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aleya saad arttable@pipeline.com Friday, November 03,1995, 6:18 PM aleya saad writes:
hi ben! i will send along a photo of the dish washing for your project - that is if it isn't too late...are you still compiling? b.r. - aleya

Monday, November 06,1995, 10:47 AM Ben Kinmont answers:
dear aleya, yes! just mail it on to ADA WEB, attn: ben kinmont, 32 west 22nd street, 6th floor, new york, n.y. 10010. and thanks. once i receive it, it will be scanned into our thread of corres- pondence and then, later, framed to be given to you. please send the image in soon. thanks. ben.
Monday, November 13,1995, 10:12 AM aleya saad writes:
hi ben -- i will have a photo ready in a day or two - talk to you soon. aleya

Wednesday, November 15,1995, 1:40 PM Ben Kinmont answers:
aleya, thanks! i look forward to seeing it. yours, ben.



Saturday, December 02,1995, 1:45 PM aleya saad writes:
hi ben - now that the pressure is off regarding the visuals - wanted to write a bit more. first i feel obliged to let you know that i was in fact washing borrowed dishes in the photo. i was in pittsburgh at the time visiting my friends cindy and artie and their four boys - ben, dan, joe and sam (was also there to see the international). i shared a group house in d.c. with cindy and artie during 81-83 (grad. school) and have happily kept in touch with them over the years - cindy (a.k.a. cotton) and artie are both pediatricians and were doing their residencies when I knew them in d.c. so i was out there nov. 9 and 10 to stay with them and nov. 11 and 12 to tour the carnegie, andy and others - for work. cindy and i went on our own to the international on friday as well - took our time and sat for a while in the ackerman film - which was superb - i do agree with r.s. on that if nothing else - but we also stopped in at t.j.max which is a favorite of cindy's and went to pick up the boys at the after-school program and ate pizza and watched some mtv while making playdoh monsters. all in all it was a lot fun. so about the photo - the morning that i was scheduled to leave i told cindy about your project and asked her if she wouldn't mind taking a picture of me washing her dishes. i was however not using ecover as you do - and wanted to write some about that as well because in fact i have been also to visit some other friends recently in d.c. - some environmentalists there - who do all kinds of good things around conserving and caring for the land - and so i am thinking a lot about that lately and hoping to make that part of my routine to the extent that one can living here in nyc. during this recent visit with my friend james, and his fellow enviros, we had the opportunity to read some of the more exquisite wendell berry poems - do you know his work? - this is one - called "the wild geese" - "horseback on sunday morning, harvest over, we taste persimmon and wild grape, sharp sweet of summer's end. in time's maze over the fall fields we name names that went west from here, names that rest on graves. we open a persimmon seed to find the tree that stands in promise, pale in the seed's marrow. geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear in the ancient faith: what we need is here. and we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. what we need is here." bye for now ben, aleya.

Tuesday, December 05,1995, 12:44 PM Ben Kinmont answers:
dear aleya, that's a beautiful poem. in fact, it's just what i needed today, a day which began by videoing a friend washing her dishes and making tea for us both. it was odd, also, for me though as she has a few of my early paintings (i.e. from c. 1989) and i haven't seen them in quite a while. i have plenty up at my house, and am making the archives, projects, etc. all the time, but somehow seeing them there and talking with her about her life, etc....it was somehow both very troublesome and moving at the same time. I don't know why i'm mentioning it now, perhaps i just need to vent it. anyway, the poem helped. reminding me of the universal-ness of paying attention. anyway, what else was outstanding at the exhibition? any great sculpture projects, paintings, etc.? oh, and about where you did the dishwashing, don't worry about it. it is most important that you went through with the full interaction and referenced the domestic activity; but thanks for telling me. that's it for now. till later. ben.
Tuesday, December 05,1995, 6:15 PM aleya saad writes:
hi ben - thank you for your response - i am glad you liked the poem - although for some reason my last correspondence was cut off mid-way so that the poem does not appear in the entry... please let me know if i should be doing something different regarding the transmission of these entries...i want to write more about the international..and will do so in another entry tomorrow. see you, aleya

Tuesday, December 19,1995, 11:52 AM Ben Kinmont answers:
dear aleya, i think that the poem's there. yours, ben.
Tuesday, December 05,1995, 6:21 PM aleya saad writes:
hi again - just checked again and the poem does appear - so it must be my wacky machine. more later, a.

Tuesday, December 19,1995, 11:52 AM Ben Kinmont answers:
dear aleya, glad you found it. more later. ben.