tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6902967686685353192024-02-07T21:16:03.059+00:00storms in a tea cupUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-85997103056449094202015-08-16T00:46:00.001+01:002015-08-16T02:40:20.437+01:00VISIBLE... INVISIBLE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My husband died last December. One moment he was there, visible - the next he was invisible. I know there is an after life, and so to me he isn't gone forever. It's just metamorphosis, a change of shape and plane of existence, though of course a very dramatic change from the point of view of human experience. Being the one who is left behind is no doubt the worst, since we are the ones who are left blind and deprived of insight, generally unable to see the bigger picture because we can't remember the truth about life and the life that lies beyond death.<br />
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There were in fact many clues that Martin was subconsciously aware of approaching his time, and there have been possible messages to me from the beyond. It was maybe also not so surprising that I found an unfinished video work that portrays him "behind a screen". He had been scanning his own face and metamorphosing them into moving images (six months prior to his death). When he died, the changing slide show on my smartphone also got stuck on an everyday photo of him in a mirror - behind a screen, in other words. Like saying, I'm still with you. Though maybe not all the time or in ways that you would expect, because you also need to get on with your life and have to be able to let go. You have your own karmic bitch to deal with... the stuff you signed up for, if only you'd be able to remember.</div>
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I was in fact signed up for two solo exhibitions here in Powys this year. Martin's death was unexpected and left a whole lot of trouble for me to deal with. His junk, both metaphorical and real, was something I had to plough through at a steady pace in spite of being very ill myself. Here's the deal: I have to deal with more than anyone should ever have to deal with. But how can you say that about yourself without sounding ridiculous? I have given up on trying to explain it to people who don't listen. While learning how to pay bills, dealing with foreign bureaucracy and packing up and selling our house, I had to try and deal with my and my mother's health issues and do my utmost to revert the damage. Because if you're gonna survive, you might as well try and survive in the best possible way. Theoretically, at least. My mom was diagnosed with cancer on the day before Martin passed away. My cat was also diagnosed with cancer some time later though he's not in a terrible hurry to leave. But really that's just the surface. I have given up on trying to explain that the grief was the easy part. People don't listen, people don't want to know. Most people turn their backs on the one who grieves. Being so totally abandoned and struggling to survive in the physical world is the worst part, but for some reason also the hardest for other people to grasp. Grief is just an emotion, and a very natural one at that. The rest is not natural in the slightest. The rest is what reduces you to almost nothing at all.<br />
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Perhaps one day I will understand why helping those who are needy is so scary for a lot of people.<br />
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Anyhow, I wasn't in a good place to try and do exhibitions, especially as it is so physically demanding and I had little help. I did it anyway (though laboriously, I may add). It just seemed such a shame to let the opportunities pass. After all, who can resist one more line on their CV? (I <i>am </i>only joking). I guess I felt there was something to be expressed in terms of the different points of view that Martin and I seemed to have had on invisibility, and I also felt I wanted to honour Martin by showing his video work as a posthumous collaboration. Strangely, he seemed to have left the piece for me to finish off, so the sound track I came up with was very much coloured by his passing and no doubt a heck of a lot more dramatic than anything he would have made himself. I felt that Radnorshire Museum, where he had a solo exhibition once and was going to have another one, was a very suitable venue for this purpose. So I went ahead and put together the exhibition "Visible/Invisible". It's about the transience of life as seen from both my and Martin's perspective, but is of course also about death.<br />
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The main point is - of all the senses (along with other faculties we may possess), people tend to rely on the sense of sight the most. Moreover, the average person tends to only believe what he or she can see with his or her own eyes - with the exception of some matters of faith that have often been handed down over generations. Yet it seems to me that people usually don't really know how to <i>look</i>. What people think they see is usually filtered by their own conditioning. Learning how to see beyond the obvious and peek behind the screen should be as important as learning how to write, but we don't live in a very visionary society.</div>
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The show features "I Got Life" by myself, and "A Life Unremarked" by Martin with a sound track I made last winter a couple of months after his death. In addition, there is one oil painting by Martin and some of my most recent collages (no doubt the last ones I'll ever make). Apparently the private view of my exhibition, which features the Hiroshima bomb, was incidentally on the 70 year <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33792789">Hiroshima remembrance day</a> The exhibition is on until 12th September in Llandrindod Wells and the feedback so far has been generous and encouraging. Now let me retreat to my exercise in physical survival. Art is a luxury item that I cannot really afford at the moment. </div>
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<i><i><b>VISBLE / INVISIBLE</b></i></i></div>
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<i><i>This exhibition draws together two separate projects, work from Project X by Vivi-Mari Carpelan and work from A Life Unremarked by her late husband Martin Herbert (1957-2014), who passed away unexpectedly in December 2014. Both speak of the threatened dissolution of the authentic self in the face of anti-individualist trends, and the fear of being engulfed in the dark abyss of the shadowy side of the collective consciousness. Both projects lament present day social demands to conform to a rather specific model of the well adapted and hard working human being who contributes to society in strict accordance with expectations laid out from the higher levels of the social hierarchy. Though starting out from different premises, the two projects converge into the same fundamental fear of being invisible.</i></i></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/122423987" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/122423987">A Life Unremarked</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user23555340">Vivi-Mari Carpelan</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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FROM THE EXHIBITION (and no, I wasn't really in mind frame to be writing arty farty stuff):</div>
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A LIFE UNREMARKED & I GOT LIFE (VIDEO WORKS)</div>
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My husband artist Martin Herbert passed away very unexpectedly in December 2014. </div>
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I discovered the unfinished video work A Life Unremarked (2014) after his death and decided to do a posthumous collaboration by adding an appropriate ending and a soundtrack.</div>
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In this project, which amounted to a video work made of numerous scans he made of his face, and an oil painting composed from the scans, Martin was exploring the idea that the skills of the generalist or polymath are no longer valued in our modern day society. Individuals are generally only well-regarded if they become experts in one field. On the other hand, people in today's world are also able to do extraordinary things and have adventures that only a select few could even have dreamt of in the past. Because of an inflation in personal feats, they do mostly tend to go unnoticed. Ironically, Martin's own life as a polymath ended prematurely and thus his desire to become acknowledged for his artistic work was cut short. The memory of him is thus rapidly disappearing into the mist of an anonymous past that appears even more transient in the context of the sudden and premature nature of his death.</div>
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Because of Martin's premature death and the nature of the music I came up with without any conscious attempt at matching it with the video work, the impact no doubt diverges from Martin's initial intentions. Because of technical difficulties, I was unable to see how it would all work until the final rendering of the complete video work, and was taken aback by how well it nonetheless seemed to fit. I find the final product rather uncanny as it evokes the idea that we may sometimes have premonitions about our own death (this is especially meaningful to myself in the context of other possible “clues” that I discovered, and the fact that the scans Martin made were physically produced “behind a screen”). The work also takes on a whole new meaning in the context of a prematurely ended life and its impact on those left behind.</div>
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Only after my husband’s death did I fully comprehend how much similarity there was between our artistic projects, even though we made no conscious effort to converge. I was working on another kind of invisibility, that of the disabled person. I called it Project X. Symbolically, X stands for many things, but generally it is an abstract sign that stands for a concrete phenomenon. In the context of this exhibition, X denotes an ailment that is unknown to the outside world - one that is invisible but also tends to make the sufferer gradually slip into invisibility due to the rejection of a society that finds it hard to accommodate for that which doesn’t fit a political agenda of health and normality.</div>
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In the film I Got Life (2014), war is presented as a fact as well as a metaphor for a stressful life that has undertones of constant warfare. In fact, warfare seems to define our life on Earth. A war mongering mentality pervades all of society and poisons every aspect of the human life experience. For many, there is nowhere to escape from the feeling of being targeted, chased, threatened and hunted down. The unconscious stress reactions that follow aren’t confined to the battle field or the besieged city, but arise everywhere and anywhere throughout our lives. </div>
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The majority of illnesses are generated by stress, and over time, they are increasingly likely to become chronic. It isn’t just our immediate physical survival that is at stake, it’s also the body’s ability to sustain life in the long term. The mental and emotional repercussions are disastrous and the survival of the authentic self is eventually also at stake. For a great many people, life has become a traumatic struggle to manage the invisible forces that manipulate our bodies and mind, and the joy of being alive is gone. </div>
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I Got Life is based on footage from World War I and World War II, as well as footage of myself as the civilian narrator. The circular shape is indicative of the feeling of being targeted. The black and white, and negative, effect highlights the sense of the fundamental dichotomies in life, as well as the starkness of the emotions. </div>
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The film has been constructed around a sound collage I made called A Long Way to Heaven. It features machine sounds, radio sounds from the Cold War and other war related sounds. I performed the song “I Got Life” from the musical “Hair” from 1967, and added it to the track. It was sung on a day I felt quite ill and tired in the same tempo as the song in the 1979 film version. As it is fast and quite a tongue twister, it makes the performance sound shallow and panicky. Though the song's main function in my film is irony bordering on parody, it's also connected to the Vietnam war. At the time, the musical was a radical criticism of religion and warfare, and met with a lot of resistance until entering pop culture for good. By using this highly energised song about the good things in life in the context of stress and war I was hoping to further reinforce the sense of irony and how difficult it is for severely exhausted and ill people to feel that joy of having a body and being alive. Surely this should be everyone’s birthright?<br />
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I have dedicated <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/martin-herbert/">a page on my website</a> to Martin's art.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-24157497590513255172014-11-14T16:23:00.000+00:002014-11-17T17:10:08.834+00:00THE ZEN OF GIVING UP SOMEWHAT GRACEFULLY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I spent a couple of days looking at commissions for disabled artists but I had to concede it's all out of reach and that I am not cut out for any of it. Of course one would like to make a difference, but one can really only do that through art by participating in society and making socially relevant work that gets seen by a lot of people. One has to be one of those people who are able to conform to the expectations people now have on contemporary art. I don't feel that any of it is wrong, it's just the way it is. As a contemporary artist you're just another cog in the great big social wheel, you are doing a job and you get paid through commissions and grants to respond to people's needs. Gone are the days when people just made art and would pride themselves that it wasn't their job to explain it to anyone! It also seems to me that the value of expressive gesture, i.e. making a mark with pen or brush and putting one's signature on a surface, has been reduced because of the prevalence of mind centred (and often very narcissistic) art.</div>
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Of course people who are able to engage in this kind of socially encouraged art practice sometimes do make meaningful work that make us think about ourselves from a new angle. I should sit back and enjoy what other people do instead of allowing myself to be so frustrated about my own lack of opportunities (to the extent that I can afford it, of course). I do feel segregated because I can't even begin to explore such possibilities. Chronic illness sets you apart from other people who may have physical and mental obstacles but don't suffer from a lack of energy. I am unable to work and thus naturally also unable to sustain focus and energy in order to apply for the big money, let alone execute the work in accordance with the expectations on a job well done. Since I can't do this in the first instance I can't build a track record that would make it easier to carry on pursuing a career. So I think it's best to realise that this is not part of my reality, even if it reduces my practice to a mere hobby. Conceptual art is not something I ever envisaged in the first place, and though it's possible to become passionate about new things in life, I think the fundaments of your psychological make up is often evident from an early stage in life. It's not that I am devoid of ideas, it's that I keep asking myself why I would want to bother. Some different way of expressing my creativity might be possible, though. It may not even be through art, as scary as that is to someone who feels it's their only way of self expression. I'd like to think that the crisis I've been ploughing through for a while now will lead to a new realisation and so the act of giving up is more a case of letting go of the old self and old fixations.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Grey Relief in Four Parts, 1963</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Red and Black, 1981</span></td></tr>
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I came across the artist Catalan artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_T%C3%A0pies">Antoni Tàpies</a> (1923-2012) while studying art in Perpignan in 1991, but never actually looked into his work (a lack of internet made it so much more difficult in those days). I felt somewhat interested in the colour and texture of the work I saw then, but then forgot all about it. A friend reminded me of him recently and that prompted me to look up the work on the internet. I was really blown away. It was far more intricate and beautiful than I had imagined. Martin then got a couple of books out for me from the University library. As I worked my way through them I felt that the ideas I've had for abstract work based on texture aren't worth pursuing because he did it all so much better than I ever could. It's in fact too similar to what I had in mind - only better, since my ability to be spontaneous is quite limited (not least due to a lack of energy and work space). <br />
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I feel such deep kinship with the mysterious and tactile aspects of his work - to me his evocation of the material is deeply mystical, emotionally intelligent and very sensual, with an aesthetics that speak of the barely contained chaotic nature of matter and its rough naturalness. To me, matter is inherently spiritual. He was initially inspired by the Surrealists, read the authors I also enjoyed when I was younger, and was interested in Eastern philosophies. The ideas that void is an ontological fact and that all aspects of reality are equal, are pillar stones of his world view. He seemed to have wanted to convey a sense of Zen, that is "shock and contemplation". The values of Taoism and Zen come through very strongly in this work, in containing meditative and expressive gestures, a colour scheme that encourages contemplation, a pronounced equality between all aspects of reality, and a profound communion with organic matter. These are semi-abstract matter paintings with an autonomous presence as Shamanic things in themselves rather than windows onto a different reality. They are infused with traces of human emotions, and therefore never detached from subjective reality and human universalities. Interestingly, my feeling of resonance with this work was there before I was made aware of the Eastern link.<br />
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<i>Tàpies' art would escape geometry - albeit retaining some of its fundamental forms - in order to explore the world of organic life, the 'amorphous', ambiguous and unfinished, the expressiveness of pure gesture inspired by Chinese and Japanese traditions. (Jean-Luc Chalumeau: </i><i>Tàpies)</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Montesy - Montenegre (Detail), 1988</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tàpies</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: Breathing In, Breathing Out, 1991</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRth-rXIlL-PPdVG9GlpCfC8C0oRT3pKDy_xKBmMmos5ewWojZbnAox0nlI4fCyV34JClm4euQqyNUPxheQHcjLSlTpWp7W8QFFiCCvAYLlaAu_CX4vVMwy4asKzlD1tdgU-GHwqNwHI/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Matter-spiral-detail-1991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRth-rXIlL-PPdVG9GlpCfC8C0oRT3pKDy_xKBmMmos5ewWojZbnAox0nlI4fCyV34JClm4euQqyNUPxheQHcjLSlTpWp7W8QFFiCCvAYLlaAu_CX4vVMwy4asKzlD1tdgU-GHwqNwHI/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Matter-spiral-detail-1991.jpg" height="640" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tàpies</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: Matter Spiral (Detail), 1991</span></td></tr>
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Tàpies was clearly able to ride on the wave of art trends in order to synthesise an approach that was deeply personal and esoteric in a way that is rarely seen in modern art. When this kind of connection with contemporary currents doesn't occur, an artist will find themselves in a difficult position that ultimately leads to serious questions about the validity of their practice. Such resonance with surrounding currents has at times been there in my own life, but not in any big way. Perhaps things would be a bit different if I felt more confident in pursuing fine art as a career. Passion is a sign of the prevalence of a true life path, and when that motivation is somewhat tattered you feel that this particular path of destiny is called into question. Too many concerns are distracting me and keeping me from feeling a really deep sense of artistic purpose.<br />
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The strange thing is that my abstract photography series "Traces" is so evocative of Tàpies's work, and that I had explained the experience of the video work based on the photos as a form of Asian koan. In 2013 I wrote:</div>
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<i>The viewer is also encouraged to contemplate the way we inadvertently leave our personal marks on the many layers that constitute our reality - some of our marks get erased as new people leave theirs. The enigmatic contents with its Cyrillic lettering and random numbers can serve to disrupt “functional fixedness”, breaking old cognitive patterns and helping the brain make new connections. Inspiration has been derived from the ancient Japanese tradition of the koan, a story or statement that is ultimately absurd, offered to Buddhist disciples as a way of breaking out of mental ruts, to drop their rational minds and become susceptible to the greater mystery of life and question the rationale behind the frantic process of dashing about the planet in a state of semi-functionality.</i></div>
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My photographs with their highly gestural and coded content bear an almost uncanny resemblance to his work in general. Even the frequent occurrence of letters like "X" and "T" evoke Tàpies' work. If I had some money I'd buy a new camera and set out to collect some more. You have to realise that once you decide not to go down the path of conceptual art, no one will pay you to buy materials and equipment and just make some art.<br />
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I rewrote a statement today:</div>
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<i>“Traces” is a photography project already comprising over 150 images that brings to view the marks that people have made while simply doing their job. The source of these mysterious surfaces that have been repurposed time and time again are old dilapidated goods wagons from Russia. Successive layers of paint, repeatedly stencilled or painted signs and lettering, as well as the corrosion, express the convergence of cultures and efforts to communicate within a professional, and thus exclusive, framework. These real life happenings caught on camera chime in with the instinctive and highly tactile work of Antoni Tapies. They evoke an equal sense of the mysterious communion with the material and intrinsically imperfect aspects of life, as well as codes passed on from person to person The impression of the passing of time becomes evident through the layers of paints and marks. While the workmen who have given rise to the imagery had no artistic intention and tend to be invisible to most passers by, it is the photographer’s eye that has recognised the artistic quality and aesthetic value of these markings. One person’s gesture has thus become another person’s art.</i></div>
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Having now processed Tàpies' life and work for a while and thought about my own inclinations and limited ability to create conceptual art, I just might go ahead and do something handmade in 2D after all, especially as my health has lately improved a bit. On a good day I might find the energy for this kind of work. After all, texture is what I really love (something I also wrote about in <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/william-kentridge-and-world-as-stage.html">my post</a> about William Kentridge). Never mind that it stays flat. In any case I do feel I'm in the process of breaking away from old cognitive patterns...<br />
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From the series "Traces" (Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2012, the year Antoni Tàpies died):</div>
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You can view more of this work <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/abstract-photography/">on my website</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tapies' lithograph</span></td></tr>
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A few more of Antoni Tàpies' art works:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0Bl5Hw7MUSQLYyLCnfGDXL6qNMjyB9Ht_sYOvTX7G52TGWgkQP2lNUU8Q-bgkeKD7KdBF-2rRbn1MRF-KYx-dadY3linApLAVwS-GmVSySqrP1MXD6J5hifRQJqNydWczET0E_DUyf8/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Ocher-and-Pink-Relief-1965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0Bl5Hw7MUSQLYyLCnfGDXL6qNMjyB9Ht_sYOvTX7G52TGWgkQP2lNUU8Q-bgkeKD7KdBF-2rRbn1MRF-KYx-dadY3linApLAVwS-GmVSySqrP1MXD6J5hifRQJqNydWczET0E_DUyf8/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Ocher-and-Pink-Relief-1965.jpg" height="640" width="438" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Ocher and Pink Relief, 1965</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUw_2ai67IFxn6Jsi0GYfCC1UMdO-7Ski9wwfW0kjRSCZVDziZxSPVKsXKnATX1uy7h5QBqgY-hYAEi4t5J3ozxXZHVVHa8IPGk41kxmh4jFEhKma4ZoELgNB8OtfO3iibt6OhU8mOl5k/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Rags-and-Strings-on-Wood-1967.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUw_2ai67IFxn6Jsi0GYfCC1UMdO-7Ski9wwfW0kjRSCZVDziZxSPVKsXKnATX1uy7h5QBqgY-hYAEi4t5J3ozxXZHVVHa8IPGk41kxmh4jFEhKma4ZoELgNB8OtfO3iibt6OhU8mOl5k/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Rags-and-Strings-on-Wood-1967.jpg" height="640" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Rags and Strings on Wood, 1967</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkvkuQ8oJUh1IqJVBWtoESZbT-xYs-3qxW1Zklpl9_ch9TUWVZjjzJLWKhpUfR2EbiJuslzbBeN-Bd6MgqOt8sJrVbemGecCT_eSXp4sFUXoud-BCGc_E3B_rs7QaQgmFKTe04DqZ5uI/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Scribbles-and-Varnish-1987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkvkuQ8oJUh1IqJVBWtoESZbT-xYs-3qxW1Zklpl9_ch9TUWVZjjzJLWKhpUfR2EbiJuslzbBeN-Bd6MgqOt8sJrVbemGecCT_eSXp4sFUXoud-BCGc_E3B_rs7QaQgmFKTe04DqZ5uI/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Scribbles-and-Varnish-1987.jpg" height="472" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: Scribbles and Varnish, 1987</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5g5PhDtgELlflum5DNrGcdeJ32CZ7HW9xRjfmXQ8UL75-TLkFE83PvBlALWTFA_IHpmdFJZs8Rn5E5-vuwctkg8X8lT40a28ug4gzw5IvYniTUUCmOowOinDtwOHqTza6_V5I26gfmDQ/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-The-Catalan-Spirit-1971.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5g5PhDtgELlflum5DNrGcdeJ32CZ7HW9xRjfmXQ8UL75-TLkFE83PvBlALWTFA_IHpmdFJZs8Rn5E5-vuwctkg8X8lT40a28ug4gzw5IvYniTUUCmOowOinDtwOHqTza6_V5I26gfmDQ/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-The-Catalan-Spirit-1971.jpg" height="448" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tàpies: The Catalan Spirit, 1971</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3lYZv8oopv2kUjcTWLscGWsc4l0kJ5Yuc_ggPCuy9AloGbo5ldLsj9SBpp7HxxplkrV6NEuHIYt0kKMaZme3p1O0KUxXwkumGzVB0w-6wYM3cCgNS1E2sN_otDL2p9LEMTE6sRRuI0M/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Speak,-speak-1992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3lYZv8oopv2kUjcTWLscGWsc4l0kJ5Yuc_ggPCuy9AloGbo5ldLsj9SBpp7HxxplkrV6NEuHIYt0kKMaZme3p1O0KUxXwkumGzVB0w-6wYM3cCgNS1E2sN_otDL2p9LEMTE6sRRuI0M/s1600/Antoni-Tapies-Speak,-speak-1992.jpg" height="418" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antoni Tapies: Speak, Speak, 1991<br /><br /><br />Vivi-Mari Carpelan: Helsinki 4, 2012 (Digital photograph)</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-60445166050536191702014-10-22T19:41:00.003+01:002014-10-22T19:41:34.862+01:00HAIR - LOSING ONE'S STRENGTH AND VITALITY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBIsGPwoV5nSmRDISmuk-BHwWwuN6YjSj-4XBEAsanNG4Hfm9O67ka2EUcz0_3Q6heZ1tlihUOjhXiDmr4A1SDmCzQAZGB-YGx7uu4C5E_JdP0-gy9VzA7WcAlI-Y_MQg9xLd8T7NVLTI/s1600/Hair-bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBIsGPwoV5nSmRDISmuk-BHwWwuN6YjSj-4XBEAsanNG4Hfm9O67ka2EUcz0_3Q6heZ1tlihUOjhXiDmr4A1SDmCzQAZGB-YGx7uu4C5E_JdP0-gy9VzA7WcAlI-Y_MQg9xLd8T7NVLTI/s1600/Hair-bw.jpg" height="246" width="400" /></a></div>
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Initially, my previous film project "I Got Life" was intended to contain more references to hair. My stress related illness was causing me to lose a great deal of my hair and with it, a chunk of my feminine identity. Long, curly hair is emblematic of a creative, feminine and powerful person, and I wanted to own this persona. When I finally had to cut off all the very damaged long hair I'd spent years growing, I felt robbed of some of my power to shape and communicate my own identity. </div>
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<i>Hair symbolizes physical strength and virility; the virtues and properties of a person are said to be concentrated in his hair and nails. It is a symbol of instinct, of female seduction and physical attraction. Baldness may suggest sterility. Hair flowing depicts freedom and looseness; the unwilling removal of hair may be a castration symbol. Carries the context of magical power; witches had their hair shaven off, as well as in the Bible, in which Samson loses all his power when his locks are stripped. Heavy relations to fertility and even love (the quantity is related to love-potential). It can be thought of as the external soul. (<a href="http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/index.html">Dictionary of Symbolism</a>)</i></div>
