sticky art

Against the world!

2011-01-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

The more I listen to Kate Bush, the harder it is to categorize her music. It's impossible to guess her next move and every stop shows a constant process of reinvention. Same goes for her vocal style: It can be avant-garde, lyrical, pop, operatic, screaming...anything really. To me she's the ultimate proof that art is not about style but a visionary, brave attitude towards the world. Just like at end of "Burning Bridge", the way she sings(or rather shouts): "It's you and me babe, against the world!"

Discovering Aclan Uraz

2010-07-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I attended a lecture at IFSAK(Istanbul) by Aclan Uraz on photography. It was a very basic course but extremely interesting, thanks to his intensity and precision. At one point, he said that one could guess the character of a photographer just by looking at his use of lenses. He associated wide-angle/deep focus photography with extroversion, and telephoto/narrow depth of field with introversion...noting, of course, that this is not a law but a generalization. Still, food for thought.

Uraz himself is a very(to repeat myself) intense character, a bit unpredictable, terribly intelligent, and at times irritating for these very reasons. So I decided to look up some of his photography online: What a wonderful discovery! I guess Uraz's rule works also the other way around: One could guess a photographer's art by simply observing his character.

Here's an interview and some more pics of his from the "Children Workers" series.

LIMITS OF CONTROL(2009)

2010-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Jim Jarmusch's latest is a hard film to defend. There's little pretention of character or dramatic arc, just some mytical stereotypes in search of a storyline. It's his most surreal, dream-like film. While the sturcture follows that of his earlier "Broken Flowers"(lonenly voyager, rituatalistic stops along the way, objects full of unrealized symbolic potential...etc), there's little narrative drive. Whereas Bill Murray was looking for something(outer and/or inner), Isaach De Bankolé's path is shaped by outside forces. He is a hired hitman, an idealized professional who has no personal emotions. He doesn't search anything. He follows his clues, glances around silently, meditates and enjoys his two espressos in separate cups(as one critic noted, never a double espresso!). Meanwhile, the world around him is as active/surreal as it can be, populated by quirky characters and philosophies. Everything is both meaningful and meaningless, from the birds that suddenly fly from the roofs, the paintings at the museum, to the coded meassages that come in a peculiar matchbox. It's up to our character to give meaning and decode these messages. While Jarmusch leaves us struggling with these issues, our hitman walks trough all this like some kind of a Zen master, contemplative but never to be detracted by any complications.

The ending is a symbolic death, but it's handled in a true professional/Zen master spirit. Here's the final stop of the journey, the moment our hitman is about to accomplish his goal, and yet, it's just another stop along the way: No sentimentalism, no climactic impact. The scene is anti-Hollywood both in terms of narration and its view of life. After all, as the film elegantly implies, there are no final destinations but ony new beginnings.

I Will Give My Love an Apple(English Folksong)

2010-02-18T08:11:00.000-08:00

Last night's concert by the great Andreas Scholl included a beautiful English folksong. The openness and clarity of the lyrics was perfectly conveyed by Scholl but it can also stand on its own, as a poem. On another level, the sense of intimacy shared with the anonymous poet is quite intriguing. Here it is:

I will give my love an apple without e'er a core,
I will give my love a house without e'er a door,
I will give my love a palace wherein she may be,
And she may unlock it without any key.

My head is the apple without e'er core,
My mind is the house without e'er a door,
My heart is the palace wherein she may be be,
And she may unuck it without any key.

The Obsession of the Well-Tampered Clavier

2009-10-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Bach's Well-Tampered Clavier is all about an obsession. If it were a movie, the tagline would be "Discover the fetish of prelude & fugue!" Granted, there's a diversity of styles, especially in the preludes. But this is a work of an obsessive genius, who could have easily written yet another 48 pieces. In fact, it's almost sad that there's limit to the chromatic scale because unlike the Goldberg variations, the Well-Tampered Clavier doesn't have a direction. It's not meant to end. It's not about a singular journey. It's variations on a theme ad infinitum. The only reason it ends is that Bach runs out of keys! Yet the WTC is cohesive for this very same reason(the limit of keys), which smells like a paradox to me.

(Now, these toughts come to my mind as I listen the way Rosalyn Tureck drills the keys of her piano. It's not always pretty, but it's certainly obsessive.)

