These girls are too cool for words.
Will this movie be shown in Toronto at all? I hope it does, because I REALLY want to see it. Upon reading this article about the legendary Bill Cunningham on The New Yorker (published 2009), his great eye for what is beautiful, his humility and his passion for what he does really manifested. I find it really admirable that even if he’s clearly one of the most prominent and influential taste-makers in the industry, he still chooses to not be recognized as such. He even says to those people who start to take fashion too seriously that they are ”…falling into the traps of the rich.” He is at the centre of it all, and yet he deliberately chooses to be an outsider, unaffected by that part of the industry that is glamourous/extravagant, arrogant and materialistic.
He strikes me as that wise, knowledgeable man that sees fashion, not as a superficial organism in society, a luxury or a tool of power, fame or hierarchy, but as a reflection of our culture and of the values of our society at a given time. Armed with only a camera and a genuine passion and curiosity, he has in a way shaped the culture of New York, and maybe, in some way, of their country.
Watch the trailer here, and you’ll realize that we need more Bill Cunningham’s in this world.
Virginia Overton
Untitled (blonde)
2010
fluorescent light fixture & inkjet print on polyethylene
“…Overton has managed to render what is essentially a cold, institutional fixture into a sexually charged, highly oneiric, and hauntingly personal statement.”
Kasper Sonne
Double Logo (be/longing)
2009
Neon, acrylic, converters, electrical cords, motion sensor
18 x 118.5 x 7cm
“Most of us, as women, hope that we can achieve our freedom within the existing social set-up, thinking that, somewhere, there must be a happy medium for men and women to share freedom and responsibility. But if we just took the time to observe the very function of our society, the greed-power-frustration syndrome, we would soon see that there is no happy medium to be achieved. We can, of course, aim to play the same game that men have played for centuries, and inch by inch, take over all the best jobs and eventually conquer the whole world, leaving an extremely bitter male stud-cum-slave class moaning and groaning underneath us. This is alright for an afternoon dream, but in reality, it would obviously be a drag.”
Excerpt from Yoko Ono’s The Feminization of Society.
When I Put My Hands On Your Body (1990)
“When I put my hands on your body on your flesh I feel the history of that body. Not just the beginning of its forming in that distant lake but all the way beyond its ending. I feel the warmth and texture simultaneously I see the flesh unwrap from the layers of fat and disappear. I see the fat disappear from the muscle. I see the muscle disappearing from around the organs and detaching itself from the bones. I see the organs gradually fade into transparency leaving a gloaming skeleton gleaming like ivory that slowly revolves until it becomes dust. I am consumed in the sense of your weight the way your flesh occupies momentary space the fullness of it beneath my palms. I am amazed at how perfectly your body fits to the curves of my hands. If I could attach our blood vessels so we could become each other I would. If I could attach our blood vessels in order to anchor you to the earth to this present time to me I would. If I could open up your body and slip inside your skin and look out your eyes and forever have my lips fused with yours I would. It makes me weep to feel the history of your flesh beneath my hands in a time of so much loss. It makes me weep to feel the movement of your flesh beneath my palms as you twist and turn over to one side to create a series of gestures to reach up around my neck to draw me nearer. All these memories will be lost in time like tears in the rain.”
Text by David Wojnarowicz.
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SO BEAUTIFUL. If I could write like this, I would write all my life.
My heart goes out to you, David Wojnarowicz.
“Everybody can be an artist/musician/writer/filmmaker.” — Problem or advantage?
This is exactly the question that’s being asked in this documentary. In today’s culture, everybody can be anything they want to be/can do anything they want to do. Is this beneficial for/contributing progress to our cultural landscape, or is it paving the way towards mediocrity, which could (in my opinion), lead to the stagnation of meaningful art and cultural production? This is a very interesting, engaging and relevant debate.
More information about the documentary here: http://www.presspauseplay.com/