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This short film is a spin off from "I Got Life", which talks about stress in the broadest sense. The featured song is from the musical Hair and meant to include footage of hair. Instead I chose different footage. There was a clip, however, which I decided to make into a separate project, "Hair". The soundtrack is an excerpt from "A Long Way to Heaven", which I used for the project about stress. This little film hopefully encapsulates the stress, anger, obsession and frustration of losing one's strength, vitality and personal empowerment.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/109725541" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/109725541">HAIR</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user23555340">Vivi-Mari Carpelan</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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<i>Hair is symbolic of strength and vitality, of freedom, sensuality and physical attraction. One often loses one's hair when illness occurs. This film attempts to express the stress, anger, obsession and frustration of losing one's strength, vitality and personal empowerment.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-62031104070715904292014-10-14T16:46:00.000+01:002014-10-27T13:30:32.641+00:00IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE DISABILITY ARTS? (GOOD NEWS TURNED SOUR)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Entity" - photograph by Vivi-Mari Carpelan from the series "Traces"<br />See description below</span></td></tr>
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Perhaps there is synchronicity after all, because my general depression since a number of weeks back has been coupled with some art related rejections that leave me feeling that I should <i>really</i> either give up or up the game by completely reinventing myself - I can tell you this is a very serious question for me at the moment. How likely is it that you can reinvent yourself..? Of course you can probably learn to deal with rejections in some way, knowing just how many artists are struggling for attention. But when the rejection comes from what you thought of a peer group, it feels doubly hard. </div>
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Having worked for so long on <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/collages-2012-project-x/">Project X</a> and <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/artistsfilms/">Visible/Invisible</a>, I really did presumptuously expect to get into this year's Shape Open on the theme (In)Visible. (Did they nick my title?!). It's about the repercussions of "coming out" as disabled, and stuff like that. The brief should have matched my project quite well. Neither my latest collage nor my film "Tides" that was part of the Visible/Invisible trilogy made it in. I thought, well if they don't appreciate what I've tried to express, then who will?<br />
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Though I realise the judges are biased in various ways and that my feelings are tied to the fact that I put so much effort into my project, exhausting myself in the process with a desperate need to communicate a message, I also do wonder about Shape's policy to invite non-disabled artists to participate. To me this is making the point that Shape is primarily working for the cause of disability, not for disabled artists and helping them get their work out into the world. The curator has even stated that Shape is about the art, not the artists. I realise it's all very political and governed by the necessity for PR, but this policy is making disabled artists forced to compete with abled bodied artists. I thought the point with the disability arts was to provide opportunities for those artists who find it difficult to enter the normal, competitive art world. Perhaps I'm completely wrong, but... it does seem to me that organisations such as Shape are in fact indirectly trying to encourage disabled artists to become as much like everybody else as possible, while attempting to show to the world that disabled artists are not really different than anybody else in spite of looking or behaving differently. To me it seems similar to feminism, which in its heyday was more about helping women to be like men than giving women the right to be themselves. It feels like it's potentially the kind of pressure to conform that we already feel from society at large.</div>
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It's complicated because it also seems that there's this thing that disability should be celebrated (as recently pointed out to me). I'm assuming that's because difference is considered a value in itself, regardless what the difference is. This could indicate yet another symptom of flatland, where any kind of difference regardless whether it's to do with sexual orientation, gender, skin colour, learning ability or mobility issues should be considered equal in the sense that they are as valid as the norms they are being put up against. Of course in a sense they are, but that's just part of the truth - minority issues are more different to one another than they are similar. A more important fact is that disability is severely limiting to the ability to function within the framework of society, and in this respect it differs greatly from other minority issues. The more disabled you are, the less you can function. Because you can't function, you can't work or participate in any of the grand schemes for the employment of disabled artists (employment, residencies, commissions etc.). The new different soon becomes the same.</div>
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You need help, and you need for others to realise just how much you need help. You don't need to be told that it's fine to be different. It isn't fine to be ill. It isn't a thing of joy that you should have to feel obliged to celebrate. You need to feel that it's alright to be who you are. What you need is for society (and that includes the art world) to value your input for what it is, no matter how small it is. This also means that there should be more opportunities for people like us, not less - Shape being open to non-disabled artists is no doubt eliminating quite a few disabled artist from the opportunity of showing work.</div>
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When Will Self has been going out with an appeal on BBC to support disabled artists through Shape, I'm thinking this publicity is also attracting a lot of go-getters who think it actually gives them street creed to be in an exhibition like Shape Open. I may be very unfair but I can't help this has crossed my mind. I have asked how many this year were non-disabled but have received no answer. It also makes me sad to hear publicly that Shape is all about supporting disabled artists when this a half-truth. Perhaps they are afraid that disabled artists will drag the standard down to a level of amateur art, when they are trying to validate disability at all costs (what disabled artists create is just as good, blahblah...). Accessibility is not all about wheel chair access and difference is not just about a strange body shape, though these are important view points as well. There is a world of difference between someone who is slightly visually impaired and someone who is completely blind. Imperfection needs to be embraced in this over-sanitised world.</div>
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If disability arts organisations are trying to raise their profile by selecting only work that conform with the general consensus regarding the kind of art that should be considered "real" contemporary art, they are basically saying that disabled artists can do it just as well as able bodied artists. While this would be reasonable within the framework of an exhibition only aimed at disabled artists (because it's based on the idea of what constitutes good art), I don't think it's alright when a whole bunch of able bodied artists are entering the game. That's because you are then eliminating the important fact that a disability will almost invariably inform the art made by a disabled artist. It would do this through content or mode of execution. People who are seriously disabled will quite likely be limited in their expression. Of course limitations can encourage creativity, so this is not always a bad thing per se. However, there are many things many of us really can't do which simply limits our choices and may influence our ability to conform to the expectations of the art world.</div>
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I mean - through the process I've been going through I've started to imagine work I could do that would conform a lot more to the expectations of contemporary art, but I can't imagine how I would execute them. I can just barely make what I make now. I do not have the physical, mental and financial means to start looking for companies that can execute my wishes regarding bigger work and installations, and then store the work, and then get it out to exhibitions somehow. That's just for starters. I definitely can't do performances, which seems to be all the rage. I'm also stuck with certain basic software, with certain skills that I take long to develop on my own because I can't go on courses. I'm stuck with physical discomfort while I work which can be hard to resolve. I'm stuck with the inability to do anything finicky with my hands. I'm stuck with the kind of tiredness that can make it very hard to feel creative and focused enough to make something spontaneous and beautifully instinctive. I can only work for about four hours per day, and that's starting around 2 pm when I can finally get going. This is not to mention how hard it can be to formulate an artist statement on some days. The imperfections I've talked about in my work are inherent in the work itself.<br />
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Having said that, resolving the insomnia would be a good place to start making different work. Having now pondered this for a long time, at least I know in which direction I might want to try and go. At least I'm not completely cut off from artistic currents because of the internet and my artistic husband who talks to me and takes me places, so there is scope for change. For one, I'm done with trying to speak about problems no one wants to hear about, because being rejected for my messages is even harder than being rejected for my actual work. And perhaps this would also free me up to do more instinctive work, who knows.</div>
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I think that judging disabled art from the point of view of how well it conforms with general opinions on good contemporary art is false, because in the majority of cases it may well fall on its own impossibility. I'm not trying to sound patronising, I just think that a serious disability will invariably inform the work in one way or another, and that's what makes it into disability art. I know there are many opinions on what disability arts constitute (is it just art made by disabled artists or is it art informed by disability, etc) so this is just my subjective point of view. I personally think it should be about art informed by disability. Art with a heart, as heart is seldom seen in the contemporary art world - ideally, it should be emotionally enlightening rather than just making another cerebral statement. While this doesn't mean that bad work in line of community arts needs to be accepted, it should perhaps be looked at with a more compassionate eye. Again, I am talking about compassion in the deepest humanistic sense, not pity. No one needs to be a pity case or to be treated like a victim, that is<i> not</i> the point. It's about raising awareness of what it's like to be an outcast or just different in some fundamental sort of way. Questions to support the evaluation process could be more in line with "What does this work really convey? What is this person trying to say? What is this unique and interesting point of view about what it's like to be stuck in a decrepit body or mind?" rather than something akin to "how cool is this idea and does it fit in with the contemporary art world?". Many people who get serious ill are also very spiritual people, and their viewpoint gets easily overlooked in a materialistic world.<br />
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More than anything, however, the judges need to be in touch with their intuition and their hearts, in order to pick up on the real quality of the work in spite of possible technical flaws and shortcomings, and the fact that the subject matter and execution doesn't necessarily conform with the expectations on contemporary art. Back in the days when Gauguin started to make art that was more in touch with his feelings and unconscious, he felt very strongly that the majority of the people were not going to be able to see beyond the surface and pick up that elusive quality of soul that he was trying to express - not until this approach had gone mainstream in which case the message would already be watered down by people's preconceptions. I guess in this instance, the work and/or artistic movement becomes a question of taste rather than soul. Raw art/Outsider art does of course sometimes have similar qualities to that of Gauguin's work, and some people are clearly able to perceive it. There is however also some rather bad raw art out there that is hailed as good. This could have something to do with agendas, as mainstreaming always brings with it a lot of mutual back patting and pleading for money. In any case, we have gone a long way since Gauguin and his work and there is now some work out there that has different qualities of soul that also deserves to be noticed. This is the kind of work I'm talking about. The art world is ostensibly bad at telling good, soulful art from bad and soulless work. The truly perceptive art critics are still few and far between.<br />
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This doesn't mean to say that I think one should forget about the brain altogether. I do feel that the brain is secondary, that only heart/soul can understand heart/soul. Intuition is rapid for a reason, because it distinguishes qualities without the intrusion of the mind, and then the brain takes time to analyse the findings. Of course everything is interconnected. The problem is that people are so stuck in their heads and blinded by the veil of their mind - they can't see what is really there because of all their preconceptions. It's not about unlearning to think, it's about putting thoughts in their rightful places. Rational thought isn't everything, as science seems to believe.<br />
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A real change of heart regarding the true qualities in some art that is easily bypassed in today's world might encourage compassion from the viewer and instigate a real change of attitudes rather than just "well they are doing alright, aren't they". But I guess not enough people care to even begin thinking along these lines.<br />
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There should of course be an organisation that cares to support those who feel left on the dump with few means of getting their voices heard - perhaps confined to chronic illnesses alone, for instance (I do think the disability art scene is simply too diverse). That's without just being told to smile and do some redemptive and incredibly impossible heroic act that will finally gain everybody's admiration and applauses - while in fact it's a heroic act just to survive from day to day and create some kind of art in spite of a lot of pressure. (Cf. BBC's <a href="http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/?location_id=8&item=993">recent appeal</a> for wheel chair user's who will play the part of a presumably rather stereotyped jolly cripple with a penchant for "positive thinking").<br />
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The one thing that really does need to be "forgiven" is the fact that many chronically ill people don't have the track record you'd expect from "proper" artists. If we can't work, we can also not easily collect lines on a CV. If you don't do the right kind of art you don't also get residencies and awards to put on your CV - and so on and so on.</div>
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I've seen plenty of schemes for people with learning disabilities (there's a lot about...), and they aren't attempting to make these people create conceptual art! There is also a fad for outsider art that accepts that it's a certain way. The world of outsider art isn't quite right for many disabled artists though, because we all know it tends towards the work of very introverted people with psychiatric disorders. The kind of art they produce is attractive to the art world because it tends to be instinctive and has an aura of innocence and play. If you're marginalised and in that sense an outsider, but not mentally challenged in any other way than being cognitively impaired as a consequence of your physical illness, then you can't make that sort of art. You're basically stuck in a no man's land where no one is interested in supporting and encouraging you. You are confined to fiddling with the materials you can afford and that you have the energy to master. You can only do work that is as good as your ability to focus. I for one find it excruciatingly difficult to think of complicated ideas and plan how to execute them, to focus and get it right. In spite of my best intentions and the presence of a huge amount of meaning, the execution can suffer. I wish people could see beyond the flaws and imperfections towards what I am really communicating. However, no one cares to look that far. They are not interested. So why am I doing it, alone in a vacuum? Because it is the only work I can manage and because I don't want to cut my creativity off. That would literally mean cutting off the very life force that keeps me going. Though really it's killing me too.</div>
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The fact I didn't get into Shape of all places just got to me, it really was the last straw (I did get in last year). I should never have hopes for a positive result. Of course we would all like to know why we failed to please the people who are in charge of our success - and the art world remains mute. Boy do I hate this situation. It's like I can now imagine the sort of work they have probably gone for, I mean there is supposed to be a mask made of meat... well that is simple. It's simple to take in. I don't normally do simple in that sort of way. People think that what I've done in the past is aesthetically pleasing, and maybe quaint, but they don't get that it's trying to say something. I'm not saying it's fantastic art, because I'm really not as innovative and clever as many other people. I don't care very much about visualising simple concepts, random ideas and comments or reactions to social issues. I'm more interested in the spiritual dimension of our lives here on Earth, about the survival of the self rather than how this self is presented to the outside world. The fundamentals. I just wanted to communicate some of my feelings to ordinary people, but I don't have such an audience now. I never really cared for accolades of the elite, but here I am, feeling I have to fight for them after all. What is this vortex we are being sucked into? Perhaps the comparative simplicity and isolation of my life in Finland was a blessing... However, I'm sure I'll figure this one out somehow. Sooner or later. It's just another one of those impossible riddles of my life. I think maybe my art really is pretty rubbish and this is what I should realise - after all, who am to say that other people are wrong?</div>
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Having said all this, what do I really know about the world of disability arts, I've only been here for 4+ years attempting to work it out? Perhaps it all makes perfect sense to a lot of people out there, and who am I to criticise that?<br />
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Since writing all this, I was pointed once again to <a href="http://www.outside-centre.com/darke/mycv/writings/bookchap/disart.html">this article</a> about disability arts, which I've reread to refresh my mind. Please go and read it if you want to know more.<br />
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<i><i>Disability Art philosophy is based upon legitimating the experience of disabled people as equal within art and all other cultural practices; not as an equal opportunities issue but as part of a process of re-presenting a more accurate picture of society, life, disability and impairment and art itself. Disability Art is a challenge to, an undermining of (as a minimum), traditional aesthetic and social values. Disability Art is a virtually a sociology of the art of society, art exploring its own disabling practices and processes – coming out of post-1960s liberal ideas of social and material constructivism. Disability Art utilises the social model of disability (and society) to explore disability (not impairment per se) and society through arts practice and culture as a collective and individual experience of socio-economic exclusion in a society that is marginalising, demeaning and exploitative of the images and experience of disabled people. (</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://www.outside-centre.com/darke/mycv/writings/bookchap/disart.html">Dr Paul A. Darke</a>)</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-style: normal;">In the end the fact that disabled people with serious chronic illnesses will not get their voice heard is no doubt because they are too ill to stand up for themselves. This is obviously not the case with other </span><i style="text-align: left;"></i></i>minorities. The desire amongst many disabled to fit in with existing cultural structures, and the desire of mainstream society to want to normalise those who are different, is in fact killing all the aspirations of Disability Arts to introduce challenging ideas and new perspectives.</div>
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<i>Consequently, current practices, and processes, actually does nothing for disabled people per se but only serves to create a situation where the more normalised disabled people will not be as excluded as they were before, superficially. Most disabled people will increasingly be denied their basic human right: the right to life. The normalised disabled person will increasingly be used as a tool of legitimacy to marginalise or dehumanise others within the disabled community. <a href="http://www.outside-centre.com/darke/mycv/writings/bookchap/disart.html">(Dr Paul A. Drake</a>)</i></div>
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I also entered a free international competition, Big-i, for disabled artist based in Japan. I didn't really understand how it was all supposed to work because my attention span is often very short. I had a good feeling about it all, but that was an illusion, as I was just wanting something good to happen for once. Turned out that there was a first selection based on printed photographs, then another one based on the actual work which I had to spend a lot of money sending <i>all</i> the way to Japan. That's after the shock of having our printer break down after the selected photograph had been printed, so I had to send a print that I wasn't 100% happy with. One of my pieces was returned to me - fair enough, they didn't think it was any good. However, I had to pay import duty because it hadn't been marked as "returned goods". <i>A piece of advice</i> - always remember to ask the galleries outside of the EU to mark your work this way upon returning. The other piece, a photograph, received an "honourable mention" which allows it to be in just one exhibition at the disability arts centre for seven days! It is not going on tour around Japan like all the award winners and runners up. By the time I found this out, I was just feeling extreme exhaustion. What is the bloody point?? </div>
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This I wrote about the photograph "Entity" shown in Japan for seven days:</div>
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<i><i>"The power of observation brings about a mindset apart from the normal attraction to that which is pleasant and beautiful. Through abstract photography, I wish to highlight the raw texture and imperfection of our lives, and point to the beauty found in the most unlikely places. Interesting patterns and texture can be found in the things that people have thrown away or abandoned. </i></i></div>
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<i><i>To me, the compelling beauty of decaying surfaces and evocative patterns echo the beauty found in bodies that don’t meet with the norms and expectations of an over-sanitised society. In this photograph, I have captured something that gives the impression of a living entity, yet the fact that the entity’s body isn’t fully formed and perfect functions as a metaphor of the kind of bodies many disabled people live with. Just as I have to look for beauty in dumpsters and other other places with old and decaying elements, humans should become more aware of the beauty in decrepit bodies and perceive the beauty of the souls that inhabit them.</i></i></div>
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<i><i>I believe that one of the purposes of art is to awaken curiosity, and that feeling intrigued by a sense of recognition is fundamental to humans and therefore of the greatest importance. Out of this comes a sense of sharing, which builds bridges and supports us in our lonesome journey on Earth."</i></i><br />
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<b>Post Scriptum: You can read Disability Arts Online editor Colin Hambrook's summary of the discussion my blog raised in the Facebook group <a href="http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/colins_blog?item=2338">here</a>.</b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-65482794553732042152014-09-30T14:58:00.000+01:002014-09-30T15:01:55.562+01:00"I GOT LIFE" - A FILM ABOUT WAR MENTALITY AND STRESS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still from "I Got Life", copyright by Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2014</span></td></tr>
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This was another fiddly project to finish, lots of technical issues that stretched this project over a period of a couple of months rather than weeks. I have vowed never to make anything similar again with somewhat unsophisticated software! I wanted to create something ironic around the song "I Got Life" from the musical "Hair" (1967) and then decided to combine it with my latest sound piece, "A Long Way to Heaven", mostly based on machine sounds that represent the mechanised, industrialised aspects of our lives that we have clearly not yet come to terms with. At the time, I was losing a lot of hair and ended up cutting it all off. Hair is, of course, a strong symbol of individuality, confidence and strength. I also didn't feel I had much life to speak of, as my condition and the insomnia was getting the better of me.<br />
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I decided to make an emotional film about the modern age conundrum of surviving inhuman amounts of stress. I used some footage of my own to express feelings of stress in our modern lives, yet mostly looked back to old footage of WWI and WWII, for an authentic document of war related stress. Since I have no way of using modern war footage, this was a self-evident choice that also fits in with the 2014 commemoration of the Great War. There is an obvious correlation between day-to-day stress in modern times and war related stress. Stress affects most of us in one way or another.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stills from "I Got Life" copyright Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2014</span></td></tr>
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Warfare defines our life on Earth. The war mongering mentality that gives rise to this regrettable fact pervades all of society and poisons every aspect of the human life experience. There is nowhere to escape from the feeling of being targeted, chased, threatened and hunted down. The unconscious stress reactions that follow aren’t confined to the battle field or the besieged city, but arise everywhere and anywhere throughout our lives. The majority of illnesses are generated by stress, and over time, they are increasingly likely to become chronic. It isn’t just our immediate physical survival that is at stake, it’s also the body’s ability to sustain life in the long term. The mental and emotional repercussions are disastrous and the survival of the authentic self is eventually also at stake. Severe disability will no doubt soon become the norm within the framework of society as we know it today.</div>
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In the film “I Got Life”, war is presented as a fact as well as a metaphor for a stressful life that has undertones of constant warfare. Life has become a traumatic struggle to manage the invisible forces that manipulate our bodies and mind, and the joy of being alive is gone. Moreover, when humans do break down from the effects of chronic stress, society is quick to jump on more guns to finish off the ones they consider weak and useless. The irony is that it’s often the shallow and dull individuals who are able to withstand stress the best. Are these the people who should lead our world?</div>
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“I Got Life” is based on old footage from the World War I and World War II, as well as footage of myself as the civilian narrator. The circular shape is indicative of the feeling of being targeted. The black and white, as well as negative effect, underline the timelessness and starkness of the affects. The film has been constructed around a sound collage I made called “A Long Way to Heaven”. It features machine sounds, radio sounds from the Cold War and other war related sounds. I performed the song “I Got Life” from the musical “Hair” from 1967 and added it to the track. It was sung on a day I felt quite tired in the same tempo as the song in the 1979 film version. As it is fast and quite a tongue twister, it makes the performance sound shallow and panicky. At the time, the musical was a radical criticism of religion and warfare that met with a lot of resistance until entering pop culture for good. By using this highly energised song about the good things in life in the context of stress and war I was hoping to further reinforce the sense of irony and how difficult it is for severely exhausted and ill people to feel that joy of having a body and being alive. Yet this should surely be everyone’s birthright?
