Saturday, March 31, 2012


Friedlob and Lang's Tabloid Thrillers --- Part Two

While The City Sleeps got no chance to build momentum, let alone gain sleeper status, which under better distribution circumstance, might have come. Key openings were spread way apart --- New York in May (1956), Los Angeles in August, and finally Chicago in September. RKO saturated mass circulation magazines from May 24 in LIFE to July 8 in Movie Time, but what good were full-page ads with playdates so delayed as Los Angeles and Chicago? Was there showman resistance to booking While The City Sleeps? Here may have been another of those shows to suffer for theatres no longer being affiliated with production/distribution, as picking and choosing exhibs weren't rushing to play While The City Sleeps.


Gotham's two-week stand followed seven weeks of The Conqueror at the Criterion, receipts for While The City Sleeps called "fair" by Variety. At $16,000 for its opening frame, Friedlob and Lang's thriller at least beat up-the-street The Killing's initial week by $4,000, which illustrates how pics we now celebrate barely eked out house nuts on first-run, even in largest bergs where you'd figure savvy viewers were aplenty to support them. Pittsburgh's Stanley Theatre also had While The City Sleeps in May among a "string of clucks," that jinx broken by arrival of The Man Who Knew Too Much and $18,000 for its first week. Just preceding While The City Sleeps took a measly $8,000, especially punk for a 3,800 seat venue, and was gratefully swept out with "recent duds" to make way for Hitchcock's Paramount hit.


LA saw "dull" receipts for While The City Sleeps upon August arrival and two weeks play with RKO-reissued Flying Leathernecks. Whatever interest magazine ads generated may well have dissipated by this late booking. Certainly that was true of Chicago and September's late arrival of While The City Sleeps. In fact, it played as a second feature to Republic's Lisbon, starring Ray Milland, the tandem earning a "fair" $26,000 at the massive Chicago Theatre (3,900 seats). Beyond A Reasonable Doubt had by this time opened in New York at Loew's State, where it performed "below hopes" with $13,500 on a first week. A second would be cut short to bring in MGM's The Power and The Prize. Reasonable Doubt was sold as a thriller with a "trick" ending. Maybe it wasn't tricky enough. Reviews would not be so generous as for While The City Sleeps. LA saw Reasonable Doubt with another RKO retread, The Big Sky, two weeks again the limit with lackluster turnout.


Maybe the trouble for both While The City Sleeps and Beyond A Reasonable Doubt was a distributor on last legs and patronage done with commonplace product. Movies by 1956 had to be special to pull customers away from television. Youth might support hot rod and monster fests, but adults, to whom Friedlob and Lang aspired, wouldn't pay babysitting and car park fees to watch stuff barely distinguishable from freebies at home. While The City Sleeps had a good concept, maybe even ahead of its time, but all the cast, save Dana Andrews, had done TV --- Ida Lupino was more associated with that medium than with movies by Spring '56 when Sleeps sought admissions to watch her emote. Failure to sync up expensive national advertising with key playdates for the film were ruinous as well, but this was symptomatic of an industry having lost that essential wheel of theatres owned by and standing ready to play off merchandise when and where distribs dictated. A show like While The City Sleeps had to do without smooth machinery that would have pushed it through ten years earlier, but was too broken down now to be of much help.


A Limping RKO Tenders It's Product for 1956's Autumn Season


RKO Hoped The Stripper Lure Would Cinch
Patrons for Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
 Sex, or the promise of it, even if an empty one, was still a bedrock to selling. Both Sleeps and Doubt had hooks exploitable --- the former and lipstick killings, the latter with strip-tease backdrop to much of its narrative. Knowing patrons saw ads for the tease they were. Whatever impurities were promised, there was still a Production Code to scrub clean releases via US companies. This was how foreign pix, not subject to the Code, made inroads after the war. Beyond A Reasonable Doubt based much of a campaign on its "Hush-Hush" ending, a device used before (1950's In A Lonely Place had been billed as The Bogart Suspense Picture With The Surprise Finish). Risk for Reasonable Doubt was letting down patrons with a fade they did see coming. As it seems not to have taken off ticket-wise, we can assume the ending didn't surprise, or that customers couldn't be bothered one way or the other.


