RONDA BEAMER

Mauer 2

 

John LeKay: How long have you been taking photographs and where did you take the photos of the two stack power plants?

Rhonda Beamer:  The power plants were shot in Florida. There was a beautiful soft blue calm sky. And out of the blue, so to speak, against this peaceful background rose up these spherical structures. I think if you were a child you wouldn't know what these were. That’s how I saw them- like, what the hell are these things? What are they for? They are immense; they must be for something, but for what. If you were a child would you think someone lived in them? If we recognize structures (buildings) outside as being houses, barns, offices, apartment buildings, etc., what is the purpose of these funny-shaped things or are there people inside there and what are they doing inside?

The smoke is another element that is mystifying and seems dangerous. What causes the smoke; could it explode?  Would you think these were on fire? Is there a furnace or fireplace inside; or a man inside tending the fire; does the fire burn forever; is the smoke dangerous (toxic)? Is there a sound the smoke makes coming out; if you were up close would you hear what is inside causing the smoke? I’m interested in sound energy and the vibration or feel of the air pulsating around them. There is a video I made out in Ohio farmland on a summer day of those towers and power lines hissing.  You have this peaceful landscape and menacing sound buzzing.

They have a play-dough color and kid-friendly shape even though they could also be perceived as sinister or evil.  Although I prefer precise clean-line architectural shapes (Bauhaus architecture) these rounded amorphic shapes are mother-like and have this soft nestling close to the ground nurturing quality like a mother hen and her chick.

The other aspect of this image for me, is that we live in another world today than when I grew up. So there is this loss of innocence and it makes me sad.  I’m not sure when the first power plant was constructed, or when they took on this sinister connotation but now they pose a political and environmental threat as well as the potential danger of being targeted by terrorists.  

 

 

Power Plant 1

 

As far as architecture and art in general, I feel architecture is sculpture on a grand scale – a more valid “modern” art form-because these monumental “sculptures” involve space. You can walk around them, inside them. They have to do with atmosphere and energy and for me, make a powerful statement. Some of the dwellings or buildings I photographed are remnants of walls or crumbling roofs or open rooms where nature has taken over.  Although I love to paint because it feels good, the meditative, expressive direct contact with paper or canvas, paintings are generally 2-dimensional and hang on a wall to be viewed.  Which brings me to the question or issue of (why) photography.

 

 

 Mauer 1

 

I started seriously taking photos during college and after, when I lived in Taos because the desert landscape is austere and quiet, zen-like, a beautiful extreme combination of breath-taking mountains, huge flat rocks, crevices and cliffs and hot dry sandy desert.  There is this smell of pure clean pine and sage-scented air. I wasn’t interested in taking “scenic” photos because nature has to be experienced, not viewed second-hand. Some of the photos I took were of organic rock formations (e-rock-tica) and people (bluenudeinbathroommirror). 

 

Mauer3

 

My inspiration for the website and the majority of my photographic work comes from the city of Berlin and my experience living there ten years. I have a deep connection to Berlin; like a love/hate relationship. For some reason, in college I was writing Berlin over and over, was into Bauhaus design/architecture and a fan of Fassbinder.  I also like the work of Gerhard Richter, Anselm Keifer, Joseph Beuys, Eva Hesse (American) among others. 

Regarding the video work, I always wanted to be a filmmaker. I like the spontaneity, immediacy of photography and film/video - how it really imitates real life, or “surreal” life (life as illusion, what is real?). When you view a film you are caught up in the moment as if you are living it.   As a film, Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” touched me the same way my memories of Berlin, deeply etched in my psyche, are always with me.  This sense of loss and sadness, the beauty and preciousness of life, human life and ever-present powerful presence of ultimately, death. How we are all living our lives as if in a movie, played out with relationships and dramas and how valuable our limited time here on this plane and in this life is. To be in the present and happy is the key.

 

Berlin Blue

After I graduated, I filmed documentaries and began filming European hardcore bands at night because I was really into the music.  I would book the bands just to get the video footage (no band paid me) and they stayed at my house, which was a (cheap rent) huge 4 story Victorian ½ double.  Some bands I shot were Agnostic Front, Henry Rollins and Nick Cave.  This was during the late 80’s. During this time, some of the bands I met  were the Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, Motley Crue, VoiVod and Kreator, Sun Ra, Patty Smith and Joey Ramone, among others.

