Mirrors and/or Windows

The Bloggist and his friend, Alfred Jarry, contemplate Northampton’s Cultural Quarter. Recalling John Szarkowski’s pedagogic exhibition in New York in 1978, Mirrors and Windows, where Mr Szarkowski postulates that photographs are either Mirrors or Windows, not Mirrors and Windows as the exhibition title would lead one to believe, the Bloggist quotes Mr Szarkowski’s text, “In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror--a romantic expression of the photographer's sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window--through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality”

Monsieur Jarry points out that Mr Szarkowski does cover himself by saying “No photographer's work could embody with perfect purity either of the two divergent motives; it is the nature of his problem to find a personally satisfactory resolution of the contesting claims of recalcitrant facts and the will to form”.

“I wonder what Michael Snow would say?” asks the Bloggist, “Do you think this is a decisive moment or a ‘fine art’ film?”

“Well, it’s certainly a window”, replies Monsieur Jarry.

 

'Dance Piece' entr'acte entitled, "A Cindy Sherman Moment".

A short entr'acte during 'Dance Piece', a self-referential Post-Minimalist Process Art performance by the Salisbury Audio Visual Group referencing the oeuvre of Cindy Sherman.

 

A  performer from the Salisbury Audio Visual Group as Fidel Castro with a Spanish sausage as a Cuban cigar. This movement is performed on the 26th of July each year.

A Garden in Northamptonshire

The Bloggist and his friend, Alfred Jarry, admire the topiary in this garden in Northamptonshire but, while looking at the combination of tree and shrubs, wonder if it is them or the garden’s gardener that would benefit from Freudian analysis.

New unfinished works by Olivier Messiaen discovered

Intended as movements in Messiaen's Chants de Terre et de Ciel, three cans of 16mm film were recently discovered with the composer's hand written note, "Trois morceaux appelé Les Oiseaux, Les Cloches et L'éternité".

Les Oiseaux

 

 

Les Cloches

L'éternité

 

Dance Piece: “The Orange Man”

This photographic still from Dance Piece is performed by the Salisbury Audio Visual Group and relies on the element of chance to shape the ultimate outcome of the piece. In Dance Piece the performer of “The Orange Man” would indiscriminately expel sounds according to his whims and had no qualms about standing still for any length of time. In "The Feathered Hat Interlude" the feather hatted man would sit benignly extolling the value of Dance Piece to small audiences across the south-west. In Dance Piece there is never any attempt to agree on aims or methods; individuals with a common aesthetic perform the work at any time and all times of the day. Anyone can perform Dance Piece. The value of this artwork is in it's collaborative element. No single moment is to be considered more important than another, each moment of Dance Piece should be performed with conviction. In this way Dance Piece becomes transformative, dynamic and democratises art. Dance Piece is self-referential Post-Minimalist Process Art.

The Feathered Hat interlude from Dance Piece

The Path to Film

"We believed it would go on forever", remarked Hollis Frampton. Malcolm Le Grice nods in agreement. "Too short", he mutters. But Stan Brakhage wasn't having any of it, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!". 

In Memoriam

Ivor Cutler (15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006)
On the twelfth anniversary of his elevation to another place

Presence and the production of song sounds
Close observation and an awareness of meanings
Mr Cutler bangs his head against a hard door

Navigator of cultural backgrounds
Pithy and instructive songs
Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic
Behavioural traits with synchronous sound

Ivor Cutler, which parts did you find compelling?

The gift of education
The improvement of invalid youth
Mr Cutler kept a packed suitcase by the front door

Gruts for tea, again
Amusing songs and whimsical patter
Never knowingly understood
Creativity with Thalia and Phyllis

Ivor Cutler builds a bird's nest and comments, “That’s nice”

Perceptive and responsive but asleep when the phone rang
Harmony and a harmonium, instruments of defense
Mr Cutler escaped from a Glasgow sitting room

Befriending bacteria using pens, poems and paper
Fortunate in the grip of Scotch water
Strange stuff for the really left-field thinkers
A narrow foot-path

Ivor Cutler and the theatre of the absurd