Looking up

Master, placid are All the hours We lose, If, in losing them, Like in a vase, We put flowers. (fragment of a poem by Ricardo Reis, aka Fernando Pessoa)Tommi Toija, the author of the above sculptures, has an exhibition at the Institut Finlandais in Paris until the...

Falling? Flying?

No fall is ever great.The distance from the tip of the noseto the dirt is always measured in the smallest units.It is always ridiculous, always too human, theconcrete body against the concrete soil,the sight losing focus, and the hands, the hands.Richard Beacham's drawing,...

Of the daemon

I am not a person particularly given to metaphysical beliefs.I tend to be cautious in the way I describe the world, and the parts where I allow myself to travel further are, in my perspective, mere mental experiments, or even tricks of the (artistic) trade.Yet I wish I could simply apply Elizabeth Gilbert's...

The Abstraction Game: Myra Mimlitsch-Gray

The problem with abstraction is that a subjective voyage into the unknown is precisely this: subjective. And, since the exceptional quality of my experience as the creator is something distinct from the experience of the spectator, the abstraction game becomes a hide-and-seek...

To-ge(t)-ther(e)

My last posts brought about several inspiring reactions, among them two great suggestions.The animation made several people think of William Kentridge, whose characteristic style is a mix of playfulness and profound reflection, exploring what it means to draw, to create a world, to translate, to travel...In...

Love, Art and Coimbra

Coimbra, a city in central Portugal, has one of the most beautiful - and creepy - love stories ever to be heard. It is the story of Pedro and Inês, a Portuguese heir to the throne and a Spanish aristocrat's maid. It has a tragic ending, much more gruesome than Romeo and...

Simpler than Blu

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber and Yanni Kronenberg.My favorite part is the chalk accumulating on the board. And the simple, obvious, yet powerful ending.How different is this from Blu? Maybe not too different. I would call it a tribute. The style, the dynamics. Yet...