Artwork: Stencil by @liz_art_berlin, Hamburg, 2022
Kind of feel like this little guy today (without the crown)…by @liz_art_berlin.
Fantastic Beasts
I love returning to the Harry Potter universe, and the recent release Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore did not disappoint. These movies are prequels to the Harry Potter books, centred on the magic zoologist Newt Scamander, an awkward, loveable and highly talented wizard, more comfortable with all manner of creatures than people. The war of dark and light, good and evil is central, as is the belief of certain wizards/witches of their superiority to the muggles (humans), and their desire to end them or enslave them. And the quandary to do what is right rather than easy, to keep trying despite failure or past ill deeds—this is always a choice when faced with the forked path of horrible destruction or a better world. What is so poignant and wonderful in this film is the potential for hope, that good can, and sometimes does, prevail.
Hommage à un poète
Artwork: Anselm Kiefer, Paul Celan: du rollst die Altäre zeiteinwärts, 2021
Before becoming an artist Anselm Kiefer wanted to be a poet. Later he spoke of his art saying: “I’m a storyteller with a broken story.” Not a poet, but a storyteller whose paintings vacillate between creation and destruction; memory and history and its constant reconstruction; storytelling as an alchemical and poetic process, grafting the material and spiritual in a tense, often doubt-ridden dialogue, where answers to the questions of our humanity, purpose and relationship with the universe can never truly be resolved.
Kiefer’s recent exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris titled Hommage à un poète, is not so much a tribute to the poets who have influenced his art throughout his career, so much as speaking to an intricate connection that poetry has woven through his work: the words of poets shaping, materialising and inspiring the images Kiefer creates. One of his most devastating testaments to the Holocaust and Germany’s Nazi past is the painting Sulamith (1983, not featured in the exhibition), its title and subject inextricably tied to Paul Celan’s poem, Deathfugue (1945). The painting is of a cavernous tomb-like arched chamber (a stark and harrowing reference to the gas chambers), with a fire burning at an altar and the bricks smeared with ash bearing the name “Sulamith” scrawled in the top left corner. “Sulamith” refers to “Shulammite” which comes from the Hebrew “shulammit” meaning “woman of Jerusalem” (characterised as King Solomon’s beloved in the Bible’s Song of Solomon), and which figures in Celan’s poem, “Your ashen hair Shulamith we shovel a grave in the air there you won’t lie too cramped”.
Poetry is powerfully entwined in Kiefer’s art and in this exhibition his work speaks to four poets: Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Osip Mandelstam and August Graf von Platen. Recently Kiefer spoke about his relationship to these poets saying:
“For some time now, I’ve been doing exhibitions dedicated to poets. And I like doing that very much because I’m in constant contact with these poets, who are here now. I have a relationship with them. I call on them. I ask them for a critique when I’ve painted something. And so it’s not so much that I quote them, but rather I live with them. And talk to them. I believe that everything we see—you for example—what we see is illusion. It is not reality. The only thing that is real for me is poetry. A poem which is so condensed, which is written so precisely that it becomes reality. Normally I make a painting and at some point in the course of the process, of its completion, a verse from a poem suddenly comes into my head, which then belongs there. The theme here is language, language that is like a knife. Like a sword, that separates things, that highlights things. All three poets—Madelstam, Bachman, Celan, and others, of course—suffered under totalitarianism, under mass persecution. I think every poet who pushes to the very end comes to the unspeakable. Because the Real, the mystery, cannot be voiced. That’s why every poet comes to the point where it results in a blind spot, because he can no longer say what he really wants to say. Why is the world, why are people, built in such a way that they behave so impossibly, that they behave so terribly? The question is how one can now transfer what appears in Celan’s poems as a ‘blind spot’, what cannot be said, where he destroys the language: how one can transfer that into the image, that is then the question. And I do that through my own means, so that I believe or hope that the images are a parallel to the abstract poems.”
Where joy still finds us
Hunros Jorna is a mesmerising short film set along the west coast of Ireland (Eire) by Allan Wilson and Mickey Smith, featuring the voice of Gwenno Saunders speaking in Cornish (Kernow; translated into English). Poetic and wild, this experimental film is an unexpected and bewitching adventure created from a deep love of the sea. As Mickey Smith said: "We wanted to pay tribute to the heartbeats, land and seascapes that have inspired and given our lives so much meaning. Try and do justice to their spirit by opening up the magic of Kernewek through our stories."
Love Runs the World
Artwork: Mural by Millo, Love Runs the World, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2016
Wonderful mural by artist Millo (@_millo_), “a message of peace” titled Love Runs the World for the Mural Social Club Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2016.
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Enough said. ☮️
Point of No Return
The beauty of musician and artist Ryoji Ikeda’s installations is the approach of cosmic and intangible experiences through simple yet profound means. Ikeda’s artworks exploring the Planck scale, supersymmetry, or the transinfinite span the infinitesimal to the astronomical through the elegant incorporation of sound, light, space and time. Ikeda commented: “My work is created by reducing sound, light and the world into sine waves, pixels and data…so that the world can be viewed once more at a different resolution”
Point of No Return (2018) is the exploration of the event horizon of a black hole using basic shapes, sounds, light and shadow. The strobe effect is mesmerising, sucking the viewer into the work like the dense gravitational pull of the black hole itself, and the sensory overload is resonant of experiencing an immensity beyond absolute comprehension.