I took my video equipment to Italy and started filming European hardcore bands, which was cool because you could order and hear the music but nobody ever saw these bands in concert. So people in Japan, Poland, Germany and the US, for example, could order my videos to see concert footage of these bands. Included is footage of the band being attacked on stage by a group of meth-loaded Italian skin-heads.  They started coming after me to take my equipment & we had to run to the van as they tried to pull the camera & deck from me and threw bricks at the van. I was crawling through the window as we drove away. This was just one of many harrowing events and narrow “escapes” I experienced during this time.  I came back to New York, edited this concert footage, along with scenes from inside squats, shots of punks and skinheads, interviews with people, etc. for Manhattan cable TV as a documentary of this particular time and the music.

When I left New York, I went to Berlin with no plans and ended up there ten years. I don’t regret any of it even though at one point, I was homeless, and had no sense of identity, was not allowed to work certain jobs, had and overcame many unusual difficulties. I love the look and feel of this city; tree-filled parks, and a more civilized “quality” slower-paced life.  Capturing the city’s essence (visual design =architecture) through photography was my way of being grounded and connected to myself, and connected to Berlin.  The walls I photograph are undergoing changes, like the City itself; either under construction or deteriorating, and I found these images captured the essence, the beautiful decaying, timeless soul of the City; a city that endured bombing during the war and which was being reborn.  There is one particular image –that of a bird flying alone in the sky- that for me, typifies the feeling I have of Berlin. A feeling of moving far away, of not having a home and a feeling of leaving, a feeling of being homesick - even while you are there

JL:  Where did you shoot tunnel?

RB: Tunnel was a random shot in a subway. There’s not much else to tell. I shoot a lot of photos in subways. This particular one was in Berlin.. This particular subway “tunnel” reminds me of an airport terminal. A lot of the Berlin subway stations are modern and clean and have this Bauhaus minimalistic feel but this one was more futuristic. The whole thing is metal mesh sides and floor and the round windows look like portholes on a ship. It was very clean and sterile and it was surreal walking on it. It reminds me of boarding an airplane for a flight to Berlin a couple weeks after 9-11.  I still remember the mixture of emotions I had –dread (not wanting to go and feeling anxious the whole 8 hour trip), paranoia (of the other passengers), sadness, and feeling how those people on that plane must have felt knowing they were going to die. 

 

Tunnel

 

JL: Can you please tell me about your creative process?

RB: I wish I could say I had a creative process. Mostly I just take photos that strike me as interesting and sometimes I’m  really surprised at the end result.  They take on a life of their own.  When I started taking photos of subway walls in Berlin, I got them processed cheaply at a drugstore and I flipped out when I saw them.  They looked nothing like I shot and what I thought they would look like.  I was totally shocked and realized it was out of my hands, so to speak.  If you want to talk about creative process, some artists that are around now to me are not really creative or have anything to say –it seems they are into shock value or they are connected to the right people but, and it’s just my opinion, I really wonder how they got to where they are because I don’t think it’s really good “art”.  Art to me is kind of sacred and elevates one beyond the mundane.

 Mauer 4

The best time in my life was in art school (university)- we were passionate about what we were (artists) and what we were doing (ART). The feeling was of being elitists, unique and we were concerned that, after the structure and discipline of college, we might not have the creative motivation to continue to make art, not to mention what it took to get into a gallery, be recognized and successful.

I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I grew up in a conservative small town in Ohio – farmland. I knew I wanted to be famous, successful and that life there was not for me.  I took art classes on Saturday with a woman who had me draw with pastels sunflowers in a vase. I painted portraits of my friends and really liked painting.  I was very passionate about artists and took out lots of art books and artist biographies.  When I went to art gallery or museums, I always thought “I could do that”.

 

Berlin Wall 1

 

The best art was, and is, for me, sculpture; like Richard Serra or Louise Nevellson – mammoth, monumental pieces also, cerebral stuff like Eva Hesse and Anselm Keifer.  I love the heavy-duty manual labor and intensity of pouring metal, making casts and foundry work.  I have early distinct memories of being in spaces, even in dreams, of where the light is coming from, what direction I’m facing, and where the air is blowing from (on my face, etc.). 

 

My father was a manager at a cement plant all his life and my favorite material is concrete..and then plaster. I love white.  As far as photography, I also like what Warhol did with photography-silk-screening and series like Electric Chair and Car Crash. I also like Henry Darger, “pschychological “ art and children’s or mentally ill patients’ art. 

