Filed under: Uncategorized
December 19, 2008 • 8:10 am 0
Chair Hive
Tadashi Kawamata ‘Catedral De Cadeiras, Ville De Reims’ 2007
Filed under: Literature, Uncategorized , linkedin, sculpture
December 17, 2008 • 11:33 pm 0
I’ve seen the future and it is big, loud and fast
Ok, check this video of Felix’s Machines lifted from Spykidelic’s Gods of War blog.
Now picture Theo Jansen’s kinetic beach creatures
and this incredible piece from Crown Point in Burnley, England.
Moor roaming giant kinetic instruments are what I am thinking. I’m getting the Meccano out. Is that not the best thing you have thought about all week?
Filed under: Rant , electronica, linkedin, machines, sculpture, sound art, visonary ish, woah
December 16, 2008 • 6:42 am 0
Krzysztof Penderecki
I picked up the gatefold vinyl of his soundtrack to The Saragossa Manuscript a few years ago, but nothing on there parallels the power of this piece. Vociferous stuff!
Filed under: Uncategorized , composition, linkedin, Penderecki
May 15, 2007 • 2:34 pm 0
Second Life St.Bernards
I am busy, honest. Here is a video I just made for the Swiss company Co-op, all shot in Second Life. The quality of the youtube version is a lot less than the original, but let me know what you think, I am really happy with it.
It’s hard to tell a story when your character is limited to about three facial expressions, now I know how fashion photographers must feel.
April 18, 2007 • 9:28 am 0
Jan Švankmajer – Sileni
First film review for Stylus. More to come!
Lunacy /Sileni
2005
Director : Jan Švankmajer
Cast: Pavel Liska, Jan Tríska, Anna Geislerová
Silenus was the drunken teacher of hedonist god Dionysus. Reviled as a symbol of ridicule for his inebriation, Silenus was revered in other quarters as a man of wisdom for his prophetic and transcendental visions. Unsurprisingly, it was the virile young satyrs (horse eared and bearing almighty erections) who celebrated his indulgent teachings most enthusiastically, adopting the oaf as prophet and leader in a move not unfamiliar to fans of The Happy Mondays.
The often confused relationship between hedonism and sanity, spirituality and power, freedom and control is key to Jan Svankmajer’s latest feature, which references the works of French deviant The Marquis De Sade as well as two of Edgar Allen Poe’s less renowned gothic fables; in what the director has coined his ‘philosophical horror movie’.
Our protagonist Jean, a naive young traveller, is haunted by dreams of men breaking into his room at night and taking him away in a straightjacket – a fate that once befell his mother. So violent are his late night stirrings that he finds his sanity in question by all but the wise and benevolent Marquis, who takes the apprehensive Jean under his wing.
He is introduced to a lunatic asylum run quite contently by it’s own inmates, their apparent calm indebted in no small part to the services of nymphomaniac nurse Charlotte, whose equally subservient and embittered relationship to the Marquis brings to mind the character of ‘Mad’ Madelaine LeClerk played by Kate Winslet in 2000’s ‘Quills’ .
The nurse appears to embody the asylum as a whole, paradoxically being both a benevolent and power hungry force to both the inpatients and their captors (turned captive). She is both harlot and mother, heaven and earth; and the film’s prominent political figure; Mother Chaos, or, as I am inclined to believe, the tempestuous motherland.
Although Svankmajer’s surrealist principles make him more an ambassador of imagination than a filmmaker with a transparent political agenda, so relevant is the imagery at play in his latest work I cannot help but think of it’s political significance.
Perhaps the story is a reference to the difficulties posed by the rebirth of a bohemian Czech Republic since the fall of communism ( Czechoslovakia did, after all, comprise most of Bohemia, where the term originated). Pope John Paul acrimoniously warned Czech followers of ‘imported hedonism’ in a speech a decade ago, and with the economy booming, the Czech youth are indulging in the type of hedonistic lifestyle unavailable to their parents, and likely Svankmajer. However with new freedoms come new problems, and crises of identity.
Orgiastic ritual in spite of religious practice is studied markably in the Marquis’ S&M circus held in the asylum church, with an aesthetic than owes more than a little to Austrian actionist Hermann Nitsch’s bloody and ceremonial depictions of flux. However the greatest indicator is perhaps Jean’s own fears and lustful confusions.