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-2796611100851792212014-09-27T15:21:00.002+01:002014-10-31T15:56:47.869+00:00THE EMOTIONALLY VAPID STATE OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART WORLD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selfie in Aberystwyth - Martin is now enrolled in the art school and </span><br />
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I have been thinking about the meaning of contemporary art and my relationship to it. My thoughts aren't complete but I'll present a few anyway as it all reflects my desire to find a new way and a new niche. Finding one's niche is of course essential to one's mental health, and finding oneself in some kind of state of transition and change in this respect can be hard. I feel a need to transition but uncertainty of the way to go and whether things will work out in the end is quite wearing. I don't feel very confident I'll find a niche again. It frankly makes me quite anxious and a little manic. </div>
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If you look at the evolution of consciousness, it's only natural that the most progressive art of today should be conceptual. Concepts are of the mind and preoccupation with the mind and its contents marks society today. Emotions are often set aside in favour of rational analysis. It's of course simplistic and shallow way of dealing with reality, and tends to fall short in the face of the real on goings of human life. </div>
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I find conceptual art quite tantalising because it is of this moment in time and a mirror of society, but also quite frustrating because of its general lack of emotional input (it's not a rule of thumb but in my opinion a frequent occurrence) and because it indirectly says a lot about negative values in today's world. The problem with lack of emotional input is sometimes corrected within the framework of performance art, which normally uses the body to convey messages, but it's also an art form I rarely have a chance to witness.</div>
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Conceptual art often takes the form of installations and usually employs a philosophical approach that tends towards an objective and intellectual stance. It's a cerebral rather than an emotional process. Emotions are usually commented on indirectly through intellectual analysis. In fact, most things are commented on indirectly, which is why it takes a while to work out what it's all about. That's why this kind of art can be intriguing, but often fails to touch people on a deeper and more instinctual level. In other words, it's not intrinsically emotional but rather points to events and situations while saying they are a reason for emotional reactions. I do find the concept of intellectualism disguised as art quite scary and can see how it is becoming the new conventional. I've no doubt emotionalism is considered somewhat passé by many. I'd argue it's time for a higher level of emotional intelligence, a more synthetic approach than what we've seen before. People on a specific evolutionary level won't be able to recognise it as valuable because it's of a higher order than they are capable of comprehending, but I realise this viewpoint isn't well understood by the general population and won't go into it here.</div>
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I'm not saying contemporary artistic comments are useless, as I'm sure every comment ever made about life and reality contributes like a shallow stream to a much deeper river, but unfortunately it's still often just poor philosophy that leaves you feeling a bit indifferent (though I'm sure it depends on your own level of consciousness). It's a strange phenomenon that people with no education in certain scientific areas such as philosophy, political sciences, social sciences and so on, feel they can make art about questions that belong to these fields of expertise. I have seen some ridiculous info graphics in books about contemporary art, they are just graphic tables illustrating phenomena without any artistic input whatsoever. And when Jeremy Deller re-enacted a miner's strike - well, where's the art, where is his personality and artistery? It seems more like a social study. Worse still, intellectualism tends to represent a fragmented view of reality, one that doesn't reference the wider context or even take the whole into consideration. You can't take the whole into consideration if you don't have a complete and solid worldview. This is very typical of Western society of today. It's why, when I went to University, I found most modern Western philosophy very boring. It's often bitty, exclusive and pedantic, and often seems a bit trivial in the grand scope of things because of its failure to touch on a human level.<br />
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<i>Every day, /.../, people rely on the cognitive clutter in their minds—whether it’s an ideological reflex, a misapplied theory, or a cradle-born intuition—to answer technical, political, and social questions they have little or no direct expertise in. (David Dunning: <a href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/confident-idiots-92793/#.VE_TOzNu_Mo.facebook?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits">We are All Confident Idiots</a>)</i></div>
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There's always talk about art pushing boundaries. While it's true that it's the hallmark of some contemporary art, I wouldn't consider this its primary function. Pushing boundaries so easily becomes an end in itself, missing the actual point about communication and sharing. Take for instance the recent winner of <a href="http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/jerwood-drawing-prize-2014">the Jerwood drawing price</a>. It's a sound piece! This is by no means the worst example of the breeding process of the fine arts, but it's an illustrative one.</div>
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This sound piece by Alison Carlier describes the act of looking at an object while drawing it. Sure it's a clever idea, but it's also somewhat ridiculous. I mean, what's the point? There's a kind of modern day flatland where everything has to be made equal, which I think leads to a tendency to obliterate qualitative distinction between different disciplines. I believe that the modern day idea that "diversity" should be respected often ends up meaning that everything has to be the same. It's one thing to cross boundaries and let disciplines interact, it's quite another to mix it all up in some kind of mash up where things are no longer respected for their intrinsic uniqueness. I know it may sound stuffy, but I do think this is sometimes a real concern. It's basically saying that one discipline can be substituted for another. I have mentioned this problem before in the context of sound art, where very often people are trying to equate an image with sounds, such as a particular colour with certain notes.<br />
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There's a real danger that art becomes just another arena that reflects the dry world of Western scientific discourse, that is, cold and often very contrived objectivity using quantitative rather than qualitative research, where data are always seen from a very reductionist black and white "either-or" perspective. All this is well illustrated on the funding scene, where it's all about ticking as many boxes and getting as many bums on seats as humanly (or non-humanly) possible.<br />
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All this flatness seems further enhanced in the way you're supposed to present yourself on your artist's website. Aloof, lofty, minimal and cryptic - I still find it hard to find my way on these websites and often end up missing the real work - if there is any at display, that is. There is a clear trend that prominent art must only be shown in approved spaces and the idea that all and sundry could access the work in some way is horrifying to the elite. The contemporary artist's website is clearly geared towards galleries, rather than being a source of enjoyment and exploration for the lay person. And moreover - it all makes me feel increasingly embarrassed about who I am, because I'm unable to be like that. I just wish conforming was easier...</div>
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Of course how these issues come across depends on the context. In the case above we're talking about a drawing contest that people enter with the understanding of what the official definition of drawing is: "The art of representing objects or forms on a surface chiefly by means of lines" (The Free Dictionary). While there is nothing to stop people from taking this definition further within the framework of their own practice, I do think that allowing for a medium that has nothing to do with surfaces and the physical world is very unfair in the context of a<i> </i>drawing contest. While challenging people's collective assumptions is fine as art, it's not fine as an unspoken framework for an exhibition entitled "drawing contest". I have heard that it's common practice within competitions to focus awards on only certain categories of work - it means everyone else misses a chance that specific year. I don't find this very appealing. It's like pulling the carpet from underneath people's feet.</div>
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The sound piece was obviously chosen because it was breaking boundaries and therefore considered innovative, however that's quite a contrived reason that presumably has little to do with the <i>actual </i>quality of the work. It's clearly an intellectual decision rather than an emotional one. I'm sure it has its place in the grand scheme of things but it only goes to show just how far from emotional truths that contemporary art has strayed. The real point sort of eludes me.</div>
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More interesting than pushing boundaries between disciplines I find the act of asking questions and probing our emotional selves and challenging functional fixedness (habitual thinking). Still, having grumped about contemporary art, I do also in some ways find it all a bit liberating, and even in some ways quite attractive. Even though I may not feel comfortable in the elitist art world, at least there are new ideas and perspectives about. At best these new currents arouse our curisosity and challenge our habitual mental patterns and ideas of what constitutes an artistic exposé. They can bring together many disciplines and aesthetic expressions under one roof, instigate dialogue and discussions and gradually enter ordinary people's consciousness from all sorts of directions. In spite of a tendency towards exclusivism, I see art in all its myriads of forms as becoming a <i>more</i> integral part of society rather than less. It's all rather exciting, but the worrying trend is that as there is lots of it, most of it isn't going to be very good.</div>
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The art market is really like an enormous big supermarket of consumer goods, that come in and go out in rapid succession. I get the sense that people hardly ever stop to really ponder a piece of contemporary art, it's rapid consumption. It means the message has to be easy to take in. I find this trend very worrying, but the upside is that art is probably becoming much more of a part of ordinary people's lives. Also think about how difficult it was for avant garde artists of the past to get their work accepted - only the initiated would "get it", and the mainstream would follow suit a lot later. Now it seems art authorities are desperate to be on the beat, the initiated member of an exclusive club who have complete control over the very newest in the arts. I think this desperation to be the first to recognise the latest and best can lead to a lack of sound judgment and a heck of a lot of "noise". After all, only some time and perspective can give us clues about the real value of trends, and not everyone can always be in the right. There are also an awful lot of copycats who have discovered what the trends are, as for instance in the present case of small blobby abstract paintings in muddy colours that you find in every contemporary open at the moment. Thanks to the internet, it's quite easy to stay in tune with the fashions.</div>
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This is how it is, in the art world today. If you want to make it and get funding, you should have lots of energy to create a performance or installation, and to engage with the general public and make them feel they are contributing to the piece in some way or another. It needs to be socially relevant in some way. You should also be able to handle many media and create it all on a large scale. Being young or an emerging artist is a bonus. The following is an example of a typical call out for artists - as usual, you have to be extremely extroverted.</div>
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<i><i>Exhibition proposals are invited from self-defined practitioners at all stages of their careers with new single works or collections in any medium, including participatory or performative works, to test in the public domain. We are looking for evidence of experimentation and ideas that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, and a commitment to artistic and critical enquiry. Practitioners should suggest how the exhibition would benefit both their own practice, students’ research, and the wider public, indicating how the opportunity would be maximised and whether further developments may be anticipated. (<a href="http://drivingforpleasure.tumblr.com/?utm_source=Artsadmin+List&utm_campaign=05b79eebee-Artsadmin+E-digest+Issue+638&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_48c680cd56-05b79eebee-294930617">Hardwick Gallery</a>)</i></i></div>
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</i>I found this description of a recent installation and thought it somewhat amusing, as it really seems to tick most of the boxes of what contemporary art should look like. Multidisciplinary using film, sound, physical objects and strange constructions, the play of light - and there's<i> even </i>a glance at a disability! And a title that doesn't mean too much. Perfect! Which is not to say it isn't any good of course - I think it looks arresting enough.</div>
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<i><i>As part of this year’s Outcasting: Fourth Wall artist moving image festival, Richard Bowers was commissioned to make a new installation piece that combines complex film and sonic techniques. Drums suspended from wooden branches on the ceiling and on a wooden structure are rigged with lights and play/light up in response to events on screen. The film itself blends a background from a classic film, with action slowed down and overlaid with hand gestures (a combination of British Sign Language, piano fingering and dance gesture). As the hand moves gesturally the drums/lights are activated throughout the space. (<a href="http://ccqmagazine.com/manuscript-ii-slower-motion/">CCQ magazine</a>)</i></i></div>
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I have to admit that I find currents that are stuck in modernist art (the first half of the 20th Century) very tedious. An expressionist artist who paints dark Kyffinesque paintings of landscapes, seascapes and still lives has won the MoMa Wales Open twice! It's as though the gap between traditionalist 2D work and conceptual art in the form of performance, moving imagery and installation is just widening, like the gap between rich and poor. What I find so difficult about today's world is the incessant tension between opposites - for instance, this is a country with a terrible power battle between two opposite political views with insufficient balancing forces in the middle. Perhaps this is reflected in the arts, which seems to favour one or the other ends of an extreme spectrum (raw art being very introverted and conceptual art being very extroverted). Dual thinking is how our brains operate - we can only liberate our attitudes by challenging this habitual tendency to put opposite forces against each other. To me, the only way of changing anything in a fundamental way is to realise that we're dealing with paradoxes, i.e that the oppositions are equally valid and fundamentally illusory. </div>
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I wish to approach the contemporary art scene through my own work at least in some way or another, albeit without losing track of who I really am. I feel real pressure to conform, to be as lofty and conceptual as everyone else. Because if I'm not, then on what rubbish heap will I end up again? It's all reflected in an identity crisis of sorts. So I'm going through this process of trying to figure out ways of expressing something essential without falling into on the one hand the trap of ingratiating triviality and on the other the trap of exclusive intellectualism. I want to steer away from representational art without completely losing touch with it. I doubt whether I could express emotional truths in a satisfactory way using only an abstract pictorial language. It's no doubt as easy to fall into pictorial cliches while using abstract forms and colours as it is using figurative imagery. I'm no doubt looking for some kind of synthesis of different approaches. There must be a way that makes emotional sense. A way that doesn't comply with a need to be extremely extroverted and socially engaged.</div>
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I want to minimise the role of figures or landscapes as I mostly find them quite trite. Of course these are the highways to a person's emotional brain but I feel they reinforce habitual perception and are therefore ones that can prevent us from seeing other aspects of reality from a more emotional point of view. I'm also tired of 2D but I guess one is stuck with it while unable to do performances or unwilling to start creating installations (both of which consume masses of energy some of us don't have). In the meantime I'm playing around with my new smartphone (as I finally decided they are good enough and updated to the modern age) - exploring shapes, texture composition and atmosphere through snapshots and interesting filters. It is such fun, which I guess begs the question why real art is usually not a lot of fun. There is too much pressure to conform and to impress through cleverness.</div>
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I did finally manage to finish a project using my latest soundscape "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan/a-long-way-to-heaven-180614">A Long Way to Heaven</a>". More about that in my next post. Last week we saw an exhibition with sculptures by Tim Shaw (RA) . I was hoping it would prove a bit more emotionally satisfactory, and it did. I enjoyed his expressive red figures at the RA Summer Exhibition which I had a chance to see this year (albeit unimpressed by the standard of the work from the public). The work is of course representational, but the expressive materials used make it all out of whack in a good way. And of course, he is conveying relevant messages in a sincere and direct way.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.timshawsculptor.com/index.htm" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim Shaw</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: Casting a Dark Democracy</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-46781015186654001842014-08-06T18:56:00.002+01:002014-09-04T13:21:57.744+01:00PLAYED ON BBC WALES!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My recent sound piece "Creativity Will Set You Free" was played on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079gnt">Adam Walton's show</a> on BBC Radio Wales at prime time at 22 hrs on Saturday the 7th of June! Unfortunately the notification went to an inbox I hardly ever used, so I managed to miss it. It would have been nice to know if anything was said about it.</div>
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I also finished my last collage piece for "Project X" - it is also the last piece in which I use copyright free vintage engravings. I feel saturated with this kind of aesthetics and am thinking how to change direction. I have some ideas but will have to rearrange my workspace entirely. I will need to be able to stand up and will also require larger surfaces to work on.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUwcc3z73k6Q6BkeURNNj-VbZJtQ_JIZqvbSQcxm7B6JHksPPLFCMNx2SN-EnKEV8Z-fFF4suuKZpRrmOplBV2GpX8eY8xfCNn6vnvTTZJ1_OdO73jo_ZrD628UvR8pHdYoifZ1wR7GE/s1600/No-One-Sees-No-One-Knows-47x59-2506-2014_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEUwcc3z73k6Q6BkeURNNj-VbZJtQ_JIZqvbSQcxm7B6JHksPPLFCMNx2SN-EnKEV8Z-fFF4suuKZpRrmOplBV2GpX8eY8xfCNn6vnvTTZJ1_OdO73jo_ZrD628UvR8pHdYoifZ1wR7GE/s1600/No-One-Sees-No-One-Knows-47x59-2506-2014_edited-1.jpg" height="516" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"No One Sees No One Knows - I am Just a Cut-Out"<br />Collage with artist's self-portrait, copyright 2014</span></span></td></tr>
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"No One Sees No One Knows - I am Just a Cut-Out" was a piece inspired by this year's Moma Wales Open theme "Myself" that I thought about for quite a long time. Yes it did get in. I'm glad I gave it time because in the end I decided to make the piece into an ironic comment about collaging flat images ("this is not me, only an image"), as well as the flatness of the way other people see you. In other words, it is all about surface and the sense of being disposable with little intrinsic value (at least in the eyes of those who hold the power within our society). External influences always threaten to break you ("snap you in two") when you're not able to hold your fort. This picture tells the story of a Catch22, that is of someone who is not able to show their ailments. These are invisible internal problems as well as the absence of correct shape. In my case it's the feet as well as the spine, which have grown rather liberally like knotty tree branches. Of course fitting into ready made shoes and clothes is difficult, and really one should have everything customised if only one wasn't also very poor as a consequence of the illness.</div>
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What people don't see they don't understand, but if they did see it they probably wouldn't understand it anyway. So do you hide in shame or bravely show your most personal source of embarrassment? I think we know the answer - when we are not strong, we probably shouldn't subject our most vulnerable selves to public scrutiny and should probably only talk about the issues in covert ways.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-19153916648560250042014-06-05T14:27:00.002+01:002014-06-25T17:43:48.960+01:00WILLIAM KENTRIDGE AND THE WORLD AS A STAGE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfAhn2N0XQSGFAHPX7ZK0lUrOjfs3YU6YXnTFTfW5All8ib8way5jrExkGvVSkio4CPxNUFh6f-j_fw7wpTNHUnkhk2YkMjpEsEfV3t1Ocnj_HVX4Iw6A4uUn5AciuZIyEb6YhnTU6IA/s1600/William+Kentridge+Ubu+tells+the+truth+2+96.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfAhn2N0XQSGFAHPX7ZK0lUrOjfs3YU6YXnTFTfW5All8ib8way5jrExkGvVSkio4CPxNUFh6f-j_fw7wpTNHUnkhk2YkMjpEsEfV3t1Ocnj_HVX4Iw6A4uUn5AciuZIyEb6YhnTU6IA/s1600/William+Kentridge+Ubu+tells+the+truth+2+96.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div>
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I meant to write a little bit about a show I saw recently, because for once I had a positive response. There was great deal of affinity with my own ideas. However, it seems that the things that make me angry and upset are more likely to end up on my blog, haha... time is always of the essence, I'm really struggling to manage my day.</div>
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To be honest I don't feel like any great analyses since about a month has passed, but will say a few words nonetheless. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BJS96rlG47QRYpXIjUzoPkwTRNe8LMlZOyXDh_xUh-FHZd6qT2oph7D5ChJ-dBOxmqHPLphh_CHG4DWlWiVfEFmRvSxFAoGSWGr4LthF-YiqPK2zdO3fNmA-6PKc0G25zkerXC9HkOU/s1600/William+Kentridge+You+are+Lying+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BJS96rlG47QRYpXIjUzoPkwTRNe8LMlZOyXDh_xUh-FHZd6qT2oph7D5ChJ-dBOxmqHPLphh_CHG4DWlWiVfEFmRvSxFAoGSWGr4LthF-YiqPK2zdO3fNmA-6PKc0G25zkerXC9HkOU/s1600/William+Kentridge+You+are+Lying+2010.jpg" height="316" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">William Kentridge: You are Lying, 2010</span></td></tr>
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As far as I can see, there is no particular or at least very obvious reason why William Kentridge, a South African printmaker and animator, would be famous enough to end up at the Tate and be part of their book collection of contemporary artists. There is nothing terribly novel about his work. However, it may be that it's a timeless quality that speaks to me. While I'm a bit tired of figures, which is such an obvious subject matter - and his are sometimes a bit derivative of Picasso and other artist at the turn of the last century - his figures have a roughness and weight that speak to me. They are solid and corporeal, and imperfect. They aren't always well drawn but it sort of works in pointing to the humanness of the figures. It's the kind of imperfection I've been touting a lot recently! It's a charming relief and contrast to the sleek and over-sanitised work you see a lot (especially when it comes to figures).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhY9FyUYKkA5Ju7KChyphenhyphenCGCPc_gumavNSl4ikKtxSJQO0qm_yuE4G3Mu_f1LdTE20IVHWGRKZ0QZTt3ipBWRe5_ERBBpGdIZUYDD0XjY1znAMm5AuFBcYSXxtooh9uAxvoKGf_48WJstY/s1600/Must-eat-socialist-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhY9FyUYKkA5Ju7KChyphenhyphenCGCPc_gumavNSl4ikKtxSJQO0qm_yuE4G3Mu_f1LdTE20IVHWGRKZ0QZTt3ipBWRe5_ERBBpGdIZUYDD0XjY1znAMm5AuFBcYSXxtooh9uAxvoKGf_48WJstY/s1600/Must-eat-socialist-.jpg" height="400" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Socialist propaganda poster.<br />"Do you want to -<br />overcome the flu?<br />overcome hunger?<br />eat?<br />drink?"<br />Well, the cure for all that is exemplary work with the party, of course.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">William Kentridge: Nose 22<br />An explicit reference to socialism using cyrillic letters<br />- Kentridge illustrated a Russian opera called "The Nose"</span></td></tr>
