#;I’ve Aged Quite Well {13th Incarnation}

[raptorific]

Series 11 of Doctor Who catches a lot of flack for being the first in the revived series to feature absolutely no returning monsters, villains, or characters other than the Doctor herself, but honestly that makes sense on both a Meta level and an In-Universe level

The Meta level is, obviously, that the barrier of entry for most Doctor Who fans is the baggage of its long history. While children are a bit more willing to use context clues or just be satisfied in the assumption that someone has answers to their questions even if it’s not them, adult viewers new to the show are more likely to watch the show with questions like “wait, who is that?” and “there’s an octopus inside that robot?” The long history and deep lore of the show is one of the best aspects, but it’s also one of the aspects that’s really only fun once you’ve already Gotten Into It. 

The new series did a fairly good job correcting this, to the point where fans who have never seen an episode of the classic series can say “I’ve been watching this show for 15 years,” which is a fairly beautiful thing! However, in this age of serialized television, and with the amount of hype Jodie Whittaker’s casting brought to the role, it made sense to have series 11 be the “you don’t need to watch 26 seasons of the classic series or 10 seasons of the new series to jump onboard.” By the time a Dalek finally shows up in the New Year’s Special, the new fans aren’t New anymore. They’ve learned how to watch the show, where the context clues are, are finally ready to enjoy the fun the show’s history brings, and then after that, they’re ready for series 12′s deep-dive into old enemies, returning companions, and the ever-deepening jumble of Gallifreyan Historical Nonsense. I’m sure that somewhere around Series 18 (2040) they’ll do a similar “lore-lite” season and we’ll have this conversation all over again. 

The In-Universe reasoning is genuinely pretty solid. The Doctor has just come from an incarnation where, as far as they know, all of their companions have died horrifically at the hands of the Master and Cybermen. The Twelfth Doctor’s final acts before regeneration were being reminded of who and what the Doctor is supposed to be, and more importantly, what he started out as, and his final words are a speech reminding his successor of what he’s learned. The Thirteenth Doctor is born haunted by the death of Clara Oswald and the cyber-conversion and death of Danny Pink and Bill Potts, as well as the death of his wife River. 

The first thing she does is she meets a group of people who are obviously going to become companions, and the first thing that happens? One of them is killed. From that point on, the series embarks on an arc where the 13th Doctor desperately tries to keep her companions away from anything to do with her Lore. They exclusively go to planets and time periods where nobody’s heard of The Doctor or fought her before, and avoid any adventures that raise questions about her past, questions that she inevitably dodges when they’re eventually asked anyway. 

Series 11 is the story of the Thirteenth Doctor desperately fleeing from her past under the belief that it kills any of her friends who come in contact with her. This arc culminates in what I’ve come to view as a two-part story: “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” and “Resolution.” TBoRAK features a new returning enemy, one she met earlier in the season, who killed her new friend, who’s now caught up with her and threatens the rest of her friends, and her whole planet. The message, of course, being “like vengeful alien supervillains, you can’t run from your grief forever, it only goes away when you actually deal with it.” Resolution, of course, involves her first interaction with the Daleks in this body, marking the end of an era of her trying to keep her companions safe by avoiding her baggage and the beginning of the Series 12 arc, where all of her baggage (old enemies, old companions, old incarnations, her home planet, the word “Shobogans”) shows up on her doorstep.

Without having seen her spend a whole season being like “let’s go on low-stakes, friendship building adventures! Don’t ask about me or my past! My ever-growing Rogues Gallery can’t hurt you if we don’t see them,” it wouldn’t hit quite as hard when the Cybermen turn up again and the Doctor snaps at her companions that she refuses to “lose anyone else to that.” The Master’s return in series 12 has a deeper impact if it came from a place of “I hoped they were safe from you,” knowing that the last update the Doctor had on Missy was “she’s evil again, and she killed Bill.” 

