5 Doors* is a monthly online magazine/gallery featuring new music, cinema, art, and writing from artist JD RUDOMETKIN. It is also a communal space where monthly rituals are curated. * This gallery is best experienced on a desktop/laptop computer.
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Superior Vena Cava / səˈpirēər vēnə ˈkāvə /- oil on canvass 36 x 48" (91.44 x 121.92cm) $2050 US + shipping
(c) JD Rudometkin 2021. Contact artist regarding this piece, or for commissioned work.
BLACK HOLES
Sit quietly in the lull of your body. It holds weight, you know. And waits for redemption in the wings of common knowledge. For 300 years we have been under the spell of Newton’s fallen apple. And before that, we bought into the idea that Eve swallowing that apple was a fall from grace.
Ideas come and go as religions organize themselves around Jesus Christ and Stephen Hawking. It was not so long ago that god died and we traded in the Catholic Church for a laboratory rat. Is this progress, or just another thought we dropped on Hiroshima? Where are we headed? I see you running at break neck speed toward that bridge, the one leading us to yet another step in our evolution: Here come the electronic humans. And yet, given the nature of technological advance, it’s easy to imagine that five hundred years from now the new gods will scoff at our ancient tools. Perhaps consciousness will exist only in the ether, even as certain Buddhist monks exist, now.
And can you imagine: Humanity in ether only? Electric cars, solar energy and diapers no longer exist. Let us dwell therein, even as the spores of intelligent life return. Look closely: The flowers are beginning to bloom in strip malls across this great nation and the orcas are swimming in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima.
Now there’s a wet dream to dream on. But, in the meantime, here we are friends. Observe your wrist. Sit with your ankles. What shall we do with all this grey matter and soft tissue?
Your body knows the answer. And by god, you still have one. Look. Look at your body. What an amazing apparatus. Get to know it. Learn its language. To date, no entity has fully formulated or concretized our way within the Absolute Mystery of existence. Some call it the Atman. You can call her Lucy. She’s so elusive. Consciousness. The universe. Even the brightest among us have no idea what’s going on in those black, black holes.
I believe there is something gnawing at you from behind the stars. And your body knows that it has no name, and that it never actually dies—or turns its back on you. And that you have a deeply personal relationship with it. It’s impossible to know it not, for it abides in you with more intimacy than your closest companion—and it is that companion. Many people will tell you their personal fantasies about the nature of reality. And they are all as right as rain.
So are you.
(c) JD Rudometkin 2021
In order to fully experience the conversation above, you are encouraged to watch the video “Roll” (below).
Step Jayne is JD Rudometkin's music project. Over the past 5 years, he has released the album SILVER BULLET SUICIDE, one track at a time with an accompanying video. In this issue, Artist Carolyn “Katsya” Rudometkin and JD discuss the creation of the video for the album's 8th track, "Roll" as well as its faith, hope, art and our ability to heal.
Listen to and procure the new track from Step Jayne, “You Wear No Thorn” (After clicking play, the song may take A FEW MOMENTS TO LOAD—Thank you for your patience).
Vocals/Composition: JD Rudometkin
Produced by JD Rudometkin
Mix and Mastering: JD Rudometkin
Cover Art: JD Rudometkin
We change incrementally. Simple rituals, practiced daily, can reprogram our minds. Each month we will practice a new ritual together.
5 minute disco
Find a hidden room. Or a forest. Perhaps a silent disco. Turn the music on and let it begin to work on your body. There is a place for trance. So let the body be your judge. Inhabit it. This is a form of meditation. Or prayer. The body prays for the thing you want most. So let it do its thing.
This morning and every morning in August, move. Hide away from everyone if you must. Even from yourself if necessary. And let the music in. Play a song each morning that feels right. It could be an down-tempo arabesque or a disco move that haunts your August groove. On certain mornings, perhaps choose a song you have never heard. And then, let it have its way with you. Let your body move as it wants to move and feel all the things you don’t know how to say.
Here’s a tune from Nicolas Jaar to get you started: Mi Mujer
I I I
We can learn to trust ourselves again and adjust our course as needed, by keeping simple, consistent rituals. In former times, we have looked outside ourselves, blamed others, and sought truth, externally. Today, we reclaim our way. We sit in quiet communion and reset our minds.
Why?
To create a sense of stability in what appears to be an unstable world.
To shift thought/behavior patterns.
To enter communion (let's do this ritual together). In communion we find meaning.
* If you wish to share your experience with this ritual for the benefit of our community, please do so at anytime in the comment section at the bottom of this page. You can comment easily and anonymously as a guest.
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