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There is a kind of socialist aesthetics - a lot of black, white and red with a great deal of yellowed pages from old books, that gives it all a rather dark air yet is also graphically effective. I'm drawn to the murkiness and graphic quality of socialist imagery of the Soviet era, the red of socialism making no excuses for itself as it pops out of the plain background (presumably cheap to print). Kentridge made images based on Russian operas and has clearly been intrigued by cyrillic lettering too. This is teamed with his love of texture. It reminded me that I've always wanted to pursue this kind of aesthetics but got side tracked. Monochrome work spoke to me already as a child when I read Tove Jansson's Moomin books.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgBPUqhacX3YUOvJwuqKFOjoPTqVvL6R4Oj8x19okDqSQYxcfWRa3Ie8J0VuuBhUmbwqvnX3Wwjyb7l1McPbQnFWx7RVv0dfRZtToMwpEtL8wQLiGti-ixFnTo1bK-g82_ughH_RqPzc/s1600/large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgBPUqhacX3YUOvJwuqKFOjoPTqVvL6R4Oj8x19okDqSQYxcfWRa3Ie8J0VuuBhUmbwqvnX3Wwjyb7l1McPbQnFWx7RVv0dfRZtToMwpEtL8wQLiGti-ixFnTo1bK-g82_ughH_RqPzc/s1600/large.jpg" height="324" width="640" /></a></div>
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You can see tendencies in this work by me. In fact there are elements of vintage style collaging in Kentridge's work, though printed, many look like collages using old book pages and text written or printed here and there - this seemed mostly the case in work from the '90s.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65Qfx8gxdAQK5ane2giFwMa1u_S8tCpxddPknDrSDEXgsXvi-AlMlLRnmXsreKYEWSb5iBInk_plOjR9wxG0oYrfU5zzQeLo8Ja_zkpsVQBlBQY3LcbMyRCyfdHqZZftjuyd2M3QKErQ/s1600/William+Kentridge+Ubu+tells+the+truth+3+96.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi65Qfx8gxdAQK5ane2giFwMa1u_S8tCpxddPknDrSDEXgsXvi-AlMlLRnmXsreKYEWSb5iBInk_plOjR9wxG0oYrfU5zzQeLo8Ja_zkpsVQBlBQY3LcbMyRCyfdHqZZftjuyd2M3QKErQ/s1600/William+Kentridge+Ubu+tells+the+truth+3+96.jpg" height="335" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">William Kentridge: Ubu Tells the Truth</span></td></tr>
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I was quite transfixed by the series "Summer Graffiti" shown above, especially the piece at the top. It's a shame that you can't see the subtle red lines of the note book paper. That little red really adds to the images. I was interested in the way he layers the elements so they defy space. In other words, it's flat and dimensional at the same time, and this creates visual interest. I found myself looking at this for a long time. I also like the strong black shape of the blackboards, which adds yet more weight to the whole thing but also provides focal point and a solid contrast to all the thin lines present in the work. The whimsical drawings on them as well as the erotic theme are quite amusing They are images that entertain in a gentle sort of way. Kentridge is clearly a sensual and emotional guy who is comfortable with his sexuality.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuK8H_VqgQpSfmy-DOTT6RepMdY2s_7cwt1F1ag903qrM-Ds5XUZxCyIQsy9VPHBbAfOQjOxvk1gnvCc6ciMxFyV4rkKHTvd6_tq2Dbh0sLCVlRFAmWJnJl9abNzbiTdEKcbwojyn4Ac/s1600/kentridge_summerGraffiti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuK8H_VqgQpSfmy-DOTT6RepMdY2s_7cwt1F1ag903qrM-Ds5XUZxCyIQsy9VPHBbAfOQjOxvk1gnvCc6ciMxFyV4rkKHTvd6_tq2Dbh0sLCVlRFAmWJnJl9abNzbiTdEKcbwojyn4Ac/s1600/kentridge_summerGraffiti.jpg" height="280" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3gN9VixevvQOZobcw_CMvGyM_dB0yqQfhse1MtzB23SthZPsbPdmf8NAbERLjI98A4bohcsLo1Q5gS9YD6muNQnF8WDjhMbj8bTxEuQg0qg1Y28Kc679ZhyphenhyphenmU9EQY_IBCFIZbL1w1vw/s1600/William+Kentridge+Summer+Graffiti+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3gN9VixevvQOZobcw_CMvGyM_dB0yqQfhse1MtzB23SthZPsbPdmf8NAbERLjI98A4bohcsLo1Q5gS9YD6muNQnF8WDjhMbj8bTxEuQg0qg1Y28Kc679ZhyphenhyphenmU9EQY_IBCFIZbL1w1vw/s1600/William+Kentridge+Summer+Graffiti+1.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Unsurprisingly, Kentridge started out as a pantomime artist. The concept of the world as a theatre and the idea of carnival time is strongly present in his work. There's a tendency towards the surreal. The theatrical aspect of the work also resonate with my own work a great deal. I do nonetheless think this tendency of his has become a tad mannerist that sometimes lacks depth.<br />
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I feel that Kentridge is definitely at his best when layering a great deal of texture and lines, these images are very expressive and convey an atmosphere of strangeness. In a couple of large prints his figures were strange and ominous, just barely recognisable as human figures, and that also worked for me. I guess I'm repeating myself but many of his more complex images beg me to look at them over and over again, and that is a rare experience in today's world. Of course the show I saw was very limited so if I have some money one day I will definitely purchase <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1854379720/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=30WVRPMR4I5P2&coliid=I3FEI163VVVZIU">a book</a> of his work. He's impressively prolific and also makes animated films.<br />
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My own work:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGnirM7m7DkjPCYt1keK45cCsdoC3sSeXbtVdcfAYrIS0-3L39RBdPWlpQtpnsQCklnIHuDqhyN8z6fFOfEbXfAje4cmeMwQRChtheC7whcTXcjMaNxfWcwIk6Q5y0wJZxRlue3O0_rQ/s1600/Art-Three-Enigmas-29x28,5-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGnirM7m7DkjPCYt1keK45cCsdoC3sSeXbtVdcfAYrIS0-3L39RBdPWlpQtpnsQCklnIHuDqhyN8z6fFOfEbXfAje4cmeMwQRChtheC7whcTXcjMaNxfWcwIk6Q5y0wJZxRlue3O0_rQ/s1600/Art-Three-Enigmas-29x28,5-1.jpg" height="320" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan 1993 (drawing)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan 1997 (drawing)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2013 (collage)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4NOw34jLzfTS7fRiwd24ZJitkqQ0ykNAEZXoZluSe6VJ66K49NQkC1qqT9SqBfZEnql6Akk3dWyR2BGKsB3m8SPu-LUXeJ8CN4m46a5hdrpKatG0DdJEUkcsNECiXU1PkgWldjkwu9FI/s1600/Art-Reunion-23x31-2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4NOw34jLzfTS7fRiwd24ZJitkqQ0ykNAEZXoZluSe6VJ66K49NQkC1qqT9SqBfZEnql6Akk3dWyR2BGKsB3m8SPu-LUXeJ8CN4m46a5hdrpKatG0DdJEUkcsNECiXU1PkgWldjkwu9FI/s1600/Art-Reunion-23x31-2008.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2008 (collage)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2012 (abstract photographs)</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-34988573083752101702014-06-04T21:28:00.001+01:002014-06-04T23:04:50.074+01:00MUSIC FOR LIMINAL TIMES IS AVAILABLE AS AN ALBUM WITH COMMENTARY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I decided to make Music for Liminal Times into a concept album already. You can listen to an audio with my commentary here. Oh and if you get all the way to the end, there is a funny surprise there... This is also a bonus track on the album.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/152845698&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe>
The whole album is now on Bandcamp:<br />
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<iframe seamless="" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1242969553/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=ffffff/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 470px; width: 350px;"><a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-liminal-times">Music for Liminal Times by Vivi-Mari Carpelan</a></iframe></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-27039498720536270022014-05-27T19:02:00.002+01:002014-06-04T12:48:29.001+01:00CROSSING OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ladies and gentlemen... Liminal Tours presents: the ultimate mystery tour.</div>
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The concluding part of Music for Liminal Times is about the one massive liminal experience we all have to face sooner or later, that is, death. In this piece, I have drawn upon world-wide perceptions of death. Of course, I can't cover all ground so it was more of a narrative that made sense while referencing certain aspects of death and dying that came to me intuitively. It contains around 115 clips, most of which have been completely reworked with very simple methods. The point with this project was that it shouldn't cost any money, so I haven't even paid for <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">the software</a>. It's also sometimes better to be creative with simple tools rather than get carried away with fancy ones.<br />
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With the risk of sounding pretentious it seemed a bit like channeling the collective consciousness. In other words, it wasn't just about my own perceptions about death. It is about the anticipation of death, the way people talk about death, about the fear of death, the process of death as suggested in art, literature, films and testimonials, as well as a hint at the ambience of the beyond. It has Western as well as Eastern elements in it, of the past as well as modern times. <span style="text-align: left;">This piece is also a metaphor for the transformative process of psychological death during times of hardship and inner change.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=2762635349/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=63b2cc/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 442px; width: 350px;">&lt;a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.bandcamp.com/track/the-crossing"&gt;The Crossing by Vivi-Mari Carpelan&lt;/a&gt;</iframe>
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As always, you can also listen to it on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan/the-crossing">SoundCloud</a> (but the quality is inferior to Bandcamp). The whole playlist is <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan/sets/music-for-liminal-times">here</a>. Later on, I will publish the whole album too, but Martin may have a look at remastering it first (if necessary).<br />
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According to The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol), what we encounter after death is altogether based on what we expect, and is therefore unreal and illusory. In other words, all the experiences will be in line with the belief systems we had during our life. The reason they believe it's necessary to guide a dying person by chanting and reading from the Bardo Thödol is that the soul (really a kind of subtle mind-stream with karmic imprints) will start to long for a body and therefore seek to reincarnate. The aim is to remind it that what it's experiencing is only a kind of dream state and that the only reality is enlightenment. According to this belief system, the soul can still gain enlightenment after death if it "comes to". At the very least, with some help it can make positive choices while still in this dream state. They also claim that the first thing you experience is emotional impressions of the energetic heart, whereupon a more rational thought process from the head will follow (they are subtle/energetic equivalents to the physical reality). This is of course not unlike the many Western reports of near death experiences, where people report moving through a tunnel towards the light where loved ones reside. My own belief is akin to the Buddhist one but of course in this piece, I have made no definite claims as to what happens once the crossing has been completed. However I can give a clue, which is that I hope this imaginary person has "seen the light"...<br />
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In the pieces within this project, I've pointed to the cyclic character of life. Although I'm personally convinced about reincarnation, I didn't feel that I could make this explicit in the piece about death. The end is open to interpretation, because it is a deeply personal choice what one wishes to believe - I can only hope to inspire thoughts and feelings, as it is not for me to tell others what to believe. However, I don't think you need to believe in anything in particular in order to get something out of this piece. I think that the structure of the piece should nonetheless indicate a cyclic theme and the idea of an afterworld. I'm not <i>that</i> interested in what the past has to say about these issues, i.e. I'm not hankering after old beliefs. However I also feel that we cannot ignore the vast experience and thought that has come before us, and it is an integral part of who we are now, as a collective and as individuals. My aim is to bring some of this archetypal material into a contemporary setting. If I was able to produce more of my own sounds, it might all sound different, but this is what I can do with the found sounds that are easy for me to access through the internet.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Tibetan image of Yama, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the Lord of Death and the wheel or cycle of life with its many apparitions</span></td></tr>
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Finding an interesting name for this piece proved difficult, as everything seemed pretentious. After all, anything complicated becomes suggestive of something no one knows much about in the first place. I decided upon a simple name anyone can recognise.<br />
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Once again I was quite moved by many of the documents that I listened to, as well as the result of my own work. Through this process I have realised just<i> how</i> amazing it is that we have an aural perception, but also that the art of listening isn't simple (especially not in today's world, which scatters the senses). No doubt because I had to listen to so much material with a great deal of focus, did it have the impact it did. Nonetheless I hope that some listeners can capture some of the catharsis I experienced while making this soundscape. Of course I also hope that people would be curious as to what the final voyage could be like, and come on this journey with me. I think there is always a virtue in contemplating mortality with the view of acceptance, as deep down most of us are afraid of dying or losing loved ones. If nothing else, perhaps it can help us appreciate life a bit more. I think it maybe e important to talk about death and the possibility of an afterlife in a serious way because of the way it's being trivialised in modern society. However, the good thing is, it's no longer taboo the way it used to be (which was probably due to superstitions). Personally, I enjoyed tackling such an important and eternal subject matter, but then I'm clearly always at my happiest when I get to draw upon my background in comparative religion and talk about the really dramatic experiences of life. So that was my take on liminality.</div>
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<i>“Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.” (Lao Tzu). </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eugene Delacroix: The Barque of Dante.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Dante's work, the river Achareon is an equivalent to the River Styx in Greek Mythology, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but has been made a part of hell.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A similar image has, for instance, been adopted in the film "What Dreams May Come".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea of crossing with a ferry has been prevalent in popular Western beliefs of the past.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you didn't have a coin to pay the ferryman with, you wouldn't cross over.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arnold Böcklin: The Isle of the Dead</span></td></tr>
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So you may ask, what about contemporary visual art about death? I'm in the process of investigating, as I don't know of any offhand. There are many installations that don't lend themselves to being shown as photographs only. This book looks promising, though I'm apprehensive that it deals mostly with artists such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hearst. Perhaps one day we've heard enough of these guys.</div>
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The entire playlist can be heard here on SoundCloud:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/29135262&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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<i>New statement:</i><br />
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<i>These sound collages explore liminal space. Through a process of deconstruction and reconstruction I have completely reimagined classical music from recordings of the public domain, while also adding other found sounds. At the intersection of music and sound art, these soundscapes exist in a space between old and new, past and present. In this space, the juxtaposition between collective and personal consciousness is at the forefront. Being about liminal times, they reflect a time of transition or "crossing" from one medium to another or one state to another, the archetypal "threshold" of extraordinary times and experiences. Transition and transformation is mostly an inner process with projections in the external world.</i></div>
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<i>These soundscapes are an aural equivalent to the visual collages I make using imagery of the public domain. Creating something entirely new out of something old was the challenge I set myself. The vintage aesthetics from old recordings that is prevalent some of the time enhances the juxtaposition between now and then, and how some things in life simply never change and rather rotate in a cyclic fashion along the spiral of evolution.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-46628248426547810562014-05-16T17:58:00.001+01:002014-05-18T18:29:46.184+01:00WATER - METAPHOR FOR CREATIVE POTENTIAL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A while ago, I tried to tackle the difficult task of setting images to my first piece of music. I didn't want the imagery to compete with the music, so it had to be quite simple. In the end I decided upon some footage I had of waves crashing on the shore in Aberystwyth. To my dismay, the technical quality wasn't quite up to scratch. Granted my camera doesn't take fantastic videos but this was worse than I expected. The reason seems to be that water has complicated nuances and shades, that are forever changing, and the camera simply cannot keep up with this kind of fluid subject matter. I thought I could cover it all up during the processing phase but after a few day's work I was still dissatisfied.<br />
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I did a great deal to the footage in cutting out the best pieces and applying subtle effects, and though I can now see that it inspired creative solutions, it was still a disheartening process. I also had to endure terribly long rendering times due to heavy effects, so it took forever to see the results of my changes. Anyhow... I just didn't want to give up and in the end decided to publish my efforts in a smaller format. The round shape was actually Martin's idea (he was desperate to have me finish the excruciating process that I got him involved in too). However, I had had this thought at the back of my mind for some time that I should consider using new shapes for my photographs. It's not easy to decide to lose a lot of your footage, so I just had to be hard on my inclination to keep it all! It is what it is technically speaking - my hands are tied for lack of funds.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/92729202" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/92729202">The End is a New Beginning</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user23555340">Vivi-Mari Carpelan</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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I've been thinking about water a great deal lately, as it's close to my own heart for a whole host of reasons, but is also one of the most powerful yet simple symbols there is. Water is probably the most primordial symbol of creative potential and its manifestation, of the unconscious as well as its expression through emotions and intuition. Many cultures have imagined that life started out as a sea without light, not unlike our existence in the womb. As the eternally recurring cycle of death, rebirth and regeneration is contained in this symbol, the footage and how I have presented it, as well as the music, reflects the idea of change and transition to a new state or level of being.<br />
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Themes that have always spoken to me, and that I now find myself resurrecting, are -<br />
creativity and its origin<br />
dualism and how to transcend it through paradoxes<br />
natural and spontaneous versus unnatural and inhibited<br />
the limitlessness of spirit versus the limitations of human life<br />
the nature of the subconscious mind and how it relates to the consciousness<br />
the cycles of existence, eternal recurrence and evolution<br />
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individual consciousness/unconscious in relation to collective consciousness/unconscious<br />
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- all themes to do with the fabric of existence that no doubt interest only a select few, though I think it really should interest everyone! At university, I got bored studying modern philosophy and only found satisfaction when I started to dig into all this kind of stuff.</div>
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This project will no doubt be followed by more water-related projects. Please see my <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/creativity-can-set-you-free.html">previous blog post</a> for more musings about water in the sixth soundscape for <i><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan/sets/music-for-liminal-times">Music for Liminal Times.</a></i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-86148553345290748132014-05-15T14:34:00.000+01:002014-06-03T14:20:26.663+01:00CREATIVITY WILL SET YOU FREE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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... or at least it might. It's my belief that creativity is at the very heart of the fabric of our reality, i.e. that it has an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology">ontological</a> status. It's all about being and becoming - and therefore, I also believe that as human beings, creativity is the most fundamental element of our existence. It is what has allowed us to <i>become</i>, i.e. to evolve into increasingly self-aware and complex beings who aren't just in the world, but also add to it in substantial ways. Creativity also exists elsewhere in nature but the lack of self-awareness in other species make their creativity look a bit different and more subtle. </div>
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The ontology of creativity was in fact the subject for my Master's thesis back in '99. In spite of this, I don't suppose I quite grasped the massive implications until just recently. What it really means is that you'll be alright as long as you can keep your creative juices flowing. It is the one thing that will help you through the challenges of life because while you're creative, you're in touch with the very life force itself. Sadly, in our decadent society we lose touch with this energy more often than not, and go about life in a deploringly mechanical way. One has to become conscious of the value of creativity in one's own life and try and keep the flame alive. There are at least two things you can do to support this process. One is to engage in creative activities regularly, and not fall into a rut, and the other is to meditate <i>at least </i>once a day for a minimum of 20 minutes (preferably 30 or 40). Focus on allowing your energies free flow and feel the rise of the energy from the very base of your being and imagine how it connects with your mind. Of course you also need to try and avoid giving into self-doubts and the need to please other people, which obstructs the natural creative flow and takes away from your feelings of accomplishment (see previous <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-trap-of-trying-to-please-all-those.html">blog entry</a>).<br />
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My latest sound collage references <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi">Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's</a> famous theory about creativity and flow and imagines <i>what the creative process might sound like</i>. The experience of creative flow is a peak experience and therefore, I would argue, also liminal in nature (see previous posts). The creative process in itself is, however forever ongoing unless obstructed. This piece contains many references to space and water, two powerful symbols of creativity. One suggests that it can be an otherworldly experience that has something in common with flying, and the other that it requires a connection with the intuitive and emotional world of the subconscious mind.<br />