I understand where the frustration, for die-hard fans who wanted to see 13 in the Established Formula straightaway, but the fact of the matter is that Chibnall’s debut arc delivered something that, with the show’s almost 60-year history, should’ve been impossible. He’s found a way to simultaneously “pick up where his predecessor left off by building on existing character development and plot threads” and “replicate the experience of watching Doctor Who in the 60s before there were Recurring Villains or an Established Formula, so that when all that stuff shows up, all the new fans are primed for it.”

But, apparently “narrative cohesion” and “character development” are less important to the nerds on GallifreyBase than “the SJWs are trying to indoctrinate us with Identity Politics and the dreaded morality lectures,” which they pretend are a new phenomenon and not “the thing the show has been known for since the 70s”

[cxlxurbliind]

        ♫ - This Post Is Just A Tag Dump. You Are In No Way Obligated To Pay Any Attention To This. Please Enjoy Your Scrolling.

Made Posts:

;OOC ;IC ;Time Companion ;Six Posting {Crack} ;Are The Scanners Working Right? {Dash Commentary}

Reblogged Posts:

;Reblog ;Memes ;Mun Memes ;Shows You Who I Am ;What I Once Was {Classic Who} ;Change Is Inevitable {Older Classic Who} ;Fashion No More {New Who} ;President Of Gallifrey Has Spoken {PSA} ;Crashing Into A Coat Rack {Musings}

Asks:

;Questionable Traveler {Anon} ;Answered Quarry

Doctors Posts/Interaction:

;Original {1st Incarnation} ;Cosmic Hobo {2nd Incarnation} ;Fancypants {3rd Incarnation} ;Scarf For Days {4th Incarnation} ;Cricket And Celery {5 Incarnation} ;True Self ;Spoons And Umbrellas {7th Incarnation} ;Shoes {8th Incarnation} ;Leather Jackets {9th Incarnation} ;Sandshoes {10th Incarnation} ;Why Bowties Again? {11th Incarnation} ;Doctor Guitario {12th Incarnation} ;I’ve Aged Quite Well {13th Incarnation} ;An Older Me ;Younger The Not Better

Canon/Non-Canon Companions (Will Constantly Be Adding More):

;First Face Peri ;Missed The Kilt {Jamie} ;Granddaughter {Susan} ;Two Teachers In A TARDIS {Ian & Barbara} ;My Best Friend {Sarah-Jane} ;New Companion? {New Interactions}

The Master(s)/Rani:

;My Frenemy ;It Was A Bad Beard {Delgado!Master} ;There Aren’t Any Drums {Simm!Master} ;Killer Dress {Missy} ;Craziest One Yet {Dhawan!Master} ;The Rani

Verses:

;Alone Yet Not ;Lonely Pockets ;Multiple Colors ;Unfortantely Human

Custom Tags (Not Everyone Has One):

;Travelling With Myself {rainbcwhearts} ;Sister Faye {rainbcwhearts} ;Doesn’t Talk Much {Diamond!nctamused} ;Human Or Not? {Five!hargreevesbrothers}

Queue:

;Time And Relative Dimensions In Queue

[moonlightmadnessreviews]

1931’s Frankenstein and the “Slow Turn”: The Lost Art of the Subtle Scare

A friend of mine recently asked for my thoughts on subtle scares in horror. I asked her to elaborate and she responded “You know, those scares that aren’t exactly in your face but are still super effective!” Immediately, my brain shot to one of my favorite scenes in classic monster cinema: Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, and his slow turn towards the audience. Here, we’ll discuss that particular shot and why I think it’s the perfect example of what I feel is a lost art in today’s cinematic climate.

In the age of the jump scare, it’s easy to see why some horror fans may feel jaded when watching what Hollywood has offered up as of late. However, in an effort to avoid beating a particularly dead horse, I don’t want to spend this article talking about how bad jump scares are. Overused as they may be, jump scares aren’t new, and they aren’t always a bad thing. The real problem is that big budget production companies have a tendency to get the wrong impression of what audiences want. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, where a franchise ratchets up the gore and jump scares in lieu of the more subtle elements that made the original films so well received, ie The Conjuring and Saw. As I said, jump scares aren’t always bad, and we can look back to two iconic examples to see where they’re utilized extremely well.

