The Ways of Folding Space & Time

 The Ways of Folding Space & Time
 
It is void and non-void
and beyond the void
and is abiding in the heart.
There is (in It) neither meditation
nor meditator, nor the meditated,
nor the non-meditated.
Tejobindu Upanishad, st.10
 
“Folds in the fabric of space and time” is a very scientific term referring to gravitational fields and waves, but the phrase is also known as an artistic metaphor describing the phenomena of altered states of consciousness.
Meditation is one of the methods of achieving an altered state of consciousness. In various spiritual movements there are meditation techniques with varying degrees of immersion. Usually meditation is performed with eyes closed or covered, but there is the Tratak technique, which involves looking closely at a candle flame or a drawn dot without looking away or blinking for a long time. At first it seems very difficult, or even impossible, but at some point in the practice the mind calms down, the eyes relax, but do not lose the object of observation. The gaze becomes detached, and the vector of attention is directed into the inner space, into the folds of space and time.
With the help of a half-frame camera I capture the physical reality of the circumstances in which I find myself. At the moment of photographing, I remember the altered state of consciousness and try to catch its shadow in the photograph.
The presented diptychs, I feel, point to the desired fold, because it is hidden in the space between the frames. In fact, the main thing in the presented photographs is the emptiness of the inter-frame space, and the plot is needed only so that there is an opportunity to notice this emptiness, and maybe look into it, to evaluate how flexible the fold of the fabric of space-time is or, in other words, how The rabbit hole is deep. This also works the other way: in a variety of circumstances one can find a connection with the transcendent.
Space changes dimension, and time from “past-present-future” turns into the moment “now”, which turns into “eternity”. To define a fold, space and time are needed. Photography is physically connected to these categories.
 
Crimea - Moscow - Georgia,
2022-2023