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<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=3887701382/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=63b2cc/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 442px; width: 350px;"><a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.bandcamp.com/track/mihaly-csikszentmihalyis-theory-of-flow-chillout-mix">Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Theory of Flow (chillout mix) by Vivi-Mari Carpelan</a></iframe>
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You can also hear it here on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-chill-out-mix">SoundCloud</a>, but the version above is slightly improved.<br />
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These two polarities are therefore metaphorical of two areas of our inner selves, the lower and higher regions of the psyche or the two ends of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber">the spectrum of consciousness</a>. To make it easier to imagine, consider this image. In Hinduism, there are two god figures, Shakti and Shiva, that represent these energies. Shakti (earthy, watery) lies within the unconscious sphere as raw, physical energy required for all forms of conception as well as the very potential out of which creative manifestations arise, and Shiva (ethereal) is pure consciousness, i.e. the spiritual aspect that manifests as creative inspiration. They are said to be in a dance-like play with each other while giving rise to our personal and collective reality. You could say that these forces function as theses - antitheses = synthesis. In a sense they represent a mentality of <i>generosity</i> in a personal as well as impersonal way. I believe this is how our reality arises all the time, without cessation.<br />
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If we live naturally we will automatically be creative (as artists we just happen to make art but it could be any other pursuit). It's really a wonderful thing that should be celebrated. Our subconscious mind is an immense storehouse of ideas and I believe we must let it come out the way it wants to come out, and not question it. We will then express who we truly are. I find it helps a bit to try and believe that we all have great creative potential outside of our normal consciousness.<br />
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The soundscape wasn't easy to construct, as it was quite complicated. I didn't plan what to put in it but advanced in an intuitive way, gradually getting the bits together. I listen for all sorts of sounds that make sense to me, based on some general idea about the atmosphere and message. I thought the piece was going to be more about the state of flow but in actual fact it became more about the process. Towards the very end I had to ask Martin what he thought of a couple of issues. I took his suggestions to heart but all the changes are my own. All the found sounds need to be stringed together in a way that makes sense. Sure it will sound like a collage, because it is one, but it also has to make a sense in a musical way. The snippets of melody (a few of which I constructed from entirely from scratch, i.e. from single notes) are suggestive of the way the research phase of the creative process, when various ideas present themselves and beg to be tested. There are also times when it all feels difficult and one might even feel stuck. Once a sense of flow sets in, it's like flowing with a stream but also diving deep into the bubbly underwater world of the subconscious mind. The tinkly sounds represent excited, creative energy. The piece starts with some space sounds from the Earth's atmosphere and ends with it too, because we always have return to Earth after our adventures in other spaces (don't we?).<br />
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Once the piece was finished, ironically, I just couldn't think of an evocative title - everything seemed banal. Referencing the famous creativity researcher's Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's amazing Hungarian name (/ˈmiːhaɪ ˌtʃiːksɛntməˈhaɪ.iː/ mee-hy cheek-sent-mə-hy-ee) in the title was in fact Martin's idea - rather tongue-in-cheek. He also suggested "chill out mix" which is quite funny. In the end I settled for a simpler title that suggests that the only way we can be truly happy within ourselves is by being in touch with the creative spark.</div>
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<i>In this TED talk, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow." (from the TED website).</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-39994268329176558332014-05-07T14:19:00.000+01:002014-05-07T15:51:49.084+01:00THE TRAP OF TRYING TO PLEASE "ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photograph by Vivi-Mari Carpelan</span></td></tr>
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Most of the time I have pretty extreme doubts about my art, and it hampers me a lot. What I try and do artistically is of such great importance to me, I just cannot take it lightly. Because of chronic illness it's the only thing I'm able to do in order to feel accomplished. It is in this respect my day job (I spend an average of five hours a day on creating, still I feel it's taking way too long to "get anywhere"). I also feel very driven to make a difference. Some money out of it all would of course be welcome, but I can just barely survive without it, and so don't make it into a priority. Life is stressful enough as it is.</div>
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However, I don't have a degree in fine arts and my line of thoughts and feelings run counter to those of the average art world. The blankness, rejection and general lack of encouragement is deadening to say the least. There was a time when I was successful with the general public, but times have changed. Today, there are more artists who compete for attention. My own art has changed and may not be as easy to take in as it was twenty years ago. People's habits in regards to consumption have changed. The internet has changed the way we view art because there's so much of it readily at hand, and information about exhibitions is also easily available. There's simply too much choice, people get overwhelmed. The collective consciousness is even more ridden with urgent challenges, and we are made increasingly aware of various forms of threat through an increasing variety of sources - art is seldom seen as a necessity in times of great upheaval. However, it's also in times of great upheaval that great art is often made, but the artist's contemporaries will no doubt find it difficult to distinguish greatness from the ordinary. It may take some perspective to perceive that which is truly meaningful and significant to the overall collective mind, and it's perfectly possible that no one will.</div>
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When I arrived in the UK and took up art again I soon realised just how competitive the art world has become. All bigger open exhibitions are connected to awards, and if you don't win them you're not considered a good artist. However, you probably won't win any awards unless you have a degree in fine arts. As an artist, you end up depending more and more on other people's opinion and criteria, and it can affect the way you make art. This will result in more mediocre art. What I see is that a lot of contemporary artists are not intuitive and true to their souls, but people pleasing and calculating. That's why so much contemporary art is so crap. For instance, everyone knows that art with a social message is more highly regarded than say expressive emotionalism, so young artists try and bend their minds towards a strategy of socially engaged conceptualism that satisfies the art world. Art with a social message is only good art if it comes from a deep place. But of course commercial art that is purely decorative is just as bad. Most people (i.e. the average person) are complying with rules and regulations, thus supplying more mediocre art to a world that is replete with blandness.</div>
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The lack of support and encouragement threatens to kill my spirit. I may not be making great art, and it certainly isn't always good... However, you would think that people had a heart and remembered the moral of smiling at least once a day at the person at the cashpoint or a random person at the bus stop. Make their day! Well, artists also need a "smile" to keep going. Be a good human being by being generous and kind to those who are struggling to do what they are destined to do, regardless whether they are making a huge contribution to society or not. Support will help them get better at what they are doing, and it's potentially for other people's benefit too. No one is an island.</div>
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If I ceased trying to get my art out there to the attention of the general public and art authorities, and focused on being creative on my own terms instead, I might get some kind of peace of mind. However it would also damage my desire to communicate and certainly ruin every chance of ever "making it" while still alive. Seriously - I'm in two minds about this. I'm driven to communicate so withdrawal doesn't seem to be the answer. No one likes rejection and some of us are more prone to suffering from it. It can hamper you so badly, that you just give up. You don't know for sure if you're making good art or not because you're not getting much validation, and it could mean the end of a really promising path (I rather say "path" than career). After all, a lot of writers and artists have struggled for quite a bit before making it. Often they had very little support until they were suddenly discovered by an authority who resonated with their work. </div>
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There was <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating">a recent TED talk</a> with Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" who struggled with rejection for years until she made it. However, in this case we seem to be talking about stuff that's fairly commercial - I don't know about the book, but I saw the movie and it's pretty cheesy. I know that in the end it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do it creatively and with integrity. It <i>really</i> doesn't matter what you do, because there <i>should </i>be room for everyone in our world (that's what true diversity should be all about). However, if you're not looking for commercial success you may end up lacking in some drive. After all, who are you supposed to communicate with? What does success look like to you? It can be hard to imagine if you remove the rather straightforward commercial aspect, and so you may end up feeling pretty scatty and unfocused. You might have to think consciously about how you can bring yourself back to your own inner centre. Even when you are doing what you love, it's never an easy ride and a lot of the work you have to do is tedious and uninspiring. It's a little bit of inspiration and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)"> flow</a>, and a lot of hard work. To remain in touch with your soul throughout all this is definitely not easy. </div>
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Every once and again I cry for a day and then pick up again when I got the sadness and frustration out of my system. I lick my wounds and consider that people might just be too stupid to get me (I know you shouldn't, but... I'm only human). I think of ways in which I can minimise exposure to disappointments, including trying too hard to get noticed. Trying too hard to gain attention is not a natural and fluent way of existing. I remind myself of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tao-The-Watercourse-Alan-Watts/dp/028564050X">the Taoist ideas</a> about going with the flow along the lines of the least resistance. Take the watercourse way. Nowadays I also meditate at least once a day (three times would be better). Though it's sometimes a fruitless pursuit, it seems to be the only way in our chaotic world that one can regain some inner balance and poise. My husband then reminds me that my job is to make art for the future. It may not please society we know today, but it just might point the way in some way... I guess what I really want is to help people reflect upon the great pathologies within the collective psyche, and trying to be different is to go against my deepest concern, and it's a spiritual one which I'm well aware doesn't sit well in postmodernist society. I'm neither particularly clever nor geeky. Perhaps one day it will be appreciated in spite of all its shortcomings. </div>
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This blog post was inspired by<a href="http://forthecreators.com/2014/05/why-you-simply-must-carry-on-creating/#comment-2286"> another one</a> from "For the Creators".</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-53329086142860252532014-04-29T15:03:00.002+01:002014-05-01T13:12:49.048+01:00THE TAO OF WAR AND PEACE IN MY LATEST SOUND COLLAGE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My latest piece "War and Peace is a State of Mind" is about the eternal recurrence of conflict and harmony, and how the murky recesses of the individual and collective consciousness reflect the state of the world. It was a complicated one and the research as well as the creative process of putting all the bits together inspired some deep-felt emotions and frequent bouts of tears. It was interesting to listen to historical documents about the Second World War in a very focused way - when you see these things on TV they just pass by so quickly, and don't usually cause a deeper emotional connection with the way things really were back then. The rhetoric used varies a great deal, it's sometimes aggressive warmongering, sometimes triumphant propaganda, sometimes woeful but determined statements - and then there's the neutral voice too, in order to complete the spectrum. The explosion of the atom bomb has a profound effect on me. I decided to stick to parts of WW II and the Cold War because of the wealth of documents that are now part of our collective consciousness, and also because introducing more modern wars would simply have been overwhelming with confusing results. I hope some of what I felt will come through to the listeners.<br />
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In case you wonder, the theme in the beginning is not from an ice cream van, but <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24910397">a theme</a> (the Swedish Rapsodhy) that is said to have been used as the interval signal for a German language numbers station during the Cold War. The idea of weird codes being transmitted through the air is somehow alluring and creepy, but also quite a strong metaphor for the murky world of the collective consciousness (or even unconsciousness).<br />
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In my last post, I explained what liminal means and suggested that war is usually seen as a liminal experience, i.e. "out of the ordinary". I was interested in exploring this assumption further, not least as it was an excuse to equate the external event with ongoings in the human psyche. I realise that a lot of people will have no idea what I'm talking about when I bring in some Taoist philosophy, but I will attempt to explain myself nonetheless. My sleep, or lack thereof, is a disaster and I'm finding that a possible cause could be an neuroinflammation in the brain, that is an over activation of microglia... I'm very worried about my upcoming sleep study and whether there is any help to be had. I have been able to escape my worries by drowning myself in work when I can focus, as this sound project has been quite exciting to me. However, thinking is very hard for me these days and my inability to sleep naturally and my increasingly adverse reaction to medication doesn't help. I still hope I can make some kind of sense.</div>
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According to a Taoist way of looking at reality, polarities are fundamentally interconnected and not in conflict with each other - the conflict lies within the human mind. Life has a cyclical quality, as polarities (yin and yang) shift from one to another. One can't exist without the other. War can only exist as a counterpart to peace, and vice versa. </div>
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We think of war as liminal, i.e. “out of the ordinary”, but this is not quite true if we look at war and conflict in its broadest sense (and I think it's really only liminal in some ways were there is real change involved). Conflict is as frequent as the lack of it. This might be easier to see if in your mind, you exchange "conflict" and "war" with other forms of disorder and chaos. Life is a wave movement that alternates various forms of chaos with forms of order and stability (there is a tipping point where everything is in good balance, but it doesn't last as nature has to take its course). The way of nature is inescapable, it's our attitude towards the facts of life that we should worry about more.</div>
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To humans, war is normally terrifying but in the long run, a lack of action can also get tedious. People also get complacent when everything is a bit "too easy". This is as much an external reality, <i>as an internal one</i>. I think it's really important to remember that one mirrors the other. A dissatisfied and agitated mind will cause havoc in real life, but warmongering can also arouse other people's secret aggressions and make people lose their inner control. To change the world you do have to address the human psyche first. The point, however is, that you can't do that by fighting and repressing your urges. That's violence against the self, which in ironically just perpetuates the idea of violence. The more you resist something the more it will keep coming back. That's why resisting war isn't the answer either. In fact, our "fight and flight" mechanism isn't serving us very well anymore - more and more people are succumbing to stress related diseases. We are luckily evolving, and are thus able to find new and creative ways of dealing with perceived threat. We need to rethink our propensity for stressful situations in which we are hunting or being hunted. How can we lead our lives in a more emotionally mature and less simplistic way? That is surely our future!</div>
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However, the point I really want to make is that by resisting conflict while advocating peace in a warrior like way we are shooting ourselves in the leg. History already shows that holding onto peace (or status quo as it often means in practice) too forcefully will lead to all manners of suppression and ultimately civil unrest. Even "fighting for peace" is a warrior's stand, and perhaps humanity needs to reinvent its warriors (in fact some of them are now "diplomats"). </div>
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To realise the nature of this semantic tension in our minds is surely a way of dealing with the urge to exert aggression towards one another. If you postulate that polarities are irrevocably interlinked like two sides of a coin, then by reinventing the idea we have about conflict and how to solve it through war, we automatically reinvent our idea of peace, and vice versa. That to me is evolution, but it's up to us how quickly we are willing to allow for change.</div>
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The way the world runs the wars at present is patriarchal (note the lack of women in the piece, as I simply couldn't find any other than ones in numbers stations), but thanks to evolution, expressions of disagreement and power eventually change over time. In the end, the concept "war and peace" is no doubt less about what it represents to us in our minds than how we may reinvent these concepts and seek less destructive ways of dealing with challenges within ourselves and in relation to the rest of the world.<br />
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I have written some more about eternal recurrence in <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/my-latest-artists-film-tides.html">this</a> blog post.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-46705652681662281412014-04-15T15:57:00.004+01:002014-04-22T13:40:58.543+01:00MORE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FOR "MUSIC FOR LIMINAL TIMES"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quality downloads of my music from <a href="https://vivimaricarpelan.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp</a></span></td></tr>
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Having branched out, I now realise how each medium lends itself to quite specific ways of expression, and they truly are not interchangeable. I decided to continue experimenting with found sounds and the subject matter that came to me was times of change and transition. It has been quite fascinating to see how feel different about this medium - I feel that I can express psychological realities in a way that I can't quite do with other media. Sound has always been quite an emotional affair to me and I have been curious about alternative music all my adult life, so it comes as no surprise that I seem to be more emotionally expressive this way. Perhaps that's just my personal impression based on novelty value, however it has still been quite satisfying to me. </div>
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I have realised that I really want to champion a greater attention to emotional intelligence, as I feel it has gotten somewhat lost in this mechanical age. It is easy to forget just how multidimensional we are when we go about our day in a typically mindless way. I know many people find this kind of music very difficult and maybe even pointless, but it does require some attention and mindfulness. It's not supposed to be easy, yet I would hope that when given the appropriate attention it would trigger some sense of recognition and connection with the psyche. It's not meant to be "just entertainment", nor is it meant to be so difficult no one can stand listening to it. Why this music is at the intersection of music and sound art is in my opinion because it has a specific concept and attempts to express ideas in a reasonably complex way. One can argue this line but it's fairly clear to me. This music requires reflection, not just mindless consumption. My mom was quite taken by it, and said it sounded just like me, and that it gave her imagery that she remembers from my visual artwork since time immemorial. This musical pursuit really reflects my life long interest in the deeper layers of our psyche - in fact one of the strands of comparative religion that I was focusing on at University was the psychology of religion. It's all making sense to me now...</div>
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I have created two new pieces and decided to pursue this project until I have a complete album. I call this endeavour "<i>Music for Liminal Times</i>". The word <i>liminal</i> is to me an intriguing and beautiful word. I realise not everyone has come across it but hey, then it's about time, eh? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality">Liminal</a> is originally an anthropological term that denotes times of transition and change. It's a time that is out of the ordinary. It can be a rite of passage, it can be times of war, it can be crazy carnival time, it can be times of relocation, or times of inner change. These times are archetypal thresholds, usually marked by disorder and chaos until a new order ensues. All of these situations are interesting from a psychological point of view because they help us evolve, on a personal level as well as on the level of collective consciousness. I find that I am really quite fascinated with the way collective consciousness interacts with the individual consciousness, often in a compelling and quite distressing way. To withstand this influence and retain personal integrity is difficult. However, I believe that awareness of this and how we transit from one stage or level to another is quite important to a more fluid experience of life.</div>
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<i><i>In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold", is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. During a ritual's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes. /.../ </i>The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: start;"> </span><i><i>(From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality">Wikipedia</a>)</i></i></div>
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The two new pieces are...</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Please note!!</b> If SoundCloud isn't working, go to<a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.bandcamp.com/"> Bandcamp </a>instead.</span><br />
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The theme for the first one was suggested by old recordings done on an Edison Sound Cylinder back in 1904. The music sounded quite odd and was fun to work with. The quality of the singing was so terrible at times that it made me think of how desperate people enter singing competitions in order to be famous. Fame is another very futile and transient experience that is surely quite nice while it lasts, but as we all know is also of very relative value and a very exclusive one at that. It has little to do with real (ordinary) life, yet even I secretly dream of it..!</div>
