(movie) Being John Malkovich

I chose this movie because I'm interested in John Malkovich who is already pretty old, but I think still a sexy actor, after watching the movie "Dagerous Laisons". Then I realized that this movie was written by a genius writer Charlie Kauffman who wrote my favorite movie ever "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". And my review of "Being John Malkovich" is 'absolutely amazing!'

Every situation in this movie is odd. The office is located on the seventh and a half floor in New York. The speech disturbance secretary is regarded as normal, and the normal president thinks he has an impediment.

New employee Schwartz finds the portal linked to Malkovich's brain in his office, by chance. His unrequited lover and colleague Maxine starts business of 200 dollars for each , while Schwartz is agonizing over it, philosophically. After experiencing the portal, Schwartz's wife, Lotte finds out she is lesbian or bisexual and Lotte and Maxine fall in love, but Maxine loves Lotte when Lotte is inside Malkovich's brain.

The highlight or climax of this movie for me was the scene in which Malkovich, himself, entered the portal to Malkovich. I was really expecting how this scene would come out. I could't imagine that. What I thought was that Malkovich would fall in sleep and dream. (It seems like I was affected by Avatar, after all) I just felt inferior to Kauffman. Malkovich inside Malkovich, Malkovich inside Malkovich, Malkovich inside Malkovich, Malkovich inside Malkovich, .......The infinite repetition was the world of Malkovich which is filled with Malkovich. In the restaurant, all customers have Malkovich's face including the waiter and the erotic singer with a red dress, and even all menus were written to Malkovich. How imaginative he is!

One more thing, Schwartz is already in Malkovich's brain and what if Lotte and Maxine entered that portal together? Oh no~~~~~~~~~~~.They were in the realm of the subconcious, which is shameful memories from Malkovich's childhood.

Schwartz is in Malkovich. So then is he Malkovich or Schwartz?
At first, it was Malkovich, because Schwartz only could see through Malkovich's eyes only for 15 minutes. Then he could figured out he could control Malkovich's body. Finally he controlled Malkovich's fully, and changed Malko's life from famous actor to puppeteer, which was Schwartz's job. So, is he Schwartz, after all?
And Maxine loves and marries this status of Malko controlled by Schwartz, even though she didn't like Schwartz, before. So now, does she love Malko or Schwartz?

It is a real 'profound meditation on consciousness, identity, fame, gender and reality', as the film critic Ann Hornaday said in the Baltimore Sun.
So I asked to my husband "Do you like my soul or body?"
And he answered "Of course both. All of you."
That is the right answer, both soul and body.
However, I'm still confusing who it is.

Ummmm. I'd like to watch "Alice in Wonderland" now. I'm curious of the 'portal' in 'Alice in Wonderland'.

(movie) Camille Claudel

To me, Camille was just a "love of Rodin". That's all. I think many of you also know that. I didn't have any interest to her works before, because it is overshadowed by Rodin's.

Many people think that artists need some madness or misfortune in their lives for the artistic inspiration. It can be sublimated in art like Van Gogh's. It is almost impossible to be a great artist in their lifetime, but Van Gogh was fortunate, after all. There are too many unfortunate but also forgotten artists. Camille is one of them, I think.


"The Age of Maturity"


"The Waltz, 1899-1905"

After I watched the movie "Camille Claudel", I was really angry about her life.

I'm totally not a feminist, but while watching movies I thought her madness was not because she was a genius with too much passion and inspiration, but because she was a woman. Maybe also she was too pure and naive.

Camille met Rodin when she was 17 years old: Rodin was 41 at that time. They fell in love because they had same passion about sculpture.

She got off on the wrong foot. I think everything was her own fault.

First of all, she wanted to be a sculptor "Camille Claudel", not one of the Rodin's assistants. It was her own fault. She touched on the issues that were taboo at that time (or even now). There was a silent taboo made by men. Also, nobody wants their assistant being more famous than themselves, even it is their lover. Especially if it is a man. he doesn't want to accept a little girl, whatever talent she had.

Second, even though she was obssessed with marrying him, he already had everything: a warm house and wife, a fame as a sculptor, and money. Camille was just one of his mistresses, or a muse as a source of artistic inspiration for him, but she just didn't realize it. She was too young and pure when she met him: she was just 17 years old! See? He had no intention of marrying her.

Her life had no meaning without Rodin. When she turned 49, she was sent to a mental hospital.

We should never ignore a life, no matter whose life it is. Camille's life was totally neglected by the people around her. People didn't buy her sculpture anymore after they broke up and did not even accept it as hers. Her younger brother, Paul Claudel, who was a successful diplomat and poet, sent her to the hospital. Was she that dangerous? She was a just pitiful woman who fell in love! Rodin never visited her in the psychiatric hospital. People around her killed her by ignoring her, I think. Unless people neglect themsleves, others should not do harm by bad mouthing or ignoring any individal. It is cruel.