Beyond A Reasonable Doubt Goes New York's
Second-Run Saturation Route as a Support Feature
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt posits Dana Andrews as a man who frames himself for an unsolved murder in order to show how anyone can be sentenced wrongly to death, therefore making the case against capital punishment. There was reluctance to go the distance, however, with regard politics such a theme invited. The film's writer, Douglas Morrow, gave assurance that Doubt's story "does not take sides." His twist ending neatly got 'round thornier issues by putting Doubt square in melodrama/exploitation's column. While The City Sleeps and Beyond A Reasonable Doubt were for years available only in full-frame edition. Warner Archives now offers both in wide screen, in Sleeps' case, a little  too wide, as SuperScope's 2.1 ratio tightens the (likely) designed for 1.85 frame too snugly. Doubt's a more comfortable fit, being spared SuperScope retro-fit, and neatly cut to 1.85 measurement. Wider presentation enables the two to entertain better than was the case over a past fifty-five years. With interest in Fritz Lang on continual rise, these should be welcome arrivals on DVD.
 

Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival - It's Spring Nature Study Time

OHC Blog Carnival
This is the March Newsletter edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival and it is packed with lots of early spring nature study goodness! As the weather warms and we return to our regular outdoor time, I am inspired by all of the families who participate and share their family nature study. What a wonderful community of people from all around the world!

As a special treat I would like to showcase Tricia's entry here at the beginning of the carnival. She and her family have put together an inspiring post: The Gift of Nature Study.  Their words and images truly show the power of everyday, over the long term benefits of nature study with the whole family involved. Thanks Tricia for sharing this glimpse into your family with readers of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
Pansy collage
Hodgepodge Family Pansy Study

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
Old English Proverb


Moon Names
Jen is joining the carnival with two entries done with her little ones: Nature Study- A Robin and Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow. Jen shows us how to gently get started with nature study as your children begin to show an interest. It is always nice to see new faces in the carnival. :)

compass study petra school
Compass Outdoor Hour Challenge - Petra School
Magnets/Compass
Angie from Petra School has written up the account of their Magnet/Compass Study...complete with friends along. I love to see how they make the learning meaningful and fun at the same time. Wish I could have been there! (Image included above.)

More magnet work was done by Zonnah (Zonnah's Addictions) and her son. You can read and see their video: Magnets. Love the concentration her little guy is showing as he thinks about the properties of magnetism.

Cristy shares on her blog Crafty Cristy the account of their month long Outdoor Hour Challenge-Moon Study. She and her young children made many observations of their night sky and made some wonderful connections and memories. Excellent!

crocus nature journal2 Under an English Skycrocus nature journal Under an English Sky
Spring Nature Journals - Under an English Sky

Spring Flowers and Pansy Study
Shirley Anne from Under an English Sky shares their Early Spring Flower entry featuring their crocus and nature journals. Beautiful! (You can see their journal pages above.)

Catherine from Grace to Abide (another UK Outdoor Hour Challenge participant) has written and contributed a two most colorful entries: Beginning Our Focus on Garden Flowers and Flower Parts.  What a beautiful display of flowers and she outlines their up-coming garden plans as part of their nature study. 

Angie from Petra School submits their Pansies in the Storm entry with carnival readers.This entry shows the many layers of nature study possible with families who have different ages of children. Excellent job on persevering until they saw the "face" in the pansy bloom.

Dorina from Out Side Blue writes about their Planting Pansies and Painting Crocuses for this edition of the carnival. She and her daughters enjoyed an almost-spring day of nature study in their New York City home. Beautiful!

Desiree from Our Homeschool Notebook put together their Nature Study: Pansies entry for us all to enjoy. This was a rich study starting with a neighborhood walk, studying pansies they purchased at the garden center, a close-up study of the pansy face, and then a nature journal. The images in this entry tell the story.

Jen from Snowfall Academy shares their pansy study from their French city apartment: How We Do Nature Study.  What a delight to see their journal, poem, and early spring flowers. Thanks for joining the carnival!

Amy from Hope is the Word shares their Spring Flower Study and Art. What a wonderfully full study they had and I think their artwork is lovely. Thank you so much for sharing your pansy study.

Barbara from Schoolhouse on the Prairie wants to share their Dancing in the Daffodils post with carnival readers. They made an enjoyable study of daffodils as an alternative to the pansy study. Excellent choice!
Anole in the Shoe
Anole in My Shoe - HodgePodge

Spring Splendor Walk
Tricia from Hodgepodge has put together a visual entry you are going to enjoy! Noticing Spring is a collection of their early spring images. (Image of the anole in the shoe is from their entry!)

