Awesome collage

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Colorful-illust/328392



and

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Illust-for-Illustration-Friday/327650

Real/Surreal - exhibit at Whitney Museum, NYC

I was there twice and am planning on going next week too. Surrealism is my favorite movement and i tease myself by thinking that my style of duddling is also somewhat surrealish. Anyways, there were mostly american surreal painters that I knew of almost nothing. Two or three familiar names and the rest came as revelation. My discovery number one was Brooklynite Henry Koerner and his two paintings Mirror of Life, 1946, and The Barber Shop, 1948.


to be continued when i get home...

Scene: Brooklyn at Crown Inn

Yesterday I went to film-makers' meetup orginized by Brooklyn Arts Council and Scene: Brooklyn. I had fun, drank hot toddy (I chose it because I felt a little sick), met lots of interesting people, fellow film-makers, and watched great movies. The ones I'd like to see at the festival on May 3-6, 2012 are:
License to Pimp by Hima B.
Laura by Fellipe Barbosa
Bon Appétit, New York by Lahoe Ku
Walk with Me by Tanisha Christie
The Problem of Gravity by Trevor Zhou

This is a wonderful short by Katie Dillon:
How To Ride A Train

How To Ride A Train from Beautiful Lady Productions, Inc on Vimeo.

I liked everything about this video - the costumes, actors, music, setup, dialogues and the idea. The best.

Rest in peace, George Kuchar

Rest in peace, George Kuchar

My new finds on FB

Film Study Center at Harvard University
and here
Film Study Center at Harvard University
MIT List Visual Arts Center
UNDER THE INFLUENCE: A film series
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Edinburgh International Film Festival
Walker Art Center
Institute of Contemporary Art
Ars Nova Workshop
The Secret Cinema
Balagan Film Series
George and Mike Kuchar Appreciation Page
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA)
San Francisco Cinematheque
National Film Preservation Foundation
ArtsEmerson
HFA Collections

Madame Blavatsky

Last few days I was digging into the articles by and about M-me Blavatsky and her occultist theories. It was a quite interesting reading. I would like to make a video inspired by her ideas. May be same black and white images I used for the "Firefly" video, but instead of H. Murakami's quotes I can use some of the occultist stuff.

This is just one quote from Roerich's letter to Russian Soviet government from the time of Roerich's venture to Tibet: “Европа будет потрясена союзом буддизма с ленинизмом” ( = Europe will be shaken by the unity of Buddhism and Leninism) or "Майтрейя является символом коммунизма" ( = Maytreya represents a symbol of communism).

How weird to read it in 2012! Surprisingly, my friend said that indeed the Soviet ideology is much closer to Buddhism than it is normally admitted. Although in his letter, Roerich elaborates on this, later, as we know, he drifted away from the Soviets and worked with America instead. I guess, capitalist America happened to be even closer to what the Buddha Almighty taught.

P.S. However... Occupy Wall Street, American Communism and Democracy will do :-) The Mahatmas' ambiguous message will adjust reality to itself.

Антон Иванович Первушин. Оккультные войны НКВД и СС

Битва за Шамбалу. НКВД против Аненербе.

Awesome videos on vimeo

Vimeo has lots of cool stuff, here is a bit of it:

Truth or Rainbows

Truth or Rainbows from Chihwen Lo Rob on Vimeo.

An Unquiet Mind

An Unquiet Mind from Chihwen Lo Rob on Vimeo.

Brooklyn/New York film fests

http://literatifilmfestival.com/

Independent Film and Media Arts film fest

Film makers meetup with Scene: Brooklyn, BAC

Для моей дорогой учительницы О. Д. Пискаревой

Дорогая Ольга Дмитриевна!
Вчера начала читать Блаватскую "Диалог о Таинствах Жизни после Смерти". Это перевод с английского, выпущено в издательстве Blue Lotus Press, 1994. Мой друг Дима подарил мне ее на свой день рождения (!).
Книга интересная, думаю, это первая полная книга Б., которую я прочитаю до конца. Она и короткая: 40 стр. До этого еще посмотрела видео про оккультизм в Нью-Йорке, так что решила не сопротивлятся, а смело идти вперед.

Нашла много интересного, одно из:
"...периодические воплощения Сутратмы сравниваются где-то в Упанишадах с жизнью смертного, который раскачивается через определенные фазы времени между сном и бдением." Картинка моя, конечно, никуда не годится, нарисовала, а потом только поняла, что не совсем то. Но она мне все равно нравится, поэтому место ей здесь. Если буду развивать эту тему, добавлю новые более соответствующие цитате.



