This week's picture prompt is all over the internet with no one credited for this specific image. I thought it had been altered, but it hasn't and might actually be a shot taken from the video on the creator's website. In 2006 artist Kimsooja, created an installation called To Breathe – A Mirror Woman at the Palacio de Cristal (The Glass Palace) in Parque del Retiro, Madrid. Originally built in the late 1880s, the greenhouse housed a collection of flora and fauna from the Philippines. Kimsooja transformed the Palacio de Cristal into a multisensory sound and light experience. A special translucent diffraction film was used to cover the windows to create an array of naturally occurring rainbows which in turn were reflected by a mirrored surface that covered the entire floor. Additionally, an audio recording of the artist breathing was played throughout the space to further enhance the experience. The exhibition is no longer running, but you can watch a video of it here.
A perfect time to explore some of Tricky's future tales. The last Tricky tale was a couple of weeks back on Week 283.
The General Guidelines can be found here.
How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here.
There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.
Palm Tree
“What the bloody
hell is this?”
Tricky spoke out
loud but knew he wasn’t here.
It looked like
some kind of giant greenhouse, but she wasn’t convinced it was real. The
strange wobbly rainbow light at the windows giving her a clue.
Where had he
brought her to? The bloody overgrown pompous oaf!
She walked over
to one of the glass walls, and put her hand on it. It was solid, but the light
on the other side of it moved in an ethereal way that made her believe this
contraption was suspended in some kind of energy pool.
Or was it? Was
that foliage outside? Were there trees? What illusion was he trying to pull
here? And they called her the tricky one!
She walked over
to the middle of the … she hesitated to call it a room because it was so big –
she even tapped the poles holding it up and they felt solid enough. She plonked
herself down on the floor and crossed her legs.
She closed her
eyes and took in a deep breath, imagining all that rainbow light filling her
up. It felt powerful. Then she opened her arms and started to spin them in
opposite directions, agitating the air, then when she felt it had reached a
high enough pitch she brought her hands together fast and hard, the ensuing
clap sounding like a whip crack and giving the desired effect; she heard glass shatter.
Tricky didn’t
open her eyes, instead she repeated the motion, feeling her own bright yellow
energy expand with the rainbow and when she brought her hands together the
sound created a splash sending the energy out to all corners of the room. More
glass broke and she felt it fall around her.
A breeze picked
up and she opened her eyes to find one of the panels was completely gone and,
as she had suspected, outside there was foliage, really dense and of plants
that didn’t look familiar.
It was no longer
about where she was, it was about when she was, because she’d never seen
plants like this on the landmass.
Tricky climbed
out and looked at the trunk of a tree that was smooth but yet divided into
horizontal sections. When she looked up at the top of the tree it had a plume
of large, long feather-like leaves. She’d never seen anything like it.
She laid her
hands on it, and a warm bright yellowish green light rushed through her. She saw
images of blue skies and colourful birds, and heat from the sun that she had
never known. It felt marvellous. But there were no people in any of the images
it sent her, and especially not her bloated hunter.
Now was the
chance to get out of here. She thanked the strange tree for its help and energy
and stepped away from the building into the undergrowth.
She pulled in as
much of the energy around her as she could, simultaneously drawing in a breath
and bringing up her own internal light, then she breathed out long and hard and
started clapping her hands. She felt the air move around her. She reached into
her pocket to her obsidian chips and picked a big one, then brought out a
couple of grains of creasy. An image from a book she had read in her childhood
popped into her mind, and she sprinkled the creasy onto the stone. A splitting
sound revealed a large rip in the air in front of her, and a slither of moonlit
bay appeared.
Not home yet,
but it would do. She climbed through, clapping her hands hard on the other side
to close it. Now let’s see if the puffed up git can follow me here, Tricky
thought. She hoped to be safe for a little while.
Everything, Everywhere: All at Once
ReplyDeleteThe greenhouse shone like a bauble.
Adam turned on the spot, shuffling his heels. There were windows within windows, panes tiered from the floor to the roof space, each oblong an opening into a different world.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
The boy nodded, acknowledging Carlton. “It’s like bliss,” he said. “A moment frozen in time.”
A million lives continued. Glaciers charged across thousands of unknown landscapes. The extinct and the yet-to-be, processing together: their individuality framed side by side, snapshots wrenched from eternity.
“You should enjoy it,” Carlton said. “It’s all yours.”
The squat man in the tuxedo stepped back into the shadow that appeared for him, anticipating his move. He stood there for a moment, watching the boy. He waited patiently, trusting he had chosen correctly.
Adam took a moment to acclimatise. He could see themes in the scenes before him. If he traced a line, he could connect commonalities in all he was being shown. Glaciers and ice floes; snowfields and the serrations of mountain peaks. There were polar bears, penguins, wolves, and white-furred, long-eared rabbits. Another line, another set of realities; jaguars and jungles, eagles and desert dunes, farm animals and supermarket checkouts. Some connections seemed obscure, while others were like consecutive pages. It seemed whatever he thought immediately linked to the last thing he’d viewed. He tried skipping at random, tracing constellations no man had ever seen. Order imposed itself, like beads on a thread, each moment segueing into the next ad infinitum. But none of these fragments showed him what he sought.
“I feel lonely,” the boy said. “There’s nobody here but me. Except for you, of course. But you don’t count anymore.”
The glass continued to glow, a faceted jewel that encompassed everything. The universe collectively held its breath for a millennium.
The new god was undecided and concerned about the full breadth of his responsibilities. Omnipresence brought new pressures; the thought millions were watching weighed him down. Everything he did would cause grief and pain for millions. There was no right or wrong, only the void waiting behind him. Death was the only relief, a blessing that only an immortal would treasure.
Carlton had already gone, relieved of his duty. Silence and darkness would be his eternal reward.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
ReplyDeleteIt was the most vertiginous thing I had ever seen.
The room, maybe it was I, spun. A rainbow of colours danced around me as I fell to the floor.
Tears ran down my face as I was lying on the floor waiting for darkness so I could escape the beauty.
Hi All, here's my effort this month :) Hope you like it! Traininghttps://lexikon.home.blog/2023/03/19/training-day-avalon-and-albion/Day
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prompt Miranda!