Shirley Anne from Under An English Sky has shared their early spring walk: Spring Splendor. I love the way she started off with a plan but then followed her daughters' interests...frogs!

Spring Snake in the Woods
Spring in the Woods - Snake! Across the Page

Janet write about their Spring Woods on her blog Across the Page. Do not miss their beautiful images and all the interesting things they discovered on this early spring day. Amazing!

Desiree from Singing in the Rain shares their early Spring Splendor walk. They saw a snake too! You can view their wonderful spring images in this entry as well. Thanks for the glimpse into your neighborhood spring.

Dorina from Out Side Blue has shared their blustery Spring Splendor Walk.  What beautiful blossoms!

Potpourri

Jennifer from The Mason Family has submitted their Outdoor Hour Challenge #2 for carnival readers. She has declared, "We would enjoy nature and not hurry.  We would explore what interested us." Amen to that. Jennifer also shares their Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 with the carnival this time. They are really enjoying their spring time weather.  Thanks for sharing Jennifer.

Barb (Our Oklahoma Day) shares their Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 which includes a look into how they are beginning their nature journals with little ones. It is a joy to me to read how families are still joining the Outdoor Hour Challenge and gaining the confidence to make nature study a regular activity. Pure joy.

Makita from Academia Celestia writes about their Quartz - Nature Study for this edition of the carnival. They did some extra research to answer a question and followed up with some nature journal entries. (I agree...rocks are hard to draw!) Their family also did a follow-up study on a gall they had seen during a trip. You will be interested to see findings: Lime Nail Galls Nature Study.

Kris from On the 8th Day shares their Twiggy Update with carnival readers. She has learned to expect the unexpected.

Lacey from So Every Day has contributed the lovely account of the Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 - Picnic. She shares how they even included a little poetry writing as part of their nature journals this time. Inspiring.

Janet from Across the Page has submitted their Red-Tail Observation entry for the carnival. Their family has decided to build on the interest shown after watching the live webcam of a red-tail nesting at Cornell University. Wonderful entry showing their journals too!

Leslie from Two Cowgirls writes about their gorgeous spring day Tree Study. They took a walk as a family down by a creek and took time to gather some twigs and do some sketching.

Kristin from Broom and Crown shares their exciting Butterfly Watching entry.  



More Nature Study Book 3 Button
Don't forget to share your Spring Splendor blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in April are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 4/29/12 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.

Gossip

Guess whose zooming down for a cut, cuppa and chat.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Tate Britain Commission 2012: Patrick Keiller | Tate Britain | London





















Text by Emily Sack

It may seem that a fictional institution created to further the research of a fictional scholar and his fictional endeavours would be too abstract and absurd to have any real artistic clout, but Patrick Keiller’s most recent project brings the imaginary to life in a very real and concrete way. Robinson, the enigmatic scholar, seeks to explain the current economic and social condition based on historical events and their remnant markings on the landscape.

The exhibition in the beautiful and spacious Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain resembles a cabinet of curiousities filled with works from the Tate collection as well as other artifacts and objects spanning diverse concentrations from art to geology in equally diverse media. Patrick Keiller undertook the monumental task of browsing the Tate collection for works to include in The Robinson Institute. These works represent historical prints, drawings, and paintings from JMW Turner and James Ward grouped seamlessly with some of the biggest names in 20th-century art including Joseph Beuys, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Andreas Gursky. The incongruousness of time, media, and styles represented highlight Robinson’s thesis: that events and sentiments in history reoccur throughout time and this results in the present status quo. To Robinson nothing is random; even the falling of a meteor relates to contemporaneous events.

The exhibition begins with a diagram of Robinson’s journey through the English landscape, and this route determines the arrangement and chronology of the exhibition. Visitors are confronted with depictions of travelers and wanderers, as though to legitimise Robinson’s method of research. Robinson relies of textual sources, of course, as any good scholar would (and a number of these are on display), but it is important to note that the most poignant of discoveries are made outside the library, in the environment being studied.

