November 2014

What's Going On

I am working towards a one person show at the Sonoma Community Center in April of 2015. I will be showing approximately 20 altered books, based on literature. I think I will call it Altered Lit. The following are some examples of what will be in the show. The first is a paper quilt from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. If you click on the thumbnails you can see the pieces enlarged. The second is a life size kimono, knit out of the audio tapes for the novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. Water-colored origami plum blossoms from the pages of the printed text of the book adorn the outside of the kimono. 

   

    What I Am Looking At

I have been renting alot of movies that I watch while I am exercising. Recently, I have been watching movies about photography. Here are some of my favorites:

"Everlasting Moments" is a foreign film set in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. A married woman wins a camera in a lottery. Her hard scrabble life is depicted, with many children and a Socialist husband who works on the docks. The taking of pictures becomes her creative outlet. Sensitively handled and a refreshing break from Hollywood-style movies.

"The Governess" with Minnie Driver and Tom Wilkinson is set in the 19th century. A young Jewish woman has lost her father and must seek work. She hires out as a governess to a well-to-do family in England, disguised as a gentile. She and the father of the house work on his hobbies and discover how to preserve photographs. A good "small" movie with a cameo by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

"Shooting the Past" Stephen Poliakoff wrote and directed this film for British TV. It concerns an American property developer who buys and wants to renovate a London building that contains a vast photographic library. He comes to realize what the collection means as he grapples with resistance on the part of the photography collection's staff to relinguish control to him. A 2-disk set, this is a must for anyone who appreciates the value of memory and visual records.

"Blow-Up", by Michelangelo Antonioni was a classic in my youth. A fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, photographs for his own use what he thinks is an empty park. As he develops the film, he becomes suspicious that something untoward has happened there. The Mod scene, rock and roll, drugs and sex are all part of the questioning of reality and illusion.

"Finding Vivian Maier" is a documentary produced by John Maloof and Charlie Sisken. John Maloff appears in the film and describes how he happened to buy an old box of photographs. Smitten with the work of Vivian Maier, he goes on to collect more of her work as she has recently died. It turns out she was a brilliant photographer who took her photos, slides and videos without showing them to anybody in her life. She worked as a nanny to several families who are interviewed in the film. A recluse, a hoarder, and a driven soul, a picture emerges of a personality and an artist, leading to the question of whether her post mortem fame is what she would have wanted.

Do you have any more favorites? Send me an email.

Emily