 

  Berlin Wall 3

 

When in Berlin one time I noticed a gallery showing similar architectural photography as mine.  The artist (German) was blowing up images of concrete bridges or industrial sites the size of the walls.  That was not an option for me because I was transient and had no money for working this way.  You can be really clever and talented (Jackson Pollack was clever discovering a new way to paint) but what if there is no audience. It’s a two-way street. Art does not exist alone.  The creative process always begins in the mind but if it doesn’t express itself, there’s no audience for it …the tree falls in the woods but no one there to hear it concept.

.Kreuz

 

JL: Can you tell me about your yoga teaching and how this has impacted on your life?

RB: Yoga is a gift. 

I can honestly say Yoga has saved my life. I’ve seen it change people – not only change in their bodies and their energy, but their mind and hearts. I teach all kinds of people: seniors, children, from pre-schoolers to teenagers, people with osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, MS and Parkinson’s and also teach in gyms, schools as well as privately. I consider myself lucky each day to be able to teach Yoga for a living –to help people connect to their true Source; their essence, who they really are. It also keeps me connected to who I really am –to do something I love and love what I do and keep fit, help others feel good at the same time! 

If people practiced Yoga, they wouldn’t need to depend on doctors and chemicals to maintain their health. Yoga isn’t just a physical practice. The difference between Pilates or Aerobics and Yoga for example is that Yoga essentially is a Spiritual practice. Yoga was developed to make the body more flexible, more comfortable in order to sit for long periods of time to meditate. The “goal” or purpose behind Yoga is to still the mind. When everything is in balance (mind, body, breath, Spirit, we are truly One with nature, with our true nature and the Universe. Yoga means unite or join. We must realize we are not the only Beings on this Planet and treat the Earth and everyone on it with respect and love. We also are responsible for our own health. We are wasting our money and energy (and pumping toxins into our bodies) by perpetuating the cycle of greed and manipulation by pharmaceutical companies and health care organizations. “Back to Eden” by Jethro Kloss is a bible for natural health. In it, he advocates correct food, exercise in fresh air, massage, water therapy, herbs and rest. 

We feel guilty when we take time out; we feel if we’re not doing something we’re wasting time. We need to slow down. Whatever happened to the simple life? Too many cars, too much to do, too many shopping malls. Shopping as a diversion, a search for something to fill the need for happiness. True happiness doesn’t come from without. Look within. Do we really need all these things? Too much pollution, too much garbage, too much of everything. Yoga is about going back to basics, back to the Source. Following your breath to focus and stay centered. Respect and Love one another (including yourself). By meditating, everything falls into place, as it should be.

Sri Swami Satchidananda (founder of Integral Yoga, 1969 Woodstock speaker) said in order to maintain our health we must maintain our peace. We make choices; our mind has a very powerful influence. Each disturbing emotion (negative thought) causes a ripple effect – negative physical effects, negative lifestyle choices and behavior. A yoga practice helps keep us aligned with our true nature, our center of peace no matter what ups and downs life inevitably brings. We were born healthy, we shouldn’t have to do anything to maintain that health. We were at ease, we don’t need to be doing anything to be at ease. It’s when we do something to disturb the ease, then we are dis-eased.

 

Prevention and staying away from that which causes disease is pretty simple –but we forget. We are ignorant. Patanjali (Indian sage who wrote the Sutras) refers to this basic mistake as avidya. Our life is filled with selfishness. We are looking for ease outside ourselves. Instead if we were only to give, only to love, and don’t expect anything in return, then everything good will come back to us. Stay away from anything that disturbs your health. The easiest and best way to do this is to meditate; to develop the mind always with right thought, loving and selfless thoughts; to practice ahimsa (non-violence). Ahimsa is one of the basic fundamental principles of yoga; the Sutras, Yamas and Niyamas, which are ethic codes on how to live your life. This means also non-violence to yourself (smoking, wrong foods, negative people or actions), non-violence relating to animals (become a vegetarian), etc. Read anything by Mahatma Gandhi.

 

Yoga was a physical practice developed to make the body comfortable to sit for long periods in order to meditate to still the mind. Yoga is a way to not suffer. If you know that life is about loss and pain, there is suffering. Yoga is a way to stay focused in the present to remain peaceful no matter what comes your way. To immerse yourself in your Heart- to stay connected with your Divine Source-so you acknowledge and respect the Divine in others. Two books I recommend that changed my life were, “Science of Being and Art of Living” by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This book is about how important meditation is and explains the scientific mechanics and ramifications of thought patterns and how thoughts affect energy in the Universe. Another, the Dalai Lama’s “Ethics for a New Millenium”, explains how religions are not the answer to finding peace. It’s ironic how people have and are still being killed for their differences and religious beliefs. If only we could realize we are all ONE. 

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