The journey sets about the chart the development of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism. This begins, in Robinson’s research, with the 1795 Settlement Act that allows rural works to migrate more easily to cities and industrial centres in search for work and a better life. The actual act in scrolling 18th century penmanship has been lent by the Parliamentary Archives and is displayed alongside a larger-than-average meteorite that fell in the same year. The juxtaposition of a large piece of rock from space with the seemingly closer migration of man bridges the phenomenological with the concrete.

Circling around the galleries, the visitor is soon confronted with images of nuclear anxiety. The jump from 1795 to mid-20th century and present day is a bit drastic, but it emphasises a cause and effect relationship. Scientific development has provided civilization with countless advantages over the preceding generations and a greater understanding of the world, but it has also caused terrible destruction and augmented existing conflicts. Science and industry, since the beginning have inspired both awe and fear, but the development of nuclear warfare, postulates Robinson, has encouraged a more pessimistic worldview. 

The octagon space of the Duveen Galleries is used to screen an hour of re-edited footage accumulated by Keiller for the 2010 film Robinson in Ruins. The scenes included allow visitors to see the world from Robinson’s point of view, almost as a bird-watcher – patiently observing the landscape and hoping for a revelation. The footage focuses on the natural landscape and highlights Robinson’s belief that history has left physical and tangible markings that help present-day scholars interpret the past. An exhibition text notes that “Robinson inclined to ‘biophilia’, the love of life and living systems, having learnt that symbiotic relationships between organisms are a primary force in evolution.” The faceless scholar sees mankind and its relationship to with time as a "living system" that requires the past to create the future.

The Robinson Institute is certainly interesting as an exhibition and creates a genre of its own. While several of the photographs in the exhibition, as well as the film footage, are shot by Patrick Keiller himself, the majority of the exhibition includes work by other artists, and objects that are not art at all. It becomes apparent that in this case the exhibition becomes single work of art; that all the varied parts create one whole, and this blurs the boundary between artist and curator to an extent.

Simultaneously educational and whimsical, thought provoking and humourous, Patrick Keiller takes visitors on a journey throughout the country and throughout time. Robinson believed that “if he looked at the landscape hard enough, it would reveal to him the ‘molecular basis’ of historical events,” and perhaps if more people took the time to study in this way, there would be a greater understanding of the present world.

Tate Britain Commission 2012: Patrick Keiller, 27/03/2012 - 14/10/2012, Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG. www.tate.org.uk/britain

Aesthetica in Print
If you only read Aesthetica online, you are missing out. The April/May issue of Aesthetica is out now and includes a diverse range of features from Bauhaus: Art as Life, a comprehensive survey of one of the most influential schools of thought from the 20th century, Growing Up: The Young British Artists at 50, which centres on Jeremy Cooper's examination of the illustrious career, and the phenomenon that was the YBAs and Behind Closed Doors, an intimate portrait of family life in Cuba from photographer David Creedon.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can find your nearest stockist here. Better yet, subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine. To subscribe visit the website or call us on +44 (0) 1904 629 137.

Caption:
Patrick Keiller
Robinson in Ruins (2010)
Film Still
© Patrick Keiller

More Nature Study Book 3 -Spring Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms

maple bud  
More Nature Study Book #3
Spring Tree Study - Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms

This challenge is aimed at getting you outdoors and looking at trees early in the spring. What should you be looking for? Try looking for buds, catkins, or blossoms. The challenge is not specifically about willow trees but the willow is covered in-depth in the Handbook of Nature Study and contains information you can apply to other trees. Since everyone has varying conditions, adapt this study to your local trees and their current stage of growth.

In the winter we looked at twigs. If you have a twig you have been watching, make sure to wrap up your study this week with a journal entry and final drawing.