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The theme for the other piece was one I already had in mind while I was looking for material, as I mean to make a film with my abstract photography (<a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/abstract-photography/">"Traces"</a>). I have already discussed the possibility of showing this film during a themed exhibition at a nearby gallery ("Maesmawr") next year - the owner is planning to show several films on the theme "Journey". Being in transit - transitioning from a to b - is of course a liminal experience. This time, I was inspired by my own efforts to meditate and thus try and rebalance my self. As most people know, when you do you become mindful of many inner events and psychological issues, and that's what this piece is mainly about. I did find it difficult to make it long enough, without it becoming cliched and boring meditation music. It took me quite a while to figure out how to create harmonious depth to the latter part. </div>
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I hope it's not too hard to detect my sense of irony and subtle humour in these pieces. After all, if we take life too seriously we will only become depressed and even suicidal. </div>
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The first piece took me only two days to create, but after that I had a lot of flawed waveforms to fix (that's a whole new ball game, phew!). The preparations for the second piece took a couple of days (that is, collecting the sounds of the public domain as my rule of thumb is that it must be free, as difficult as it is to find such sounds), then the actual creation took about three - four days. It means I now have more method and experience than when I did the first pieces, but I'm working with very basic and quite cumbersome free software (<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>). </div>
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The making of this music is a process of complete deconstruction and reconstruction, during which I reimagine classical music of the past - one may in fact question whether classical music exists at all today. To this mix, I various other elements of my own liking.</div>
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You might like to see how Max Richter has <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Recomposed-Max-Richter-Vivaldi-Seasons/dp/B008ZBPEKW/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1397585001&sr=1-1&keywords=max+richter+vivaldi">reimagined Vivaldi</a>, and also a project in which he refers to the past through the spoken word, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoryhouse-Max-Richter/dp/B00BADSX14/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1397585052&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=max+richter+memory+house">Memory House</a>.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-64194988988547859942014-03-17T17:23:00.001+00:002014-03-21T14:16:32.206+00:00ON A QUEST FOR MORE SUBJECTIVITY, HEART, SOUL, SPONTANEITY AND REAL ART!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Junk Mail", photograph by Vivi-Mari Carpelan.<br />This is a comment, I hope I don't need to explain myself.</span></td></tr>
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As we all know, over the past 250 years science has taken precedence over heart and soul. For every invisible phenomenon, there is supposedly a perfect rational and visible explanation, and they presumably match each other without fail. It is not about correlation, it's about blatant<a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8-yKcQRnD2EC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=integral,+reductionist&source=bl&ots=hXFgPa-K0R&sig=zbg81U5K33ozBtg5TS6S14V5B1A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LiQnU5fwD4SZhQfetICQBQ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=integral%2C%20reductionist&f=false"> reductionism. </a>The arts have followed suit because what is considered superior to the artist's inner life is an artist's ability to state an objective point of view about the world. Spiritual concerns are just passé! But how does that help us recover our fragmented selves? Surely art should support self-development and the development of a more humane society? I find it immensely disturbing that subjective truth is so down market at this point, and therefore I'm on a mission to help bring it back into people's consciousness... to reinstate a balance between subjective and objective... a bit of a task, eh! This article has come about from discussions with my husband.</div>
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There is so much art out there to browse, so one must be careful about generalising the art world too much. However, I do see a trend which supports the idea that an artist must start with a clear concept that they then create the art <i>to fit the concept.</i> People who wish to be artists are desperately trying to think of more and more "clever ideas", because that's what art authorities seem to expect to see. For instance, if you apply for a grant from the Arts Council, you usually have to have a very precise idea of the kind of project you wish to pursue, and then make damn sure you deliver it too. Unfortunately, as Martin pointed out, if you make up the art to fit your concept, you're actually only <i>illustrating</i> an idea. And that's often just <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/is-conceptual-art-just-bad-philosophy.html">bad philosophy</a> anyway.<br />
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Where is the true creative spark? Coming up with ideas is creative, but if it's not taken further and moulded into something a great deal more comprehensive and profound, then there really is very little creativity involved in the process. I'd almost go as far as to say that if a wannabe artist isn't able to let their soul sing in order to create something surprising and even wondrous in some ways, then they aren't worthy of being called an artist. It's amazing to watch one's own subconscious mind organise elements into an unexpectedly meaningful whole. It's in essence a <i>spontaneous and life affirming </i>process, not a dry calculated one (the calculation only comes in sometimes as a mere supportive tool). You start out with "some kind of idea', a hazy concept, and then let the alchemy take over and basically just see what happens. I'm so sick of seeing superficial, calculated cleverness in the arts... everything has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. What sometimes may appear as difficult art is often just very bland and superficial. Having the guts to trust your instinct and see through the veil of snobbishness isn't easy for everyone though, because we have been told it's good by presumably trustworthy authorities. </div>
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The situation is so skewed. We saw one of the shows in the lovely BBC series <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rjr1d">"What do Artists Do All Day?"</a> about the performance artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye_Chetwynd">Marvin Gaye Chetwynd</a>. She has tons of energy, which could account for the fact that people are so taken in by her that they give her lots of money and freedom to do what she wants. She engages a lot of people in her performances, too. But it's so badly made and so badly performed! It all really looks like a crappy school play with replicas from scifi movies, and all she's doing is just farting about a lot (as Martin put it) and then inventing some political story to cover up her dodgy tracks. The boulders made of paper the performers were carrying about that were supposed to symbolise debts... oh god, the banality and poverty of expression! Perhaps through this art you're supposed to discover your inner child? I have to say there was nothing I enjoyed more when I got out of school than burying my child self for good somewhere in very deep and dark forest, and no I don't want it back! Because Chetwynd's somehow gained attention (she was nominated for the Turner Price in 2012 for some rather sad looking performance that was supposedly about democracy), she was being put on show in the N<a href="http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/">ottingham Contemporary</a> art museum. I feel that it's another case of the emperor's new clothes - because someone has put her there, people believe that she's worth appreciating. She says something to the effect that she doesn't believe that you need to know anything about art in order to understand what she's doing... well... it sure doesn't take much to realise what <i>she</i> is doing, or <i>not </i>doing... I'm sorry, but one thing it isn't, is art.<br />
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The other day someone passed on a rather innocent comment on the internet about how real art doesn't require any education, anyone can intuitively enjoy art and culture because that's what it's for... or something like that, I forget the exact phrasing. Of course lots of people would ascribe to this, and happily enjoy whatever art they feel drawn to, and that's fine. Yet... it would be an ideal world where everyone would just follow their intuition, but this is not the world we live in and very few nowadays have a clarity of vision that allows them to see <i>right through</i> the art - and I mean <i>all</i> art... There's a difference between enjoying what you feel attracted to (which is fine, but a limited way of experiencing life) and seeing art work in general for what they really are. Art is more than just Mona Lisa and Sunflowers, and by the way Picasso and Matisse are over-rated. </div>
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The point is, education <i>is</i> valuable in today's world. I just said people should question authorities. Yes, but I also resent having it suggested to me that I can't possibly be less knowledgeable about art than an office clerk. The worst is, it's uneducated and ignorant people who would say such a thing. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I wasn't reacting so vehemently to the statement above because I necessarily want to be seen as an authority (which is nice but not all-important). I was reacting because these days, laypeople don't seem to have any respect for expertise - everything has to be dumbed down so that the simplest of minds can understand what is going on. Everyone is <i>subliminally</i> told what to think but they often start believing they came up with it themselves. It's a great paradox, that people ingest so many relative "truths" without discernment that they find difficult to question, yet also want to be self-sufficient and rebellious when someone comes along with some expertise (a sign of the good old narcissistic individualism I expect). I don't blame them a lot of the time because many people with expertise aren't serving them well, and perhaps it's also a sign that attitudes are changing. Yet there is also the possibility that the internet gives people the illusion they can be an expert on pretty much anything there is, because they can browse so many pages... but someone put it there in the first place and a lot of information is superficial and biased in insidious ways. If you're not trained in critical research, this information could be difficult to handle.</div>
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Interestingly, almost anyone can get into a university these days, too, so it's no longer just for the intellectual elite. What will happen to the standard of teaching? Art authorities, who themselves have an education behind them, do expect artists to have one too. In this case it's very often about looking less at the actual art than the artist's CV... that's because in the end, it's still the objective view point, <i>the lists</i>, that mean the most (have you noticed how everything is always made into lists? Five reasons you're not a good artist!). Basically, it's all a terrible mess! That's because what is lacking is a clear distinction between the experience of deep feelings and intuition, and a plain rational evaluation of a phenomenon in the world. People don't see these faculties for what they are, they tend towards one or the other without discernment (or awareness, even). The faculties are therefore usually in conflict instead of complementing each other the way they are meant to. Feelings and intuitions are immensely useful in helping us make real sense of the world and its objects from our subjective standpoint, whereas objective rational analysis is hardly any better than a computer's way of processing (though in fact slower!). It so often doesn't arrive at the correct answers, either - rationality usually comes from a very prejudiced place, the home of all our belief systems and other mental constructs. It's that thing about right and left brain, heart and mind, and so on. Collective consciousness is undoubtedly now on the level of thoughts (rational, cognitive processing), so it's natural that this kind of mental processing would seem very important to the majority, but it's a terribly insular level and really needs to start moving towards something a bit more lifelike. The world has become stifled and robotic, and lost much of the soul and spirit that makes life worthwhile in the first place. It's but one of the signs of a very decadent society.</div>
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However, the years of studying art and art history as well as experiencing the art world first hand that I have behind me <i>do</i> account for something. For instance, my education at a real University as well as the university of life allows me not to confuse "liking" with "understanding". If I feel uneasy and don't understand a piece of art, I usually find in conversation with Martin that it really was as meaningless as it appeared at first. It gives me confidence to pass a value judgment on art work. And though there is no objective guarantee that I'm <i>right</i> about what I think and feel and could in fact be a terrible culture snob, that expertise should still have intrinsic value. I was also upset because I feel that as soon as I make art that is a bit difficult to understand, people shy away. People seem to expect everything to be really easy and palatable, i.e. dumbed down. I don't want to be too harsh because I also see that people are tired, bogged down and in need of hopefulness. There's only so much people can take in. However... it's easy to escape into a world of pretty pictures and cute animals and twee spirituality. Suddenly everyone is an expert and able to say "this is good art" simply because it's pleasing to them. Even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory">integral art </a>can offend a serious artist / real imperfect human because of being so glossy, banal, often anti-feminist, and anything but all-encompassing (i.e. truly integral and integrated) like <a href="http://integrallife.com/node/259926">this stuff</a> by a Finnish guy. I saw a visionary artist calling themselves a "conscious artist" today, no doubt meaning they have their eyes wide open and are spiritually receptive... however I believe that art has to be largely subconscious in order to be meaningful (for instance, creative solutions often come to us after sleep), and therefore that kind of statement to me isn't really analytical enough! Intellectual ability is a good thing too, just knowing its real place in the grand scheme of things is important.</div>
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Not everyone sees any point in dwelling on difficult issues. But I want to inject, that if people stop sharing serious issues with each other, nothing will ever change for the better. You have to take the bull by the horns! This is everyone's responsibility, is it not?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-67326933889529433292014-03-13T14:43:00.001+00:002014-04-15T16:32:59.325+01:00MY NEW SOUND COLLAGES - AT THE INTERSECTION OF MUSIC AND SOUND ART (AN EXPLORATION OF LIMINALITY AND RECYCLED SOUNDS)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm getting a bit tired of explaining what I do and why... society is so obsessed with mental constructs. However... let's see what I have to say about the process of creating music as a visual artist...</div>
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I have now ventured further into the realm of sound and have lingered at the intersection of music and sound art. Compared to most sound art I didn't proceed in an analytical manner and almost solely relied on my intuition. The result is definitely more musical than noisy - sound art generally speaking tends to distinguish itself from music by avoiding sounding musical (sometimes successfully, sometimes not...). These are more poetic (they aren't strictly speaking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_poetry">"sound poems"</a> though I've seen the term used for this kind of sounscape).<br />
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I am <i>not</i> just stringing sounds together in some random fashion, though that's how the process starts and you do of course make more or less conscious decisions along the way. It's in my mind a deeply creative process that demands a lot of attention and intuitive understanding of the way sounds work in harmony. It works much the same when I do physical collages, and I do enjoy this process of discovery and insight.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The two first pieces, "The End is a New Beginning" and "The Unexpected Longevity of Love". I decided to rename the second piece when I realised I was going to continue to work along these lines and might even want to make an album.</span><br />
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"The End is a New Beginning" and "The Unexpected Longevity of Love" (formerly part II of "The End is a New Beginning") are two experimental pieces of music that make something new out of something old. They use <i>found sound</i>. They are an aural representation of the kind of 2D collage that I have made using copyright-fee imagery from the past. How can you create a completely new feel from old material? This is the challenge I have set myself in this series. I decided not to include other elements and concentrate only on recycling the found sounds from two historical periods covering about 200 years each and only use vintage recordings of the public domain - at least for now. The process of picking the recordings from <a href="https://musopen.org/">Musopen.org </a>was somewhat haphazard (and was in fact done a while ago when I didn't have any clear intentions), and what I ended up with was <i>recycled sounds </i>(this is not an official definition). This is not unlike the process of taking an old object (preferably something unique and personal, of course) and turning it into a new expression of creativity.<br />
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This is my way of comparing music with images... generally speaking I don't agree with a lot of sound artists that you can analyse an image and construct sound/music that somehow corresponds with the image directly. To me, this is reductionism. Perhaps I feel that sounds are of a higher order in some ways, because of being more abstract, and <i>complement</i> images rather than <i>represent</i> them. (Check out <a href="http://www.mariosathanasiou.com/work/gravamina/">this piece</a> by Marios Athanasiou though, it almost works). In fact I'm a bit unsure of whether I want to put imagery to these pieces, as I worry that it will detract from the rich musical texture and twists and turns - these could be in conflict with each other, fighting for the spectator's attention.</div>
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Surprisingly, the pieces feel intensely personal - the process as well as the results had a deep emotional impact on myself. I therefore concluded that using found sounds rather than generating my own had little impact on how I felt about the finished piece. I was also interested in how this kind of work differs from work on a flat surface. Music and sound art depend on the passing of time and you can loop it if you wish. 2D work also has an element of the passing of time because of the way a viewer's eyes travel around the work. However, one compels you in one sequential direction whether the other compels you less. You also cannot loop a piece of 2D work so it doesn't have the same circular character. </div>
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The first part comprises Renaissance and Baroque composers such as Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Palestrina and Buxtehude. There's mainly vocals and the organ. As this music has strange harmonies and a fairly simple structure, it was exciting to work with. The recordings were fairly good quality to start with so that also made the process a bit easier. The following challenge was using Romantic composers such as Beethoven, Verdi and Rachmaninoff, with a hint of Baroque in J.S. Bach's Goldberg variations. The vocal parts are an entirely different style, the tonality is generally speaking more complicated, and the main instrument is the piano. The piano notes resonate a great deal and the overall is more personal, two factors which makes it harder to mould clips into something new. The experience was quite different and as the recordings were somewhat lacking, the process proved a lot more laborious.<br />
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The title is philosophical but also personal because I feel that I'm at the end of a phase in my life, and it denotes a new beginning. This is a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality">liminal</a> </i>space. It's reflected in the process of making sounds, which has left me feeling liberated and somewhat spiritually elevated. The end is also literally present in the beginning of both pieces.</div>
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I believe you can feel the flavour of these historical periods but also experience the pieces as completely contemporary that don't follow any common musical rules. In fact I'd say it exists in the liminal space between old and new, and is as much part of the collective consciousness as it is personal. I'm not a musicologist but that much I know! I regret not playing an instrument and knowing more about music (I was admitted to a music school when I was 15 but never attended due to chronic fatigue). However I'd like to believe that there just might be an advantage sometimes in not being bound by rules... please listen and judge for yourself! I'm quite happy with the results as I feel I have satisfied a desire to create music in spite of my educational shortcomings, and I might do it again. I have plans on using my own voice again at some point.<br />
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Martin alerted me to a sound artist who worked from the 1960s onwards, particularly in the BBC workshop - <a href="http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/">Delia Derbyshire</a>. In other words, it's all been done before! Her electronically produced sound collages are well worth listening to and have something in common with my own work. I enjoyed seeing her demonstrate the process in a documentary by the BBC. I also found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MsyOe7xCqg">this series </a>of the 1980s on Youtube which demonstrates the methods of making "new sounds" at the time (now rather historical but quite interesting nonetheless).<br />
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Do you really need to know the rules in music? Though I completely agree that you normally need to know rules in order to break them, perhaps you can also be self-taught just as well as being self-taught in any other creative area. After all, I have a life time of curiosity towards alternative music behind me, and I guess that's a kind of education too.<br />
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<i>Delia believed that the way the ear / brain perceives sound should have dominance over any basic mathematical theory, but as with most things in life it is important to know the rules in order to advantageously bend or break them. (from the website)</i><br />
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<i>"Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Have The Right Equipment – What Matters Is Your Musical Imagination!" (Steve Reich)</i></div>
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Listen to this piece, <a href="http://desolatemarketrecords.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-a-voice-is-calling"><i>Somewhere a Voice is Calling</i></a>, <i><a href="http://desolatemarketrecords.bandcamp.com/album/voices-from-the-dead-wax">Voices from the Dead Wax</a></i> and <i><a href="http://desolatemarketrecords.bandcamp.com/album/and-the-boyling-cells">The Boyling Cells </a></i>by Paul J. Rogers. He uses old recordings in his performances, while relishing the imperfections. Though I saw one of his performances ("Somewhere a Voice...") last August, he didn't give me the idea to do this sort of chop up of old music. That's probably because the main element in this work was all the old devices for playback that he used to create an amazing soundscape. Many of us are looking for material with soul, feeling perhaps that computer generated sounds can be soulless. At least for the time being, I am also making a point of using only sounds of the public domain.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photograph by Vivi-Mari Carpelan, 2013</span></td></tr>
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Please read more about liminality and the reasons for doing this kind of thing in<a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/more-experimental-music-for-music-for.html"> this blog post.</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-819445858309144572014-01-28T20:18:00.001+00:002014-03-17T18:13:06.575+00:00BEAUTIFUL AESTHETICS AND SYMBOLISM IN "WOMB" ("CLONE")<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I rarely feel like reviewing art films because I usually feel that great compromises have been made. After all, films engage enormous budgets and countless people. Often enough, directors have to give in to financial concerns, i.e. how much is the film going to draw in. Blockbusters use up a lot of money but usually make at least two or three times as much. Though we are artists ourselves, we also find most arty films pretty pretentious and contrived. Directing such an enormous project and making it work as a whole - well, that must be hard!</div>
