Volcano Club

Volcano Club only offers one type of membership - and that's lifetime. To become a member send some volcanic themed work to the HQ (volcanoclubhq@gmail.com) and you might get a codename or some other cool shit.

Sunday 18 November 2012

Gatekeepers and Murals

My dad sent me this link about the gatekeeper, Pak Asih, of Mount Merapi and his father the previous gatekeeper of Merapi, who had died in the volcanoes last eruption. And I remembered that I knew about this and had written about it but then I found out it was two years ago which pretty much blew my mind as it seems crazy that I've been writing this shit for over two years. I know if I look down the side of my blog I can see the dates but I don't really pay any attention to that. Obviously Volcano Club dates back to 1995 it's just the blog that was created two years ago. I don't know if it's good that I've been doing this so long or that it's how I should mark the time passing.

The gatekeepers funeral

Anyway it's actually a really interesting programme, I particularly like the bit where he says 'I'm uneducated why would I want to go anywhere else', which makes a lot of sense. Then talking about his daughters and how he wants more for them - to be educated and travel. I'm not really sure if this is progress being gatekeeper to a volcano must be very fulfilling and they must have a deep connection with the volcano - I believe him when he says the government gets it wrong. It's all too easy for to dismiss the knowledge of local people as unscientific however the accumulated experience of centuries must have some truth. The role of these gatekeepers to live by the volcano and observing it maybe is as good research and warning system as anything else available.

On more trivial volcano news I have a big space on my wall that I want to paint a mural on - obviously my initial thoughts have all been volcanic. Is this a good idea? Is any mural ever a good idea? I really don't want anything twee so whatever I do has to be actually good. So maybe some kinda volcanic landscape, I've been  looking at 36 Views of Mount Fuji so I'm thinking along those lines, but maybe it'll just look crap and I don't want it to look like I'm trying to do a Japanese painting cos that will look crap. So any advice would be greatly received.

Also you can still buy copies of my zine here

3 comments:

  1. Well glad you like 'The Gatekeeper', stuff had forgotten it was blogged before. The mural would be fun to do, I reckon you should work it up as a line drawing only to start, that way it could grow over time, others might contribute as well. If it ever makes sense you can do some colouring in at the end.

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  2. PS That sounds like I don't think it will ever make sense but what I meant was if colour makes sense.

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  3. Yes the gatekeeper also reminds me of the DVD boardgame ATMOSFEAR, where there is also a gatekeeper. A line drawing would be good actually - especially as it means buying less paint.

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