А вот и видео, на английском:

Me on Behance.net

http://www.behance.net/yalova
Been actively digging into new technique - mixed media on paper. For me, it is watercolor + ink + collage from my own watercolors that look nicer as collages than on their own :-)
I was a witness of how a crappy painting can be transformed into an awesome collage just by cutting and crumbling it. "It" was a page from an old german book that i found on a sidewalk, almost in the garbage. On that page i did an ink and watercolor sketch of an organic flowerlike duddles. And here it is

and more:

Sedmikrásky/Daisies (1966) by Věra Chytilová

George Kuchar & more

The Craven Sluck


The Cage of Nicholas


Very Nice, Very Nice


Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (1967) BY George Kuchar


Aleph BY Wallace Berman | 1958-1976


Pagan Rhapsody


SIMPLY CHECK THIS GREAT CHANNEL
http://www.youtube.com/user/mouffettefatale?feature=watch

Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941

Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941

German Expressionism

Nagual Art and German Expressionism

Nagual Art - images from "Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey" (1932) by Carl Theodor Dreyer



NB. What can be better than German Expressionism!!! The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films) (c) wikipedia

Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932) Carl Theodor Dreyer
Lot in Sodom (1933) by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber
Häxan. Witchcraft Through the Ages by Benjamin Christensen
Nosferatu by Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene
Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang
The Golem (1920) by Carl Boese, Paul Wegener
The Golem/The Monster of Fate (1915) by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen
Tomatos Another Day (1930) by James Sibley Watson
The Fall of the House of Usher (I) (1928) by James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber
The Fall of the House of Usher/La Chute de la maison Usher (1928) by Jean Epstein



Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941

German Expressionism

HIDDEN: On pipes, ghosts and scary branches

Spent whole day in the lab and made a rough cut. Hoorey!



For this video I cllected some of my unused footage. The videos were -
- grass and a fallen tree at Floyd Bennett Field;
- video of New York shot during the production of a russian film "Brigada 2" where I worked as a PA. We were on the 42 floor of Trump Soho Hotel;
- the pipes are from the basement of MoMA PS 1. I went there for Kuchar's exhibit;
- Me at FBF. I just love this place;
- My bf in Marin Park;
- slow motion'ed video of Abba 'Money Money' - also check here - it sounds really hellish. Actually any song in slo mo will sound spooky. I can do a wonderful sound design: slo mo plus sound effects like bells, ambience, rhythms, beats, etc.

Occult New York

The Midnight Archive - Occult NYC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2azUzZOM78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7IQGCS3GkA

The Midnight Archive


Gargoyles of New York
http://www.aardvarkelectric.com/gargoyle/walks.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/garg1.html
http://www.gargoylesofnewyork.com/
http://www.newyorkcarver.com/photogal2.htm
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23079
http://www.artsandmusicpa.com/travelpanyc/gargoyles2.htm
http://cityrag.com/2005/04/gargoyles/
Urban Sculptures
http://www.rion.nu/v5/archive/000328.php

Names I want to remember 2

Frans Zwartjes
Otto Muehl
Yoko Ono
Jean Genet
Marina Abramović
Pipilotti Rist
Kihachiro Kawamoto
Dimitri Kirsanoff
Bill Viola

Names I want to remember 1

The Midnight Archive - Occult NYC Part 2


List of very interesting artists from Occult Lunation website:
http://observatoryroom.org/2011/12/19/lunation/
http://noahdoely.com/
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/
http://monpetitfantome.blogspot.com/
http://myloveforyou.typepad.com/my_love_for_you/
http://myloveforyou.typepad.com/my_love_for_you/2011/04/boom-internet-boom-the-real-hennessy.html

and more
Hungry Ghosts - I Don't Think About You Anymore But, I Don't Think About You Anyless
Momentum - Loving You So Much
oOoOO - Burnout Eyess
Modern Witch - Size Me
✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝ - ___F△i†H__

Salem, Sodom and Gomorrah

What an awesome video


- looks like found footage, some scenes are borrowed from Hexen, theater/performace, and cool sound design. Nobody dies, but fingers are about to be chopped off, heads shot, and witches burned. Nice collage -


Lot in Sodom (1933, James Sibley Watson)
'Lot in Sodom (1933) is a short silent experimental film, based on the Biblical tale of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was directed by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber. The movie uses experimental techniques, Avant-Garde imagery and strong allusions to sexuality, especially homosexuality.

Directors: James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber
Stars: Friedrich Haak, Hildegarde Watson and Dorthea House'


Bedlam (1946)


Tomato Is Another Day (1930-1933)


Visual Training by Frans Zwartjes [1969]

P.S. "Just discovered Zwartjes... Incredible. I'm speechless." by fs1405

"Sound" (1966-67)

George Kuchar

When I first heard about Kuchar and saw his films, I had a flash back like the one I had with Eiko and Koma. I know that it is less likely I could saw them before here in New York during my 10-year stay. However, seeing them reminded me of some close, familiar, forgotten and rediscovered relationship.

I read about Kuchar’s exhibit at MoMA PS1 in January of 2012, “recognized” him, and rushed to the museum. I had to come to PS1 tree or four times to see as many of his films as I could. I loved Cult of Cubicles from 1987 ( I was 10 years old and lived in Ukraine :-)). Kuchar visits his old friends who live in different parts of NY: Queens, Hell’s Kitchen, LES, UES, and his mother in the Bronx. They are artists, actors, painters. I’ve got to see NYC in 80’s, follow Kuchar in their homes, and laugh at his last visit to a female friend who is about to have sex with her bf with Kuchar naively interrupting the process.