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I really want to draw attention to a film called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womb_(film)">"Womb"</a>, though. For its UK release in 2012 it was renamed "Clone". This is the most artful and compelling film we've seen in years, and in our mind it's not pretentious. It's such a shame the marketing was so rubbish in the UK. We might not have even seen it if we'd just gone by the cover. You are lead to expect a typical Sci-Fi movie - that's judging by the change of name (Clone from the original Womb) and the tacky, banal green poster, but the film is anything but. This of course allures the wrong people to watch it - well, what was the point of that exercise, eh? I guess we are lucky to have it here at all.</div>
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You really should be prepared for real art (and I don't say this lightly). I wish I had, I would have paid much more attention from the start. In terms of pace, style and moral questioning it is a little bit akin to '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(2006_film)">The Island'</a>, a Russian film by Pavel Lungin about a monk (see my review <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/few-reviews-of-art-films.html">here</a>). Of course, the director Benedik Fliegauf of Clone (Womb) is Hungarian, it's set in Germany, and was first released in Russia. I don't always see slowness as a virtue, but some directors make it work. Everything in this film seems a bit dislocated and not quite real, which I feel adds to the sense of meaning and atmosphere over entertainment. Both Martin and I felt that the vision expressed here comes fairly close to the kind of aesthetics and meaning that we are looking to create ourselves. Interestingly, the sea takes on a similar role as in my own little artist's film "Tides". I've noticed the sea is quite the theme in a lot of contemporary music with this kind of minimal and "grey" aesthetics (cf <a href="http://www.peterbroderick.net/?page_id=5">Peter Broderick</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/last-days">Graham Richardson</a> aka Last Days).</div>
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It is beautifully executed in a very contemporary looking minimalist style almost entirely in shades of grey in the good tradition of Scandinavian drama, but it's not sterile and boring. How very easy to make this kind of film visually cliched. Instead, it's full of atmosphere and texture and a lot of beautiful close ups (quite a contemporary way of filming). The minimalist music by Max Richter (a composer we both quite like, for the most part) blends in beautifully with the rest of the film - you don't always notice it's there. This simplicity is echoed in the story, which is stripped to its bare minimum in order to highlight certain viewpoints, those little symbolic bits that you're supposed to pay attention to in order to string it all together. It's a deeply symbolic film that engages your braincells. I would recommend reading up on what it all means, since you could easily miss a few things. Maybe do it afterwards when you need to fill in some gaps? People have pondered the symbolism so you can look that up on the internet. You probably also need to understand a little bit about cloning and how it works. Consider that cloning doesn't involve two parents, so if a woman carries a clone, she's not the real mother.. There's also a 'full circle' so you need to pay attention to the first scene and how it relates to the end. I rather not reveal too much else as I believe you should watch it with fresh eyes.</div>
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The film makers also daringly tackled an interesting and contemporary, but difficult taboo laden moral issue, which should stimulate intelligent people. It's all done with great confidence and there are few shortcomings. It's not a film for everyone, for sure. Thankfully someone makes this kind of thing. And it only cost 13 million dollars as opposed to 130 for the really rubbish "A Good Day to Die Hard".<br />
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Related:<br />
Check out this piece of sound art and artistic TV theme from 1963!<br />
(BBC sound artist Delia Derbyshire and Dr Who)<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-3698794334857993672014-01-14T18:35:00.000+00:002014-03-25T16:48:51.374+00:00MY LATEST ARTIST'S FILM, "TIDES"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My film project "Visible/Invisible" has finally been completed, after some delays. The (independent) third part, "Tides", was no doubt the most difficult one to put together. I collected clips throughout the summer and autumn and finished it all just after the holidays. The clips were mostly ones that I just felt like staging, not entirely sure how to put together in the end. Others I collected as I saw something that I thought could be interesting material. Then I had to figure out how to use filters and when to create my own colours and effects (all colours are mixed by me).<br />
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The sounds took a while to edit. As I have explained in previous blog posts, they were based on some material I recorded on my camera while in London, as well as the sound of some carillons and church bells and my own voice expressing disturbing sensations (which left my voice damaged for six weeks!). On top of that I used a vintage copyright-free recording of Verdi's Ave Maria, which I tinkered with to give it a personal and contemporary feel. </div>
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<i>In "Tides", the third and concluding part of the trilogy, the contrast between objective and subjective reality come to the forefront. There is an almost unbridgeable gap between a person's subjective experiences and their objective reality. Jean-Paul Sartre stated that humans come into being in the eyes of the other. This fundamental truth is one I have carried with me all my life. Very often, the environment remains unaware of the agony of the inner self, but it is also often asked to remain hidden because of shame. Sometimes distress brings on a desire to cover up and to present a pleasing facade. Paradoxically, this facade also acts as a wall that can be hard to surmount, especially if there is no one there to assist. The film aims to raise questions to do with imprisonment inside the body and mind, identity, connection and social adaptation - issues many disadvantaged people face in today's society. How can society help its members overcome shame?</i></div>
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Perhaps the imagery doesn't seem to correspond with the idea of being disadvantaged, but that is actually the point. It's about invisible illness and inner distress. The issues of physical pain and not feeling comfortable within one's body regardless what it looks like, are crucial aspects of the film. It's also about trying to connect with nature, animals and other humans. The sense of connection is one of the most vital things about our existence - if not even a condition for life. Though establishing good connections isn't always very successful in the world today, it's still what helps us survive and overcome some of our fundamental loneliness. There is a looming sense of the finality and ephemeral quality of life that we can only overcome through acceptance.</div>
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Tides refer to the idea of the rhythm of life and the contrasts; imprisonment versus freedom, quaint versus dreary, beautiful versus ugly, emptiness versus fullness, connection versus lack of connection, togetherness versus loneliness, pain and illness versus health, sanity versus insanity... inner and outer, claustrophobic and open... in short, many of the fundamental dichotomies that define our dual experience of life. The repetitive music also underlines the rhythmic, cyclical quality and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return">"eternal return"</a> (or "eternal recurrence") of our experiences and affects.</div>
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<i><i>"Whoever thou mayest be, beloved stranger, whom I meet here for the first time, avail thyself of this happy hour and of the stillness around us, and above us, and let me tell thee something of the thought which has suddenly risen before me like a star which would fain shed down its rays upon thee and every one, as befits the nature of light. - Fellow man! Your whole life, like a sandglass, will always be reversed and will ever run out again, - a long minute of time will elapse until all those conditions out of which you were evolved return in the wheel of the cosmic process. And then you will find every pain and every pleasure, every friend and every enemy, every hope and every error, every blade of grass and every ray of sunshine once more, and the whole fabric of things which make up your life. This ring in which you are but a grain will glitter afresh forever. And in every one of these cycles of human life there will be one hour where, for the first time one man, and then many, will perceive the mighty thought of the eternal recurrence of all things:- and for mankind this is always the hour of Noon". (Friedrich Nietsche, 'Thus Spoke Zarathrustra')</i></i></div>
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Before Christmas I shared this project with a young person who was unable to understand why I would want to make films. Why make films when my collages are already personal and intriguing? As this person hadn't seen the complete films and was only judging a few images, it was an especially hurtful (or thoughtless) remark. The imagery and sounds make sense only when stringed together. Even then you sometimes wonder how people in general perceive this kind of thing. Perhaps they also fail to see the point. Learning how to do films was a big challenge but it opened me up. I felt that I had more means of expression, as more dimensions (moving image and sound) helped me create something that seemed to encompass more of life. Now I quite feel like making something in 2D again.<br />
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Some people also feel prejudiced against the tools provided by software, however I (along with my photographer parents and my husband) feel that they are just as valid as tubes of acrylic paints are for a painter, and how you use them is dependant on your talent and creativity. As I have said before, less choice (i.e. simpler tools) can be a good thing as it forces you to try harder and think your project through a great deal more.<br />
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I put my heart and soul into it and would hope that the message comes across, and does touch somebody out there. It's all done with simple means that come nowhere near the kind of gear that some people have. That certainly bothers me, however I do not wish to believe that this fact would be in the way of true, heartfelt expression. What defines an artist is surely their desire to keep exploring themes and media, and the wish to expand one's expression.<br />
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<a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/multimedia-projects/">All three films</a> are now available as a DVD!<br />
For a sound artist who uses her voice in creative ways not unlike how I have been imagining using the voice, check out <a href="https://vimeo.com/28070896">Iris Garrelfs</a>.<br />
The distressed voices may also bear some resemblance to <i>Wahn</i> by Tangerine Dream (from the album <i>Atem</i>)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-1101471691903045842013-11-14T16:10:00.001+00:002013-12-01T17:21:31.009+00:00AVE MARIA REMIX - IT'S ALL IN THE NAME<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still from my upcoming film "Tides"<br />Copyright Vivi-Mari Carpelan</span></td></tr>
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This is a little ditto, a short minimalist remix of Verdi's Ave Maria, based on a vintage acapella recording from way back in time. The reason I used it is because I wanted an Ave Maria and it was the only copyright-free piece I could find (it's from <a href="http://www.musopen.org/">Musopen</a>). It's also for my current film project <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/multimedia-projects/">"Visible/Invisible"</a>. I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste but all I can say is that I myself have developed into being more receptive to unusual sounds and really enjoy a lot of minimalist, repetitive music. I find it strangely compelling as it disrupts my expectations of what music can be. Repetition creates structure where there aren't so many notes. A straigtforward narrative (through words, imagery, sounds etc) can often feel too conventional. A good story is great, but it's often more entertaining than meaningful. Westerners are so used to a logic that takes you from a-z - it is embedded in our alpabhet. Think of the Chinese and how their alphabet comprises entire concepts without a succession of letters (I studied Chinese so I know... it's an entirely different and more intuitive way of perceiving the world). In this respect I seem to often prefer a sort of middle ground, something that isn't too logical and straightforward.<br />
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Unfortunately the original recording was very distorted. I had to cut off huge chunks and that gave me the idea of reworking it altogether. I liked the parts that are dominated by male voices, and liked the female parts less. I also found a more personal sound by doing this. There's something very "me" in the way this little piece came out. I know, it's not very sophisticated. I haven't quite worked out how to begin and end something like this so it sounds smoother - I will no doubt rework the beginning. It was just an experiment and not really meant to stand on its own, however it made me want to do more similar stuff but with my own voice!</div>
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All the older versions of Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod, Schubert, Verdi, Caccini) are deeply meaningful to me in terms of a specific feeling in them, which I sense in all of the versions. It's also reflected in my name. Ave Maria means "Hail Mary", a salutation offered to Virgin Mary by Angel Gabriel. No, I'm not Catholic, however I believe that names are often deeply meaningful and given to us through intuitive insight from our parents. While Mary is no doubt the archetypal mother Earth, Vivi refers to life and being lively and animated. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-60824868288718757102013-11-11T14:40:00.000+00:002013-11-14T16:27:08.628+00:00MY FIRST PIECE OF SOUND ART, "THE VOICE OF PAIN"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm quite excited because I've just released my first piece of sound art! That is, a soundscape that works independently of the film it's intended for (the third part of my trilogy). It has been a long process. The recordings themselves didn't take long, but processing them was quite slow. It was a case of figuring out how Audacity, the free sound editing software works, as well as deciding which effects are useful and how they work - not the easiest things since I don't understand the lingo. It was a bit of patient trial and error... I have used the simplest means, but I think the result is quite accpetable nonetheless. The ambient sounds from London were recording on my camera in mono, but Martin found a plugin called "pseudo stereo" to convert it into, well, pseudo stereo. I was amazed that the little recorder picked up distant sounds including trains, airplanes and river boats.<br />
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The recordings of sounds of the city, "the external sounds", as well as my own voice, "the inner voice of pain", is an expression of what it means to live with pain and fatigue. As one walks around in this cityscape, one has a subjective experience of life inside the body. The vocal expression is meant to be pretty unsettling and it did in fact damage my vocal chords quite badly... oh well, what we do for art, eh! The sounds from the city were recording on a walk along the Thames in London. What I find fascinating about sound art is that it often tells a very intricate story of a place ("local colour"), but you have to listen really carefully in order to fully appreciate it. It can, as I learnt during <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/sound-meets-visual-arts-and-architecture.html">the Noises of Art conference</a>, be a way of expressing architecture and space.<br />
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Sound art is an important art form as it provides a dimension to art that is often overlooked, and can also be enjoyed by blind people. Not all sound needs to be music or talk, though a sequence that is several minutes long has to have a great deal going for it in order for people to be able to sustain interest. People aren't used to listening to anything that isn't entertaining. I realise that most people will still not understand what this piece is for. Though I want to champion this art form, this is of course why I will incorporate it into the third film as well.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-66819236833656908352013-11-04T17:37:00.000+00:002013-11-06T19:17:57.403+00:00"A SEA OF MEDIOCRITY"...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sharmila Samant: Against the Grain, installation 2008.<br />The cobras weren't stuck on with this clipper, but messy looking green wire.</span></td></tr>
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I consider giving up this blog. These days, the world is so full of people's confessions. So much blabla that no one has the time and energy to listen to. Do I really need to add to this noise?</div>
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On top of that, I feel unsure about my future as an artist and writer. Frankly, I need to simplify my life even more. Living is too tiring. My head is too weary for any deeper analyses about life and art. All that noise is getting to me. I'm not sure I even care that much anymore about recording my impressions. Plus I seem to mostly see bad art about. I could say that it makes me feel a bit better about what I'm doing. But it's depressing as well. It would be really good to feel totally blown away sometimes. As it is, we're already drowning in the sea of mediocrity that Grayson Perry was talking about.</div>
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We went to see <a href="http://www.orieldavies.org/en/exhibition/shakti-cymru">"Shakti Cymru"</a> in Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown where we go to shop for food when we can afford it. The entire space was filled with only one person's work. The artist is Sharmila Samant. Cotton wool on the floor and some handmade cobra heads in the style of traditional Indian crafts stuck on green plastic sticks and fixed with green plastic wire, all of equal length. "Oriel Davies is proud to showcase a major exhibition of work by Indian artist Sharmila Samant in her first solo show in the UK. Her work is visually arresting as well as critically and politically engaged." Basically the project is criticising the way cotton is being produced in India. There are a number of problems with the show...<br />
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a) The cobra heads seems to have been an installation in the cotton fields themselves. It's been transported directly into the gallery rather than being an adaptation for a different space, hence the naff looking green sticks and wire that are supposed to blend in with the landscape. It would have been so much better if the cobra heads had been suspended from the ceiling with invisible thread. They could have been arranged in an evocative way, at differing heights and slightly moving in the draft. There could also have been creative lighting. Or evoke the cottonfields in India somehow..!<br />
b) The project is to literal. The cotton wool represents cotton wool. The cobras represent themselves too, possibly something else as well, maybe traditional values, threat, poision, etc. In combination, it just doesn't work. There is a soundscape, but it's just a straightforward recording and nothing creative has been done with it (so I wouldn't call it sound art, but documentation). I have to say there's one more thing... craft is a bit too close to art, yet so far from it at the same time. Craft seems a bit laden with negative associations. And finally, using other people's craft to vindicate one's own creativity seems to demean the craft rather than elevate it.<br />
c) Poorly executed art should be banned! If a piece of art is neither aestethically pleasing nor intelligent, it really isn't art. It's possibly documentation, but not art. Even the fact that the cobra heads were made by crafts people rather than the artist herself puts me off. I can imagine it was difficult to bring stuff from India and that could have limited the materials, but surely the gallery should curate the show and help in making it appealing to the public? This show looked like something out of playschool.<br />
d) If I want to hear about the problem with cotton in India I can read an article about it. I really don't feel that it works particularly well as the subject matter for some art, and the fact it's political doesn't make it anymore art. I dont also get a sense of the artist's passion, of the transmission of her zeal. The topic simply fails to touch me.<br />
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So this is the kind of art that gets grants.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-48941904977609199502013-11-02T16:12:00.001+00:002013-11-04T16:44:40.153+00:00THE FUTURE OF ART<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grayson Perry: The Rosetta Vase, 2011</span></td></tr>
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Ok, that's probably quite a pretentious title, and no I don't pretend to have all the answers to it. However, I will present a few thoughts that arose when I listened to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Perry">Grayson Perry</a> on the radio. If you have access to BBC Iplayer, please do listen to his <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03969vt">four lectures</a>! I think he says what a lot of people are thinking, and that may very well be the secret to his popularity. He's very succinct, honest and unpretentious, but also funny and hugely entertaining. I remember seeing a book with his pottery in the Hayward Gallery art shop when we visited Tracey Emin's <a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/node/20303">retrospective</a> two years ago. The way he had analysed his own work seemed unusually down to earth, but also perceptive. I was very surprised to find out that this guy, whose visual storytelling is so representational, is in fact really famous!</div>
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At the end of the third lecture Grayson concludes that art can no longer shock and surprise. While the "real" art world is still quite small, there are more and more amateur artists. The idea that anyone can be an artist could indeed find us drowning in a sea of mediocrity. He's talking about the gentrification of art, how being arty and bohemian has become commonplace. Whatever is democratic, tends to become conventional and boring. I've no doubt that if everyone starts believing they can be an artist, the trade will lose its lustre and "real" artists with the intention of imparting some real meaning through their art work will lose the audience's respect. That's a bit of a bleak prospect. </div>
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Grayson also says that you can choose what kind of artist you want to be. I guess what he means is that you can decide for yourself whether you want to be politically orientated, low brow, high brow, conceptual, modernist and so on. In an informed society, its educated members will know how to categorise themselves. It's more and more rare to find artists who aren't self-conscious. As we speak, outsider art is becoming increasingly sought after because it often has that quality of spontaneity and at least a certain lack of self-awareness. Yet even they have to find the environment that fits their art. Of course, in some cases it's the carers who do this for them. Most of them, however, are aware that they fit the outsider category of artists. I myself am already "ruined" by cultural sophistication and therefore don't fit that category all that well, however at the moment there are only few other peer groups that suit my needs. I'm guessing that identifying your peer group might become increasingly important in a world where art is an increasingly integrated part of daily life. In the past, society reacted to art (a lot of the time because it was perceived as unconventional and shocking) and so the categorisation often happened inspite of the artist. A lot of the time, it was impinged on the artist. If that is no longer the case, then it's up to the artists themselves to label their art and seek out the right kind of environment. I can imagine that most people would do that for convenience's sake, because navigation in an increasingly complex society calls for simplification. This way, you're also more likely to reach the right kind of audience. </div>