Check out the video where Ikeda talks about the installation.
Free Your Mind
Got to admit watching Matrix Resurrections didn’t give me the thrill of the first three films (and I kept thinking of Keanu in his John Wick incarnation—it’s the whole beard/hair look, minus the cool suit) but I’m a sucker for a love story and mind-bendy ideas, and one of the big central themes still hits home: Free Your Mind.
And this line from Bugs: “If we don’t know what’s real, we can’t resist.”
Truth. And timely.
Alien
Artwork: Paste-up by @marshal.arts_streetart, June 2021
A fave from @marshal.arts_streetart. Some days I feel as weird and alien (yet oddly cool) as this…
be free
Artwork: Mural by @beefreeart, Melbourne
It’s hot and humid today and this work by @befreeart in Melbourne captures a carefree, summery and quietly joyful kind of moment that makes me smile. 😊
Lovers
Artwork: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lovers, 1988
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s sketch and letter, Lovers, 1988, featuring two clocks in sync is a beautiful and haunting testament to his relationship with the love of his life, Ross Laycock. Both lost their lives to AIDS. This sketch/text relates to Gonzalez-Torres’ artwork featuring two actual clocks, Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991. Both these works were an inspiration for writing the art story for Gonzalez-Torres’s installation, Untitled, 1991-3, and light string Untitled (Couple), 1993.
If I can stop one heart from breaking
Poster created by Petropolis Editions featuring Emily Dickinson’s poem If I can stop one heart from breaking
The wonderful Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris worked with the letterpress printer Michael Caine (@petropoliseditions) to create this poster last year featuring Emily Dickinson’s poem “If I can stop one heart from breaking”. Beautiful.
Oh!
The Linda Lindas’ track Oh! is just a joyful, electric jolt of energy. Love the song, love the band. Check it out.
l'amour
Artwork: C215 (Christian Guemy), l’amour, Vitry, 2013
This year—more love, freedom, unity, justice, compassion, kindness, hope, truth, art, music, stories, creativity, connection, joy…more of all that’s good and necessary. ❤️
Luminous
Simply gorgeous remix by Paradox of Synkro’s track Luminous. Check it out.
It's Gonna Fall
Artwork: by Emeli Martensson for 5Preview
Feel this right now. Drawing created by 5Preview founder/designer/artist Emeli Martensson. Break down the walls. Freedom forever.
unicorn magic
Artwork: by @bobaccesories via @escif
Could use some magic right now—this will do. ❤️ unicorns.
We Are Not Alone
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have collaborated yet again on an original score for the forthcoming film La Panthère Des Neiges (Dec 2021). The film follows wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and novelist Sylvain Tesson as they explore the valleys of the Tibetan plateau looking for unique animals. Ellis said this about the project:
“There is something about the heart of this film that draws you in. I realized after a day, that I wanted to do whatever it took to compose an entire original score. The film deserved to have its own musical voice. I booked five days and asked Nick if he could come in for a day to write a theme song and play some piano. He saw the film and stayed for four days. In the end we made what I think is one of the most beautiful films we have ever worked on. One of my favorite experiences ever working on a project. The stars are the animals in all their wild glory, as we have never seen them before, and man in reverence and wonder.”
Here’s the theme song We Are Not Alone.
Life Goes on Between White Leaves
Artwork: Luzinterruptus, Life goes on between white leaves, 2021, Madrid (@luzinterruptus for more images)
Spanish cooperative Luzinterruptus (@luzinterruptus) recently installed their current art project in the Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Life goes on between white leaves. The work features a large wall mounted with hundreds of white notebooks with the trademark illumination the group’s projects are known for. The installation is interactive, the artists inviting people to write their thoughts and concerns “during these dark times”.
The power of people and the power of words shapes this engaging and evolving artwork.
Like Her
Artwork: Installation by eL Seed, Like Her, Nepal, 2021
Artist eL Seed’s recent installation, Like Her, spanning the roofs and walkways of houses in the village Giranchour in Nepal is a stunning tribute to the women who live there. This is what eL Seed had to say about the project, its inspiration and meaning:
“In 2015 an earthquake rocked Nepal, destroying hundreds of homes and tearing many families apart. As the country began to build itself back up again women took a leading role in the reconstruction of the society around them.
In Giranchour, a small village three hours away from Kathmandu, some women got trained in construction work, when others learned how to produce their own earthquake resistant bricks.
In this new project, I explore the topic of women empowerment by bringing light to the stories of admirable women. During four weeks, I worked with a team of 12 women who helped me create a giant art installation that spread all around the village connecting each house to another, linking each women’s story to the other.
The art installation depicts the words of Yogmaya Neupane (1867-1941) one of the first female activists of Nepal, a woman who has become a modern icon in the contemporary fight for gender equality and social justice:
“There is nothing between us, nothing at all. Your eyes have tears, just like my own.”
Single, married or widows, this group of women carries the legacy of Yogmaya Neupane. The art installation becomes an echo of their stories and aims to amplify their voices.
I believe artists have a great social responsibility to inspire, ignite and implement change. 'Like Her' intends to raise up the women in this remote community that was devastated by the 2015 earthquake, and bring to light issues facing these women, and women all over the world, while sharing their beautiful stories of wisdom, strength and resilience.”