Saturday, September 02, 2006
re: Piccinini and the time machine archives
HEHEHE! Frank, I LOVE these discussions! Which usually take place in person. You're right of course, it was a stretch, but I keep trying.
Trying because of course I SEE very clearly how I agree with much of / sometimes most of what you say. The blueprints, the vacant building, yes.
But how do I express how I feel a painting can bring about such a FORCE in another that it really is like your home? Let me try this.
You meet an artist at a party, and the two of you go back to your apartment for a drink, to listen to music, whatever. When you both walk into the apartment the artist sees a painting on your wall that they had painted, something you had bought at an art sale, or flea market, or gallery, or wherever you bought it, but you bought it without ever having met the artist until now. You like this painting very much, obviously, and it's on your wall, part of your life, in fact you think of it as part of your very home. While you are in the bathroom the artist burns the painting. It's gone, there's nothing you can do about it.
How do you feel? Does it bother you? Do you think the artist had a right to do this? Maybe they thought it would look better? Or maybe they were trying to help you see their art as temporary, or whatever?
Max Brod was INSTRUCTED by Kafka to burn his papers. It was written in the will, if I'm not mistaken. Brod refused. Simple as that, he refused. And I bow to Brod's decision. Bow deeply, as my own life and writing would be different if it weren't for Franz Kafka. Cid Corman said that Kafka was bad for my writing, but that's because Corman hated or mistrusted surrealism. I wrote back saying that surrealism is very difficult to pull off, and hinted that maybe Corman was jealous of the efforts. He wrote back to me that surrealism was childish, and that one day I would grow out of it. Hehehe. And my greatest gift from my mother was to NOT listen to our elders! (although I have great respect for Corman mind you) But anyway, Kafka's writing, as we all know, changed the history of the written word. The importance of his work and his philosophy, even his VIBE, and his sexy brow, all of it can be felt and seen and heard in many aspects of our culture and art today. Kafka gave a whole new direction to things. And if Brod had burned the papers like his good friend demanded as a last wish, the course of history would have been irreparably altered. Don't you think?
Living in this culture of INSTANT archival possibilities there's so much I'd like to go back into time to photograph. The time machine collection. It would be a great coffee table book, Benjamin Franklin wooing the ladies of Paris, and da Vinci declaring animal consumption as barbaric, or the earliest pharaohs snorting coke which would prove once and for all that Edgar Cayce was correct about the lost continent of Atlantis finding a way to survive.
A HUGE Tallulah Bankhead fan, I wish she had made more films instead of doing so much live theater. And no one knows the temporary nature of art like actors with no cameras around.
Yeah, TALLULAH, the great bitch of Broadway! I LOVE HER! Here's a couple a quotes for fun:
"My father warned me about men and booze but he never said anything about women and cocaine."
"Cocaine, habit forming? Of course not, I ought to know, I've been using it for years."
"It's the good girls who keep the diaries. The bad girls never have the time."
These quotes have nothing to do with our discussion, but I like them! (well, actually there's something to be said for the last of the three seeping into the discussion. in fact proof that Tallulah knew the speed of time)
In fact, OKAY, one more by Tallulah, "If I had my life to live again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
AH! If Tallulah and Elvis had MATED!
CAConrad
Trying because of course I SEE very clearly how I agree with much of / sometimes most of what you say. The blueprints, the vacant building, yes.
But how do I express how I feel a painting can bring about such a FORCE in another that it really is like your home? Let me try this.
You meet an artist at a party, and the two of you go back to your apartment for a drink, to listen to music, whatever. When you both walk into the apartment the artist sees a painting on your wall that they had painted, something you had bought at an art sale, or flea market, or gallery, or wherever you bought it, but you bought it without ever having met the artist until now. You like this painting very much, obviously, and it's on your wall, part of your life, in fact you think of it as part of your very home. While you are in the bathroom the artist burns the painting. It's gone, there's nothing you can do about it.
How do you feel? Does it bother you? Do you think the artist had a right to do this? Maybe they thought it would look better? Or maybe they were trying to help you see their art as temporary, or whatever?
Max Brod was INSTRUCTED by Kafka to burn his papers. It was written in the will, if I'm not mistaken. Brod refused. Simple as that, he refused. And I bow to Brod's decision. Bow deeply, as my own life and writing would be different if it weren't for Franz Kafka. Cid Corman said that Kafka was bad for my writing, but that's because Corman hated or mistrusted surrealism. I wrote back saying that surrealism is very difficult to pull off, and hinted that maybe Corman was jealous of the efforts. He wrote back to me that surrealism was childish, and that one day I would grow out of it. Hehehe. And my greatest gift from my mother was to NOT listen to our elders! (although I have great respect for Corman mind you) But anyway, Kafka's writing, as we all know, changed the history of the written word. The importance of his work and his philosophy, even his VIBE, and his sexy brow, all of it can be felt and seen and heard in many aspects of our culture and art today. Kafka gave a whole new direction to things. And if Brod had burned the papers like his good friend demanded as a last wish, the course of history would have been irreparably altered. Don't you think?
Living in this culture of INSTANT archival possibilities there's so much I'd like to go back into time to photograph. The time machine collection. It would be a great coffee table book, Benjamin Franklin wooing the ladies of Paris, and da Vinci declaring animal consumption as barbaric, or the earliest pharaohs snorting coke which would prove once and for all that Edgar Cayce was correct about the lost continent of Atlantis finding a way to survive.
A HUGE Tallulah Bankhead fan, I wish she had made more films instead of doing so much live theater. And no one knows the temporary nature of art like actors with no cameras around.
Yeah, TALLULAH, the great bitch of Broadway! I LOVE HER! Here's a couple a quotes for fun:
"My father warned me about men and booze but he never said anything about women and cocaine."
"Cocaine, habit forming? Of course not, I ought to know, I've been using it for years."
"It's the good girls who keep the diaries. The bad girls never have the time."
These quotes have nothing to do with our discussion, but I like them! (well, actually there's something to be said for the last of the three seeping into the discussion. in fact proof that Tallulah knew the speed of time)
In fact, OKAY, one more by Tallulah, "If I had my life to live again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
AH! If Tallulah and Elvis had MATED!
CAConrad
