Of human whale songs, and monsters

Antony and the Johnson's title track from their 'Cut the World' live album is, indeed, old news, being that it's already been performed as part of The Life and Death of Marina Abramović. What brings it back to the stage is the above avantgarde video directed by  Nabil Elderkin, and starring Willem Dafoe and Carice van Houten.

Her presence strongly felt throughout the video (at the very least as from 3:49), it's still a shock to find her facing you at 4:14 into the video. It's Marina Abramović, that same Serbian witch-lady at MOMA whom people went to sit across from in order to gaze into her staring, starless eyes. And people never knew the risk they took. She might just as easily tie their hair, with hers, into a single braid. And that would not be her first, either. Artists, she insists, must sacrifice themselves. And artists who sacrifice themselves will not waver from sacrificing the audience.

It's not difficult for me to understand why Abramović, the first time she heard Antony perform (at a Rufus Wainwright's concert), stood up and demanded, with loud repeated shrieks: "Who is he? WHO IS HE?"

"People around me were complaining," she would explain later, "but I was compelled. I kept saying out loud: 'Who is he?' I wanted to know everything about him."

Antony, known to refer to his own singing as a 'hex', also has a witch-air about him. Whether experienced as eerie, other-wordly or heartbreaking, Antony's singing binds with enchantments. Paired with Abramović's creative (and equally, if not more, spell-binding)  mind, they gave birth to the most beautiful of ethereal child-monsters. It's only a matter of time before they breath life into its body, too. And lo and behold.

Los Angeles, we need to talk

After he decided to move to New York City, Jonathan Jackson decided not to string L.A. along. He decided to 'firmly break it off' with L.A. through a graphic billboard series posted on the famous streets of his first love... letting it know:
"Jonathan Jackson is no longer in relationship with Los Angeles."
More endearing even than the billboards were the reactions of the L.A. inhabitants who chanced to come accross these visual declarations of love gone awry.
"I think it's negative. I don't support it," declared one of the locals, "I think we should not need to see other cities. Whatever I see in L.A. is everywhere, in every city that I have gone to. In part of L.A., there is East Africa. There are mountains. There is New York in L.A., there are tall buildings. So going to other cities is just stupid."
If interested to see more about this visual goodbye to a city, or the man behind it, go here and dig on.

Snow-wench (Snezena baba)

My morning flight to London was cancelled today. I should have known it would from the moment I woke up. Why? Because it snowed. And when it snows, your Dutchmen get very flustered. As soon as the snowflakes appear, a national emergency alarm sets over Holland.
Free drinks are offered at major train stations.
Traffic is completely halted.

Citizen stand in lines at stores to get as many provisions as they can afford to sustain them until the - thing - melts.
In the meantime, my fully paid hotel room in Kensington awaits me, empty...

What to do with all this snow? What do Russians do with all this snow?

They make snow-wenches (orig. снежная баба). What else?
(Note: All snow creations featured in this post are from Russia)

At 9:03

This life-size dollhouse stands in Canada, alone, in the middle of a field, far removed from any urban settlement. It seems to be a preserved snapshot of the day it was abandoned. The clock is eerily stopped at 9:03, the chairs are pushed against the table, the clothes and toys lie, forgotten, where they fell in the haste of departure...
This is an art project of Heather Benning, who created the life-size 'Dollhouse' in Saskatchewan, Canada. She found a ruined farmhouse

and staged it as on the day of abandonment. She cut away one entire wall of the 2-stories high farmhouse. She restored its interior with the 1960s flair (while leaving the exterior intact). At the very end, she protected the interior she created with a glass panel. Finally, she stopped the clock at 9:03.
Heather Benning herself grew up on a farm not unlike the one she chose for her art project. As a child, she used to play in such abandoned farms. She would stage the ruins for her childhood games.

"I wanted to show the passage of time...," Benning explains. "I was able to show what it looked like before it was left, but then what it looks now, you know, 35 years later..."
It is the stopping of the clock that does it for me.
Very Miss Havisham.

Get a grip

Title: Ducks


Title: Grip

Perhaps you've noticed already: for the time being I've abandoned the weekly themes. It became too limiting. I may still spin a week theme now and then, but generally I'll be posting random finds: a selection of those that not only catch my interest, but prompt a reaction.
I chose to open my newly found freedom with these photos of Marijke van Warmerdam, a Dutch multimedia artist. I spend most of my time living atop the same unbearably levelled Dutch landscape. It seems impossible for me to live (on it) without that warped perspective and imagination.


Title: A-side


Title: B-side

The Hallway

The Hallway from The Hallway on Vimeo.