Saturday, July 16, 2011

White Petal


direct link: White Petal

After recording a few ad-lib voiceovers, and being unable to leave this project alone, finally I wrote something along the lines that I'd hoped for. Which was a discussion of relationship, reminiscent of Annie in Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall (1977)' or Cristina in his 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008),' or like a Wong Kar Wai character who simply can't commit, simply can't, like York in 'Days of Being Wild (1990).' The character Birkin's description of relationship in D.H. Lawrence's 'Women in Love (1920)' before he marries, along with Lawrence's writings of the sexual electricity between people was an influence. There's a little Germaine Greer here too, I think ('Female Eunuch (1970).' And all those women who became nuns during the centuries so they could gain an education and could write, paint, compose outside of the confines of marriage and having 16 children. Some of us dance to our own music. (Said with the grin of a Cheshire Cat.)

Don't forget that 'Faded opulence. Over-the-edge-of. Yet floral abundance. The flowers are the stars—beauty, that edge of fading.'

See also Erica Jong's article, 'Is Sex Passé?'

People seem generally to prefer no poetry voiceover with one of my creative movement/yoga dance videos, so I have, instead, written something that is more of a narrative, that has enough of a story and a philosophy, but is I hope embodied in the movement of the woman who's on the edge of.

I wrote a story that I hope is captivating, whether you agree with the point of view or not. There is a push/pull here. The flowers are like a visual refrain, a chorus throughout the piece. The beauty of flowers, the garden, the hidden utopia of Eden within the garden, the garden of sensuality that draws us in and then becomes a way to control women, the way matrimony can be. The text written (after waiting weeks for it to emerge) to discuss something far more serious - women's creativity, and for my generation at least, it remains problematic. Eros, creativity, a life force, arising out of eros (the body, passion), I believe an artist needs this. A woman's muse is not entirely the same inspirational configuration as a man's, and surely each is again differently configured across generations, cultures, ethnicities, sexual preferences, life experience.

_
In the video footage, experimenting... always learning! Trying this and that with the clip. Having fun, and it shows in the humour of the piece.

There are sections to this video: doubles (video itself a type of mirror or reflection of the world), single, layering, shifts in colour and style as the yoga dance continues.

Who are we? Repetitions of ourselves. Our memories create us in our fragmentary identities. I fold into who I was or who I will become. Uncertainty is confusing. People flee from my uncertainty.

White Petal

Look into a dissolving mirror
bones, skin, neurons

the self-image.

This poem is not neat as intact
petal veins, mysterious as garden
fossils.

The poem writes,
rises from ruminations, dried
flowers on my spine
bursting seeds.

_
Danced, videoed, edited by Brenda Clews; background music by Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, from an old favourite, Initiation: gabrielleroth.com/

_
The words spoken in White Petal:


I live in the city in a small apartment - a doorway and shelves covered with fabric. I want to see myself dance before it is too late.

As I dance through the years I reflect on who I am. Every incarnation of love in my life remains with me and carries me to the next immersion, the next wave.

I don't seem to have lost any of the great loves of my life, yet I am a woman who prefers to remain alone. I am a recluse, a very private person, master of myself.

I've been married twice. The first time, a five year relationship in total; the second time, fifteen years, but we had children. Both times, that feeling, imprisoned, denied. Not them, but the nature of legal union. Owned. Like being throttled; my creative and intellectual freedom threatened. It was a struggle to stay and I kept ending things, unable to find my footing, my self in the annihilation of coupledom.

Was I there to be a foil to his light, to support him in his work and dreams? Did I feel this nurturing love reciprocated? Each time, I'm not sure why, I began to die, and I need to blossom.

Women blossom in their creativity.

Some of us find deep comfort in the continuity of nuptial relationships. Others find themselves choked out in the garden of marriage.

I am not a relationship type. I love, and love deeply, but go in fear of being caught, being hitched.

Every incarnation of love in my life remains with me, carries me to the next immersion.

I am sensual, but have spent vast stretches of my life alone.


When you touch the Tantric nerve, sweet pleasure moans. Do you remember?

It's like a saxophone and you wonder if everyone can hear it. The music, sinewy lightning.

Once the pleasure grabs you, the nerve pounds in your blossoming. Helpless, this vortex. Sink, this magnet's circuitry is on. The cells murmur.

Grind, lubricate. Thrust. Push yourself into infinity. Lose yourself in the moment; lose all moments.



I find it hard to dance with anyone else. My rhythms never quite fit, my movements an outer expression of an inner drama being realized through the dance. I dance for my muse.

My muse captivates me endlessly. My muse is demanding. My muse insists without respite until I do. My muse drags me into this dance and makes me write these words of my life. My muse keeps me half-hidden while revealing a vision in my art. I endlessly seek what moves inspiration into artistic form.

I seek the pulse, the core of mystery, the orgasm of the flower.