Inside Preparation Work:
  • Read pages 651-654 of the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 179 on the Willow) and pages 648-650 (Lesson 178 on the Horse Chestnut). Read for information about the twigs, buds, and pussies. 
  • View this page on catkins and note what to look for during your outdoor time. Explain that the "tassels" of the oak and "pussies" of the pussy willow are really flowers. Catkins appear before the leaves. There can be male and female catkins. Ebook users: Use the illustrations in the ebook to learn about the different ways buds can look and be arranged on the twig.
  • Interest arousing YouTube videos: Horse-Chestnut Bud and Birch Buds. Fascinating.
Outdoor Hour Time:
  • Go outside and look at the buds, catkins, or blossoms on trees in your yard or neighborhood. Ebook Users: See chart in the ebook for blooming times for common trees. 
  •  Gather some twigs with buds, catkins, and/or blossoms to bring inside for observation. Place each twig in a jar with water and label with the tree name if possible. Note: Catkins and blossoms contain pollen. 
  • Advanced Study: Watercolor a spring blossom if you have one to observe in person.
Follow-Up Activity:
  • Use your senses to observe your buds, catkins, and/or blossoms. (touch, sight, smell). Make a record in your nature journal including a sketch. Make sure to record the length of your bud and as many details as possible including color. Ebook Users: Optional coloring pages: Horse Chestnut and Pussy Willow. 
  • Watch your buds over time and see what happens. Record how long it takes for the buds to open. Place a piece of white paper under the jars with catkins and observe what happens over the next few days. Record your observations in your nature journal or on a notebook page. 
  • Examine your bud to determine what type it is using a hand lens.
Advanced study:
  • Extend your study to include information about the tree your bud came from using a field guide or the internet.
  •  If you haven’t dissected a bud yet, use a bud you collected as part of this challenge. Each bud is different so take your time to remove the scales and layers as you go. View this image to see how you can record your work in your nature journal.
  • Sketch your catkin and research how the catkin functions as part of tree reproduction. Use this link to learn more about classifying buds: Buds. This one is an excellent visual guide: okPlantid. 
  • You may be interested in previous spring tree studies: Year-Long Tree and Spring Tree.

Elizabeth shared this link with me and it is a perfect citizen science project to go along with this challenge. Project Budburst. Free printable journal pages you could use with this challenge too!

You can read about our Spring Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms study:
Buds and Catkins - Our Spring Nature Study


More Nature Study Book 3 Button
Don't forget to share your Spring Splendor Walk blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.You can submit entries directly to me if needed: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com







View this video on YouTube which shows birds feeding on willows.


You may also be interested in looking for a few additional books to supplement your spring bud study. Here are a few that I recommend.

 

Thalidomide 50 Years On

The archive of the Thalidomide Society (SA/TSY) and the papers of Professor Richard Smithells (PP/SML) have been catalogued and are now available to researchers at the Wellcome Library. Thalidomide was developed by the pharmaceutical company GrĆ¼nenthal in Germany in 1957, and was used as a painkiller and tranquillizer. It was also effective in treating morning sickness during pregnancy, and many scientists believed that this drug would not harm the developing baby. However this was found not to be the case, and over 10,000 children in 46 countries were born with deformities such as phocomelia. The drug was licenced in Britain in 1958, marketed as Distaval, and was withdrawn in late 1961. Between 1959 and 1962 approximately 2,000 babies were born with deformities due to the drug, and only 466 survived. 2012 is a landmark year concerning thalidomide: it is just over 50 years since withdrawal of the drug Distaval and is the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Thalidomide Society.

The Thalidomide Society (originally called the Society for the Aid of Thalidomide Children) was formed by a meeting of four parents in August 1962, at the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton. Their aim was to set up a national society devoted to the aid of their own and other children affected by the drug thalidomide. The inaugural meeting took place on 20th October 1962, with forty-four parents attending. A draft constitution was created (SA/TSY/A/1) which states that the Society would not only include children affected by thalidomide but those with similar disabilities. Branches of the Thalidomide Society were set up, due to the wide geographic range of the parents. They would meet regularly and operated with local organisations that could help the families.

The Society worked closely with the Lady Hoare Thalidomide Appeal until 1974, to raise money to help the families affected, and increase awareness of their cause, this was helped by several national newspapers (see extensive press coverage represented in SA/TSY/G). There were a variety of fundraising schemes, general donations and offers of help (SA/TSY/C/1) and car competitions (SA/TSY/C/3). The money raised from these was used to support thalidomide families with social workers, research into new technologies (such as prosthetic arms and wheelchairs), a holiday home, and went towards the Oxford Centre for Enablement and the Chailey Heritage Craft School and Hospital. The Society is now a user led organisation; the majority of the council is made up of thalidomide affected people. The archive of the Thalidomide Society contains documents on its creation, (SA/TSY/A/1), fundraising schemes (SA/TSY/C), publications (SA/TSY/D), and of their recent events such as the annual AGM and conferences (SA/TSY/A/3).

