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THE LAND CHAPTER 6

Beatrix (Bix) Fife

2020.04.21

The drawing I did before falling asleep and that I look at now seems very different from what it was.

Still it is the same drawing. Is it me looking at it differently?

I move it from the table to the floor and wonder what has changed. Is it my eyes ? There is a delay in me that turns slowly into an inner slight agitation, which again, strangely, makes me feel a little better.

 

I bend down to hold the sketch up. A mellow sense of pride starts making its way: it was me who drew it.

The horizon line I made with the pencil is very thin, parting the page in two, and my mind begins to imagine a pale blue colour in the space over the horizon, maybe some clouds in it, and another hue under it, maybe some waves in it, and on the line maybe a land far over there…

 

The small lines in both parts are not straight, but curved and short. Also, the surface of the paper reminds me of silences between spoken words, as well as the silence in the snowy street after the tram has passed. The small traces of the pencil recall snatches of a melody I play on the piano.

I look at my hand. Suddenly I am able to imagine new things, different from before. Do my eyes happen to connect it to my feelings?

 

I put the paper down on the table.

The drawing seems to have changed again. It is clearly my own perception that changes.

My body feels something moving inside, a tiny little movement.

I have to find out about it more.

Acrylic on paper, 14×18 cm   the well

Beatrix (Bix) Fife
Beatrix (Bix) Fife プロフィール

Born in Stockholm, Bix grew up in Rome in a Norwegian, British and Italian family, speaking 3 languages. At the age of 7, her family moved to Paris, where she completed her secondary studies in French schools and also learned to play the classical flute.

While studying at university and management school in Oslo she also started to paint and to do theatre. She was a trainee for 6 months in NYC at the New Dramatists’ studio. She then studied art in Oslo and at the Fine Arts Academy of Budapest. In 1990 she won a prize in an art competition in Austria, giving her the opportunity to come to Japan. In Kyoto, she studied Japanese calligraphy and worked with performance art between 1995 and 1999, with philosopher Michael Lazarin and musician Mamoru Katagiri (Marki) and played music for dance companies in the Kansai area from 1997 to 1999. She moved to Brussels in 1999 continuing to paint, to exhibit works and to give concerts. As well as learning to play jazz at the Music Academy of Brussels, she played in the Bix Medard electropop group and founded the Brussels Language Activities, school of language and culture. She received a Master’s degree in Sciences du Langage at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, in 2008.

After moving back to Tokyo in 2010 she started Bix&Marki, a musical duo of original French songs. Bix is a painter, a singer, a musician and a linguist. She sings, plays the flute and writes the lyrics of all the Bix&Marki songs. While working on her music and painting, Bix teaches French at universities, specializing in role-play and language through art and personal expression.