In Praise of Bad Weather, 2003-2009
When exhibiting in Beograd together with Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramowicz, Tom Marioni and others at The April Meetings in 1974, I took some time out to explore the city, only to find myself caught in a drenching downpour. I rushed for shelter only to find myself standing in a shop doorway with Ewa Beuys, and I commented on the bad weather. With complete equanimity, she observed, “Beuys says, there is no such thing as bad weather, only the weather we have, just as only the life we have; and what we make of it.” This observation stayed with me.
Later, having moved to Ireland I discovered the following by Beuys’s friend Heinrich Böll:
“The rain here is absolute, magnificent, and frightening. To call this rain bad weather is as inappropriate as to call scorching sunshine fine weather.” (1)
Suddenly, Beuys’s comment took on a new life for me in this land of frequent rain, and my drawings began to take a new direction.
1. Heinrich Böll (1957), ‘Thoughts on Irish Rain’, in Irish Journal, translated from the German by LeilaVennewitz, Northwestern University Press, 1994
Copyright © Timothy Emlyn Jones 2020