A Fools Paradox
by Julia E Babb
A search for the ultimate question, A Fool’s Paradox is about being the variables, the intervals, the variations on a theme. Being mathemusical. Being mathemagical. Connecting the dots and connecting with each other. Riffing on rebellion, relativity and relevance. Sitting with Fear and Pain, listening to them talk, and learning to turn what they teach us into That Much More Joy. Living in the Question, being the Question, being the Prayer, being the Ink Mark, being the Riff, being the Dream. Doing by not doing, dissolving fear by being vulnerable and building the bridge as we cross it.
A Fool’s Paradox is a braided journey through inner realms, “outré dimensions”, and points betwixt the two, with a certain fluid integrity being its ultimate destination. A passionate romp through Adlerian Evolutionary Theory, Alchemical Spiritualitics, Unified Field Theory and Jazz, A Fool’s Paradox illustrates the dynamic balancing act between the soul, society and outer space in one artist’s attempt to align with the Universe and transform.
Julia Elizabeth Babb, the “Human Mobius Strip,” is a self-mythologizing performanceusse and conceptual artist on a polyzontal “search and create” mission. Employing whatever means, methods and materials are at hand–but mostly calligraphy, poetry, a pack of lies and a rubber face–Julia boldly rushes in where angels fear to tread. Part Mad Scientist, part Monk of the Enthusiastical Order, her ultimate aim is to delight and surprise by drawing unseemly parallels between emotion and ritual, science and language, between spirit and art, romance and HVAC—and of course to make an even more complete fool of herself than ever before.
Julia received the Jerome/Minnesota Book Arts Center’s Fellowship for Non-Book Artists in 2006, with mentor Paulette Myers-Rich; and with mentor Jantje Visscher, participated in the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota Mentor Program’s 2007-2008 cycle. A Minneapolis-based artist, Julia has been a member of the Longfellow 7 Artist Collective for 2+ years, and worked primarily with photography and collage for the past ten. She has been a poet and calligrapher most of her life. This is her inaugural foray into the realm of performance art.