One of the basic elements of poetic expression in haiku poems is an image, an outline that directly expresses the moment of experiencing the world by itself. Human being, at first, got to know the world intuitively and comprehended it via image. The image is older than words, so it is not a coincidence that image in haiku poems is the primary element.
The esthetics of haiku poems and photography lies not just in the fact that they both contain an image within themselves, but in closeness of these two images. A haiku poet and a photographer see the world in the same way. They reveal a marvelous world of common things. And each moment, experience, each sensation has its value. Each glance is special, each interpretation and perception of this world is different and special, for a photographer and for a haiku poet. They contain the same special moment when a person sees the things, caught and recorded (especially things already seen), in a new manner. It is true that photography is created in a mechanical process, but what we get can be full of meanings, which mainly depends on the subject. Haiku and photography are instruments of acquiring true knowledge of the things. Today we own knowledge about the words and images so we cannot answer the question whether we learn via words or images, because we constantly translate images into words and words into images. A secret is given to us in front of photography and haiku poetry, and we are trying to reveal it by searching for a clue or a key. Therefore poetry is always present in photography.
Through haiku poetry we reveal the truth, expressed in unbiased way, without overexeggerated interpretation, and we get to know the poet and the meaningful moments of insight and feelings expressed in his/her haiku – “parts of life”
My verses objectively and precisely express the truth in a manner characteristic only for the children, with the inner conception of the world. This is why lyrics are about butterflies, the moon on a divine asphalt, porridge that smiles, a girl amidst flowers… By reading them again, I realised they make me think repeatedly, cheer me up, encourage, guard… They guard ‘a child inside of me”.
“Flowers are beautiful.
Amidst them is
girl!”
”If somebody picks
a girl with flowers,
let them be put together
in a vase!”
”Ah, Rina there you are,
you little concealer!
In a mirror!”
”The leaf fell in
the pot, the porridge
spilled out of laughter!”
Come to have dinner together!
Without you and chair
I cannot dine.
A ballet dancer dances!
There is nobody
To clap hands.
On a divine
asphalt
a yellow roll.
In 1991 an article about my haiku verses was published. The title was „A girl who sees the lyrics”. This article encouraged me to ty to visualise some of the most characteristic haiku lines through the medium of photography. I am actually not a haiku poet. As most of the children I noticed and expressed my inner sensations. I was lucky to have them written down then, published and kept. Today I posses them in a written form, but I have a desire to see them again. In a constant search for answers „who and why I am”, I decided for a research of that period of my life. By analysing the drafts that directly express authentic moments of sensing the world around me as a child, I keep trying to achieve a deeper insight in my work – to catch something I always seem to miss, something hidden. By reading each haiku separately, I am trying to visually construct and note down the moment by living through it again. Although they belong to the past, I am making an effort to ‘watch’ them still from a child’s perspective. But they inevitably get the sense of some other reality and go through a transformation. At that point a fantastic metamorphosis occurs from ‘me – a child’ to ‘a child inside of me’. Through a game of written sensations (haiku verses) and current sensations (visualisation of the the same) I create a completely new world. Through a creative game of picturing words from haiku verses I learn experiences of early childhood and the forms of personal development and behaviour. A human being is closest to oneself when he/she reach the seriousness of a child in a middle of a play. Because photography is lined with play generally, because we are played upon in front of it, this is the reason why it plays with us successfully, and it can enter the world of art. Photography is a part of artificially created and not of reality. What counts for play counts considerably for a piece of art as well. It is generated in a real world, but it creates an imaginary world by using ‘real props’ to shape the world of unreal. Heraclitus apprehends the play as a symbol of the world and the development of the world is presented with a playing child. Plato accommodates the play in the area of imaginary but it is still of high rank because the Gods live in a form of a play. Kant in play sees the release from all the goals, purposeness without the purpose. Schiller in play sees complete freedom, only in play a human is a human. Johan Huisinga separates the play as an important feature of a human being, as an area of work selfsufficient. A poet, a child, and a man are in their natural state while playing.
Haiku verses created in childhood, through play, get the sense of some different reality and experience metamorphosis towards unreal and surreal. This process as a main characteristic emphasises liberation from goals and needs – ‘purposeness without the purpose’. It can be interpreted as a field of work rich with sense – selfsufficient free field of work. Although at the first glance selfsufficient, the play reaches inevitably a deeper insight into the world – a symbolic craft where the meaning of life is presented. The things as they are are expressed, the cut of from reality, what is intangible is caught and presented, it stays hidden, in this way it gets dematerialised, it becomes a creation, it becomes art.
In my work fictive (poem) is translated into again fictive (staged reality) and in this way I create the world of fiction which is not less dematerialised from a real world. While we live in fantasy, we own imaginary reality, and it is, from then on, the only reality that has a sense. One piece of art can be the source of another. Through the process of staging and light inscription, I shape the verses repeatedly… The viewer of these photographs meets the same sensations of ones from a poem, but at the same time, in imagination, travels somewhere else, because imaginary on the picture has completely different effect than the words.
The basis of work is imaging and recording the objects I made. The process connects sculpture, installation, directing and photography, imagination of the audience in same manner as imagination of the creator. The process of work on the thought development – forevisualisation of art was longlasting and went through numerous phases. First stage was the selection of haiku verses, then of elements of priority and then the choice of materials that would contribute to the idea in best way. Afterwards the selection of space, scene framework, colours, props, as well as the possibilities for light play, light effects and shadows and the overall impression achieved on the photo. The sole creating of small installations in a certain surrounding is more important than the act of recording. The installation is photoed in order to become a photography. The whole process starts with a line, with the flickering of possible, and ends up with dematerialising, fixing, transforming into a piece of photography. The connection of poetic fantasy that emotionally surprises, and which is featured with overexaggeration and distancing from reality and photography, which is clear, which should convince us, a fantasy characterised by reality and truthfulness, with a common aim to emotionally thrill. My photographies refer more to emotions than to intelect. By offering a meeting with until then unnoticed shapes and meanings, my photographies renew our way of viewing in a way that they liberate from conventional. They are constructors of new imaginary world. In my work I avoid usual provocative and shocking stimuli, I isolate myself from general ugliness and meaninglessness and search for harmony and spirituality in haiku poetry and childhood by searching for hidden subtle features of my being. Photographs offer you the possibility to liberate, and without any false pretenses, to read them in a completely personal mode.