red heads in berlin 2009
Archaeological digs in the Chinese desert of Takla Makan found mummified redheads dating back 3,000 years.
Sixty percent of women who dye their hair do so at home. Of them twenty six percent choose to go blonde, twenty seven percent go basic brunette, and thirty percent choose to become redheads. The sale of at home red dye kits has gone up seventeen percent since the year two thousand hit.
Adams first wife Lilith, always depicted as a redhead, is known to have refused to lie beneath Adam during sexual intercourse, and stated” why should I lie beneath you when I am your equal since both of us were created from dust” –Patai
The country name of Russia means "land of reds" in honor of a redheaded Viking by the name of Rurik.
Red-haired Clowns have their origins in Russia.
Red-haired Clowns have their origins in Russia.
The Romans kept red haired slaves, and at a higher price.
Adolph Hitler reportedly banned the marriages of two redheads as he feared their children would be “deviant offspring”.
Belief that redheads are witches is a folk belief in Germanic culture. From 1483-1784 thousands of suspected witches were nearly always stripped and searched for “marks of the devil”. These included any “abnormality” such as freckles, moles, warts, and birthmarks. Red hair was certainly considered an abnormality. Considering the freckle factor for redheads this was a deadly and shocking horror. Somewhere around 45,000 women were tortured and murdered usually by burning at the stake or by drowning.
In the late 16th century, the fat of a redheaded man was an essential ingredient for poison.
In Denmark it is an honor to have a redheaded child.
In Corsica, if you pass a redhead in the street you are to spit and turn around.
In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery-Sylvia Stevez.
In Greek Mythology, redheads turn into Vampires when they die.
An Irish judge in 2001 fined a man for disorderly conduct stating “I am a firm believer that hair coloring has an effect on temper and your coloring suggests you have a temper.”
At St. Paul’s cathedral in London, figurines tell the story of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Adam points one hand to the forbidden fruit and the other to a golden haired Eve. Then the arch angel drives them from the garden. Adam with his fig leaf loops his arm around Eve who is now cowering and sporting a main of long red hair.
roman rainbows
2014
Late one night in the first days of the new year, I stepped off of a bus in front of the Piazza Venizia and found myself alone looking down Via del Corso, a normally busy commercial street in the center of Rome, where earlier in the day tourists were bombarded with people trying to sell them umbrellas and a multitude of less useful things. In the early morning hours, just after a heavy rainstorm, it was a radically different place. The strings of rainbow-colored lights draped above, along the length of the long street, were reflected on the surface of the many puddles which had become the top layer of layers and layers of past civilizations. As I walked along the road the rainbows came to life, plunging into the crumbled worlds of ghosts below and springing back up again repeatedly as if attempting to splash the past onto modern storefronts . With no one but myself and the many silent marble faces looking on, I knew that this was one of those experiences I couldn't give to anyone, but there are others I can. It is always worth a try. Here is what I can share with you, for now. I hope you will enjoy my efforts.
A DAY IN ‘HIS’ LIFE
Digital photo series
Berlin 2003
One day in December, I asked the people I met (mostly strangers) to be ‘Him’ for a moment.
Digital photo series
Berlin 2003
One day in December, I asked the people I met (mostly strangers) to be ‘Him’ for a moment.
is this the place?
uninvited thanksgiving guest
holiday shopping at the mall
ONE PLACE AT A TIME
Photo
Berlin/U.S. 2001
and
OHRWURM
Sound/Super8 film
U.S. 2001
These two works were developed in the Spring of 2001, while traveling through the U.S.- Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York City.
They are intended to be shown together.
ONE PLACE AT A TIME, is about places.
It is about the unachievable desire to be in two places at once.
I carried more than 50 photographs of my current neighborhood in East Berlin with me on my journey through the places of my past. In these American landscapes, I photographed each Berlin photo twice, one time - focused on the Berlin photo, and the other- focused on the landscape behind.
OHRWURM, literally “Ear worm”, is about people.
Ohrwurm is the German name for the songs, which get stuck in ones mind. As I traveled, I asked the people whom I visited to sing their “Ohrwurms”. I recorded them, and filmed them with Super 8 film. In Berlin, I took stills from each person, framed them and placed them together on a small, round table. Viewers could hear them singing on headphones, but there was no indication as to which voice belonged to which person.
Ohrwurm is the German name for the songs, which get stuck in ones mind. As I traveled, I asked the people whom I visited to sing their “Ohrwurms”. I recorded them, and filmed them with Super 8 film. In Berlin, I took stills from each person, framed them and placed them together on a small, round table. Viewers could hear them singing on headphones, but there was no indication as to which voice belonged to which person.
