RISHI RUN | 2005

https://vimeo.com/186152499/7ae0194e12

There's a poem by Rene Ricard that says "and when you arrive how do you know you're there"

 

This video was made in the winter of 2005 and is a sculpture to me. Rishi is an enlightened childhood friend and love who became a sannyasa at a very early age. He is walking barefoot in the snow in Long Island.

 

It is a kind of Tapasya (giving up a human comfort to experience another state of consciousness)

 

 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas_(Sanskrit)

 

I sat in the trunk of my friends truck and filmed him on 16 mm as he walked towards me and we drove away on an empty road.

 

We continued for a good length and he was very cold. Then I edited the footage in such a way that he shimmies as if he's vibrating or levitating.

 

It was a portrait of a man on the path that never ends -- a spiritual path.
The sun hits his mane, like auburn hair, and eyes for seconds illuminating the fire within. He is cold and he is brave standing straight with his arm across his chest.

 

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyasa
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda