richard serra

richard serra sculpture: forty years

new richard serra catalogue available, and moma exhibition soon......

richard serra sculpture: forty years
june 3–september 10, 2007, moma new york

killing in tarkovsky & kurosawa

similarities between andrei tarkovsky's
andrei rublev, 1966
& akira kurosawa's seven samurai 1954

andrei tarkovsky andrei rublev, 1966

rublev's assistant is shot in the back by an arrow and struggles toward the camera, then dies in the water. all in slow motion. notice water hitting the lense.

akira kurosawa seven samurai 1954

two classic death scenes in seven samurai. first, a thief is killed by takashi shimura, and dies in slow motion.
second, the finale in the rain when the master swordsman is shot down and expires in the mud (being one of the most emotional parts of the film).


the reason for this post came from watching andrei rublev last week and reacting to some scenes of violence, and recognizing one scene in particular (the boy being shot in the back) as a direct reference to some scenes in seven samurai. this coincided with reading the new tarkovsky interview book where he talks about seven samurai and the influence of other film-makers on his work.

here are some quotes from andrei tarkovsky interviews regarding seven samurai and "reciprocal activity" in film-making:

"in seven samurai, in the sequence in which the youngest member of the group is afraid, we see how kurosawa transmits this sense of fear. the boy is trembling in the grass, but we don't see him trembling, we see the grass and flowers trembling. we see a battle in the rain ans when the character played by toshiro mifune dies we see him fall and his legs become covered with mud. he dies before everyones eyes." page 78

"the problem of influence, influx, or reciprocal activity is complex. cinema doesn't exist in a vacuum-one has colleagues and so influences are inevitable. so what is influence or influx? the artist's choice of the environment in which he works, the people with whom he works, it is like his choice of a dish at a restaurant. as for the influence of kurosawa, mizoguchi, bresson bunuel, bergman, and antonioni on my work, it is not influence in the sense of 'imitation'-from my point of view this would be impossible since imitation has nothing to do with the aims of cinema. one has to find one's own language through which to express oneself. to me influx means being in the company of people whom i admire and esteem." page 76

both quotes from interview book.

"tarkovsky told me that he always sees seven samurai before shooting his new films. this is to say that I always see his andrei rublov before shooting."
akira kurosawa from his book a dream is a genius




andrei tarkovsky's top 10 films:

1. diary of a country priest (d. robert bresson)
2. winter light (d. ingmar bergman)
3. nazarin (d. luis buñuel)
4. wild strawberries (d. ingmar bergman)
5. city lights (d. charlie chaplin)
6. ugetsu monogatari (d. kenji mizoguchi)
7. seven samurai (d. akira kurosawa)
8. persona (d. ingmar bergman)
9. mouchette (d. robert bresson)
10. woman of the dunes (d. hiroshi teshigahara)

appeared in sight and sound, march 1993, volume 3, issue 3.

here are some good links: *, *, *, *

that my memory is broken, i do not wonder

i have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never again found rue d'auseil. these maps have not been modern maps alone, for i know that names change. i have, on the contrary, delved deeply into all the antiquities of the place; and have personally explored every region, of whatever name, which could possibly answer to the street i knew as the rue d'auseil. but despite all i have done it remains an humiliating fact that i cannot find the house, the street, or even the locality, where, during the last months of my impoverished life as a student of metaphysics at the university, i heard the music of erich zann.
that my memory is broken, i do not wonder; for my health, physical and mental, was gravely disturbed throughtout the period of residence in the rue d'auseil..............

from the music of erich zann, december 1921 by h.p. lovecraft.

this quote had such a profound effect on me, i made a video based on it.
i have started reading lovecraft again (at the mountains of madness). lovecraft writes so well about memory, horror, perception, and melancholia.

h.p. lovecraft (at right) with poet and farmer arthur goodenough

also of note: at the mountains of madness is futher experienced through these posts: polar expeditions, veils of light, you cracked like the ice.... because it takes place in antarctica.

magic hour series, or liminality

(location shots for the magic hour series, pre-abstraction images)

work has finally begun on the magic hour series,
a planned 6-9 month series of hd videos photographed mainly in pastoral locations (with some urban) around northern california and north carolina.
these works will all be photographed 20-30 minutes prior to sunset and diminish into the darkness of the night.
(sound will be recorded concurrently and abstracted later).
for fans of ingmar bergman, the hafler trio, bela tarr, ernie gehr, michael snow, maurice blanchot, mark rothko, pieter bruegel and other fine citizens found in theartofmemory.
more posts to follow.

visions of the divine

m swiezynski st francis 2005

(a small list of artists interested in the divine)
f=film, m=music , b=books

1 (f). the work of robert bresson.
esp. diary of a country priest 1951, au hazard balthazar 1966, mouchette 1967.
see: robert bresson: a spiritual style by joseph cunneen, transcendental style in film by paul shrader, the hidden god: film and faith by the moma

2 (m). current 93: black ships ate the sky 2006

3 (m). sufjan stevens: seven swans 2004
esp. the transfiguration

4 (b). fyodor dostoevsky
esp. the idiot 1869, brothers karamazov 1880

5 (f). rainer werner fassbinder: berlin alexanderplatz 1980

6 (m). the velvet underground: the black angels deathsong from the velvet underground & nico 1967, jesus from the velvet underground 1969

7 (f). martin scorsese: mean streets 1973
st. francis etcetera

8 (m). j.s. bach: works

9 (m). david sylvian: the devil's own from secrets of the beehive 1987, praise from dead bees on a cake 1999

10 (m). gavin bryars / tom waits: jesus' blood never failed me yet 1993 (and 1975)

11 (m). iron & wine: jesus the mexican boy from sea and the rhythm 2003

12 (m). wilco: jesus, etc. from yankee hotel foxtrot 2003

13 (m). hank williams: jesus remembered me, jesus died for me, jesus is calling, when god comes and gathers his jewels, i saw the light, a home in heaven, the prodigal son, angel of death, when god dips his love in my heart, etc.

14 (m). tom waits: chocolate jesus from mule variations 1999, gods away on business from blood money 2002

15 (f). ernst lubitsch: heaven can wait 1943

16 (m). john tavener: the protecting veil 1989

17 (m). the hafler trio: kisses with both hands from gods little toy 2003

18 (m). valentin silvestrov: choral: a vengeful god from silent songs 2004

19 (m). heinrich ignaz franz von biber: rosary sonatas 1674?

20 (m). steve roden: st. francis' vision of the musical angel from so delicate and strangely made 1993

21 (m). scott walker: angels of ashes, the seventh seal both from scott 4 1969

22 (m). peter wright: flypost of angels from pariahs sing om 2000-2003

23 (m). willie nelson: angel flying to close to the ground, heaven and hell from phases and stages 1974, red headed stranger 1975, the troublemaker 1976, blue skies from stardust 1978, hallelujah (leonard cohen) from songbird 2006

24 (f). fred zinnermann / audrey hepburn: the nun's story 1959

25 (f). william wyler: friendly persuasions 1956

26 (f). john ford: 3 godfathers 1948, the searchers 1956

27 (f). c.t. dreyer: la passion de jeanne d'arc 1928, day of wrath 1943, ordet 1955

28 (f). william friedkin: the exorcist 1973

29 (m). bonnie prince billy: god's small song from cursed sleep single 2006

30 (b). cormac mccarthy: the crossing 1994
....there was god and there was the world. he knew that the world would forget him but that god could not. and yet that was the very thing he wished for.
pp 148, 149 and others...

31 (m). deathprod: morals and dogmas 2004
esp. track 2.

32 (f). jim jarmusch: dead man 1995

33 (b). thomas mann: doktor faustus 1947

34 (m). robert johnson's crossroads

i was given a nice small moleskine a year ago, and i slowly started to write down artists that in some way made reference to the divine (or timothy temper from doktor faustus) that i was watching, listening to, reading, or thinking about. the list didn't get very far, but here is the beginning (you can bet there will be more to come......)
also, click on religion below for more items.

m swiezynski st francis 2005

emma kunz

images from emma kunz

books:
-3x abstraction: new methods of drawing-hilma af klint, emma kunz, and agnes martin, yale & the drawing center new york.
-emma kunz - artist, researcher, natural healer, emma kunz zentrum.

films as if they were vegetable gardens

images of water in nostalghia 1983, andrei tarkovsky.

one doesn't need to explain in film, but rather to directly affect the feelings of the audience. it is this awakened emotion that then drives the thoughts forward. i am seeking a principle of montage that will allow me to expose the subjective logic-the thought, the dream, the memory-instead of the logic of the subject. page 11

he (dovzhenko) made his films as if they were vegetable gardens, as if they were gardens. he would water them himself, he would make everything grow with his own hands....his love of the land and of the people made his characters grow, as it were, from the earth itself. they were organic, complete. i would very much like to resemble him in this respect. page 21

in paris, i have asked to meet bresson. we have nothing in common, but he's one of the best directors i know. i want to see him, to see his face, to see how he talks. i have no questions to ask him, he himself suffices for me... he uses very few means of expression, nobody ever has reached such a degree of asceticism. page 45

i would like to film a scene against a window or a veranda with panes of glass that reflect the sun as it is setting. i already know that it takes five minutes for the sun to set. then i would like the characters to speak their lines while the sun is setting so that very slowly the light in the windows will get dimmer and then go out. one moment the sun is there, and then five minutes later it is night. page 48

it would probably be great not to make films, but instead to simply describe them to blind people. a wonderful idea! one would only need to buy a tape recorder. "thought expressed is a lie," said the poet. page 52

my objective is to create my own world and these images which we create mean nothing more than the images which they are. we have forgotten how to relate emotionally to art: we treat it like editors, searching in in for that which the artist has supposedly hidden. it is actually much simpler than that, otherwise art would have no meaning. you have to be a child-incidentally children understand my pictures very well, and i haven't met a single serious critic who could stand knee-high to those children. we think that art demands special knowledge; we demand some higher meaning from an author, but the work must act directly on our hearts or it has no meaning at all. page 67

water is a mysterious element, a single molecule of which is very photogenic, it can convey movement and a sense of change and flux. there will be a lot of it in nostalgia. maybe it has subconscious echoes-perhaps my love of water arises from some atavistic memory or some ancestral transmigration. page 75

from andrei tarkovsky: interviews, 2006

(more to come)

h3o, or how to slice a loaf of bread

works by the hafler trio (one andrew mckenzie).
including lovely drones, provocative texts and graphic design.

-the sea org 1986, touch (re-release 2006 korm plastics)
-intoutof 1988, kk (re-release 1998 soleilmoon recordings)
-kill the king 1992, touch (re-release 2005 korm plastics)
-mastery of money 1992, touch (re-release 2005 korm plastics)
-all that rises must converge 1992, touch
-resurrection (with the sons of god) 1993, touch (live in stockholm)
-an utterance of the supreme ventriloquist 1996, soleilmoon recordings (re-released 2005)*
trilogy in three parts:
-cleave: 9 great openings 2002, extera
-no man put asunder: 7 fruitful and seamless unions 2003, die stadt
-no more twain, of one flesh : 11 unequivocal obsecrations 2003, nextera
-whistling about chickens 2002, fire inc*
-a small child dreams of voiding the plague 2003, important records
-wolf sheep cabbage 2003/2005, somnimage corporation*
-"how to slice a loaf of bread" 2003/2005, phonometrography
(part I — thursday 4th december 2003, part II — thursday 4th march 2005) i just have part II
-"normally. being by that entity formally known as the hafler trio" 2003, soleimoon recordings*
(based on the voice of blixa bargeld)
-kisses with both hands from gods little toy 2003, important records
-æ3o & h3æ 2003, phonometrography
(collaboration with autechre)
-scissors cut arrow 2005, phonometrography
(material premiered at clifford's tower, york with dvd)
-where are you? the partial results of an investigation by the hafler trio 2005, phonometrography*
(based on the voice of david tibet)
-i never knew that who you thought you were 2005, important records*
-only the hand that erases can write the true thing 2005, smallvoices*
-exactly as i say. a rapid learning method devised partly by the hafler trio 2005, phonometrography (&2006 dvd edition with 2 videos)
(based on the voice of jónsi birgisson)
-æo3 & 3hæ 2005, die stadt
(collaboration with autechre)
-á ég að halda áfram? 2005, important records*
-being a firefighter isn't just about squirting water 2005, important records*
-exactly as i do. the revised handbook of essential practice by the hafler trio 2005, important records
(based on the voice of jónsi birgisson)
-bloom (production and bonus track on fovea hex's album) 2005, die stadt & janet records
-exactly as i am. the complete course in speaking for all occassions by the hafler trio 2006, important records*
(based on the voice of jónsi birgisson)
-a pressed on sandwich 2006, nextera
(colin potter shapes how to slice a loaf of bread)
-3 eggs 2006, important records
(with andrew lilies and colin potter)*
-the work of washing 2006, jnana records, on not alone compilation

these are cds and records i have collected over the years by the hafler trio. my focus has been mainly on the later (recent) work. of all the "drone" artists, the hafler trio is hands down my favourite. mckenzie's ability to abstract beauty (the voices of david tibet of current 93 and jónsi birgisson of sigur ros for example) into something totally indefinite and ghostly, but with impressions of the original, is very rare. my work in film and video has taken me down similar paths, but after discovering this work i was ready to give it up.
alchemy comes to mind and the alchemist's tool, the alembic, a distillation apparatus. the hafler trio uses such devices physically and metaphorically, with chilling and mysterious results.
it is impossible to do any justice to this work in a format like this (theartofmemory), but here is a ghostly glimmering of the work:

no man put asunder: 7 fruitful and seamless unions


no more twain, of one flesh : 11 unequivocal obsecrations


"normally. being by that entity formally known as the hafler trio"


kisses


where are you? the partial results of an investigation by the hafler trio


i never knew that who you thought you were


only the hand that erases can write the true thing


exactly as i say. a rapid learning method devised partly by the hafler trio


æo3 3hæ


á ég að halda áfram?


being a firefighter isn't just about squirting water


exactly as i do. the revised handbook of essential practice by the hafler trio


bloom (fovea hex)


exactly as i am. the complete course in speaking for all occassions by the hafler trio


a pressed on sandwich


3eggs