The heavy lulling rhythm and ephemeral visuals of the film 'The End' by Erik Madigan Heck seemed to mirror the weight within my body and the oppressive mist within my head. I played it over and over letting my mind drift in and out, as if I were privy to someone else's memories being slowly played out in monochrome. I was carried by its haunting serenity and I watched numb as images rose and fell to the swell of the music. Time is engorged in Heck's films and small gestures seem to take on a kind of romantic importance: the tilt of a head, the slight turn of someone's back, the slow twinge of a smile. The translucent overlay of images beautifully embodies the film's opening statement:
"We are a series of transparencies, which begin as material beings and disappear into the world of the immaterial."
http://www.maisondesprit.com/images/galleries/ann_demeulemeester_the_end/video/ann-demeulemeester_the-end.ogv
I also watched an extract from the ballet 'Chroma' performed by Sarah Lamb and Frederico Bonelli. I think the appeal of the piece, to me anyway, is its awkwardness. It presents a paradox because it is graceful and poignant but at the same time the dancer's movements are so angular, their limbs so unflatteringly contorted and out-stretched, devoid of pretense, that the dance is uncomfortable to watch. But this is more to its power. I sometimes become preoccupied with the idea that my drawings should be correct and finished, polished, technically faultless as this will transpire as beauty and worth. Now, however, I'm interested in that awkwardness, exposing the wrestle within the composition, the difficulty in its creation. I think more so than any other performance I've seen, this extract highlights the toil and strain the dancer's bodies endure to create something of substance. More and more I'm coming to regard traditional conceptions of 'beauty' as problematic.
No comments:
Post a Comment