Yayoi Kusama; Infinity Rooms, Polka Dots and One Incredible Night

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night…in February; in Atlanta. Just outside the High Museum we waited; waited for tickets. This was a night and darkness that seemed would never end. The waiting that started for myself and a number of others began around midnight Thursday Feb. 7^th. This would continue into daylight Friday morning (the 8^th) around nine thirty. 

In the course of the night we would face wind, rain, cold, the dark and no available toilets. We would have to be resourceful on all accounts. There were people in tents, sleeping bags, blankets, coats and hoodies. I was arrayed in a sweater, scarf and blanket with snacks, books and an MP3 player. There have of course been worse conditions but really; for tickets to an art exhibit it was unusual. For the record; I had waited outside the Metropolitan in New York with two of my grandkids just the year before in below zero wind chills to see Michelangelo. These temperatures we faced now were at least above freezing; a little.

About the time conditions seemed at their worst; it was almost as if the darkness would not end. One of my fellow, brave and generous art lovers appeared in front of me offering coffee. She was a Heaven send. Her name was Veronica and we would eventually buy scalped tickets for a reasonable eighty dollars each. 

Part II

The exhibit we were dedicated to seeing was Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms. This phenomenal exhibit had started at the Hirshhorn in Washington DC and played in several major cities around the country and in Canada. 

Yayoi Kusama is one of the most fascinating and creative artist’s working today. Her career began in a major way when the Japanese born artist came to America and became a part of the 60's Pop/Happening Scene. Polka Dots are something of a main stay for her as she covers everything from sculptures to film, fashion and paintings with different expanding and ever changing dot patterns.  She befriended and in many ways competed with the greats of the period like Larry Rivers and Andy Warhol for publicity and space. Her zeal and exuberant work ethic led her to a nervous breakdown. She to this day lives in a mental institution where she checks herself out and in daily to work in her nearby studio.

The Infinity Mirror Rooms are among her greatest intellectual and artistic gifts to the world. They are marvels that the viewer is limited to seeing in 30 seconds intervals. Like the finest gourmet servings a small bit is savored with a much larger delight and relish than an unlimited, gratuitous buffet.  

Kusama’s work has been meaningful for viewers from around the nation and the world that came like myself to Atlanta for a life time’s opportunity. I was able to meet enthusiastic visitors from New Orleans, to Pittsburg to Paris at “The High.”  I had traveled from the tip of South Western Virginia, across the Carolinas and into Georgia myself. It was worth every bit of what it took for me to behold the mastery and spectacular vision of Yayoi Kusama. 

A Video Report from The News Hour

Hey Veronica;

It was fabulous meeting you at the Kusama Exhibition in Atlanta. As you said while waiting overnight for tickets; “...this is (was) a Great Adventure!”  I arrived late that afternoon and we didn’t have a chance to touch base. If you’re reading this: thanks again for “the Best and Warmest Cup of Coffee” I’m likely to ever have. I hope someday, to be able to return the favor and meet for a coffee and a doughnut.

All the Best;

James

jartistt@yahoo.com

"BUSTER SCRUGGS" the Ballad of...

Like the dedicated and creative; cultured and persistent prospectors they are; the Coen Brothers have struck cinematic gold again. Their western anthology film “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is amazingly, aggressively and adventurously awesome. You may have heard about it, are curious about or have already seen it. If you are among the “have-not-seens”   category do by all means see it. You will be thrilled, moved, outraged, perplexed and wonderfully entertained.

The brothers; Ethan and Joel are famous for completely upsetting just about every film trope and norm with their unusual take on life and movie traditions. They have essentially created their own film language layered with a gusto and panisch that is seldom equaled. Maybe the likes of Quentin Turrintino, Jack Jarmush or Spike Lee are in the Coen’s league but it is a small club. Their’s is in reality a very small club. 

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is an anthology film featuring six segments. The segments are only connected by the fact that that are all of the western genre. These short narratives vary in length and tone. Written over a period of twenty five years they stand alone in nature with no connecting thread. What the brothers have done with the first segment while introducing the character of Buster Scruggs begins with a most unique concept. Where Movie and TV Westerns have always reflected the tastes, morality and spirit of their times or decade of creation things are mixed up with “Buster Scruggs.”  A singing cowboy in the tone of a Gene Autry or Roy Rogers finds himself in a world where every other character is like the inhabitants of a Sergio Leone “Spaghetti Western.” What follows is pure delightful insanity, comedy and ridiculous drama as the segment twists turns and unfolds in totally unexpected ways.  Little here is close to what might originally be expected. 

Another standout segment features a story-teller of a talent that is to marvel in any venue or time. He is polished, intelligent, dignified and charismatic. He is also armless and legless. An unscrupulous and grungy oaf of a man played by an almost unrecnozible Liam Neeson is carting the vocal performer around frontier towns for audiences that are as enthralled as they are dwindling. Recitations by Shakespeare, Lincoln and the likes of Oscar Wilde are among the performer’s repertoire. The two are completely dependent on each other’s abilities. Where does such an uncommonly matched couple come from and where can they go with such an arrangement.

All of the segments to a degree center on death or at least to death’s fruition. The irony, the finality and the inevitability of it all are told in a multitude of fashions including: shoot outs, suicides, murders, ambushes, lynching’s and the resolve of it all by “The Harvesters of Souls.” 

Another interesting element brilliantly and lovingly incorporated into the visuals is a physical story book. The hardcover book appears to be a well-worn published edition of the book “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” that alludes to what might have been their original printed format. It is an effective and cunning device. Each segment begins with a lush illustration from the books pages and an interesting title that hints at the given narrative without giving away any real knowledge to the following story. I take this as a nod to another formidable but less controversial film maker of old; Walt Disney and his early films. 

