A sole supple soul seeks thought; treads, trusts, twists, propelled by the purpose to probe the plurality of potentialities, to contact, connect, commune, contemplate, condense, cancel, fall free, flex, fudge the future.
Motion rouses reality; reality flees, exposing the traces of liberty.
24 August 2013
13 August 2013
Helmut Newton: White Women • Sleepless Nights • Big Nudes
(Annenberg Space for Photography, 10 August 2013)
Helmut Newton's fashion photography is predicated on the principle that the individual has no inherent personality. Instead, any personality trait derives from a garment. Newton's models wear the clothes that they do not choose in settings that they would not seek. The clothes accentuate no trait that the model cannot be stripped of or twisted out of. The stares are blank, right into the camera.
The exhibition notes apologise pre-emptively, claiming that the photographs do not "objectify," but empower, the women. Objectification (a concept so nebulous that it subtracts from any debate) is subjective. If one detects it and is offended by it, one is better off not perusing Newton's catalogue; no disclaimer would appease.
Helmut Newton's fashion photography is predicated on the principle that the individual has no inherent personality. Instead, any personality trait derives from a garment. Newton's models wear the clothes that they do not choose in settings that they would not seek. The clothes accentuate no trait that the model cannot be stripped of or twisted out of. The stares are blank, right into the camera.
The exhibition notes apologise pre-emptively, claiming that the photographs do not "objectify," but empower, the women. Objectification (a concept so nebulous that it subtracts from any debate) is subjective. If one detects it and is offended by it, one is better off not perusing Newton's catalogue; no disclaimer would appease.
3 August 2013
"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain (2013)
The book is a cultural critique. It asserts that individuals differ in temperaments, on which one can build (personality), but which cannot be altered and must not be cured. The plurality of tastes has been championed by markets. The plurality of both tastes and values has been championed by democracies. The plurality of temperaments may have been underappreciated by the education system and the labour market; extroverts carry a premium, possibly undeserved.
It is not obvious that motion pictures are to blame. Roger Thornhill, of "North by Northwest," may have been an extrovert or an introvert (indeed, his wives left him because he led too dull a life). These are only his superior social skills that are apparent. Movies do tend to promote characters with such skills (because a mumbling hermit would typically be an inept ambassador for the director's ideas), but by doing so, movies educate at least as much as they promote a particular temperament. Instead, it is the higher-density living (which raises the rewards to socialising) and possibly the pharmaceutical industry (which cashes in on the desire to conform) that are complicit in the rise of the extrovert ideal.
It is not obvious that motion pictures are to blame. Roger Thornhill, of "North by Northwest," may have been an extrovert or an introvert (indeed, his wives left him because he led too dull a life). These are only his superior social skills that are apparent. Movies do tend to promote characters with such skills (because a mumbling hermit would typically be an inept ambassador for the director's ideas), but by doing so, movies educate at least as much as they promote a particular temperament. Instead, it is the higher-density living (which raises the rewards to socialising) and possibly the pharmaceutical industry (which cashes in on the desire to conform) that are complicit in the rise of the extrovert ideal.
29 July 2013
Ron Mueck
(Fondation Cartier, 28 July 2013)
The past exists only in what one is today. Today is when one leaves a mark on tomorrow. In the interim, to exist is to remain alert and hopeful, and to reason. To die is to wish to be never seen.
A work of art that is remembered is an innovation in method as well as in representation. The gratification from accomplishing both is necessary to motivate a breakthrough.
The past exists only in what one is today. Today is when one leaves a mark on tomorrow. In the interim, to exist is to remain alert and hopeful, and to reason. To die is to wish to be never seen.
A work of art that is remembered is an innovation in method as well as in representation. The gratification from accomplishing both is necessary to motivate a breakthrough.
14 July 2013
"Sally Meets Stu" by Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY
(Fais Do-Do, 13 July 2013)
Aristotle believed that heavier bodies fell faster.
Science progresses because it tests, not canonises, its hypotheses. Art progresses as it discovers new ways to design experiments (which help the viewer discover his preferences and offer to him new perspectives on others) and to gratify. Classical ballet only seeks to gratify. Preserving the traditional means of gratification is an end in itself, for classical ballet.
Contemporary ballet, as contemporary science, does not appeal to authority. Its priority is to enrich the vocabulary. Ate9 is the experimental quantum mechanics of dance. Ate9 ventures into the world where the classical intuition fails. Once-in-a-lifetime events are as exotic to an individual as quantum phenomena were to the classical physicist. With evidence scarce and premeditated reasoning incomplete, individuals act in ways that do not conform with others' expectations.
