Fragment: Invisible Presences

Presenting that which is unseen

Tele-Present Wind (Mars wind version), 2024
by David Bowen

I have been thinking about absence and presence since last week. Actually, I have been fascinated with this theme since I heard that the ancients thought of wind as invisible movement. As spirit.

Above is part of David Bowen’s series of artworks called Tele-Present Wind. Here is another version:

Tele-Present Wind, 2018
by David Bowen

Using a variety of sensors Bowen connects different dead and dried plants to motors that then respond to the wind conditions of a different location. The first iteration had a gallery in Spain reflecting the wind conditions in Minnesota. The one in 2024 reflected the wind conditions on the planet Mars.

You have to go to the website and watch the videos.

The absence of wind in one place is remedied via a “tele” connection. It reminds me of this stanza:

Prairie liturgy
By Todd Davis
Part IX

Today the grasses rise and fall, as they do
At sea. And this bird's wing-beat helps
Move the stems, takes the seed and delivers
It into the earth where the sun will drag it
Toward heaven, all of our heads bowed
And bent by the wind.

Watching the silent dance of stalks, I can hear the wind in my imagination. A gale is coming. A bird is flapping its wings. My neck bends.