My next favorites were:

Season of Sorrow (1996) - Kuchar's kitty died. Rain and wind outside.

500 Millibars to Ecstasy (1989) – I enjoyed Kuchar’s invention (?) when half of the image is being streamed from the tape and half – form the TV monitor. Scene stays the same, but texture and quality of the images changes. Experimenting with VHS players, TV monitors, multiple video channels, distorting image with the help of magnets and other devices marked the video art era.


Metropolitan Monologues (2000) – consisted of sketches of the city, the images of Kuchar at home, people on the streets, conversations with friends, nature and weather.


I, of the Cyclops (2006) – is a series of conversations with Kuchar’s famous friends like Robert Breer and John Waters.




Ancestral Antics (2007)

Hush, Hush, Sweet Harlot (1999)


Club Vatican (1984)

Lingo of the Lost (2010)

The Fall of the House ()

The Smutty Professor (2003) – Kuchar with his students gets ready for an alien-invasion-great-war shoot, they are having so much fun: I am really sorry I did not get a chance to be his student! “Invasion of the saucer men”

We, the Normal (1975) – Kuchar’s getting together with his friends and visits Lorna’s new house. Memorable quote: “Blondes always have more fun. You have to use lots of peroxide to put some color in your life” and “Run for Life” – said to a squirrel –cut – jogging man.

The Creeping Crimson (1987) Kuchar visits his mother in a hospital, films red colored trees: “Look what’ve fallen from the tree…” – Kuchar brushes through red rusty leaves, pages from a porno magazine with a woman’s face next to a fallus, and a condom. I also liked his remark about “paranoid fat people locked inside”.

Snap ‘n’ Snatch (1990) – cuts of girls taking pictures of other people montaged to an upbeat music.

Video Album 5: The Thursday People (1987) – did not watch this one because the player got broken.

Hold Me While I’m Nude and I, an Actress both are available online, I watched them many many times and will watch many times more.


Queen Congo (2006) – did not finish, ummm…

Calling Dr. Petrov (1986) – memorable quote: “She strips and she acts in dirty films but her heart is pure.” – about character’s mother who is about to die and go to hell (?).

Insanitorium (1987) – beautiful woman is in love with King Kong. Theater of Absurd.

Orphans of the Cosmos (2008) – could not watch, boring, poor actors.

I Married a Heathen (1970!) – Kuchar was 28 y.o. What a wonderful film! It shows relationship of a few couples, where beautiful and stylish dressed up women are dissatisfied with their sluggish dirty stinky farting husbands and are about to break up. “A desperate woman is capable of everything, even adultery with a blind man!.. May I kiss you?” – “Yes!”

A Reason to Live () – black and white, gorgeous ladies, everybody dies at the end. Woman in the opening scene looks out in the window and in a pathetic voise says: "i'm going to give my praises to the lord of the sun who shines its light obto my beloved!" The 'beloved' brutally betrays her immediately after the prayer.

Same woman-man relationship as in 'I married...' She's gorgeous, dressed up in a night party dress, he's in a dirty t-shirt, sluggish, unappreciative. They are clearly from different epochs and walks of live.

Pagan Rhapsodies () love somewhere on Hawaii.

Ascend of the Demonoids () – members of a local UFO club talk about flying saucers.

Performances that caught my eye #1

PROM NIGHT


GRAVITY // UN RÊVE DE DEMAIN


Method Actor


Locomotive - Place des Arts - Espace culturel - Teaser


The Hidden: A Short Film By Jonas Åkerlund

Marlis Momber's Exhibit

The Road Taken

I found my first documentary video - 'The Road Taken' (2006) about Doctors Without Borders - and decided to post it here, so I do not have to search for it next time.


This was one of my assignments at Hunter College, CUNY, in the fall semester of 2006. We teamed up with Carlos Chavez and Cecilia Li Wong. We went to Central Park, where MSF had an exhibit/refugee camp for a few months. We shot the refugee camp with tents, medical supplies, and hundreds of visitors and interviewed some people at the camp (unfortunately not all of the footage was included in the final version). Li Wong went to the main MSF office and arranged for us to have an interview with Mary Ann Hopkins, the surgeon, and Brett Davis, logistician. The interviews went more or less smoothly, taking in account it was our first time ever interview. Besides, it was our real chance to learn to use the camera and microphones. It took me two semesters to edit and re-edit the footage and below are the two versions.


I’m proud of this short documentary. It was a great experience. Now, 6 years later, I realize that I have not done anything else as meaningful and rewarding as this documentary.


Also, when this video was on video.google.com, it got onto the Google Picks list along with self tying shoe laces and sweet kittens and was getting thousands clicks. Since video.google is no more, I had to transfer vids to youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPacOmws5Lk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imrG0fe7RxU




The Road Taken, 2007 (final version) (TRT 8:26)






The Road Taken, 2006 (first version)(TRT 12:38)