Distillers (the company that distributed thalidomide: it is now owned by Diageo Ltd) and the parents of the children affected by thalidomide finally reached a settlement in 1973, after years of negotiations. From this the Thalidomide Children’s Trust (now the Thalidomide Trust) was set up to distribute the payments fairly amongst those affected. Professor Richard Smithells, a renowned consultant paediatrician, worked closely in these negotiations and provided medical testimony. Smithells became involved with thalidomide as a clinician on the Liverpool Registry of Congenital Abnormalities that was formed in 1960, where he began studying the links between prescription drug use during pregnancy and birth defects. Along with several other physicians he discovered the teratogenicity of thalidomide in 1961, and subsequently became a leading expert on thalidomide diagnostics. Much of his work concerning thalidomide and congenital malformations is reflected in the new catalogue PP/SML. These papers include a copy of a book for children he created for the NSPCC, Alphabet Zoop (PP/SML/A/3), correspondence and reports working with the Thalidomide Trust (PP/SML/C) and various textual resources he collected over the years regarding the drug (PP/SML/E). He became the Chair of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Leeds in 1968, and he served on the Thalidomide Trust advisory council from 1974, then as a trustee from December 1976.

The collections of the Thalidomide Society and Professor Smithells are part of the Wellcome Library’s Archives and Manuscripts collection. The catalogue can be searched on our online catalogue using the references SA/TSY and PP/SML respectively. Please note that due to the subject and nature of the material a significant proportion of the documents in these two collections have been closed for various fixed periods, for data sensitivity reasons.

Author: Morwenna Roche

I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith | Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art | Arizona























I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith is the product of a decade-long conversation between independent Curator Elizabeth Brown and the artist, examining a little-known body of work to provide important new insights into Smith's extraordinary career. Aesthetica spoke to Claire Carter, Assistant Curator at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) to learn more.

A: First of all, I just wanted to ask about what you see as the importance or influence of photography in Kiki Smith's wider oeuvre, including the sculptures for which she's probably best known?

CC: Introducing the exhibition, Elizabeth Brown outlines Smith’s use of photography: “Over three decades she has experimented with its use in many ways: as a tool, as a means of personal expression, as a way to construct meanings. She sees it as a flexible medium in which she can explore space, composition, colour and texture, free of the material constraints of sculpture or printmaking.” The primary goal of the exhibition is to describe both the formal variety of the work and its conceptual extent—the ways Smith thinks and articulates her ideas visually, using the camera.

A: Many of the photographs in the show appear consciously posed or staged. They don't come across as snapshots but much more as tableaux or orchestrated mini-scenes. Do you see this as an important aspect of Smith's photographic style?

CC: Smith constantly carries a traditional 35mm camera—she photographs constantly. Many of the photographs represented on a larger scale are made of motionless scenes, inert sculptures, still landscapes, taxidermy animals. I think this adds to the feeling of orchestration. However, the diminutive 4 x 6 inch photographs that line the floorboards of the museum walls reveal a much more improvisational or extemporaneous tone.

A: There are both large scale and small scale photographic works in the show. How does scale function in the photographs? Is their a distinction in the approach she takes to the larger works from that in the smaller works?

CC: That is an interesting question. All of the photographs in the exhibition were made with a 35mm, handheld single lens reflex camera and shot with traditional colour film. Of course the size differentiation emphasises the works’ importance, but each image is capable of being any size at any time. However, the photographs Smith chooses to enlarge have a sense of quietude, solemnity. There is a sense that the photograph is a complete thought with a beginning and an end. This is in contrast to the installation of 1,300 small 4 x 6 inch photographs that line the floorboards of the museum walls. These images are exquisite and beautiful in their own ways but they are also a kind of linear brainstorming, almost a film reel that transports you through the galleries and through Smith’s world.

A: Reproduction, in every sense, has been an important theme for Smith in many of her works. Do you see reproduction as important in Smiths photography, given that it is an essentially reproducible medium?

CC: The emphasis on Smith’s process is a good way to contextualise this question. Really all of the work in the exhibition is an example of Smith’s process—her engagement with the world, her inspirations and muses, the process of documenting the various states of her drawings, carvings, sculptures. Photography is the perfect co‐author in observation.

A: The exhibition features some of Smith's experiments with time-based media. Could you tell us a little about these works and how they relate to Smith's other photographic works?