My life is a vision, of loneliness, love, dry deserts and blossoming oases. My drum is tribal and I dance shamanically with my gliding, writhing, undulating body of passion.

_




Each of those boxes is a video layer - 
to give you an idea of the complexity of the construction of the piece. 

11 comments:

  1. A Facebook thread that I'm slipping in here because it's easier to find here.

    July 18, 2011 from Swoon

    Hello,

    About your video.
    It's not that I'm the 'big connaisseur', I'm just learning myself.
    It's only 9 months that i'm busy with video-art.
    But I believe that one can learn from another...so here it goes.

    Music: It' not about the sort of music. It's the quality of the sound. I see you dancing, but I don't hear the music very well.
    Try to find a right balance between your music and your voice. Make sure that it's not 'overpowering' the images, but neither the other way around.

    Images: I like the flowers, bur in a piece this long, some more images (movement even) of those pretty flowers might have been welcome. Idea; why not use the flowers all over the screen with your dancing layered on top of it?

    The dance: i'm not saying anything about the dance in itself. That seems to come from within.
    It looks like a one-shot recording from one angle.
    Why not try to dilm it from 2 or even 3 angles (if you don't want to dance three times, see if you can find other camera's) so you can use footage from different angels. Edit these rythmic onto the music (for instance)
    You could also try to film certain details; feet movement, a swirl of the hands, a twist of the head,...
    If you would edit short shots with those details between the longer shots (from different angles) I think you might get a much more vivid or energetic video.

    Try to edit one film with only the dance and edit one with the flowers (both with the same music and length) and try to layer both edits on top of eacg other.

    On hte other hand...forget all I said and follow the flow you're in. Find your own 'voice' in image and sounds. It's a constantly evolving journey...
    It is for me anyway.

    Keep on filming and making...

    Best regards, Swoon

    ReplyDelete
  2. My response, which he didn't answer.

    July 19, 2011
 from Brenda Clews

    Hello Swoon,

    Thank you so much for your careful feedback! I certainly appreciate all you have to say, and agree with you.

    It's just I have a few constraints, which make it hard to set up a space to video. I live in a small apartment with two adult children. Even to set up a corner like that takes about an hour, and has to be dismantled before dinner. Moving furniture (it's crammed just out of view), stapling fabric over shelves and doorway (usually takes a few tries to get it right), and then the camera is at the very furthest point of the room on a stool on a tripod that's held by string to a curtain rod! And that's the only place in the whole room where there's enough of a space in the viewfinder to actually make a yoga/dance video!

    I did once rent a rehearsal space nearby at a Church, but, you know, as a poet and painter, I work best alone, and I find that true of video poetry as well. I'm most comfortable in my intimate space - my own living room.

    To use other cameras or camera angles has the problem of the clutter of furniture... so I don't bother with these 'learning' videos...

    But for the next two, Double Lotus, and Wear White Paint for the Moon, I clearly have to set the video space up with more than one camera. No way around it. I do have a great older video camera, an iMac with a camera in it, and an iPhone 4, so have no excuses there.

    I guess it's just the work of trying to set the space up so that the cameras can focus on a dance against a smoother backdrop than a clutter of furniture!

    So, yes, I am planning to do a better job videoing two planned projects.

    I don't see doing 'dance' videos much past this year... it was a long time dream, to do this, only I didn't have the camera, video editing software, or tiny bit of experience with it that I now have. So I'm doing what I've wanted to do for years (15-20 years?) but at an advanced age. When I set the video camera up, I'm working through a lot of self-doubt, perhaps shame even. I'm 59, not trained in any way, and it feels self-indulgent, and yet also liberating. I don't see it as real film work by a long shot. I think what I do is funny, and that people should laugh if they don't already.

    So the camera on a tripod, harking back to silent film days, oh ha ha, but that's the poet-alone working... I allowed it, but I do tend to put a lot of filters on footage... and had hoped with the flowers and the various sections of White Petal - there are 4 distinct sections in terms of colour & so on, oh the flowers change in each section too I think - and with the voiceover to carry it through, I'd hoped it would work.

    It's all experiment, Swoon. I learn through my videos, and perhaps in the future will be videoing younger dancers and will have some ideas of how to do it - in the style I'm developing.

    Your video poems are poems in themselves, Swoon. You are very talented. You are clearly comfortable behind the camera, with found footage, and editing a piece into a whole. Your music is always an incredible accompaniment to your visuals. And the voiceovers are perfect. You should be winning awards for your video poems, Swoon, and I hope you are entering them in film festivals.

    I feel nothing but honoured to be connected to you on Vimeo, at Dave' Moving Poems site, and here...

    And I thank you for your suggestions... and for the nudge in directions I know I should go in but haven't.

    It all makes a difference.