(artist) Louise Bourgeois (1911~)

This giant spider seems like it has spread all over the world! I even saw it in Korea! "Maman"(French for mother) which contains a sack of eggs, is one of her major works.


"Les Fleurs" is currently exhibited in Kukje Gallery, seoul. (Feb 24-Mar 31, 2010) It is her fourth solo show in Seoul, and this time, it mainly shows her drawings from 2007 to 2009. However, basically, it is hard to define her "style". Even in this exhibition, I can see not only drawings but also sculpture and sewn pieces.


I don't understand all of her art works, but my impression through this exhibition was,
first, red and blue, but mainly red
second, sexual but mainly about the female(or mother),
third, the use of fabric.


"Les Fleurs"
First of all, the main mood of the exhibition room was very simple, because most of her color use was dominated by red and blue on a white canvas hanging on a white wall. It may be related to her theme, sexuality. (well, since I'm not an art specialist, I'm not sure about my understanding, but I feel that. Her flowers don't look like just botanical flowers: they looks like a female womb, maybe because of the color, red, or the painting hanging beside it "The couple"

"The couple"

"Femme"



Finally, both works above were painted on linen. "Mother and Child" is silkscreen on linen, and "Femme" is fabric even with blue glass beads! It makes me feel comfortable, cozy and relaxed.











Personally, her life and career motivate me to star a new area in my life, even at my age. When I was younger, a year looked huge, and I thought I would have to determine my way in life before graduating from university, which is by the age of 23. However, just think, she was born in 1911, and this is 2010 now, which means she is almost 100 years old. What I saw in this exhibition today was the art works made between 2007 and 2009. Hmmmm........

Life is long.... I heard that she first received attention as an artist in her 70s. I have to live harder from now on, since I have 70 more years to live! Live life to the fullest!!!


"Mother and Child"

(artist) Joan Mitchell

"Untitled" (1958)


Joan Mitchell waw born and studied in Chicago, then moved and worked in France. She is called a second generation of abstract expressionist, following Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Cy Twombly. Abstract expressionism is the American post world war art movement. It is difficult to define one word, but it is subconcious, automatic creation of work, so it seems like no figure, and hard to understand what exactly the artists draw.

It is said that the beginner (art lover) likes realism art, because it is easy to figure out and evaluate the completion. However, abstract is not welcomed by them, because it is not easy to understand, and even looks like scribbling. Some say "What is that? I think my young boy can do it better than this artist!" The curator of the Kukje Gallery (There was a exhibition :"Drawings- Joan Mitchell" from October 22 to December 31, 2009) told that this kind of reaction is sad for the artists and the curators. For the artists, their style, even if it is just one point or one line, is the result of the artist's entire art life after thousands of trial and errors.

I totally agree with her idea. Frankly speaking I used to be a common audience, who sometimes complained why just painting of the line is so expensive. Since I am getting more knowledge and affection of the art, my point of view has changed.

I think one of the reasons why the artist like Joan Mitchell is loved is because of their frontier spirit. Since the paintings that look like scribbling are too common for us nowadays, because of the Jackson Pollock's action painting or Cy Twombly's graffiti paintings, we don't think it is fresh. However, we have to remember that Pollock's major works were from the 1940s, and Mitchell's major works were started from 1950s. Then we can imagine how shocking and fresh their ideas were! I still don't understand their idea all yet, but if I open my mind, I can find a smiling face, flowers, or trees in her paintings. This is another interest of learning impressionism art for me.

(artist) Chris Ofili(1968~)

My only knowledge about Chris Ofili was that he is one of the YBAs with Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, etc., which means his works must be sensational. I just read that an exhibition of Chris Ofili is being held in Tate Britain from 27 Jan to 16 May 2010.

Not only one of the YBAs, Ofili is the Turner Prize winner of 1998, and represented Britain in the 50th Venie Biennale in 2003. My first exposure to his paintings was seeing the thress paintings shown below in a magazine.

"Holy Virgin Mary"

In 1999 "Holy Virgin Mary" was exhibitied in Brooklyn Museum of Art in the show called "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi collection".

At that time, this painting was a hot potato, interestingly, politically. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani started it. As a Catholic, Jiuliani regarded it as a kind of insult to Mary and Cathilics. In this painting, Virgin Mary was represented as an African woman, and the things around Mary are a collage of pornographic images, which are female genitalia. Moreover, he put elephant dung on her breast. (I'd say Ofili is Catholic, too.) Giuliani threatened that city sould withdraw funding to Brooklyn Museum of Art unless they canceled this exhibition. Hilary Clinton, who is a kind of political rival to him defended the museum. Whatever politicians do is always a big promotion for the museum. ( There is no such thing as bad publicity)

And one more, a 72 year old retired teacher defaced this painting with white oil paint during the exhibition. He eventually got a fine. It seems like it was a real sensation at that time. However, we, art lovers and art history students, regard it as just a sensational, brilliant, fresh idea. Maybe because it happened already 10 years ago, we regard it part of history.

