A Lonesome Ghost: For Halloween

A Lonesome Ghost

By

James Jones

I came upon a lonesome ghost

along a lonesome road

He had a hundred things to say

In life a heavy load

He carried with him into death

Oh yes; beyond the grave

to carry for eternity

in life he’d been a knave

 

We walked together for a time

A path of pain and sorrow

We shared our tales of tears and woe

today became tomorrow

 

He was the saddest ghost of all

The saddest that I’ve seen

Not so unusual to see a ghost

upon a Halloween
 

 

Wangechi Mutu

 

 

 

Her work is of equal parts beauty, charm, intrigue and an unusual sense of glamour. Wangechi Mutu finds herself among the most celebrated and collected artist of her times. She is featured in the world’s most elite magazines and shows in every major venue. Wangechi’s creations reflect the ivory and bronze sculpture of the High Benin Culture and the marvelous collages of Romare Bearden. Mutu’s work is equally marvelous! Mutu’s mixed medium pieces are also akin to the works of the lovely Bette Saar in approach. Mutu’s Kenyan background is a strong element of her visuals without limiting it to being purely ethnic.  This is a good thing; her works are universal in appeal. The spirit and the reality of Wangechi Mutu is ultimately; like all great artist, uniquely her own. The requirement of originality is met superbly by Mutu and we are all the more enriched by it.

 

Mutu is a graduate of Yale and like her fellow graduates Kehinde Wiley and John Currin represent the contemporary leaders of the 21^st Century art scene in a grand manner. Wiley and Currin are almost exclusively painters while Mutu embraces medium as varied as sculpture, installation and video. In this she is very much a force in the art world. Mutu is best viewed (as is a chacteristic of all the best artist’s work) in person. A walk through the works of Mutu is a treasured phenomenon, it is the greatest pleasure.

                                                                                                                                                 

“I’m really trying to pay homage to the notion of the sublime and the abject together and using the aesthetic of rejection, or poverty, or wretchedness as a tool to talk about things that are transcendent… we really do have to pick up pieces and remake and rework things and translate them into something new and hopeful.“

Wangechi Mutu

 

 

She is an artist very much attuned to the cultural, astethic and political climate of our times. All of this brilliantly evident in her art and life. Wangechi Mutu is to celebrate!
 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

A modern parable of life, love, the metaphysical wonder of childhood and the longing to connect our primordial beginnings to our ultimate destinies.  A world of flood, survival, fears and death are viewed through the eyes of a small child in an obscure delta community. The strongest little heroine the big screen has seen probably since the Great Depression is enchanting her own world and pretty much every viewer of this remarkable thing; “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” This is of course an after- thought looking back at a remarkable screen experience. Watching this is to be very much in a state of entrancement, abandon and awe.

 

 

To describe this film is almost to do it an injustice. It is the most unique cinematic style of story-telling to come around in many years; it is the real thing. It can only be truly appreciated in the viewing. It will live with you for a while.The center of the film is Hushpuppy; portrayed by at (the time five year old) Quenzhane Wallis. She is dynamic…you will be drawn in from her first frame on screen.  She and her single parent father Wink; Dwight Henry (who is superbly cast) go on an amazing journey that cuts to the core of life and existence in a rare thing of beauty. Ben Zeitlin directs and shares a co-writer credit with Lucy Alibar. Alibar’s one act play “Juicy and delicious” was the basis of the film. 

 

“Beasts” has already been lauded at Cannes and Sundance. More acclaim is certain to come. It is what film is about when thinking of the new and daring. Add it to your must see list…you will not be disappointed by this miracle!