    Many thanks,
    warm regards,
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  3. Richard wrote, July 17, 2011:

    As I watched the video and read the text, I felt how very female it is, in a way that keeps me from identifying with it very much, and I also was struck by your line, "surely each is again differently configured across generations, cultures, ethnicities, sexual preferences, life experience..." Which is surely true. I often wonder whether men and women are different from each other more because of their sex or because of those other differences that you listed, and simply because of individual personality. We're such complicated animals that I'm sure all of them are important.

    In generational terms, I wonder how a woman of 25 or so would respond to the ideas in your video. In our generation, in the 70s and thereabouts, women typically felt the need to express a sense of oppression and to protest against obstacles in the way of their becoming themselves and being creative. Do women still feel that way, or do they take selfhood and creative opportunity more for granted? If the latter, how do women of our generation feel about younger women?

    I read the Jong article when it appeared, and it seemed to me she was boasting about the superior sense and sensuality -- so to speak -- of her generation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Stirling wrote, July 22, 2011:

    I loved this, Brenda. The white petals overlapping and merging in almost every frame, your words a constant cadence, and the dance - in parts, almost a perfect exercise video. (smile) It makes me want to emulate you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ian wrote, July 17, 2011:

    Brilliant Brenda Just brilliant. Making a video is a balancing act and can make or break it. I would call this flawless. Such good production. ( or should i spell that obsession) I also love my own company and have never felt the need for marriage or children. am i selfish or very wise. I think they drain you of the will to create and their needs become your. i hate the feeling of " Rolls" in a relationship. Which is what i get from your poem.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bent wrote, July 16, 2011:

    Wow! Holy shit this is good! And what a message! What a finale!

    Bravo, Brenda!

    My only suggestion is that in the beginning the "voice" may be difficult for some to keep viewing for some reason. I have to let that one digest a bit. Since in going back after experiencing the whole of the video, the issue no longer existed. There is a stress, I believe, which eventually fades magnificently with your voice as the message gets clarified. But I belive the stress comes most from the viewer wondering if the time spent seeing the video all the way through is worth it.

    In now having written that paragraph above, my personal thought would be to find some mechanism right after the opening title that will grab the viewer instantly, becasue you have created a far-out and very intimate video here. I am deeply moved by it beyond any expectation.

    ...and please, this is your video and whatever critique I've shared here is my POV. I just want to keep writing praises.

    ‎2 thumbs up!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wrote in response to Bent, July 16th:

    Bent, firstly, thank you, I really appreciate your response... while video alone worked, I knew in the dance practice session I was 'working on stuff' and wished to convey that somehow... it took nearly 2 weeks for the writing to emerge, but whew, it finally did. Yes, I did try for a more intimate approach, something, as you know, that is very difficult to do for personal and aesthetic reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bent wrote:

    It's brilliantly done! And an excellent message to womankind, which would require that intimate sharing of personal experience - which you nailed (not too much not too little, just right) ... and it goes way beyond that.

    Well, OK. I can't speak for womankind. But being Jungian, the anima is in me as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wrote:

    But the question of whether it's worth watching all the way through that you mention.... this, truly, is the main issue I think with all video poetry. More so than other video formats, where expectations and what's delivered tend to be closer. A music video will deliver music and cool visuals, a pet video will deliver cute pet images, an instructional video on whatever topic will stick to that topic, each is a fairly defined genre.

    Poetry (and for me this piece does cross-over into the personal essay that is itself a prose poem) is by its nature full of surprises.

    Poetry can also be opague - it's meant to be opague, to both release its images and meanings and to conceal them in murmurings or metamorphoses into other images and meanings.

    Which makes watching a video poem difficult for the viewer. There's no definable genre, so you don't know what to expect.

    There aren't critics to guide you through these 3-5minute short films.

    And somehow it is painful to find yourself watching an earnest video poem that is boring, too opague, resistant to easy interpretation, and that might not open out for the viewer and open something out in them.

    I think most people skip them if possible.

    So I am happy for the views I get, and the comments mean an awful lot.


    Oh, if I was into it, which I'm not, I could do a 'flash' at the beginning to grab the viewer! :)) That would be very funny.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bent wrote:

    That's what I mean. A hook. I know it's a gimmick, one I use also as an author, to grab the reader in the first paragraph. Since your video-poem is about being free, maybe a flash, like you suggested, with crashing cymbals, dfrums in music, tension in sound and image, and a brief clip (few seconds) of some creature escaping from a cage into the jungle flora, lap-dissolving/superimposi​ng into you.

    But I may be way off base, since that's likely the animus speaking :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I wrote:

    That is a great idea, Bent! I love it! You have a wild anima, I can see that. :) This video was floating around Vimeo for a few weeks, I guess I should have sent it your way. It didn't get any comments at all so when I decided to finalize it I just relied on my own judgement. Your suggestion would have worked, for sure. Even a PSD file of a cage cut-out works in Final Cut and you can see the video behind it.

    ReplyDelete

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