The first example comes at the end of the very first Friday the 13th film, where just as Alice (Adrienne King) thinks she’s home free, a rotting Jason Voorhees (Pre-Kane Hodder behemoth incarnation, here played by Ari Lehman) jump scares her out of a dream. It’s a closing jump scare that we still see used now a days, albeit without the same effectiveness the original had. Another great example comes by way of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) during the intro of A Nightmare on Elm Street. This jump scare signals the beginning of a chase scene through a dark alley way, jolting our adrenaline like a gun going off at the start of a race. Now a days, that jump scare would get a laugh out of the audience instead, draining all tension from the scene and revealing it’s just one of the protagonist’s friends popping out of the dark to ask them out for drinks.

With my applauding these last two examples, why is it I find the scene where we first see the Monster’s face in James Whale’s Frankenstein to be so effective? One thing that sticks out to me right away is the lack of a score in the original Frankenstein. We have been trained to recognize a coming scare the same way a boxer learns to read body language, and a lot of this has to do with musical cues. Movie goers know that when they see their protagonist stare into a dark corner of their room, the ambient noise and score of the movie slowly dropping out til it’s completely silent, a loud musical stab is sure to pop out of the darkness to startle them. However, Universal’s Frankenstein has no musical aid to warn the audience of what they’re about to see. We watch as Boris Karloff, beginning with his back to the audience and filling up the frame of a doorway, enters the room and turns ever so slowly towards the audience. The camera then cuts between shots, pulling in closer and closer on the Monster’s face with each cut, all of this playing out free of a musical score.

As synonymous as Bela Lugosi is to Dracula, as is Boris Karloff to Frankenstein’s Monster, and his legendary face creeping in closer to the audience is extremely startling. Much of this of course has to do with Karloff’s facial structure itself, but the icing on the cake comes from make up wizard Jack Pierce. Pierce is responsible for most of Universal Studios’ most iconic monster makeups, and his work on Frankenstein is one of my favorites. He and Karloff worked tirelessly on the look of the Monster, and I believe it was Karloff who suggested pulling out a bridge he wore in his mouth to help give his cheek a sunken in, corpse-like look. The blend of practical effects, and a face made for scaring audiences resulted in one of Universal’s most terrifying shots.

Of course, it takes more than just great makeup and stark silence to make for an effective and understated scare. The direction of this scene plays a big part in its delivery, and our response to it as audience members. Imagine how differently the scene might have played out if the Monster entered the room facing us, as opposed to walking in backwards. He would walk out of the shadows and into the light of the shot without the build up of the original. The decision to have the Monster enter the room with its back to the audience does two important things:

First, it gives us a sense of how disoriented the Monster is. The hulking corpse hobbles backwards and gives us a sense of his size and mass as he slowly, and carefully, turns to face his creator.

Second, by forcing us to sit through this slow, and quiet reveal, it helps to draw the audience closer towards the screen. As I watch Karloff take his time revealing the Monster’s face, I can feel my back come away from my couch as I lean forward to meet his gaze. As an audience, we are frightened and intrigued, but most importantly, we are engaged. This last piece of the puzzle is what great directors strive for, and Whale did a fantastic job capturing the moment.

Although the “Slow Turn” is a technique that’s used less often these days, it doesn’t mean it’s completely absent. A great example comes from the classic Halloween, directed by John Carpenter and released in 1978. The shot of Michael Myers, The Shape, slowly manifesting from out of the darkness behind Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is perhaps the closest to this “Slow Turn” idea we see used in Frankenstein. The mask seems to appear out of the dark like a ghost and the dread that moment cooks up is wonderful. Andy Muschietti’s IT holds another great example as Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) flips through a book of Derry, Maine’s gruesome history. You’re likely to miss it, but in the background is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, here disguised as a librarian, staring menacingly at Ben. There is a faint smile visible, and the distance it keeps from his intended prey helps to up the “Slow Turn” scare factor of the shot. We even get a tribute of sorts to the “Slow Turn” in Capcom’s classic video game Resident Evil. A decomposing zombie looks up from its meal and turns to meet the player’s horrified gaze in an iconic cut scene that gave me nightmares for quite a while.

