Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann

(My Work in Sketches) I am a medium; I inspire, transform and heal through filmmaking and one-on-one intuitive, spiritual guidance sessions.  The realms I work in are limitless; written and spoken word, learning and teaching, drawing and photographing, officiating weddings as well as DJ-ing and organising events that celebrate life. 

[philippandisiherrmann]

Filmmaker Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann discusses her artistic processes with Lindiwe Dovey.

[philippandisiherrmann]

Montage from New Moon (2018)

[philippandisiherrmann]

“I want to say words that flame as I say them, but I keep quiet and don't try to make both worlds fit in one mouthful. I keep secret in myself an Egypt that does not exist. Is that good or bad? I don't know. For years I gave away sexual love with my eyes. Now I don't. I am not in any one place. I do not have a name for what I give away. Whatever Shams gave, that you can have from me.”

[philippandisiherrmann]

The room is messy. It is filled with towers of cardboard boxes. The towerboxes overwhelm the room. The room is tired. The towerboxes are heavy. Mama may never unpack them. 

The towerboxes loom over Sheba. She has made pathways through them.

They have holes like eyes; 

clothes hang out of them like loose tongues; limp, disgruntled.

[philippandisiherrmann]

[philippandisiherrmann]

Sheba watches Mama undress,

layer by layer and with each unveiling

Mama’s body 

looks 

more and more 

tired.

[philippandisiherrmann]

Neukölln, Berlin, July 2019

[philippandisiherrmann]

Christina, Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin, July 2019

[philippandisiherrmann]

“I used to want buyers for my words. Now I wish someone would buy me away from words. I have made a lot of charmingly profound images, scenes with Abraham and Abraham's father, Azar, who was famous for making icons. I am so tired of what I have been doing. Then one image without form came and I quit. Look for someone else to tend the shop. I am out of the image-making business. Finally I know the freedom of madness. A random image arrives. I scream, Get out! It disintegrates. Only love. Only the holder the flag fits into. No flag.” - Rumi 

[philippandisiherrmann]

Here the leaves offer no shelter for the weak, 

and the land stands boundless before us,

like my chest;

Vast, full and empty.

A flock of birds swell and collapse 

like a heart in love with a faraway one.

[philippandisiherrmann]

We sit in a circle and Alice says,

life is marked,

not by our successes,

but by our losses. 

[philippandisiherrmann]

Enlarging Black and White Analogue Photography, I find to be, a magical and spiritual experience. Working in the darkness and the stillness is sooooo meditative. It’s so calming being forced to slow down and partake in the process, there is no way you can expedite it. So many things in life you can accelerate but not this. Watching the image appear onto the page as it floats in the water is so incredible, you believe the image may never come, gone forever, you got it wrong, then slowly, slowly a bit of gray appears, shapes start to form like a memory, like a moment, like love, like pain, it slowly etches itself onto the paper making a mark forever.

[philippandisiherrmann]

[philippandisiherrmann]

[philippandisiherrmann]

Work in Progress

[philippandisiherrmann]

[philippandisiherrmann]

Beneath these words, I trace my finger, like a girl learning to love again.