Dreaming of my future husband
Dreaming of my future husband. The wedding shops of Istanbul. 2018. Three photographs by Thomas Helm.
Ikigai: Find your own meaning
Meaningful work is a powerful tool for keeping us sane. In his book that charts his time at a Siberian Labour camp, Dostoevsky acknowledges that although the work is hard there is a salvation in following it through from beginning to end and seeing its use. The way to truly break someone would be to divorce the work from meaning.
The mystery of the seven-pointed star
The meaning of this personal story lies in the excavated depths, where frequencies invent whole worlds then lie submerged within them. The end of the transformational road is the ineffable image of the seven-pointed star, a symbol that pertains neither to me nor anyone.
Tales from Dublin pubs: Addison Lodge of Botanic Road
The Addison Lodge is a chameleonic venue phenomenon in existential crisis. This establishment is fighting for its life and the only reason it’s still breathing is because it’s located next to the lungs of the city: the Botanic Gardens of Glasnevin.
Mercurius: A window, a sea, a friend
What is Mercurius Magazine? And why does it exist? Our editors get creative with their perceptions…
Flor blanca (white flower)
Flor blanca (white flower) by Ariadna. A song for solidarity in troubled times. Presented to the public for the first time by Mercurius Magazine.
Exercise in Utopia
Those who want to explore space will take a ship and sail across the stars. They will discover other worlds, full of wonders. They might peacefully colonise them, or establish local representative offices. Space trade will begin and intergalactic trade unions will be founded.
Another depthless source
“Another depthless source” acrylic and oil on linen. 40 x 30cm.
Jose Castiella 2019
How to move on from disasters
You got the answers, but the questions changed. Just didn't see it coming. There have been unfortunate consequences. It shifted your perspective on everything, altered history and brought down the future. Call it a disaster. Ready or not, now’s the time to move on and start writing a new chapter.
Blindness is the root of all disaster
If Paris had seen the fall of Troy in the theft of Helen, he might have left her well alone. Regret is an echo of former blindness murmuring in the present. Remorse is self-awareness pointing out a role you might have played in disaster.
Contemporary American poetry: A selection
Dear Mercurius friends, today I invite you on a journey through the different voices of contemporary American poetry, all of them published online via the music platform Spotify.
Lirico
Solo work by David Braid for archtop guitar, performed by David Braid, 2015.
Surf Lessons
You never forget the first time you “catch a wave”. Squinting into the sun, looking backwards, waiting for the rising swell, capped by a white foam. Paddling as fast as you can to keep up. And then the feeling of being carried by something infinitely more powerful than yourself.
Change: Wisdom realising emptiness
What bliss and dread to know that nothing comes to anything in the finale of our days: we breathe and breathe again and then, before the look has scarcely touched the hour, we fade into another dream, a different fragment of a different star.
Tales from Dublin pubs: The Lower Deck of Richmond Road
The pub has a unique way of getting a helping hand behind the bar when it gets busy. They allow certain customers to do the unthinkable: cross over the threshold and step behind the bar to occasionally help out.
Mercuries #4: The book reincarnate
The material of literature is language and the material of performance is liveness. These improvised, talking performances explore the various tropes of public speaking, such as recitation, reading and introductions. They tend to grow from small gestures into weirder things.
Change
Change, Samothraki, 2018. Thomas Helm
Whirr and Chime
Waiting makes you a passive consequence of externalities. Action transforms you into a cause. Even if the result is small, it still feels incredibly meaningful. And meaningful moments are ones that are the most pleasant to recall.
Time and patience: the essential ingredients of sustainable cookery
Recipe: Jellied rabbit served with chargrilled chicory and quail’s egg salad and buttery parsley Anya potatoes. Driven partly by a desire to understand my cultural and historical context, and partly by nostalgia for a time when fast-consumption and fast-production were alien I have wanted to try jellied rabbit for a very long time.
Three-dimensional time
Three-dimensional time is filled with overlaps, old tides sleeping inside us. Our lives are tied not only to the linear past-present-future trajectory, but also to the memories that shape our emotions and perceptions.
The never-ending quest…
Sign up to receive our free fortnightly newsletter-publication and occasionally a free book