Frankenstein has long been my favorite of the Universal Monster movies, and I’ve often sited this moment, lasting all of 21 seconds, as one of my favorite shots in the entire film. The patience with which the scene is shot, the make up on Karloff’s face and the amount of character he puts into simply turning towards the audience is so beautifully effective. As I said, jump scares have their place, but the “Slow Turn” is an art form that embodies all that I love about classic horror. Though we may be able to find other examples of it in horror cinema history, for me, the Monster’s entrance is a moment whose electricity is hard to resurrect.

[thatdoublenine]

2016

My overdue 2016 drama review...

My ultimate favourites of 2016 are:

Dear my friends

Squad 38

Bring it on, Ghost

Jealousy Incarnate

Goblin

2016 is really the year for drama lovers.

In the beginning of the year, we were still getting all heated up over the war between Taek and Jung Hwan. Unfortunately, Jung Hwan turned out to be the new Chilbong. Nonetheless, Reply 1988 was a great drama. A great great family-centric drama.

Around that time, Six flying dragons, one of the best Sageuk of all times, concluded. I think they did a really great job in the fighting scenes. I also liked how the script was written. Different teams, eg. Sambong VS Moomyung VS Bang won could be pondering about a common issue, and then they came to a conclusion at the same time, separately. Thrilling.

I have considered the two dramas above as dramas of 2015 and made a post about it last year. (here)

Shortly after, came the drama that made the biggest hooha in 2016. Needless to say Descendants of the Sun is the most hyped drama. Its nice to watch, but I gotta say the storyline was a little absurd. 

Comeback mister had a fresh story but bad luck with the broadcasting slot. Of all competitors, they got Descendants. So even though the rating was bad, the making of the drama is not. It was a touching story about two Ahjussi’s last moments in the mortal world.

Signal, another fantasy time-travel drama but not the usual stuff. It involves, two groups of people conversing across time-space. They didn't really physically travel through time, but their voices and their thoughts did, with the help of a magical walkie-talkie. It was the most thrilling drama of year 2016. I thought I was watching a blockbuster movie every week during its run.

Dear my friends is a dear story about friends. About relationships. Between husband and wife, between best friends, between parents and children, between siblings. Park Wan is a dedicated daughter. She cared not only for her mum, her granny but also the whole bunch of her mum’s friends. I cannot agree more that it is not within her responsibility that whichever Yi-moo (aunt, in Korean) is in need of her help today. Her cellphone number is not their emergency hotline. Sometimes I get frustrated that they keep bothering her in the show. But that’s because the scenario is just so realistic. You won't understand unless you are put in that situation. The angst between saying no and giving in to that soften heart of yours (and then grumbling to yourself why on earth you agreed to help in the first place on the way home, especially when its late and there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done).

Lucky Romance. Its quite entertaining to watch the female lead going around looking for a tiger (someone who is born in the year of the Tiger). Other things aside, I cannot appreciate the romance between Ryu Jun Yeol and Hwang Jung Eum. I cannot feel the chemistry. I’m sorry!

Oh Hae Young Again is partly fantasy. The deja vu part. 

I really enjoyed Squad 38. The conmanship is spectacular. Why can’t they just give us the OTP finale even though it was just an significant part of the whole drama.

Doctors. Argh. When it premiered I was in South Korea. I watched it on TV. It was so nice! The filming location was so pretty. The story is meaningful. But then gradually it got draggy. The progress slowed. I wonder why they kept it at 20 episodes if they couldn't but keep adding more filler scenes. 

