Homage to Sadakichi

Poem secreted inside CACTUS SPIRIT CALLING THE BIRDS HOME, prayer wheel cylinder. For every turn of the prayer wheel, the poem symbolically is repeated. A second copy of the poem is printed as a scroll in the ephemera drawer.

White Chrysanthemums

WHENEVER I gaze at a white chrysanthemum, my mind becomes conscious of something which concerns my life alone; something which I would like to express in my art, but which I shall never be able to realize, at least not in the vague and, at the same time, convincing manner the flower conveys it to me. I am also fond of displaying it occasionally in my buttonhole; not for effect, however, but simply because I want other people to know who I am; for those human beings who are sensitive to the charms of the chrysanthemum must hail from the same country in which my soul abides, and I should like to meet them. I should not have much to say to them—souls are not talkative—but we should make curtsies, and hand white chrysanthemums to one another.

Sadakichi Hartmann, 1910

Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944) advanced photography as an art form writing criticism for, among other periodicals, the acclaimed and exquisite CAMERA NOTES and later CAMERA WORKS by Alfred Steiglitz. He wrote poetry, plays, and books-- and his work introduced American modernism to the art scene. The son of a Japanese mother and German father-- his disparate beginnings led to a complex and nuanced world view.

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