made it to the Nelson, was home by 8

luckily i had contacted a friend about going to the Nelson earlier in the week. Gina and i have met three times? anyhow, she picked me up off the KC streets and we drove over to Hammerpress where we oogled over the designs and images. (i have a new favorite stop in KC and if i were really rich i'd have bought all of your Christmas presents there. check 'em out.)

after that we drove down to the Nelson and took in the show. i asked the guys in the projection room about the order of the shows. it seemed we would have to watch 6 art flicks before the Papageorge film. we could have gone through the galleries for an hour, but since the guy was so convincing, we stayed for the other flicks.

i'm not sure how much experimental film/art film i can actually take. i like seeing the artist's point of it all, but i don't like being beat with a stick about it (much less anything for which i do not buy in to.) some of these films bordered on abuse. at least one of them should have had an epileptic disclaimer. since i want to gather my thoughts about all of it, i figure i'll just do it here. hopefully i don't offend anyone...especially the artists.

The films started with Mwangi and Hutter's Mzungu. An interesting no dialogue commentary on multicultural differences. the African puts on the German's clothes and vice-versa. for many minutes over and over, the intentionally(?)bland faced German is postured by the Africans. the African quickly puts on the stone washed jeans and then proceeds to mess with the collar and shirtsleeves for many minutes.

Sue Williamson's Jet Hotel was pretty fun. it garnered a lot of laughs from the group who was still trying to recover from hearing the Swahili word for white person, "Mzungu", for eight minutes straight. Williamson's piece was a first hand account of travel discrepancies and the what the world "International Hotel" means. she actually follows the promotional material and comment brochure of the Jet Hotel with her camera. the film should have made me never want to go to the Jet Hotel...but in reality it did the opposite. international travel is called international travel for a reason; it happens to be the reason i both love and hate it.

Minnette Vari's Quake is best described by the Nelson as "morphing composite figures, shifting sands and cities emerging and dissolving in the background represent an apocalyptic vision." 100% accurate, that description fails to mention that the shifting sands are literally tv fuzz and that the figures are flashing visions that run counter to the fuzz. overstimulating like a nightmare, the viewer can't wait to be relieved. this film actually states its duration (8 minutes)on the screen before it starts. that should have been our cue. i had to shut my eyes because it perfectly simulated the migraines i've been lucky enough to have four times in my life.

next came Churchill Madikida's Virus. it began with this image. by the end of the short flick, this image was multiplied like a kaleidoscope and eventually the lines and images undulated and were flashing. again, i had to shut my eyes. that's about when Gina said, "Oh God!" the film definitely demonstrates the spread of a terrible disease.

the hardest one to take, though, was Shonibare's A Masked Ball. i loved the costumes, loved the freaky dancing, but did not like being tricked in to seeing it frontwards twice and then backwards. 33 minutes of the same dance and assassination people! to make matters worse, after the girl exits the film (backwards) as she entered the film, she begins to walk forward again and you think it's going to start all over again!!! the point of this film was well made; the aristocratic "dance" is super-stupid, repetitive, excessive and corrupt.

Bernie Searle's Vapor was interesting as it filmed what must have been hundreds of symmetrically placed, giant cooking pots bubbling over red hot fires. the crackling and boiling noises were interesting, the fires beautiful. it was probably a statement about Africa's famine and the world's cold response. (i agree that famine is a world problem---but i know that individuals are not responding coldly, so i have an issue with the vantage point of the film.)

of course they saved the best for last. Africa Rifting was worth sitting through all of the other films. (hopefully it was for Gina, too.) i prayed and watched, thought and watched, and just took it all in. it, too, made a wonderful point without being annoying, without being pushy, without taking from the viewer. i don't agree with all of the vantage point, but i do agree with a lot of it. i won't rule out the rift, though i don't really believe it happened millions of years ago. i do agree that the rift is still happening like it or not. there can be beauty that leads to redemption even in rifting, if one wants to look for it. it is the way of the world, so how do you choose to see it?

what i didn't know is that the installation in Brazil (crosses and cell towers against the blue sky) took place on September 11, 2001. art imitating life.

i wish everyone wanted to sit down and take in this film. who knows what people might face if they had to stop and meditate/look at beauty like this?

thanks, Gina, for taking me and for going with me. i hope it was worth it to you. we'll get to have more interactive, less stimulating time together in the future, right?