper, Romany & David Gilmour.
THEN & NOW (RESEARCH)
Continuing from the last issue, the story of my father Nick’s nuclear testing experience is of course connected to stories about thousands of people who became involved, one way or another with this huge military and scientific project. One report leads to another report and so on. Dad did not seem to suffer any physical ill effects, and lived into his 90s.1
However, my research reveals that many (mostly American soldiers, sailors, and Navy contractors, as well as Marshall Islanders) did suffer, especially those who were involved in the “cleanup” and capping of the radioactive materials.
In many ways, reading about it has been depressing.2 I do want to learn more about my father’s experience during this period, though, not just in relation to me and my parents, but in relation to the larger movements of human history, and of this planet. So that continues.
In the early 1950s, Dad was also working on troop ships and hospital ships that were evacuating refugees and wounded soldiers from the Korean war conflict. I can’t imagine the stress he and his shipmates underwent trying to feed and care for all those people, wounded in both body and mind.
Today I’ve been thinking of another shipboard experience—that of my mother’s immigration to the United States from the Philippines in 1949. What I remember is that Mom (Trinidad G. Vengua) arrived in the U.S. on a ship run by American President Lines. I had pictured a large 50s style tourist cruise ship. However, I recently found a letter suggesting that Mom was scheduled to board the SS. Gen. Gordon—a troop ship. In 1950, many of its passengers were refugees from China.
But wait—turns out she didn’t make it to the S.S. Gen. Gordon by its embarkation date of March 15!
This afternoon, I started going through two boxes of letters, looking for a March or April letter that would explain the situation. I couldn’t find it. I started to look through a third (large) box, but quickly got overwhelmed by all the letters in the box.
So many letters!
Well, I wasn’t just overwhelmed by the number of letters; I started to realize just how many stories these letters held. Three (or four?) wars, including a “Cold” War. Multiple migrations leading to more migrations. Which stories could I tell? How much research would it take? Where was I in all of this?
It’s been a busy week and weekend, and I decided that—as much as I’d love to uncover more information for this issue—I need to give it a break, let it soak in.
ART
I think I’m coming to terms with the often distractable and diffuse nature of my approach to art and just about everything I undertake. A visual guide incorporated in a summary of six approaches to meditation (see the second diagram) helped me to recognize the pattern, and accept that this is just how I operate. I follow points of interest as they arise, and see where they go.
Collage is a great way to gather together seemingly disparate fragments and make sense of them, at least visually, and hopefully in other ways, too. I’ve got a lot of paper in boxes and bags that I want to re-use. Here are a couple of older collages I’ve done, two incorporating pieces of dress patterns drawn by my mother, and one using scraps found around my studio area:
In the Rabbit Hole section, below, I’ve included links to several artists for whom collage and juxtaposition of related or seemingly disparate images are important.
RABBIT HOLE
Stephanie Syjuco’s latest project, The Unruly Archive, “talks back” to an archive and “finds agency in challenging its images.” Historical or anthropological research is often important to her work, as in the following video about her “Double Vision” project:
Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera began doing collage as an accessible art form when he had little money and little space. He’s especially interested in how a great composition can be composed of many disparate fragments. He ends with a discussion of his large wall painting project for the museum at Santiago de Compostela—the end point of the famous pilgrimage route:
Duane Toops on the pleasure of collage, and an event called Kolaj Fest (Part 1 and Part 2) that turned out to be “life-changing.” And while you are at it, check out Toops’ beautiful collage art in his newsletter, and check out Kolaj Magazine.
“Conversation with Immigration Officer” (published in Poetry magazine) by Ae Hee Lee. Thanks to Leny Strobel for pointing out this poem.
I went downtown for the Monterey Pride parade today, and it was lovely and rambunctious. Speaking of which, Robin Taylor could be That Trans Friend You Didn’t Know You Needed (on Substack). Also check out Taylor’s latest article, “Substack is Queer.”
With the 4th of July coming up soon (as the popping of illegal fireworks around the neighborhood attest to), here are “Flowers of Fire: Illustrations from Japanese Fireworks Catalogues” of the 1880s. To me, though, they look like beautiful tarot cards. From Public Domain Review.
A very moving 13 min. and 44 seconds with Betty Reid Soskin talking about life at 101:
I had heard about her vocation as a park ranger. But what I didn’t know is that Betty was a talented singer. Here’s a brief local news report on the documentary, No Time to Waste, being made about her that will reveal the many sides of this interesting woman:
SOUNDINGS
“Wind Song” composed and performed by Betty Reid Soskin:
A musical “conversation” between guitar (Derek Gripper) and kora (Ballaké Sissoko) at the Ancient Stone Quarry in Gümüşlük (Bodrum, Muğla, Türkiye); this is a full concert:
Romany Gilmour sings “Between Two Points,” accompanied by her father, David. It’s got that moody Gilmour thing going :
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Although I sometimes wonder about his glaucoma, which made him go blind in his 80s, and my own thyroid condition in my 20s.
Including regrets about not reaching out to learn more while my parents were alive; feelings of helplessness in the face of the larger movements of war, climate change, loss.