serra, photographer of the sun

images from the richard serra exhibition at the moma, nyc.


























enjoyment from looking very close at these sublime abstractions, inspired by the tales of dostoevsky getting close to paintings by standing on a chair.

do people look or talk about these work's rich surfaces?
a great study of serra's work would be to make an imaginary grid on the surface of one sculpture, and photograph each square foot (for another example of this technique, see the leonardo da vinci book leonardo: the last supper by the university of chicago, esp of john). this would surely be more informative than the humdrum and bunkum of most commentators.

for more abstractions go here

other abstractions of the sun, at the moma

dorothea rockburne: scalar 1971 (details) moma

(through a glass darkly)

guillermo kuitca: untitled 1992 (details) moma

marcel duchamp: network of stoppages, 1914 (detail) moma

joan miro: the birth of the world, 1925 (details) moma

jean dubuffet: soul of the underground from the series materiologies, december 1959 (details) moma

franz kline: chief, 1950 (detail) moma

donald judd: relief, 1961 (detail) moma

lovely sadistic appearances

strother martin in john huston's the asphalt jungle, 1950, in his second film appearance (uncredited)

i didn't realize this was strother martin, the classic sadist, until i did an image search on him the other day.
one of my favourite actors, making lovely sadistic appearances in:
john ford's the man who shot liberty valance 1962
stuart rosenberg's cool hand luke 1967, and pocket money 1972
"what we have here is...failure to communicate." (cool hand luke)
sam peckinpah's the wild bunch 1969, and the ballad of cable hogue 1970
george roy hill's butch cassidy and the sundance kid 1969

music, melancholia

more encounters with musical melancholia:
(just a list of some things i have heard lately)

lou reed: hudson river wind meditations, 2007
for melancholic yoga

lou reed: berlin, the bed, sad song, and the kids from berlin, 1973

jason lescalleet: the pilgrim
homage to lescalleet's father that passed away from cancer

david lang: the passing measures, 2001

bass communion: ghosts on magnetic tape, 2004
"inspired by scientist konstantin raudive’s famous attempts to communicate with the dead and subsequently capture his efforts on magnetic tape" dustedmagazine

hala strana: heave the gambrel roof, 2007
further transformations of eastern european folk music by steven r. smith

david sylvian: praise, and darkest dreaming from dead bees on a cake, 1999

keith berry: soundtrack to 58º north, 2006 (more on this later)

ornette coleman: sound grammar, 2006 (esp. sleep talking)

animal collective: loch raven from feels, 2005

roy orbison: in dreams, crying, blue angel and others

the platters: smoke gets in your eyes, 1959

beirut: elephant gun from lon gisland, 2007

vetiver: on a nerve from to find me gone, 2006

exit in grey: nameless droplet, 2006
beautiful melancholic melodies from this russian duo (esp. track 2, which is quite overwhelming)

scott tuma: beautiful dreamer from hard again, 2001 (and many others)
guitar from a distant place.

fennesz/ryuichi sakamoto: cendre, 2007 (esp. cendre, and abyss)

max richter: track from brilliant noise sountrack

william basinski: el camino real, 2007

stars of the lid: and their refinement of the decline, 2007

tom waits: johnsburg, illinois, town with no cheer, in the neighborhood, just another sucker on the vine, soldier's things, and rainbirds from swordfishtrombone, 1983

hans memling maria portinari, c.1470

tour de l'apocalypse

robert garcet's tower of the apocalypse
image from: fantastic architecture: personal and eccentric visions, 1980 harry abrams

text from the book:
born in 1912, robert garcet is a stonecutter by profession. around 1930, he settled in fort ebenemael, belgium, building a house there, then a workshop. in the early fifties, he began the tour de l'apocalypse. garcet sees the church as the cause of today's chaos. he pleads for the reinterpretation of the bible and the study of the past in order to obtain knowledge for the future. garcet is considered an eccentic and has met with much hostility, garcet has lived there most of the time.

dead souls, light, sound, rain, and dogs

......which it was difficult to make out in the darkness. only half of it was lit by the light coming from the windows; also visible was a puddle in front of the house, which was stuck directly by the same light. rain beat noisily on the wooden roof and poured in burbling streams into the rain barrel. meanwhile the dogs went off into all possible voices: one, his head thrown back, howled so protractedly and with such diligence as though he were being paid god knows how much for it; another rapped way hurriedly, like a beadle; in their midst, like a postman's bell, rang an irrepressible treble, probably a young puppy's, and all this was crowned by a bass, an old fellow, perhaps, endowed with a stalwart dog's nature, because he was wheezing the way a basso profundo wheezes when the concert is at its peak: the tenors rise on tiptoe in their intense desire to produce a high note, and all that is there strains upwards, heads flung back, while he alone, his unshaven chin thrust into his tie, having hunkered down and lowered himself to the ground, from there lets out his note, making the windowpanes shake and rattle. from the dog's barking alone, composed of such musicians, it might have been supposed that the village was a sizable one.......... (page 48, dead souls)

images of langston

new music, here and there

some new music i picked up, and many discs i heard while traveling through the wilds of north carolina, from my two knowledgeable tour guides.