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Of course, many artists will rebel against the idea of being put in a category. Many will be engaging in many different kinds of media and artistic expressions. However, perhaps there will be a category for various forms of eclectisism too!</div>
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All in all, people will have more and more choice... it's difficult to orientate when you do, and the results aren't guaranteed to be any good. In fact, artists often get to engrossed in all the technical possibilities while forgetting the real point with making art. Art is about communicating something meaningful about life in the present time. Often, this happens through exemplifying stories (cf. Grayson's vases). Otherwise it's just a sollipsist practice, one that you might as well call a hobby. That's just my opinion!<br />
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Are we living in the end-times of art? Please read my husband Martin's erudite discussion on Grayson's opinion that art has come to an end... here on his blog <a href="http://artedstates.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/are-we-living-in-end-times-of-art.html">Artedstates</a>.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-37232954707221305652013-09-07T17:31:00.000+01:002013-11-14T16:29:26.351+00:00SOUND MEETS VISUAL ARTS, ARCHITECTURE AND MORE + NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul Rogers: "The media machine, a real-time, performative, sound and object based installation"<br />during the Noises of Art conference in Aberystwyth, September 2013.<br />This piece was a beautiful use of junk sounds.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe a video will be available on the internet some time soon.</span></td></tr>
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Martin and I didn't decide to go to the conference <a href="http://noisesofart.weebly.com/">"The Noises of Art"</a> at Aberystwyth Arts Centre until just about ten days beforehand, when Martin managed to sell some older art and made just enough money for us to attend. As a university driven conference, it was subsidised and not especially expensive, but our situation is dire right now so this was a questionable expense nonetheless. When we heard about this conference we both felt driven to take part, hoping that in some way or another it would help us air our stuffy brains and that just getting out there into the real world among intelligent people with an interest in art for a bit would be inspiring. This venture required a massive effort from myself, as I had to get up several hours earlier than usual, try and make sure I got to sleep at a reasonable time (we commuted back and forth, as it's about 40 minutes by car), and put up with three really long days of stretching my attention span somewhat unsuccessfully and sitting down for most of that time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aberystwyth - photos copyright by Vivi-Mari Carpelan</span></td></tr>
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The atmosphere was great and I think everyone enjoyed this conference a great deal (someone hinted that they had never been to one that was so interdisciplinary and interesting). Obviously I can't say too much about the contents of the 20 min talks as many are preparations for doctorates. Most participants were presenting papers (many of them being PhD graduates), either in the real or virtually, or offering artist's talks or sound art installations. I think we were the only ones who were there for the whole time and only to listen and observe. As expected, a few papers were as dry as the paper the words were written on, others were suitably entertaining. A potential problem with research into the arts is that by the time this becomes possible, the art in question is already quite old. Thus we heard quite a lot about Paul Klee and his influence on musicians, John Cage, and a couple of names that were unknown to me - Terry Fox who amongst other things, recorded the purring sound of cats (compare with my "production logo" at the end of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrmlN8DqCAo">The Title</a>) and the disturbing art of voice of <a href="http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci.html">Vito Acconci</a>. Especially Acconci's performances resonate to a degree with my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j22Y5fhShJA">"Insomnia"</a>, as self becomes objectified and manipulative of the imagined "other" through the use of obsessive speech, especially here in a performance called <a href="http://www.ubu.com/film/acconci_claim.html">Claim Excerpts</a> from 1971. </div>
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<i><i>'A documentation of one of Acconci's most notorious performances, Claim Excerpts is a highly confrontational work, an exercise in self-induced, heightened behavioral states, and an aggressive psychological exploration of the artist/viewer relationship. During the three-hour performance, Acconci sat in the basement of 93 Grand Street in New York, blindfolded, armed with metal pipes and a crowbar. His image was seen on a video monitor in the upstairs gallery space. Staking claim to his territory, he tries to hypnotize himself through language into an obsessive state of possessiveness: "The talk should drive me into a state where everything is possible." He becomes increasingly tense and violent, threatening to kill anyone who tries to enter his space. Acconci has written, "If during the first hour, I had hit someone, I would have stopped, shocked, horrified; if, during the third hour, I had hit someone, I would have used that as a marker, a proof of success... a signal to keep hitting." (from the description on <a href="http://www.ubu.com/">Ubuweb</a>)'</i></i></div>
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<i><i>'In the 1970s, he produced a remarkable body of conceptual, performance-based film and video works, in which he engages in an intensive psychodramatic dialogue between artist and viewer, body and self, public and private, subject and object.' (From <a href="http://eai.org/artistIndex.htm">Electronic Arts Intermix</a>)</i></i></div>
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Generally speaking the conference offered a great cross section of all sorts of stuff, though tiring as it was for my brain to process. I felt really privileged to find out what people are researching or working on artwise (though art practices were less represented and many of the theoretical papers were rather impenetrable, at least to my sorry brain). As I have a MA degree in humanities from 1999, I certainly felt reasonably at home, but it was also quite obvious to me how far removed I now am from the world of academia and the active world of working life. It left me feeling nostalgic. After my graduation my health declined quite rapidly and the start up of my PhD came to a halt quite soon after. I had to concede that the university years were behind me, and had to try and get on with my life in other ways. Some might even say that I have really moved on, i.e. gotten on with "real life", as a friendly person pointed out. Having now experienced this kind of conference, I feel that I might want to submit a talk myself if a similar opportunity came along, but I would have to consider the stress that this would put me under (if accepted of course). I want to fight the position of a complete outsider but we'll have to see how it goes. Martin on the other hand would love to pursue some serious studies in fine arts, and I know he'd be perfectly able to if an opportunity were to arise. It's an annoying fact that higher education is so expensive in the UK - if this was Finland, he'd already be doing it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andrew McPherson: <br />"The Magnetic Resonator Piano: Electronic Augmentation of an Acoustic Musical Instrument"<br />at Aberystwyth School of Art in September 2013.</span></td></tr>
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Artwise, I think the conference confirmed the ideas about sound and multimedia that have already been brewing. My two previous multimedia projects will see a third part and I will thus end up with a trilogy, something to do with natural vs unnatural, control vs abandonment... The first part, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j22Y5fhShJA">Insomnia</a>, has sound elements that I created through recordings of events in space as well as my own voice. I have thought some more about what it all means (and if it's still a bit hazy, I shall attempt to work on articulating it even better):<br />
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<i>In this video performance, self becomes objectified through the use of voice art. A subjective experience goes through stages of expressions as thoughts become vocalised and then recorded as a token for the direct communication that would never take place in real life. Here, the body gains a semiotic quality because of carrying a potent message of distress, and it can only be a signifier through the process of art.</i><br />
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The second part, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrmlN8DqCAo">The Title</a>, has some recordings of events but also introduces classical music as a symbol of history and the past (apart from being a mood enhancer, of course). Being faced with the problem of not wanting to use copy-righted music and thus not being able to claim full ownership of the work, I have been ruminating about creative ways of creating my own sounds. Perhaps attending local choirs has given me some self-confidence in this area, too. I have also been very adament about the importance of silence and of course, this was confirmed as well. Sound and silence are to me yet another undeniable dichotomy of negative and positive, and therefore of equal importance.</div>
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Next up, in the third part ("Visible/Invisible"is the working title), I will be experimenting with more ways of using my voice in an even more expressive way. I hadn't quite realised just how well tremor and feeling really does come through in the recordings, that I have done with <a href="http://download.cnet.com/Free-Sound-Recorder/3000-2170_4-10698910.html">free software</a> on my laptop, and Martin's good quality Sony mic. However, this is partly apparent in The Title, in the laborious breathing sequence. Martin has been enhancing my soundscapes but I think that it's time for me to try and get my head around the editing of sounds through some free software called <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>. This way I feel freer to experiment and create multiple layers without having to wait until Martin has a moment to improve the recordings. What would I do if Martin wasn't informing me about the technical side of things! As it is, I have a great opportunity of adding a new and wonderful dimension to my body of work. As <a href="http://johnharveyblog.wordpress.com/">John Harvey</a>, a pleasant professor at the School of Art in Aberystwyth said to me; a lot of artists are starting to employ sound as a medium inspite of not having any formal education in music. It's obvious that this is absolutely the right place for me to be right now, and it feels quite natural. In the end, almost anything goes, and it's simply up to the individual to put their creativity to good use.<br />
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What really inspires me is that I can combine sound with my visual material, as this to me is a beautiful marriage. I almost feel that there's a bit lacking when visuals or sounds are presented on their own - this feeling was certainly reinforced by the conference. We have multiple senses, and visuals without sound could perhaps seem a bit like being deaf but have good vision, and vice versa. For this reason I have started to warm up to the idea of video art, which I used to sneer at. In fact it just occurred to me that I've always felt precious about sound, but was unable to do much about it. I used to play music at my private views and later on when I got ITunes, started to create playlists with selected songs for each exhibition. Sadly, playing this music during the exhibitions was rarely possible.<br />
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Please <a href="http://vivi-mariandmartinart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/my-first-piece-of-sound-art-voice-of.html">read more</a> about my current sound art projects. You can find examples on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vivi-mari-carpelan">SoundCloud</a> or my <a href="http://vivimaricarpelan.com/contents#/multimedia-projects/">website</a>.<br />
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A few weeks ago I received a letter that my art work didn't make it to Shape Open at the <a href="http://www.bowarts.org/nunnery">Nunnery Gallery </a>on Bow Street in London, but a week later someone wrote and said they thought I might not have been told one of my two pieces did get in! I really hope there's a way of attending the private view in November. <a href="http://www.shapearts.org.uk/">Shape Arts</a> is an organisation for disability arts and the exhibition was open to both disabled and non-disabled artists on the theme "disability re-assessed". I'm sure that the main objective is to present disability in a positive light, as 2012 was a year of many developments in this field (mainly through the paraolympics in London). My piece is, however, direct and confrontational. Unfortunately they didn't want my confrontational statement for the catalogue, so it had to be rewritten. Funny that, as it's really the sort of censorship that I'm trying to fight through pieces like this!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiylQ2K0C0ySEszMzG92R5qN3z4Wa4Xcl94qMeao2VHeE2l262WNLl_zaJ-9CgvfHEon4Xg_myqcV14kStgXRsM9AAbK4y0BHnMSsuyGcID7m3aJ4g72mBsPRX1-j1kRg17dAmLxp1OMK8/s1600/Art-Your-Indifference-is-Br.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiylQ2K0C0ySEszMzG92R5qN3z4Wa4Xcl94qMeao2VHeE2l262WNLl_zaJ-9CgvfHEon4Xg_myqcV14kStgXRsM9AAbK4y0BHnMSsuyGcID7m3aJ4g72mBsPRX1-j1kRg17dAmLxp1OMK8/s400/Art-Your-Indifference-is-Br.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Your Indifference is Breaking My Heart".<br />Mixed media collage with<br />artist's photograph, moral poetry from the 19th C, and vintage engraving.<br />Copyright 2012.</span></td></tr>
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In this piece, I'm suggesting that the conservative government (and the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SEpwFBhqA4">Atos system of disability assessment</a> in particular) has a very Victorian moralist attitude towards those who are disabled and/or afflicted with chronic (long term) illness (a reason there's Victorian moral poetry in the background - nothing much has changed in terms of moral codes...).<br />
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Original version:<i> "This is personal. Look me in the eyes and stop giving me moral BS about contributing to society on your terms. You feel you have the right to assess my abilities, but what does that even mean? I am ME, a unique human being. Do you care about that? I need your support and compassion, not parenting! We're in this together, you know.” </i></div>
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The rectified version: <i>This work suggests that the accepted moral codes of society are still “Victorian”. It is about the fundamental right to assess my own abilities and the ways in which I feel I can contribute to society on my own terms. I want to evoke questions about the validity of assessing people’s abilities from an emotionally indifferent point of view – is my value solely dependent on my economic productivity?</i></div>
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Another happy piece of news is that I sold "The Impossibility of Sleeplessness and Damien Hirst Doesn't Exactly Make it Better" at <a href="http://outsidein.org.uk/">Outsidein</a> West in Taunton. I'm so glad someone appreciated my hangman's humour! In both pieces, I have used photographs of myself, and feeling this is really the way to go for me.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtzQgizOxncYrz9THmHz48cC0m76-2nFjoWF7ulI472yTT2J7Auhr93H-AVWHcN1uL65mUqwxN6sHFeHMOIMI1HcrfkvoolUWDWb9wMflK3L9oyQjGjW0C-Vg0_hRXjFIN96SEE9qod4/s1600/Art-The-impossibility-of-sl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtzQgizOxncYrz9THmHz48cC0m76-2nFjoWF7ulI472yTT2J7Auhr93H-AVWHcN1uL65mUqwxN6sHFeHMOIMI1HcrfkvoolUWDWb9wMflK3L9oyQjGjW0C-Vg0_hRXjFIN96SEE9qod4/s400/Art-The-impossibility-of-sl.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "The Impossibility of Sleeplessness and Damien Hirst<br />Doesn't Exactly Make it Better",<br />Handmade photomontage, copyright 2013.</span></td></tr>
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<i>"In a general sense, this piece is about the fear of a sudden fall into a state of despair and depression, and how difficult it is to remain balanced and “on top of things”.</i></div>
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<i><i>More specifically, this piece is about insomnia, which in severe cases involves constant threats of medication not working any more, while one is being pumped up with habit forming medication in the first place, of the fear of going insane with severe cognitive and physical impairment and physical flare ups due to lack of sufficient good quality sleep... and never getting any really useful help from the medical establishment. On top of this there's the sleep schedule which always goes wrong, ie. something disturbs one's routines and tips the wagon so you end up sleeping/dozing/lying around well into the afternoon and always feeling the day goes by while you're simply useless. Managing a condition that happens when you're not looking, is like walking a tight rope, knowing you could fall any time. This piece is part of Project X. When I thought of the name including the word "impossibility" it became a reference to titles by Damien Hirst and his somewhat doubtful financial success.ow difficult it is to remain balanced and “on top of things”.</i></i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-690296768668535319.post-72009727838904594432013-08-10T12:47:00.000+01:002013-08-23T19:12:32.889+01:00THE TITLE - A SHORT FILM WHERE THE TITLE IS THE TITLE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzpzoYJ29CF1FDcvtqU87Jjk-JKxG4MCULaOB0EAdZi26w2CuoRcNIjmAtwGHM_rnYXuya-NK66sUCiG8uDDjmHihyphenhyphenzKy_EZwpIIyg9UHzOUQ1RqRVMuehUs2HSTox3q4nBo9FxOupTA/s1600/V-M-thumbnail-for-The-Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzpzoYJ29CF1FDcvtqU87Jjk-JKxG4MCULaOB0EAdZi26w2CuoRcNIjmAtwGHM_rnYXuya-NK66sUCiG8uDDjmHihyphenhyphenzKy_EZwpIIyg9UHzOUQ1RqRVMuehUs2HSTox3q4nBo9FxOupTA/s400/V-M-thumbnail-for-The-Title.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thumbnail picture for the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADiivTiH0Ko">"The Title"</a> </span></td></tr>
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This multimedia project wasn't all clear from the start, but I filmed a few bits that I thought I might like to use, and added other video clips and stills as I was going along. Martin helped me with the theatrical scenes where I'm dressed in black, in a Victorian style. There must have been a thousand little bits in the end. Premiere Elements isn't really designed to cope with so many layers and general complexity. The uploaded version still has a few faults in it, but I will leave it for now and fix it later. I spent a few weeks with this project and really need to get it out there and out of my mind!</div>
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<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrmlN8DqCAo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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This short film is a collaged conglomerate of fragments from my own life as well as my family's history - stills, moving images, performance, a poem I wrote long ago back in 1985 - the only poem I ever wrote! In the film a part of it is performerd in the original Swedish, with the English translation overlaying the imagery. And last but not least, there are many of my handmade collages. It's packed with symbolic imagery and the narrative (a kind of journey) is really an explanation to the art work. However, as this may not be immediately obvious, this multi media show can be taken in intuitively as well. It's an emotional life story, and I hope that comes across as the main objective for this project. Ultimately, the idea behind the quote "All the World's a Stage, and Men and Women merely Players" (Shakespeare) is once more one of the main themes of my work.</div>
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Ggenerally speaking I'm leaving it to people to make their own conclusions about this work, but of course I hope, as always, that there is universal appeal as it speaks about entitlement, loss and restoring a sense of dignity. The title "The title" refers to the idea of being "entitled", either physically (health, money, and other good things in life), or emotionally (having a sense of worth, dignity and spiritual stature).<br />
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The idea of using a journey as the narrative that pulls it all together is of course not an original one, but one that makes a story easier to watch and tends to keep the audience's attention. I decided on this format because <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth">"the journey"</a> is a deeply archetypal metaphor or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth">"monomyth"</a> (Joseph Campbell) that is present in all cultural traditions, speaks to everyone on at least some level, and because it helps making sense of the fragments.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO9VzWJMfz9-AFCkjrgFhN0w4HB319w0lJne4kyQf8gd8xx7NYE42Cf8dJGnjBrSFf92uATbh86xj59mhA1LQZYyLKGlzGEVi66dYC-BhZqsWR0ueGK95hsvfcakRWuuwN5DH9MvRS1vE/s1600/Heroesjourney.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO9VzWJMfz9-AFCkjrgFhN0w4HB319w0lJne4kyQf8gd8xx7NYE42Cf8dJGnjBrSFf92uATbh86xj59mhA1LQZYyLKGlzGEVi66dYC-BhZqsWR0ueGK95hsvfcakRWuuwN5DH9MvRS1vE/s320/Heroesjourney.svg.png" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think this representation of a heroe's journey should be taken with a pinch of salt, but<br />it can offer some viewpoints that clarify the concept of a journey through life that<br />is full of hardships but also some sort of benefits and rewards.</span></td></tr>
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I also used the old film effect quite a bit because it helps create a sense of the past (which is an important element in this project), as well as providing great texture. I ponder each effect quite a bit, as it needs to support the symbolism or message that I want to get across. </div>
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I think you can't make a long film with this much symbolism, there's a point where it overwhelms the brain. Recently, we watched some older Ingmar Bergman films and I was thinking how they were always said to be deeply symbolic. I saw them when I had just entered university and loved the atmosphere and the way Swedish was spoken, but I didn't get the symbolism. Now I realised, there is hardly any there at all! In my favourite, the tender <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Strawberries_(film)">"Wild Strawberries"</a>, there's a dream sequence that has some symbolism in it, notably in the clock without hands. Sometimes the weather is moody, which is meant to enhance the melancholy in the story, but that's not really symbolism, it's just mood. Of course, as a Cancerian I can recognise another Cancerian's flair for moodiness! The empty streets... oh so <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_de_Chirico">de Chirico</a>, who was also Cancerian! Strictly speaking, Bergman's strength lies in conveying mood, but not really in the use of symbols - in fact, some of his movies are actually just nonsense. Anyway, this medium allows a lot of imagery that speaks to people as if they were symbols, because the performance in 3D can convey so much in so little time with the help of props, environment, music, temporality and other attributes.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The dream sequence in Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" ("Smultronstället")</span></div>
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The classical music for my film was taken from a site with copyright-free classical music, <a href="https://musopen.org/">Musopen</a>, which I can highly recommend. Youtube suggested that I had nicked some music called "Tranquillity" from someone else's album, but the performer whose piece I used has never participated in any project called "Tranquillity". My guess is that someone else also took the Baroque piece, which obviously wasn't originally called "Tranquillity", and used it on their CD! Let me guess... with added birdsong and water splash... I have therefore debated Youtube's suggestion with a clean conscience. Oh and of course, Martin did some wonders to some of the recordings that weren't really up to scratch.<br />
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And of course, I always wanted to be movie star! I remember in the distant past, that a good friend of mine said about me that I'm always quite theatrical - and she meant it as a compliment, rather than in the sense of "drama queen". I think I have an imbedded sense of the theatrical, and it feels good to get some outlet for this side of my creativity.</div>
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I would love to hear comments!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0