Hello!
Some things:
- I now have an official mailing list! Wow it was a horror to set up and will literally be a part of May's show for sure. Anyway, there's now an archive to look at old emails: https://listmonk.sadgoldfish.com/archive
- This means you can all get your friends to sign up also: Form
Okay details:
LOCATION: 15 Thompson Street, Kensington. Head up into the big empty courtyard and there'll be a room there. Please knock, I do not have FOH so you'll have to be a little brave.
TIME: uhoh 6:00pm!!! Earlier than before!!
FOOD: I think a biiiiiiigggggg minestrone soup. If you would like to come early and chop vegging and bring stock that'd be awesome.
Bring something: pleaae bring one cool item of clothing or an accessory we can use in the show thank you!
Looking forward to seeing you all!!
Okay little essay as usual (Martha in 🧡, Ori in 💚):
🧡People say the first examples of film we're shadows on a cave wall. There's no evidence of shadow puppetry, or hand shadows from those days but also there not a lot of evidence of anything from these days. What we do have evidence of is animals with multiple heads, too many legs or covered in weird scratches and markings.
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The reason is thought, that when looked at under firelight, the flickering of the flames makes it seem like the image is moving.
https://youtu.be/cF4M2iIP7bg?si=aeA_ht11qEhlouc0
We think of film as a recent invention, whereas it has in fact always been a tool in our arsenal of storytelling. Another option when thinking about how to convey emotion, memory and thoughts. It's not new, so much as cave painting is new. So much as art is new.
I had a friend once tell me about the time he got invited to a party that Solange was hosting. He dressed up in this outfit that had tiny projectors that would project his face over little white mannequin heads and make him look like he had 3 faces. As the party began to wind down Solange asked him to stick around. It was just him and his friend, Solange and someone else I don't remember. Solange asked him about his outfit. About his art. About why he made art. About why he moved to New York. About his feelings on the city and its people. He said she was casual and funny and relaxed. As it got late he said "do you mind if I get a picture with you?".
Her smile dropped. She said "sure" took the photo and asked him to leave.
I never saw that photo. I don't know if he kept it. But it's interesting to me how instead of saying "No, were just talking and hanging out. I don't want to be speaking to a fan, I want to be speaking to an artist, a colleague", she said "sure". There was a certain resignation about having your picture taken. In the same way we are resigned about having a smart phone, or buying fast fashion, or keeping our ancient Facebook accounts active.🧡
💚I think her resignation here is familiar in another way, too- we’re resigned to watching filmed stuff all the time.
There’s this bit in The Studio (Seth Rogen’s LA Warner-Brothers-in-all-but-name sitcom) where the big boss tells the protagonist that ‘we don’t make films, we make movies’. This is in service of making, and making mountains of money from, The Kool-Aid Movie. And the instant this plot-line gets even the barest mention, you begin to think of what it means. You know you’re gonna be bombarded for MONTHS with commercials for this fucking Kool-Aid movie, for Kool-Aid itself, for the actor who voices the Kool-Aid man’s new line of whiskey. And you start to hate this hypothetical Kool-Aid Movie and all its associated Movie Junk, you hate that it’ll be streamed directly into your consciousness on every screen you just so happen to glance at until the next Timothee-Chalamet-Is-Playing-A-Tortured-Genius-Movie comes out, and then you start to pre-hate that movie too just for good measure. At least I do. And that makes me sad!
When I think about the cave paintings in the firelight it feels wrong that ‘film’ denotes high art, whereas ‘movie’ is used to relegate projects to the bracket of commercially-oriented, sugary, mindless slop. I’m in the arts, of course I want the media I consume to challenge me and make me think and feel and all those good things, but it’s not a crime to enjoy being entertained too – I would find a dog on a cave wall leaping through flames wonderfully entertaining. I still find it really freaking cool that we can watch still images strung together to create movement- a movie. 💚
🧡I guess this small little essay and the resulting show is just asking you to not become resigned to film. Whether it's a YouTube video, a tiktok, an archival of a show, capturing the sounds of your local park, recording your vantage of a concert, a full-blown feature film, porn, a videogame stream, or even god forbid your recording of New Year's Eve fireworks; make sure it has a sense of magic to it. Make sure watching it feels like watching a cave wall come alive under firelight.🧡