Maybe the form of the WTC is that of a fugue. A form that reinvents itself again and again, that looks at the same idea from different angles and prespectives...hopefully ad infinitum.

L'Eclisse (1962)

2009-08-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

These days, I am obsessed with art that leaves empty spaces and uses the viewer's imagination to fill it. Antoni's L'Eclisse, despite its grim atmosphere, plays around with this idea with incredible joy. To qualify any film as good or bad, one first has to decide what the film is trying to accomplish. L'Elisse exploits this very idea: Scene after scene, Antoninoni teases the viewers' emotions and intellect with unmistakable precision, yet it's somehow impossible to pin him down.
Instead of giving answers, he let us navigate, contemplate, and figure out something relevant for ourselves. His aesthetic approach is not arbitrary: It's reflects his(and Monica Vitti's character's) worldview, where meaning and chaos constantly flirt with one another.

35 Rhums (2008)

2009-04-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

After seeing Claire Denis' "35 Rhums", I checked the summary from the Istanbul Film Fesitval Guide. It turned out to be different from the one I had in mind - at least in certain points. Well, who got it wrong? I was not %100 sure. In a way, that's what's so fascinating about the film. Denis doesn't spell out things, she rather "feels" her way around. She never shows off, she never goes for sentimentality, and even avoids poetry(that includes an impressive dream "sequence"). I had my mind and heart working non-stop to hear the delicate sounds of her cinema. In the end, "35 Rhums" is a conversation with a great filmmaker. Does it really matter who said what line? I think not.

Sibelius' 5th Symphony

2009-03-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sibelius is like a soul-mate to me. His music achieves everything I want to do with my experimental videos. Having listened to his 5th Symphony for the first time a few moments ago, I am speechless. The always elusive "question of form" has found its match. The sheer sound of the orhestral writing so shocking, you'll think it's the first time you've ever heard an orchestra in your life. And then there's that ending, so strange, so unexpected, so inescapable...Apparently before he finished the work, Sibelius wrote to his friend: "God is opening his doors for a moment, and his orchestra is playing the fifth symphony."

Süt (2009)

2009-01-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Semih Kaplanoglu's new film "Sut"(Milk) is truly inspired. His previous film "Yumurta"(Egg) was a similarly understated narrative, admirable for its stylistic simplicity(at least on the surface level). This time around, his ideas are bolder and yet no less subtle. His cinematic language favors hiding things: A visually mysterious chase scene, the use of wide shots, a sequence that is almost completely dark...Question marks are all over the place. Even in the nature landscape, which is a constant backdrop with its suffocating bright colors and sounds. It reminds me of the famous airplane scene from "North by Northwest". The surreal is always around the corner.

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)

2009-01-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

By demystifying the trial of Jeanne d'Arc, Dreyer somehow manages to film the transcendental experience. Jeanne is human because she believes. Her close-ups are wonderfully ambigious.

"harS" - choreography by Aydın Teker (2008)

2008-12-16T01:49:00.000-08:00

"harS" by Aydın Teker was last night's wonderful discovery. It's a minimalist dance piece involving a harp, a dancer, and the silent void that surrounds them. Every sound, every move, every new discovery matters. Hints of imagery(some violent, some elegant) are scattered troughout but it's hard to find a center--assuming that it exists at all. The lack of narrative drive is also telling. Teker uses the intriguing imagery of a dancer and a harp as a starting point: The slowness of the piece leaves her audiance time to reflect, discover, ask questions of all kinds, and above all to meditate. Just like the dancer on the stage.

Entre Les Murs (2008)

2008-12-11T03:44:00.000-08:00

Laurent Cantet's "Entre Les Murs" is an inspring cinematic experience. The entire movie literally takes place "entre les murs", with the characters point of views colliding in close-ups. Cantet looks at his all too-familiar material with wide-open eyes, like a scientist. But who is the subject of this experiment? The students, the teachers, or just about everyone involed? In fact, the very abstraction of the film(or the experiment) seems to question itself: What about beyond "les murs"? Is it even possible to find answers when the truth is so much more complicated(and possibly beyond rationality)?

Finally, the most important question of all: What about the prices on that new coffee machine?