The Good Wife. I haven't seen the original so I cannot compare. But among other dramas, I think it deserves more attention. The struggles of her and her children, her selfish husband and her best friend who fell in love with her, the characters, are all so realistic. She re-entered the workforce and needs to compete with fresh grads, at the same time, she needs to cope with divorce and household chores and an unforgiving ex-mother-in-law who would give surprise visits to her grandchildren intermittently. Technically, she isn't divorce yet, but she is thinking to. Her character is extraordinary, but also very human.

Bring it on, Ghost is the cutest drama this year. Apart from all the ghosts scenes, I love every interaction between Taecyeon and Kim So Hyun. Even though they had a 12 year age gap in real life, it doesn’t really show in the drama. In fact, Kim So Hyun’s character is older than Taecyeon. I have to nominate Park Bong Pal as the best boyfriend-material character of 2016! 

Age of Youth is a pleasant drama to watch. Its about strangers living under the same roof and eventually become friends. We have a flirtatious Kang-unnie, a stern Yoon-sunbae. There is a Chinese drama this year that has a really similar concept with this one, and its called Ode to Joy. I enjoyed that too, albeit a little long. Its also about 5 girls living together. Not under the same roof, but on the same floor of an apartment.

W is a drama I said many times that it is great in many ways but has its own unique flaws. It is so complex, there is no boundaries to the variability of game rules, so the writer gets too creative and at times, its hard to be convinced. For instance, after the reset, Kang Chul mysteriously fall in love with Oh Yeon Joo. Whenever I rewatched this, I have this burning question, who is the higher being? Is it god? If the writer is not the one telling the story. Is it that the illustrator has a spirit? Like in Transformers? Or what? Who is writing them? I figured it is the character’s will. OK. So the characters are telling the story. Kang Chul just got this power of will. Very convincing indeed.

Scarlet heart. Having seen the original, I have the rights to compare them! I’ve seen the original drama while it was airing back in 2012. So that was quite sometime back. The original felt a little more tragic than this one. Also, they talked more about the historical events in the Chinese version. In the Korean versions, emotions of the characters are the priority, and they handled this one well. I gotta say the fashion and music teams aren't doing a good job. The robes the princes are wearing made them looked like peasants, especially 13th Prince. Further, polkadots!! This printing technology aren't suppose to exist in the Goryeo Era, even Hangeul is not invented yet. And The OST team!!! Stop putting english lyrics in your songs!!! Its a SAGEUK!!! But I’m quite surprise that they can find an era that a Korean King had this many princes and their characters fit the Scarlet heart fiction so well. For example, what are the odds that both 4th Princes in the Qing dynasty and the Goryeo dynasty are both after the throne? At the same time, the biggest contender for them is both their 8th brothers respectively? I've never been exposed to the Goryeo culture before watching Scarlet heart: Ryeo. I always knew that relatives get married in the olden days. But siblings getting married? That’s new. Even if they are half siblings. They’re still siblings! And the fact that Yeon Hwa princess took Hwang Bo, her mother’s surname, as her surname from birth so that she could one day marry her brothers who took, Wang, the King’s surname as their surname. All for the sake of preserving the royal blood.

Jealousy Incarnate

I LOVE this drama very much. In the first part of the drama, I think I would choose Sun Woo over Hwa Shin. Then afterwards I think I won't choose either. Hwa Shin is good but he’s pride is torturing the girl. Luckily theres Chi Yeol around to kick his ass. Pyo Na Ri is an independent woman. She just had a crush for Hwa Shin for 3 years. 

Shopaholic Louis

I watched this right after Squad 38. In Squad 38 he was a conman, and in this show, he keep getting conned. It was so funny to watch him in these 2 contrasting situations.

The K2

People kept commenting this and said that Ji Chang Wook did better in this other show. But I didn't see that other show so I cannot comment. Comments aside, I think this show is a well produced show. I like its German OSTs (even though I would appreciate it if the singer try a little harder to pronounce the words properly), anyway, I wondered why German, and not Spanish where Anna was at in some parts of the drama. Senior Yoona did an excellent job. This is a weird character. She is clearly the villain. But at the same time, we see her struggles, so at some point I rooted for this villain. It is also rare that the villain is portrayed as one of the protagonist (as oppose to antagonists). Fighting scenes, special effect, cinematography were all well too. Feels like a blockbuster. NICELY Done!