One can get by with classical physics alone; one can neglect surrealism, censor irony, and dismiss the quantum phenomena at the heart of contemporary dance---but not if one yearns to understand completely and communicate parsimoniously.
Danielle Agami's ballet is intense, direct (not literal), and immediate. It is of precarious peace and of the urgency of the moment. To act and irrevocably err is better than to waste oneself on chores and indecision.
Aristotle believed that heavier bodies fell faster.
Science progresses because it tests, not canonises, its hypotheses. Art progresses as it discovers new ways to design experiments (which help the viewer discover his preferences and offer to him new perspectives on others) and to gratify. Classical ballet only seeks to gratify. Preserving the traditional means of gratification is an end in itself, for classical ballet.
Contemporary ballet, as contemporary science, does not appeal to authority. Its priority is to enrich the vocabulary. Ate9 is the experimental quantum mechanics of dance. Ate9 ventures into the world where the classical intuition fails. Once-in-a-lifetime events are as exotic to an individual as quantum phenomena were to the classical physicist. With evidence scarce and premeditated reasoning incomplete, individuals act in ways that do not conform with others' expectations.
One can get by with classical physics alone; one can neglect surrealism, censor irony, and dismiss the quantum phenomena at the heart of contemporary dance---but not if one yearns to understand completely and communicate parsimoniously.
Danielle Agami's ballet is intense, direct (not literal), and immediate. It is of precarious peace and of the urgency of the moment. To act and irrevocably err is better than to waste oneself on chores and indecision.
13 July 2013
American Ballet Theatre
(The Music Center, 11 July 2013)
Balanchine's "Symphony in C" is a firework---a routine that is simple, aesthetically pleasing in its synchrony, musicality, and understatement, a routine that is about nothing in particular, but has been found to please, just as Bizet's accompaniment.
By contrast, Balanchine's "Apollo" is affectedly theatrical, dated in its narcissism. To prevent a work from evolving is to condemn it or confine it to a menagerie that is of interest only to historians and choreographers. Jazz standards and classical music are resilient because legally malleable. A performer of Bach's Cello Suites is under no obligation to imitate Rostropovich; a Berlin interpreter is under no obligation to imitate Astaire. A dance is not a precision instrument built to meticulous specifications, but a conduit of emotion, which originates with the choreographer and musicians and infects dancers and the audience. To starve the dancers of that emotion by replacing the artist with the technique is to abuse their bodies (for the dancers would be doing something they do not understand and hence would not live when life could have been at its fullest).
In Ratmansky's "Chamber Symphony," with Jason-Hartlinesque intensity and playful curiosity, the protagonist discovers that it is easier (and more gratifying) to inspire dozens than to control one. Creativity is spurred by bewilderment and the failure to fit in.
Balanchine's "Symphony in C" is a firework---a routine that is simple, aesthetically pleasing in its synchrony, musicality, and understatement, a routine that is about nothing in particular, but has been found to please, just as Bizet's accompaniment.
By contrast, Balanchine's "Apollo" is affectedly theatrical, dated in its narcissism. To prevent a work from evolving is to condemn it or confine it to a menagerie that is of interest only to historians and choreographers. Jazz standards and classical music are resilient because legally malleable. A performer of Bach's Cello Suites is under no obligation to imitate Rostropovich; a Berlin interpreter is under no obligation to imitate Astaire. A dance is not a precision instrument built to meticulous specifications, but a conduit of emotion, which originates with the choreographer and musicians and infects dancers and the audience. To starve the dancers of that emotion by replacing the artist with the technique is to abuse their bodies (for the dancers would be doing something they do not understand and hence would not live when life could have been at its fullest).
In Ratmansky's "Chamber Symphony," with Jason-Hartlinesque intensity and playful curiosity, the protagonist discovers that it is easier (and more gratifying) to inspire dozens than to control one. Creativity is spurred by bewilderment and the failure to fit in.
7 July 2013
Hitchcocked
(Fais Do-Do, 6 July 2013)
Theatre shows how little one may need to change the world. Pretend that the world is the way you want it to be. The chances are, you are not alone in that vision. Others will join in the pretence and nudge the world in the desired direction.
Theatre shows how little one may need to change the world. Pretend that the world is the way you want it to be. The chances are, you are not alone in that vision. Others will join in the pretence and nudge the world in the desired direction.
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