Sunday Brunch
Your weekly roundup...
Hello beautiful people,
As spring has fully sprung there is more to do outside and less time to write. This means that not only is my mind scrambled, but I have also not been able to sit down long enough to unscramble it sufficiently. In my writing I may be scathing the surface a little more than I would like to. I promise to make time to dig a little deeper in the coming weeks. The offer I made from the start also still stands: What do you want me to write about? Now you have gotten to know me a bit better through my writing, maybe you have a topic that will be a match.
What I do have for this week’s roundup for Sunday Brunch is the following:
ESSAY
This week I am dedicating space to the person who first introduced me to the art of essay writing. The magnificent Michael Zeeman, Dutch writer, poet and literary critic. He may still turn in his grave reading my work but I am fully committed to one day making him proud.
https://rammelt.substack.com/p/about-writing
COLUMN
Home is this week’s theme. I apparently am not alone in feeling a little uprooted lately. Where do we belong? Like finding love, finding home isn’t always that easy.
https://rammelt.substack.com/p/home
SNIPPET
I devoted this weeks duo to two of the art projects I did when squatting in an artist’s bulwark In Haarlem for a year or two. I matched one project with a poem of my own, the other lead me to DH Lawrence.
Fractured Infinity
In 2010 I stripped naked and took photos of myself, head to toe. I then printed my body out on paper exact to size. I took this as a template for rough outlines, a silhouette and transferred it onto two tall mirrors. I created a puzzle where half of the pieces were on one mirror, half on the other.
Placing the mirrors opposite each other the puzzle would be completed. But mirrors opposite each other also create an infinite reflection. The trick is: with the observer standing in between the mirrors there is never an uninterrupted perfect picture.
Project onto it what you will. For me it has many layered meanings, of seeing, being seen and seeing ourselves.
NARC
For NARC I combined the concepts of vanity, addiction, betrayal and loss expressed through a gold coke snorter with a sharply cut ruby inlay. The cutting blade is based on a razor blade, but meant to be worn as a necklace. The mirror is covered with a widow’s veil.
(All of it was stolen during a burglary three years ago.)
https://rammelt.substack.com/p/craving-for-spring
JOURNAL
Here I honestly jotted down everything as it came to me, close to home and close to heart. The way I live some people call idiotic. One friend politely put it like this: It is a bit Bohemian isn’t it?
https://rammelt.substack.com/p/the-way-i-live
FUTURE REFERENCE
I don’t just write, I also read a lot. Here a few things that have caught my attention and linger. I might circle back to them in future posts or follow up with related external content.
Homesteading and Tradwives
It links a little with my journal topic this week. My aunt sent me an Instagram account called Mother the Mountain. Idyllic yes, but more escapism than aspirational. Homesteaders and tradwives are a bit of a hot topic of debate, and Trill adds to the conversation. A friend who I shared it with earlier today rightly commented the article is very America oriented, but I am curious to hear what you think. I am single and have learned that self-sustainable is an illusion to achieve entirely on my own, and, like my friend said… is it weird that I find the trad wife life partially appealing…?
https://www.trillmag.com/life/social-media/the-red-flags-of-the-homestead-influencer/
Joan Didion
I reference her in this week’s essay. The link leads you to a classic piece of writing in Vogue. I do highly recommend reading The Year of Magical Thinking too (Marc Jacobs is currently reading it too.)
https://www.vogue.com/article/joan-didion-self-respect-essay-1961
Kiki
When living at the Phoenix, the only time in my life that I created art, my neighbour across the hallway was Kiki Weerts. After coming back there after my surgeries she offered to paint me a leather jacket. Initially it didn’t come to us what my totem animal should be. A fluffy bunny or a bright pink piglet. Eventually the most obvious choice had been staring us in the face. A phoenix.
https://www.kikiweerts.nl/
I wish you a happy week ahead!
Love Lee
XXL