Sunday, March 31, 2013

le morte darthur by sir arthur deriomém





for he felte hym so resurrected that he wente he sholde have dyded. mathieu swiezynski est morte, jesu mercy, youre blood and youre well-wyllars wer so [dretched], oute of oure beddis naked, and som in their dremys caught naked swerdys in their hondis. (651)

weegee in the forest by chi yun (1-8) and matthew swiezynski (9-14)
magic hour, oakland

Saturday, March 30, 2013

push back into the shadows the things that come forward too clearly (visitors and suicides)

jim haynes - the wires cracked - 2013

have found nothing to eat and are returning with tired wings to their nests; at the craggy cliffs along the sea-shore; at the fires burning on the masts of invisible ships; at the muffled sound of the waves beating against the huge fish who, as they swim, reveal their black backs and then plunge down again into the fathomless depths; and against man, who makes slaves of them. after which, they start running again through the countryside, bounding across ditches, paths, fields, through weeds and over steep rocks, their paws bleeding. their prolonged howls fill nature with dread.
(lautréamont - maldoror, 39)

tomonari nozaki ‎- north palace - 2013

about these places especially, dark, almost dirty, shadows gathered. come to discover beauty in shadows. the light from the garden; fragile, dying rays, avoid the failure to comprehend the mystery of shadows, and especially not to disturb the glow. listening to the murmur that penetrates, what lies within the darkness one cannot distinguish. the spell disappears from the dream world built by that strange light, what feeble light there was i could imagine. a part picked up by a faint light. water lines harmonize with and bury the wires.  the beauty of the grain begins to emerge, left obscure, shrouded in a dusky haze. softness and warmth of the still dimmer light, the aura of depth and mystery.  set out in the night, and recede into darkness. dreamlike glow that suffuses it.
(tanizaki - manipulated in praise of shadows)

atay ilgun & alper yildirim - aokigahara, the black sea of trees - 2012
wounded wolf press

the waves tower, and the suicide phenomenon, a labyrinth forest and postwar nihilism that expanded the scope and further darkened the atmosphere of the wind-blocking density of the trees and an absence of deer, rabbits and the like, this forest is known for being exceptionally quiet!

autechre - exai - 2013
warp / autechre

darkness hummed about him, clinging to him like coagulated, damp warm wool. the terror he had felt as intimation fused with the darkness became whole and real. he could see a little now: the darkness had grown horizontal lines of gray, as if it had begun to decompose. "i just feel tired' he said.
(p.k. dick - ubik)

jacob kirkegaard ‎- conversion - 2013
touch / kirkegaard

wrapped in his cloak, a book in his lap, our traveller rested; hours slipped by unawares. it stopped raining, the canvas was taken down.  the horizon was visible right round; beneath the sombre dome of the sky stretched the vast plain of empty sea. but immeasurable unarticulated space weakens our power to measure time as well: the time-sense falters and grows dim. strange, shadowy figures passed and repassed. (t. mann - death in venice)

Thursday, March 7, 2013

salò o le 120 giornate di sodoma


matthew swiezynski  also salo  1996
multiple pass destruction of pasolini's salò o le 120 giornate di sodoma

composed during an editing class with the great mark lapore

Friday, March 1, 2013

le vieux paris (illumination of detail)


matthew swiezynski  rue de vaugirard, 1909  1998

video which came out of a failed 16 mm film project. originally photographed in san francisco, only in locations where the cables transporting the cable cars could be heard. the ambiance of the cables would be the soundtrack.
once failed; the film was transferred to video, and then rephotographed with a video camera, with the video playing in various slow motions, and a contact mic on the screen to bring attention to the rhythms and allow the films colours to create timbre.

also inspired by eugène atget and charles marville's photographic work, capturing a subtle otherworldly quality from the decay of a soon to be destroyed old paris (pre haussmann plan).

books :

- eugène atget - the work of atget: the art of old paris - moma - 1982 (plus the other three other moma books published for the exhibitions on atget's life and work)
- eugène atget - atget's seven albums - yale university press - 1992
- eugène atget - atget paris - gingko - 1992
- eugène atget - atget the pioneer - prestel - 2000
- eugène atget - atget - moma - 2000
- eugène atget - atget: paris in detail - flammarion - 2002
- eugène atget - paris as gameboard: man ray's atgets - columbia university - 2002
- eugène atget/berenice abbott - berenice abbott/eugène atget - arena editions - 2002

- charles marville - marville paris - éditions hazan - 1994
- charles marville - charles marville - centre national de la photographie, paris - 1996

- françois  loyer - paris xix siecle: l'immeuble et la rue - éditions hazan - 1987