not shaking the grass

Federico Proietti

Thu, 23 May 2013 02:34:55 -0400

"The need to go astray, to be destroyed, is an extremely private, distant, passionate, turbulent..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:38:45 -0400

“The need to go astray, to be destroyed, is an extremely private, distant, passionate, turbulent truth.”

- Georges Bataille

Hello, Alec. I don't know if you tire of telling people, or you are tired of people asking, or find it a bit forthright, but, I was just wondering... What's your story?

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:24:00 -0400

I’m 29. I studied music in school. I’m a college dropout. I’ve been contending with an autoimmune disease (systemic lupus erythematosus) since I was a small child. The disease and my long and complicated intimacy with it are an inextricable part of who I am, for better and for worse, and of how I view and relate to the world and others.

I’ve been in the wild for the past month or so, holding and sometimes losing my ground mid-course of a hard treatment for a hard recent diagnosis.

Tumblr and blogging are a means for me to remember and expand my sense of beauty and gratitude with my awe of art and literature, artists and authors, and also for some connection and community in sharing it.

I plan on eating large portions of cake on my 50^th birthday in 2033.

Igor Stravinsky - Elegy for Solo Viola - Miles Hoffman

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:32:09 -0400

Igor Stravinsky - Elegy for Solo Viola - Miles Hoffman

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:11:33 -0400

Laura Letinsky “Much of Letinsky’s work alludes to...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:36:33 -0400

Laura Letinsky

“Much of Letinsky’s work alludes to human presence, without including any actual figures. For example, in the Morning and Melancholia (c. 1997-2001), and the I Did Not Remember I Had Forgotten (c. 2002-2004) series, Letinsky seems to document the aftermath of a sumptuous gathering or dinner party. Faded flower petals intermingle with empty glasses and crumbs of food on partially cleared tables, often covered with a white linen that bears the mark of spilled wine.

As alluded in the title Morning and Melancholia these scenes are often filled with a fresh, clear light, as though one is viewing from the perspective of the morning after, what the host failed to clean up the evening before. However, the title of the series itself is a reference to an essay by Freud, Mourning and Melancholia, which discusses the human response to loss.

The title I Did Not Remember I Had Forgotten also has a literary source; it refers to a line by St. Augustine, commenting on memory, ‘One would never say I did not remember I had forgotten.’ Letinsky responded:

‘I was thinking, No, that’s not right! Actually, I felt I had just come to this moment where I did not remember that I had forgotten, and it had to do with music. I’d gone for three years without listening to music. I would drive in the car and I would want silence, or I would listen to talk shows. Then for some reason I began listening to the radio, and some of the CDs I had around, and it was almost like drinking water after being really thirsty. I took such pleasure in it. Somehow, I did not remember that I’d forgotten to turn on the music.’”

atavus: Amie Dicke - The Ring and the Finger, 2012

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:59:39 -0400

atavus:

Amie Dicke - The Ring and the Finger, 2012

Hellen van Meene

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:36 -0400

Hellen van Meene

Emily Keegin

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:59:38 -0400

Emily Keegin

Christian Boltanski - Kaddish (published in 1998) - Objects...

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:59:34 -0400

Christian Boltanski - Kaddish (published in 1998) - Objects confiscated by Nazis, some found in sewers, deposited in the Central Jewish Museum, Prague

“The banal tenor and specificity of context in Boltanski’s still-lifes introduce an interesting dialogue as the tonality and depth, or lack thereof, in his photographs render what are reasonably delicate subjects, into mute and objectified echos from a nonspecific time or place. Boltanski’s infatuation with confiscated war relics, (post-) belongings and objet trouvé presented throughout his tetrad make reference to the anonymity and translucence of memory, the interstitial space between sentimentality and indifference, and ultimately focus on transience, singularity and, often forced, despondency.

Having absented himself from formal education in his preteens, Boltanski moved from rudimentary sculpture, drawing and painting to installations of pensive and introspective sculptural, filmic, and photographic works, questioning his own substance and significance in relation to memory, lineage and cultural praxis.

When Boltanski’s work seems to display a profound melancholy or contemplation on histories past, it is the artist who abruptly categorizes his works as quotidian debris, coincidence or ‘stupid’ objects – stating that that it is ‘simply much easier to be dead, than to be alive.’”