" No woman no cry"

It is said that "No woman no cry" represents general melancholy and grief, but according to Tate display caption, London teenager Stephen Lawrence got murdered by racial motivation. To commemorate him, ofili depicted the murdered boy in each tear.

"Blossom"

Isn't it pleasant to see each of his pieces of art supported by lumps of elephant dung? Both tThe pendant in and the balls "BLOSSOM" made by dung are brilliant! A pendant is usually most precious, and the word "blossom" gives the image of flowers. So by using dung, he has completely contradicted our images.

Ofili is a British artist who studied in Chelsea School of Art and Royal College of Art. As you imagined from his African woman portrait, he is of Nigerian descent. In the early 1990s, he had an opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe. This travel might affected his art a lot. It is simply not easy to find elephant dung in England unless it is at the zoo. (Actually, I heard that he got dung from London zoo) I heard that elephant dung is sacred in Africa.

"Afrodizzia"

"Courtesy of David Zwinrner"

"Afrodizzia" and "Courtesy of David Zwirner"

Those paintings make me feel the African, ethnic, and exotic mood. I'm not really sure about the background of those paintings, but they are colorful, powerful, and happy, which is one of my favorite factor of art.

Personally, I didn't get to see his pictures for very long, and until then, I thought he was a woman. Because he paints a lot of female portraits, I thought this artist must be a feminist. However, he is a real man-looking guy~~^^

(artist) Banksy

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Did you check out the website?
If not, You Have To Do~~~^^

Banksy is one of the artists I discovered during this London trip(summer 2009). He is not well known in Korea yet, but, for sure, there are some big fans for Banksy here, too.






Banksy is a famous but at the same time anonymous British graffiti artist. Although he has never revealed his identity, there is speculation that he was born in 1974 in Bristol.






My first impression was that his work was funny and I thought he was a genius. (Well, I basically and always, think that every artist is a genius^^) You can understand how I felt if you take a look at some of his art work.

Unfortunately, there are only a few of his pieces in this website but there is a lot more interesting graffiti and sculpture to be found.



The reason I like this artist is first, because he is technically great. I'm not sure if graffiti art is legal, but he works at night when nobody will see him.


In his recent book "Banksy Wall and Piece(http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Piece-Banksy/dp/1844137864), he recalls one night, when he was hiding from the police under a dump truck, he realized he had to cut his painting time in half or give up altogether. Eventhough he has a harsh working environment, his work is still perfect.



And his work is really funny, interesting, and easy to access. You don't have to get dressed up and go to a fancy gallery or museum to see his art. His great works are everywhere, right on the streets. And interesting thing is there is a "Banksy Walking Tour Map of London" in the bookstore with pictures of his art and how to find them. I should have done the walking tour! Darn it!




And he has his own philosophy. I'm not sure whether he does it for vandalism or political purposes. But I do think there is some sarcasm in his work. It seems like he satirizes the almighty dollar principle, and consumer waste, and addiction to shopping during this era, and maybe some other political issues. In his book, he used the word "Brandalism" ( Brilliant!! ). Here is a quote from his book; "Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head"


He mainly uses stencil technique. While he was hiding from the police, he said he was staring straight up at a stenciled plate on the bottom of fuel tank and realized he could just copy that style and make each letter three feet height. I think that's when he started stencil technique.




I don't really know of the art criticism about Banksy, but in April 2007 his art work was sold at auction for 288,000 pound (US$576,000), so definately, collectors are paying attention to him, as a young artist.



Finally, here is one of my favorite Banksy piecese. Isn't it hilarious? Surprisingly, his window is exactly the same shape, size, and at the same height as the original window beside it. It's amazing. How could he do his work at that height without getting caught?

(artist) Tamara de Lempicka

Seven years ago, during my first visit to Europe, I bought an art book by "Tamara de Lempicka". I don't really remember why I bought this book. Since I looked at a lot of art works in European museums, I don't remember where I saw her art work, or even whether I saw them or not. Maybe I saw them, or just bought that book in the bookstore because her art was tempting.










There are some characteristics of her art, how can I express it, maybe sensual? A lot of characters in her nude paintings pose sensually. Even guys wearing suit look sexy. What is more, girls in "The Girls" (1928)(the second one) opened their eyes half-way.

Actually Lempicka was beautiful and attractive woman. In her life, it is said that she was bisexual, and her love life was really colorful. (This is her picture; the third one)

The title of this painting (the first one) is "Auto Portrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti)". My first impression of this painting was 'gorgeous'. She looks so arrogant, full of confidence, stylish and above all, sexy. Look at the 'Bugatti', which is the most expensive and best super car in the world, her cream colored leather gloves, stylish scarf, and that hat! I can feel some power from her red lips and arrogant eyes.


This painting was published in the fashion magazine, first. I can't imagine how sensational was this piture at that time!


This painting is from a private collection. Who has this painting? An arrogant, successful business woman or man who was attracted by that woman? I don't think I can drive that super car in my life, but if I had a chance, I'll follow that arrogant expression! ^^