There is much here to treasure and enjoy. They are the always inventive Brothers Coen…Ethan and Joel…the Best of the Best.  

 

                                                 

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" 

 Press Conference with Joel & Ethan Coen

The Electric State

Simon Stalenhag’s “The Electric State.”

This dystopian art novel

Is poignant, hauntingly engaging and totally addictive.

The works beautifully compelling imagery unfolds graphically like the best cinematography

as it is supplemented with a text that fills in many gaps.

Stalenhag  leaves enough to the imagination of the reader to intrigue

while suggesting a future we don’t completely understand

and yet ironically recognizing all the much too well.

         

                     

             

               

Sir Alfred's Notorious Notations

It all began with one word; one simple word spoken softly to her baby boy; Alfred: BOO. Putting this into a certain perspective it makes perfect sense. The young startled child becomes the unchallenged “Master of Suspense” and the architect of many scares and thrills tempered with an arcane joy and sly humor. If you had only known; Mother Hitchcock; if you had only known.

The films; the films, the films…were Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest achievements. Many of his offerings being among the best ever…all worth seeing. This cinematic maestro directed and produced wonderfully entertaing and textbook examples of excellence. Dial “M” for Murder, Psycho, North by North West, Rear Window, Rebecca and on and on. His work dates back to the “Silent Era” and well into “The Talkies” "Vistavision" and "Technicolor." His influence is immeasurable and continues to this present day. His editing and visual story-telling skills are original and at best imitated and adapted by the many.  To a degree every director to follow him that includes any suspense or mystery pays tribute to Sir Alfred.

As edited into individual scenes many stand out as extravagant and compelling unto themselves. Including a few examples; the crop-dusting plane’s pursuit of Cary Grant in North by North West, the carnival carousel run amok  in Strangers on a Train and possible his “Hallmark” achievement the much admired and studied shower scene starring Janet Leigh in Psycho.

Growing up my generation had the pleasure of watching the original airings of the T.V. series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episodes were written by great story-tellers including the likes of Roald Dahl and Ray Bradbury. A high light of the show was Hitchcock walking his silhouette into his own line drawing caricature. This to the tune of Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette.” He had a brief interesting; abundantly clever intro and closing tailored for each broadcast that were often the best part of the black and white television shorts. After seven television seasons and eighty two feature film Hitchcock is truly the bench mark.     

Classic Promo for "The Birds"

Returning briefly to Alfred’s formative years; he was indeed blessed with two loving parents and I dare not leave out his father. He had his own unique contributions and places within the director’s psyche. Alfred Hitchcock related this story on occasion that goes something like this:  In response to some “minor” indiscretion young Alfred’s father hands him a folded note and instructed him to take it to the police station a few blocks from his home. Five year old Alfred dutifully walks to the station, enters and hands the desk officer the note. 

                                                                         
                                                                   
  The officer reads the note, shows no discernable emotional, pauses and then,  without words or ceremony takes Alfred into the back to an empty cell, places the child inside and closes the door with the finality and resonate cold, clanging thud that only an iron bared door can make. This followed with the disheartening turning of the key and the walking away of the officer again emotionless and wordless. After a brief period the officer returns to release Alfred sending him on his way, forever changed, forever fearful and full of an imaginative respect of the possibabality of future incarceration.                                                      

“The Birds” was the first Hitchcock film I was prividgled to see and it was showing at the local theater. The nation was talking about this amazing film so my friends and I had great anticipation as we walked to the theatre. This was the most recent “Hitchcock” release, the year was 1963. I was 10…just slightly younger than one of the film’s stars; Veronica Cartwright. This gave us a unique window into the happenings onscreen. We all were delightfully and sufficiently scared, thrilled, baffled and compelled to see it at least four more times during this initial release. They say the first love is the greatest and The Birds remains among my favored film treasures and memories.

Hitchcock Quotes

Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement and, occasionally, a hearty meal.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.

Mystery is an intellectual process... But suspense is essentially an emotional process.

Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.

The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.

I have a feeling that inside you; somewhere, there's somebody nobody knows about, feelings, nobody knows

...speaking of Neil Gaiman

 

Writer’s writer Neil Gaiman is among the most versatile and prolific in today’s world of social media, constant and “fake news” along with and among other such antics. Some would argue that books and the print medium are dying (if not already dead) but; Mr. Gaiman continues in the best tradition of  author, scribe, story-teller and historian in the most ancient,  beautiful and personal of forms; books. He is most recognized as creator of fantasy but his readership crosses over into main stream literature in almost every possible format. Gaiman creates original titles for novels, picture books and adolescent books along with screen plays, graphic novels and essays. If I’ve left anything out Neil; I apologize. His seminal piece; Sandman, initially written for DC Comics’ Vertigo line of adult fiction cemented his work as epic in form. Sandman consists in multiple books spanning possibly three generations of readers. 

Gaiman’s most recent publication is his retelling of the ancient tales of the Vikings. His “Norse Mythology” featuring Thor-the Mighty, Oden-The All Wise All Father, Loki-The  Shrewd, Heimdall-The Watcher,  Sif-The Lovely and a host of frost giants, dark elves and monsters. Gaiman is at his best and most comfortable with his telling’s of these most ancient of religious legends. Herein he is funny, engaging and full of remarkably unexpected twists. 

There is no one that could possibly speak more eloquently for Neil Gaiman than himself. Following are many of his quotes, insights and comments on his chosen art form. The remaining graphics (largely produced by his foremost collaborator artist Dave McKean) consist of images from his book covers, illustrations, film stills and most importantly the master story man’s own words.