I would advocate first considering that all of Smith’s work is essentially time‐based. Although photography and her videos are explicitly time‐based, Smith presents the passing of time by tracking the many transformations and changes a sculpture takes on during its lifetime. In the exhibition catalogue of the same name, curator Elizabeth Brown states: “Smith is drawn to the way such repeated, incrementally changing views conjure up the experience of being with the subject….what Smith describes as ‘movement through stillness.’” It’s interesting to know that when studying at Hartford Art School, Smith’s focus was on filmmaking.

A: One of the most interesting aspects of the show seems to be the inclusion of some of the photographs Smith takes as part of her sculptural process. How does her approach in these works relate to works where the photograph is the finished work in itself?

CC: I think Smith's observation in the catalogue explains this approach perfectly: “I don’t think my work is particularly about art. It’s really about me, being her in this life, in this kin. I’m cannibalising my own experience, my surroundings.” Curator Elizabeth Brown contextualises this quote stating: “This holds especially true in the photographs, most of which originate with projects in other
mediums. Extending the cannibal metaphor, Smith’s photographs can be seen as devouring and reprocessing her sculpture. But the relationship is reciprocal: they also nourish her works in other mediums in multiple ways, contributing to their invention, their development, their process, and their interpretations.”

A: The exhibition includes photographs from a wide period in Smith's career. Is there a development in style over the period in your opinion or is the way she uses photography consistent?

CC: Smith makes photographs incessantly. The curatorial endeavour of sorting through such an archive to make a manageable selection means the selection cannot represent every facet of her development. More than arguing for a clear stylistic development, the exhibition presents selections of photographs that demonstrate the wide range of creativity and ingenuity Smith applies to her work.

A: I'm really interested in the works that make use of traditional myths and fairy tales. Could you tell us a little about these works and how Smith is able to subvert their meanings and implications?

CC: Kiki Smith often uses the iconography of fairy tales in the characters and narrative in her artwork. She borrows from Western iconography already laden or fraught with meaning. The visual symbolism of Little Red Riding Hood, the Evil Witch, the screaming banshee, trigger a flurry of associations. Smith breaks this dialogue, however, by interjecting unexpected storylines into the traditional stories. At times Little Red Riding Hood becomes a girl with a grotesque, hair‐covered face; harpies become beautiful, lithe sexual bodies, banshees are based on portraiture of real women.

A: Many of Smith's sculptures seem influenced by Julia Kristeva's ideas of the "abject" and "horror", particularly in the context of the AIDS crisis. Do you see these ideas as important in the photographs?

CC: Kristeva and Smith were born within fifteen years of one another. Both feminists are interested in identity, the feminine, sexuality and the representation of women in culture. Certainly Smith’s images blur the line between the abject and the beautiful—one of Kristeva’s main interests. Perhaps most interesting however, is that Smith and Kristeva see the subject in a state of unending process—always
morphing and growing and changing. In their artwork and writing, respectively, they emphasise the instinctual, emotional, psychological—characteristics generally associated with the feminine.

A: Finally, the title of the exhibition seems really interesting as it relates the art of photography to Smith's individual and personal vision... Could you tell us a little bit about what you see as the importance of the title to the exhibition, is there a sense in which the camera is documenting the way Smith sees the world?

CC: I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith emphasises, first and foremost the first-person perspective. What is interesting here is the plurality of meaning - this could reference Smith's
visual encounter with the subject; the utilisation of the photograph as documentation, or proof; or the perspective of the exhibition-goer, sharing Smith's representations of the visual world.

I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith, 11/02/2012 - 20/05/2012, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 East Second Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, USA. www.smoca.org

Aesthetica in Print

If you only read Aesthetica online, you are missing out. The April/May issue of Aesthetica is out now and includes a diverse range of features from Bauhaus: Art as Life, a comprehensive survey of one of the most influential schools of thought from the 20th century, Growing Up: The Young British Artists at 50, which centres on Jeremy Cooper's examination of the illustrious career, and the phenomenon that was the YBAs and Behind Closed Doors, an intimate portrait of family life in Cuba from photographer David Creedon.

If you would like to buy this issue, you can find your nearest stockist here. Better yet, subscribe to Aesthetica for a year and save 20% on the printed magazine. To subscribe visit the website or call us on +44 (0) 1904 629 137.

Caption:
Kiki Smith Untitled (from: Crow). 1997
Chromogenic (Ektacolor) colour print
© Kiki Smith, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New
York.

