Day four at La Chapelle Saint-Antoine, Naxos

The day began with one of those sunrises that makes you stop on the terrace before doing anything else. Breakfast in that light, then into the studio.
Today was largely a research day. I have been reading into the Dionysus story and the deeper mythological history of Naxos, an island where the god is variously said to have been born, raised, and where he is said to have found Ariadne after Theseus abandoned her on its shores. I am not yet sure where this thread will lead, but it is beginning to feel like a possible direction for the body of work that emerges from this residency. The collision of mythology with the very real landscape I am moving through every day, the same hills and coastline that figure in those stories, has a particular weight to it that is hard to ignore. Whether the work ultimately responds to those narratives directly or simply absorbs something of their atmosphere is a question I am happy to leave open for now.
Alongside the reading, I made some Origin Image work in the landscape. Partly responding to those mythological threads, but mostly as my own way of connecting to the place I find myself in. That has been the function of the Origin Image methodology in my practice for some time now, a contemplative encounter with the landscape that becomes the source material for the studio work that follows. It is the bridge between place and object.
I also began preparing materials to experiment with cyanotypes for the first time, sanding back acrylic to give it some bite and see whether the chemistry will hold to a non-porous surface. The cyanotype process, with its dependence on UV light, feels well suited to the conditions here, and the absence of UV printing on the island has pushed me toward considering older photographic chemistries that I might not otherwise have explored. We will see what comes of it tomorrow.
El-ham cooked a beautiful rice dish for lunch, served with Shitto, a Ghanaian chilli and dried fish paste she had brought with her from Accra. Spicy and genuinely wonderful. I forgot to photograph it. Too hungry, and it was too good. The shared kitchen is becoming one of the quiet pleasures of this residency, and the conversations across cultures and practices that emerge over a meal are part of what makes the experience what it is.
A long day, mostly research, lots of small directions opening up. Ended it with gyros, a cold beer, and the sunset over the Aegean. Hard to argue with that. More tomorrow.
Bronisław Kózka