In a 1968 short film ‘The Flat’, Svankmajer made a paranoid, Kafka-esque comment on life under red rule in his depiction of a single man ‘holed up’ in a dilapidated room, with no hope of release. In ‘Sileni’, our protagonist is haunted with nightmares of men forcing their way into his room, taking him from his place of slumber and to the ‘madhouse’. In short, from the simple, maternal comforts of a communist state to the incoherence of hedonistic capitalism.
This transition destroyed his mother, and will perhaps the motherland. Oedipal interplay is introduced as Jean lusts for Charlotte, who embodies both the sexual temptation of the new order (paintedly explored by her depiction as Liberty from Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading The People’, iconic of the French revolution) and the maternal rationale of, and concern for, the old guard; which eventually gets the better of her as she releases the captive hospital staff.
“The man who does not enjoy drinking is mad.” [Silenus. Euripides, Cyclops 169]
Svankmajer’s protagonist embodies a Czech youth perhaps not as comfortable with their new freedoms as may be perceived. Looking to the problems faced by a generation of Eastern Europeans first exposed to the incoherence of capitalism and post-modernity evokes bleak parallels with the disillusioned youth of the West, and begs the question: when one can get drunk on freedom, is it mad to harbor reservations, and crave a greater purpose?
The luscious stop motion animations amidst the chaos offer relief, and the humbling affirmation that regardless of your location, the realm of imagination is a timeless refuge for the disenfranchised. Svankmajer, now 72, remains essential and uncompromising in his vision.
Filed under: Film, Recommended
March 26, 2007 • 10:33 am 1
Hermann Nitsch and die Hook orgel
Last Thursday we went to see Hermann Nitsch perform at Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche in Kreuzberg, an exhibition of his latest organ compositions to be played on the only American church organ in Germany, the ‘Hook Orgel’ (yes, it has it’s own website).
In contrast to the opulence of the venue, the sense of occasion was dampened somewhat when a wonderfully spherical Nitsch rolled to the front of the stage and gave a barely audible speech of his intentions – his words swallowed whole by the vacuous and volumous space in the Church. I found this to be thematic of the whole evening, as I will explain.
Taking to the Hook organ, Nitsch slowly ambled onto the playing bench with the assistance of two smartly dressed aides. Beginning with a light hum, he then proceeded to push underwhelming sustained chords through the pipes, distant in volume and basic in composition.
He soon warmed up however, and for an hour or so we were treated to a aural trifle of block legato passages, stabbed dischords and tremelo warmbles, the latter provided by his attentive aides, who, quite literally, pulled out all the stops in an attempt to add definition to Nitsch’s tonal soup.
I must’nt be too critical. It was a pleasant haze, and notable for how much it reminded me of the type of John Carpenter-esque horror standards that have recently found a resurgence in popularity. I must also remind myself that much of Nitsch’s outstanding video work pre-dates synth laden horror scores, and his own scores, combined with the bloody imagery of his particular strand of actionism, was more than likely an inspiration for the whole aesthetic combination. That said, it sounded an awful lot like ‘Halloween’ at times.
Who The Fucking Hell Are You?
Interesting though, how the scores of Nitsch’s video work – full of pomp and ceremony – can make his orgies of mutilation take on pseudo-spiritual connotations; however, in the midst of a church of established spiritual dominance, his compositions (like his opening speech) were humbled by their surrounds. Nitsch was playing away from home, and was being drowned out by the local supporters (supporting the building’s structure, that is).
The great mediator, however, was the Hook organ, which punishingly vocalised this conflict with a loud and uncompromising roar. Amplifying even the clumsy elements of Nitsch’s compositions to a potent thunder, the Hook organ transcended the struggle.
Like a good host at a party, the organ interrupted the uncomfortable small talk between the two spiritual bodies, uniting them thematically in appreciation of the power and magnificence of tone. It is for this reason the night was a success, but to this impartial attendant it’s need of rescuing was obvious.
Almost in solidarity with my sentiment, when invited to share the stage with Nitsch after the performance, the overwhelming majority of the audience chose to admire and revel in the ambience of the Hook Organ, with the odd few straying to mix words with the master. If my German had been better I would have been one of the discerning few, as this experience does not overshadow my admiration of the man’s work; but instead I chose to inspect the organ, and thought:
How much does the transcendental power of established religion owe to the unifying ritual and intoxicating capacities of musical performance?
The wise ‘Hook Orgel’ ruled dominant tonight.
Filed under: Berlin, Exhibition, Music, Recommended
