Language is the cage though which I express my passion

"LANGUAGE IS THE CAGE THROUGH WHICH I EXPRESS MY PASSION" 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2011, India and acrylic ink, gel pen, oil paint on Moleskine Folio Sketchbook A4 prepared with a base of acrylic matte medium.

After I had finished my NaNoWriMo writing early (10pm), and read some older poems I'd written, I got out my inks and paints... was up rather late with this Moleskine poem painting, tired today.

Among my papers were some prose poems I wrote on language some years ago and I suddenly felt an urge to break through language. Only, of course, you can't. Even visual representation, of any kind, is a pictorial language, learnt like anything else. But - the heart beating with its passion in the rib cage. The rib cage spread out in many (semiotic) lines. The dancer is an awkward figure, half harlequin I think, and eyes appeared in her breasts, which was unintended but apt. That rib cage became all of language invigorated (or enervated?) by our passion. It was a drawing I did thinking about these things, and perhaps it's a chart of them.

(Above and below were responses to comments at G+ by Raven M. Ridley and Larry Ayers, but way more than they asked.)

To me, she is a Spanish woman, don't ask why, in ballet shoes en pointe, with half a black skirt, only half, black hose to the ankle on the other bent leg, one arm clearly up, and wearing a corset with ribs (in which there are eyes). I thought of Frieda Kahlo when I added the red, again, no reason, can't answer why. The lines were like bobby pins springing outwards and opening. Her long black hair coming undone? Who knows.

And yet the heart remains in the rib cage; passion remains in the language that expresses it. I was thinking about Wagner's music, that Germanic passion, and the use of Tristan and Isolde in von Trier's latest film, Melancholia which I saw on the weekend, and Almodóvar, the Spanish director and the intense passion in his films. The blue is the sky, because we are always dancing in the sky.

What goes through an artist's mind while they are drawing or painting...

                              

The Falling Room - Nov 18th show

Halder offers these downloads of his radio show, The Falling Room, every week, and I really enjoy them during long night walks. Sharing, and not just because I'm in this one (it was a surprise this morning):

The Falling Room – November 18, 2011

This week’s show starts with three world fusion pieces; Lumin’s work “Lumin” and two compositions from Irfan titled “Salome” and “Monsalvato”.

Next is a well known Canadian artist to The Falling Room, The Violence and the Sacred, with their 1987 highly experimental piece “The Rivers of my Viscous Sperm” from the Lost Horizons CD. Another Canadian artist follows, Reinhard Von Berg with “Cult Figure” which completes the first half hour of the program.

The next half hour of The Falling Room continues with poet/artist Brenda Clews, with “What is Underground Is What Holds Us” from her Starfire album and Tetrix with “Imagination”.

I end the show with two tracks from the Polish artist Sulatus, from his new Tip album I present “Poland’s Sky” and “Not Sure”.


You can download the November 18, 2011 TFR here.

Please feel free to share the program with other artists or interested listeners.

Thank you for listening.
Joe (aka Halder)
Host and Produce of the Canadian Experimental Music Radio Program - THE FALLING ROOM
Broadcast live on Fridays at 8PM and repeated Tuesdays at Midnight on 103.7FM CFBU Radio

Royalty free music for professional licensing

Joe has played a number of poems from my Starfire album, here is the one he played last Friday (in case you don't want to download the whole hour, I wasn't sure - this player is easy to embed).

                              

Draft of an article for 'Theoretical Mondays'

A draft for an upcoming article at VidPoFilm - Mondays are Video/Filmpoetry theory.

When a filmmaker approaches a poem or the work of a poet, how does he or she interpret the verbal images visually?

I raise this question because I think a literarian (poet trained in literature) who videos/films a poem will approach it differently to a filmmaker (lover of poetry trained in film).

A poet might envision the video/filmpoem as a writer creating a videopoem for an unknown audience - from the centre outwards, or from the words to an audio visual corollary; whereas, a filmmaker, familiar with traditional filmmaking techniques and a better grasp of audience, might approach from that position to the centre - the poem itself.

Let me illustrate with a found image on which I have mapped this process (click on image for a larger view):

In my viewing and making of video/filmpoems over the past few years, I have noted differences between poets with no or little film training who make video/filmpoems and filmmakers who approach a poem with considerable experience and background in the art of filmmaking.

Yet, despite the filmmaker seeming to have the advantage of knowledge and experience and a network of contacts in the film world, all video/filmpoems, by neophytes or professionals, seem to struggle to find a large audience. Video/filmpoetry is a fairly new genre and while there are many different styles one thing common almost across the board is the minuscule audience in comparison to, say, music videos or even trailers for full-length films.

When I see the viewcounts on the filmpoems we are looking at this week, I am saddened. John Scott is a strong filmmaker who has crafted superb filmpoems, and yet the view counts are in the hundreds rather than in the tens or hundreds of thousands as these films deserve.

Personally I think it is a matter of training the public to see and understand the art form of the video/filmpoem. Difficulties viewers have with video/filmpoems is an area of focus in VidPoFilm. John himself says, "I'm interested in expanding the audience for "poetry" to people who might not normally consider poems interesting because they seem old fashioned, dry and/or intellectual."

If we go by the general view counts on YouTube or Vimeo, likely an 'expanded audience' will occur only if the video/filmpoems are aired on national television and shown and analyzed in classrooms around the world. Perhaps John Scott is in a position to enable this to happen with his Elizabeth Bishop series.