1% of Anything

The MOST underrated of the year. Why is it on DramaX. This remake certainly deserves more attention. I have never seen a couple so lovely on screen before. It feels so real and genuine. I kept wondering what would Ha Suk Jin’s wife feel when she watches this (which was quite disturbing though, cos I keep thinking about it throughout the show). Yup, he is very professional so we will leave this issue at that. 

Weightlifting fairy

A story about college is ordinary. But one about athlete college is quite fresh. Even though I still think Lee Sung Kyung is too skinny for a weightlifter. But there are many categories in weightlifting, she just belong to the light weight types. Nam Joo Hyuk who almost became a swimming athlete is perfect for the role. This story is overall a light hearted one and it is a good compliment with the other complicated dramas that I watch concurrently, for example: Goblin.

Goblin

Easily my favourite drama of the year. Fresh and slick production. I won't comment more. Because I will next year end.

The dramas I’ve watched this year:

Descendants of the Sun (KBS 2016) Come back Mister (SBS 2016) Signal (SBS 2016) Dear My Friends (tvN 2016) Lucky Romance (MBC 2016) Oh Hae Young Again (tvN 2016) Squad 38 (OCN 2016) Doctors (SBS 2016) The Good Wife (SBS 2016) Bring it on, Ghost! (tvN 2016) Age of Youth (tvN 2016) W (MBC 2016) Scarlet Heart Goryeo (SBS 2016) Jealousy Incarnate (SBS 2016) Shopaholic Louis (MBC 2016) The K2 (tvN 2016) 1% of Anything (Dramax 2016) Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (MBC 2016) Goblin (tvN 2016)

[belindakeyte]

Week 10 Research.

I couldn’t really see the relevance of looking at John Baldessari for his use of shape and colour as a way to direct viewer to my work (any more so than any other artist), but any excuse to revisit his work. Baldessari re-evaluated traditional notions of what constitutes art and has an endearing sense of humour.

I saw this at ‘The Broad’ LA

Baldessari, J, Your Name in Lights, 8 – 30 January, 2011, Australian Museum façade, Sydney. http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-23-john-baldessari?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_j1BRDkARIsAJcfmTEOBkBtXIcySvgGKqhtEXLx3Svwli_bA8NPeiUNZAR_KpDKe3b0IxoaAt1QEALw_wcB

The Broad says about this work - John Baldessari never touched this painting. He did not paint it. He did not write the text. “There is a certain kind of work one could do that didn’t require a studio,” Baldessari said, “It’s work that is done in one’s head. The artists could be the facilitator of the work; executing it was another matter.” This concept — that an artist could present an idea rather than a material object from their own hand — was a way for Baldessari to take apart the notion of what art could be. In 1966 art meant painting, sculpture, or drawing, and with wry humor, Baldessari challenges this expectation. The viewer receives a painting in Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, but the painting is completed by sign painters. The viewer is presented with a painting’s content, but the content is text taken from an art trade magazine dictating what content should be.

This led me to the 1st work in my hometown that turned me onto his work. Way before I was an artist. Kaldor’s (Kaldor Public Art Project) Project 23, Your Name in Lights. Presented in partnership with the 2011 Sydney Festival.

Like earlier works, the new work he created for the 23rd Kaldor Public Art Project, Your Name in Lights, reflects the changing cult of celebrity in modern society, drawing on ideas of fame in the modern world and the conflation of the roles of celebrity and artist.

Using imagery taken from historic symbols of celebrity, such as Broadway neon theatre displays and Hollywood film / lights, Baldessari gives any participant a glittering moment of fame. A snipped up and fastened version of Andy Warhol’s prediction that in the future everyone will have their 15 minutes, Your Name in Lights lasts for just 15 seconds.

