WINDOWS IN THE VILLAGE OF JEWELS (JAVAHER-DEH)
“The window has lost its significance as a mediator between two worlds, between enclosed and open, interiority and exteriority, private and public, shadow and light.”
“The window has lost its significance as a mediator between two worlds, between enclosed and open, interiority and exteriority, private and public, shadow and light.”
_ Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin. P (47)
Probably the word window mostly reminds people of the operating system of their computers. And it is true for many of us who are the citizens of the early third millennium: an era that is obsessed by information and digital technology. Maybe we stare at the display of our computers more than at any other screen. Possibly, a window may reminds us of huge stained glass panels of Biblical scenes in some Gothic churches. Or a window may be a recap of a porthole in a cozy cabin of a ship or it may jog our memory of an aircraft window that frames the clouds or a city as small as letter size paper.
If we flip through any dictionary and look for the word window, we will almost certainly end up with statements that describe window as an opening in the surface, which may or may not be fitted with glass or any other transparent or translucent material. That plane might be a wall, floor, roof and the like. So basically the definitions resonate a window into a mere absence of a part of that very holding plane.
But it is more than just an opening or an absence of a solid mass. It will control, admit and manage the passage of light, air, and sound. It will define the sum of privacy and intimacy. It allows you to see out, leads the direction of your sight, and may expand/shrink the visible scenery in proportion to your distance from itself or may tilt the scene based on an equation of your angle with itself.
Among all these, to me a window is the metaphor of hope in simple daily life. Even a minimal hole or a tiny opening, stands as an index for hopefulness, which ties us to the outside world. A window is an observatory that brings us awareness, a notch that informs us of a new day, and an aperture that pours the light into our minds, and feeds us with wisdom and vision.
A couple of years ago I visited a remote, very small, town called Javaher Deh; which translates into Village of Jewels, which is an old village situated in the middle of the lush Caspian belt in Northern Iran. All of a sudden the windows of this beautiful village attracted me. They were fractions of a beautiful vernacular architecture that had been created without architects through time. While the whole town had been tuned in complete harmony, every window had its own story, character, size, color and identity. Magnificently each of them represented, as delightfully as possible, the taste of its own dwellers that lived at the back of that very window.
Probably the word window mostly reminds people of the operating system of their computers. And it is true for many of us who are the citizens of the early third millennium: an era that is obsessed by information and digital technology. Maybe we stare at the display of our computers more than at any other screen. Possibly, a window may reminds us of huge stained glass panels of Biblical scenes in some Gothic churches. Or a window may be a recap of a porthole in a cozy cabin of a ship or it may jog our memory of an aircraft window that frames the clouds or a city as small as letter size paper.
If we flip through any dictionary and look for the word window, we will almost certainly end up with statements that describe window as an opening in the surface, which may or may not be fitted with glass or any other transparent or translucent material. That plane might be a wall, floor, roof and the like. So basically the definitions resonate a window into a mere absence of a part of that very holding plane.
But it is more than just an opening or an absence of a solid mass. It will control, admit and manage the passage of light, air, and sound. It will define the sum of privacy and intimacy. It allows you to see out, leads the direction of your sight, and may expand/shrink the visible scenery in proportion to your distance from itself or may tilt the scene based on an equation of your angle with itself.
Among all these, to me a window is the metaphor of hope in simple daily life. Even a minimal hole or a tiny opening, stands as an index for hopefulness, which ties us to the outside world. A window is an observatory that brings us awareness, a notch that informs us of a new day, and an aperture that pours the light into our minds, and feeds us with wisdom and vision.
A couple of years ago I visited a remote, very small, town called Javaher Deh; which translates into Village of Jewels, which is an old village situated in the middle of the lush Caspian belt in Northern Iran. All of a sudden the windows of this beautiful village attracted me. They were fractions of a beautiful vernacular architecture that had been created without architects through time. While the whole town had been tuned in complete harmony, every window had its own story, character, size, color and identity. Magnificently each of them represented, as delightfully as possible, the taste of its own dwellers that lived at the back of that very window.
So I started cataloguing them through the visor of my camera, a smaller window that was mediating between my eyes and each window. Ever since then I have been fascinated by these openings called windows.
_ Reza Aliabadi (RZLBD)
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
© REZA ALIABADI (RZLBD)
2005, Toronto, Canada
