Poetry Wednesday

Subsistence

A bully branch on the wind
took out the window, took out an eye and then
stilled
sensing above it
clouds
and weight
and weather.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd something not-mine that I love:

Poetry Wednesday

Differential

we started the fire; it was our rite
increased in the shoal mirror and even without
it
all things compounded/
double and dual like the world was retelling
its birth//

forecasting.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd something not-mine that I love:

Michael Flomen's Moonlit Photograms

Contact, 2001, ED. 4, 111cm x 88cm

As I mentioned last week, I'm TA-ing for a studio photography class this semester. It's completely uncharted territory for me, but I'm already reaping the benefits. For example, the professor I'm working with has introduced me to the work of Michael Flomen, a Canadian artist who does long-exposure photograms using the light of the moon and the flotsam and jetsam of the night.

The work is striking. Its recognizable forms (a bit of seaweed or the webbed transparency of an insect wing) inhabit topographies and cosmos that are entirely alien. The flashbulb of a firefly becomes a solar flare which--through the long exposure--becomes 40 solar flares. Strangeness multiplies, and yet an overall softness permeates the images and demonstrates that strangeness might coexist with benevolence.

Feeder, 2006, 122cm x 244 cm, U.P.

I'm also kind of enthralled by his process. The artist, whose images only quicken by the light of the moon, himself becomes nocturnal. Not a slave to the nighttime, but one whose moonlit activities border on ritual. I'm definitely going to need to track down La Nuit est ma Chambre Noire (The Night is My Darkroom), the film that documents that process. Here's a clip:

Untitled 41, 2008, 61cm x 51 cm, U.P.

Untitled, 2007, 51cmx61cm, U.P.

Fall Playlist

Sweet tunes for my favorite season : )

Sóley......................................................I’ll Drown
Sigur Rós...............................................Glósóli
Bat for Lashes........................................Laura
Wooden Sky..........................................Child of the Valley
Cat Power.............................................Metal Heart
CocoRosie.............................................Smokey Taboo
The Sweet Serenades.............................Die Young
Ramona Falls.........................................The Darkest Day
Carla Bruni............................................Quelqu'un M'a Dit
Bon Iver................................................Minnesota, WI
The Drums.............................................Down By the Water
Ed Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes........Kisses Over Babylon