NIk 2
Over the last two weeks, I read Jesus’ Son (Johnson 1992) and On Photography (Sontag 1977). I have also dug deeper into Diane Arbus, watched a documentary about Kurt Schwitter [1], the New York School[2], and watched a Stan Brakhage film[3].
This week I am looking into Joel Peter Witkin[4].
Feedback on my end of semester work (images and writing) from my friend and tutor Nik was invaluable. He suggests I consider speaking to the paradoxical dimension of my project aims – Performance/movement/event versus the stillness of photography – questioning how the latter presents or models the former? What can this seemingly contradictory aim help us understand about stillness and movement, photography and performance?
I don’t dare write about this in my journal as I believe there will be a price to pay. Particularly considering everything that happened between semester two in 2020 through to mid-first semester this year.
Don’t poke the dragon.
Footnotes
Schwitters, “Kurt Schwitters”, 2010.
Blackwood, “The New York School”, 2005.
Brakhage, “Mothlight”, 1963.
Bibliography
Blackwood, Michael. 2005. “The New York School”. Directed by Michael Blackwood. Michael Blackwood Productions, 2005. Video. https://rmit.kanopy.com/video/new-york-school.
Brakhage, Stan. 1963. “Mothlight”. Teddy LARUE. November 26, 2012. YouTube Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5P5vkegmvU.
Johnston, Denis. 1992. Jesus’ Son. Methuen Publishing, 2007.
Nerdwriter1. “How to design a comic book page”. Nerdwriter1. November 23, 2017. YouTube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dQEfL2BfUM.
Schwitters, Kurt. 2010. “Kurt Schwitters”. Directed by Kurt Schwitters. Arthaus Musik. Video. https://rmit.kanopy.com/video/kurt-schwitters-schwitters-scandal.
Sitney, P Adams, 2017. “Reintroducing Metaphors on Vision”. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4959-reintroducing-metaphors-on-vision.
Sontag, Susan. 1977. On Photography. Penguin Books, 2007.
Witkin, Joel Peter. 1999. The Bone House. Twin Palms Publishers.
Nik 1
Nik is fashion victim, intellectual snob, has his PhD in psychology (specialising in phenomenology) a dear friend, and my new tutor. I have asked Nik if he could help me in building academic confidence, he had kindly said yes.
We talk about books, theorists, film, photography and art in general. He gives me homework each week. The first week was to read two books and look up Stan Brakhage and Diane Arbus. The second week we discussed the books. This week we talked about Sontag, fashion and Joel Peter Witkin.
I sent Nik all the material for my folio presentation (including images, artist statement and introduction) as well as my critical review assignment.
His feedback is as follows.
Your work is brilliant.
For my part, what I’d like to see is you speaking to the paradoxical dimension of your aims. Performance/movement/event V the stillness of photography. How exactly does the latter question, present or model the former? What can this seemingly contradictory aim help us understand about stillness and movement, photography and performance?
Exceptional feedback! Thank you Nikolai!