It’s colourful, catchy and certainly directs, even intoxicates he viewer…but not by its visual means. By our human nature to seek out immortality. Fame & celebrity is contemporary society’s answer to this. And we are drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Baldessari, J, Your Name in Lights, 8 – 30 January, 2011, Australian Museum façade, Sydney, http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-23-john-baldessari?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_j1BRDkARIsAJcfmTEOBkBtXIcySvgGKqhtEXLx3Svwli_bA8NPeiUNZAR_KpDKe3b0IxoaAt1QEALw_wcB

So that brings me to Kaldor Public Art projects.

John Kaldor is a philanthropist that established this arts organisation from a vision he had had in the 1960’s. Kaldor Public Art Projects became a pioneering organisation, dedicated to taking art outside museum walls and transforming public spaces with innovative contemporary projects.

Over the years the projects have changed the way the Australian public sees and experiences the art of today.

They are now supported by all three levels of government, as well as a group of corporate, philanthropic and private supporters.

Making Art Public brings together 34 ephemeral (Kaldor) projects, creatively re-imagined and presented together for the first time, always free to the public.

A celebration of 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (7 September 2019 – 16 February 2020) it revisited every project since inception including Bill Viola and Thomas Demand.

https://50years.kaldorartprojects.org.au/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnv71BRCOARIsAIkxW9H63QKTesmsSh1w6wEM2jMMPek2FX76y3CfiEY4DCno2VHZcDdRKdsaArGLEALw_wcB

Viola’s video works utilise sophisticated media technologies to explore the spiritual and perceptual side of human experience. Focusing on universal human themes of birth, death and the unfolding of consciousness, they have roots in both Eastern and Western art, as well as the spiritual traditions of Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism and Christian mysticism.

The images don’t do it justice, these works demand your attention for the entire 10-15 minutes and absorb you into their world. I’ve never seen any video art work quite like it. Highly charged emotionally & visually.

Thomas Demand is known for his life-size recreations of environments made entirely from paper and card that he photographs and then destroys. Maybe it’s architect in me, but I love his work, simply as photographs. It wasn’t until I researched him for my undergraduate Vis Arts that I realised the photograph of the aeroplane I was looking at was a cardboard model.

For the 25th Kaldor Public Art Project he presented a new series of images, The Dailies, within a space inside Harry Seidlers fantastic 1970’s space age MLC Centre in Martin Place. The work occupied an entire hotel floor on level 4. His installation, displayed throughout the bedrooms that extend out from a circular corridor, had a disorientating effect.

https://50years.kaldorartprojects.org.au/program/making-art-public

Kaldor’s latest project is ‘Do it (Australia)’. Envisaged in this time of global lockdown, the project invites audiences to follow an artist’s instructions, enter their world and realise an artwork of their own.

This project is the latest incarnation of do it, the longest-running and most far-reaching artist-led project in the world. Initiated by Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1993, the project asks 16 artists to create simple instructions that generate an artwork, whether an object, a performance, an intervention, or something else entirely.

The instructions were not yet up for the artists I was interested in, Tracey Moffat & Glenn Murcutt (I wouldn’t actually call him an artist…we really don’t want to claim someone that is so heavily entrenched in an ‘old school’ patriarchal architecture system), I chose from the 4 or 5 artists that had already included their instructions. The online exhibition only started 4 days ago (May 13th) and has no closing date, as yet.

Rafael Bonachela is a choreographer working across art forms, including contemporary dance, art installations, film and fashion:

Find yourself alone in a place. Play some music (or not). Stand, sit or lie down. Find a position you feel comfortable in. Be still for a while. Imagine you are surrounded by blinding light. It feels heavy. You want to break through. Use as many parts of your body (or not) to physically push the light away from you. Take your time. Move from a gentle state, to a state of frenzy. Explore different possibilities with your body. There is no right or wrong. When you feel you have broken through the light, find your way back to stillness. A state of weightlessness (or not).

Options

Explore this task anywhere by yourself for yourself.

Place your smartphone camera anywhere to record your experience using the slo-mo option.

Share a section of the film on social media, send it to a friend, (or not).

http://doit.kaldorartprojects.org.au/