new arrivals (chartier, jgrzinich, roden and basinski):

richard chartier + asmus tietchens: fabrications

such delicate handling and transforming of asmus tietchens' sound work by richard chartier. much like the cover's image by chartier, the listener moves through white space with glimpses of colour and darkness. and as always with mr. chartier, encounters with liminality.....

jgrzinich: rudiment of two

nothing is wrong with judging a book (or cd) by its cover. with mr. chartier and jgrzinich, the cover image had a huge influence on my reception of the works. as with the picture above; in rudiment of two, the listener encounters texture, colour, light, and the blurring of abstraction & the objective world (drone soundscapes coming from, among other things, old glass wine jars in italy). as with his other releases, every listen is a new experience.

steve roden w/ jacob danziger: dark over light earth (front & back)

mr. roden's 4 channel audio work created for the mark rothko exhibition at the moca, using a recording of jacob danziger playing violin along to morton feldman's rothko chapel (while listening on headphones), then putting the recording through the wonderful roden sound processor (which creates a sound-world unlike any other). i take roden's advise and listen at such a low volume, i can barely hear anything, which can be wonderfully disorienting.

william basinski: el camino real

mr. basinski's subtle crafting of tape-loops from a recent performance at the montalvo arts center (although the cd says l.a.?). as always with his work, a beautiful collision of chaos and beauty, yet almost unnoticeable (like satie's furniture music).



things heard in north carolina, while eating and driving, sleeping and dreaming, drinking spirits, and even walking the dog. thanks to my guides:

new(ish) steve roden vinyl: in flows and spuns & lines and spaces
isaac hayes: hot buttered soul (especially by the time i get to phoneix)
new iron & wine: shepherd's dog
björk with antony: dull flame of desire from volta
panda bear: person pitch
henry wolff & dancy hennings: tibetan bells (great 70s drone album)
marsen jules: fane d'automne & coeur saignant (with trio yara)
roberta flack: first time ever i saw your face
shelley duval: he needs me
joanna newsom: joanna newsom & the ys street band ep
j. tillman: cds
quieter animal collective
the look of love: the burt bacharach collection (esp. the look of love with dusty springfield and stan getz + tracks by dionne warwick)
benoît pioulard: précis
christopher delaurenti: favorite intermissions, music before and between beethoven - stravinsky - holst
a broken consort (richard skelton): the shape leaves
akron family: tour ep
jimi hendrix: electric ladyland 1968
jimmy rodgers + carter family + lefty frizzell boxsets
the smooth sounds of merle haggard and george jones, and the mills brothers
new bill callahan album and single (woke on a whaleheart and diamond dancer)
stunning new colleen: les ondes silencieuses
jordi savall/marin marais: marais: suitte d'un goût etranger - pièces de viole du IV livre, 1717
dj olive: buoy
e.a.r. on thomas köner
le samuraï soundtrack by francois de roubaix
mihaly vig's soundtrack work for bela tarr
hermann nitsch: harmoniumwerk vol 1, 2, 3, 4
new islaja: ulual yyy
jean-françois laporte: (esp. mantra) on soundmatters
al green
otis redding
robert henke: layering buddha
sir richard bishop: fingering the devil (a great title....)
terry callier
z'ev: headphones musics, 1-6
terje isunget: igloo: icemusic
my morning jacket: various cds
zbigniew preisner: la double vie de veronique soundtrack
new ornette coleman: sound grammar

(and others......)
(this list is: so i can keep track of all this business)

images by k.lightowler & t.ligtowler

abstraction of trees, mondrian

landzicht farm under bluish-grey sky, 1905

geinrust farm in watery landscape, 1905-1906

the grey tree, 1911

composition 10 in black and white, 1915

the classic book: piet mondrian: catalogue raisonné by joop joosten and robert welsh, abrams 1996

(this is research for a video featuring north carolina trees, some big, some small, all put through the alembic of my camera. i asked old mondrian to help out, he told me to copy these nice images, and then put them in water, preferably rain.)

wasser (untitled)

3 stills from my new video,
shot in hanging rock, north carolina

the sphere ca. 1890 charcoal

from the new book: as in a dream: odilon redon, hatje cantz 2007