The Breakfast Room

No not mine. I wish! This is in the Pitzhanger Manor House in Ealing. Believed to have been around since the 16th century with several owners, it is now famously known as the country house of the architect John Soane. He substantially renovated the Manor which now features typical Soane style, curved ceilings, inset mirrors, false doors and wooden paneling.
Partly restored it is currently used for weddings and private hire, exhibitions and public visits.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Embroidered Robes of Thomas Becket

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice (detail), 1165.

The ecclesiastical robes of the twelfth century Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket are kept within the precincts of Sens Cathedral in Eastern France. Although the cathedral has long verified that all the vestments attributed to Thomas Becket did indeed belong to him, as with many Saints, there were a number of items that were said to be part of the life and death of Becket, not all could be verified.

As the nineteenth century architectural draughtsman, illuminator, engraver, antiquarian and all-round medievalist Henry Shaw stated in his 1843 book 'Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages' from which all four of the illustrations to this article are drawn:

'Long after the death of Becket, he continued to be commemorated in a particular manner in all the places where he was believed to have resided, or which he was known to have visited, and every article which had belonged to him was preserved with extreme veneration. The error, or the zeal, of his admirers, no doubt led them frequently to add to the number of these relics many things which had no claim to the honour, and such may be the case with some of the vestments which are shown at Sens as the robes of St. Thomas of Canterbury.'

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice, 1165.

It has to be understood that relics were a large part of the medieval world and could therefore easily be both used legitimately as well as being spontaneously manufactured for the commercial benefit of either Church or individual. However, Shaw was also aware that a number of the items belonging to Beckets ecclesiastical vestments held at Sens Cathedral might well be genuine and therefore took the stand that with at least some of the items:

'...it is probable that the tradition is correct.'

The four illustrations shown in this article come from a section of the Apparel of the Amice said to have belonmged to Thomas Becket. At this point it is probably just as well to state what both an 'Apparel' and 'Amice' are and who better to explain than Shaw himself:

'The Amice was a piece of fine linen, in form of an oblong square, suspended over the shoulders. It was introduced in the eighth century, to cover the neck, which was previously bare. The Apparel is the embroidered part of the amice, which is usually fastened to it in such a manner as to serve as a kind of collar. By the strings attached to the Apparel of Thomas Becket, it would appear that it was tied round the neck after all the other vestments had been put on; though it is supposed by a person deeply acquainted with the subject that the strings are comparatively modern.'

The embroidery decorative work, although relatively simple, is both effective and a perfect example of early medieval decoration. That perhaps was the point, considering the early Victorian penchant for anything medieval. Shaw produced a number of books over a fairly extensive career, many of which were firmly part of the genre that helped to both explain and illustrate various aspects of medieval decoration and ornament. 

Illustration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice (detail), 1165.

The medieval world was approached in a number of different ways by those living in the mid-nineteenth century. Some saw it as little more than a fashionable revival style, others as an academic exploration, others still as a crusade against the hegemony of the classical world, as well as a number of other viewpoints in-between. Whichever way the individual considered the correct one, it can be said that the average reader was not short of journals, pamphlets, guides and lengthy tomes dedicated to all aspects of the medieval world. 

Information, as today with the internet, was considered above all to be the greatest guide. While approaches to the subject were sometimes of a deeply personal and individual nature, others were more generally informative and widely distributed. The amount of effort put into the expansion of knowledge concerned with the medieval world was phenomenal. It did not take long for those involved in the contemporary decorative arts to start using wide sections of this information to make both informed decisions as to the Victorian reinvention of the medieval world as well as some wilder reimagining that although not strictly following closely to the medieval ideals concerning decoration and ornament, nevertheless did help produce a truly individual Victorian decorative style era. 

Illuatration: Thomas Becket's embroidered apparel of the amice, 1165.

Without books such as those produced by Henry Shaw and many others, as well as the various historical collections and indeed Church and Cathedral remains, the Victorian medieval revival that we know today as the Gothic Revival, would surely have been the poorer, at least as far as decoration and ornament are concerned. Whether, as Shaw stated, all of the vestments of Thomas Becket were genuine or not, most would still have been produced in the medieval period and therefore were still valid as far as many were concerned as important living specimens of medieval decoration and as such were vital tools in which to promote a genuine interest in this early European decorative style era of which the Victorians were so enamoured.

Further reading links: