Monday, April 27, 2009

"My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined."

Musique: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button soundtrack
 (composed by Alexandre Desplat)


(Odilon Redon Eye Balloon, 1878, Charcoal)
Zidler: Don't like the ending, my dear Duke?
The Duke: Why should the courtesan chose the penniless sitar player over the maharajah who is offering her a lifetime of security? That's real love. Once the sitar player has satisfied his lust he will leave her with nothing. I suggest that the courtesan chose the maharajah.
Toulouse-Lautrec: But, but tell me, that ending does not uphold the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and...
The Duke: [shouts] I don't care about your ridiculous dogma! Why shouldn't the courtesan chose the maharajah?
Christian: [shouts] Because she doesn't love you!... Him... Hi-him, she doesn't love... she doesn't love him.
The Duke: Oh, I see... Monsieur Zidler, the play will be rewritten with the courtesan choosing the maharajah and without the lovers' secret song. It will be rehearsed in the morning, ready for the opening tomorrow night...
Zidler: But, my dear Duke, that will be quite impossible.
Satine: Harold, the Duke is being treated appallingly. These silly writers let their imaginations run away with themselves. Why don't you and I have a little supper, and then we can tell Monsieur Zidler how we would like the story to end. 

- Moulin Rouge


It is 1:10 am as I' am typing this, and i just can't seem to quite fall asleep just yet. The weather was beautiful this entire day- twenty-seven degrees they say. It's got a dab of humidity, but it was the wind that made it bearable. All i wanted to do was to venture forth outside and enjoy these precious moments, which i did. Went to Indigo later in the evening. and couldn't help acquiring Françoise Sagan's "Bonjour Tristesse" - a most definite french classic- and read it throughout the train ride home.

I also couldn't help being deeply intrigued by Odilon Redon's works. He is a french artist and printmaker, as well as being one of the figures of Symbolism. I first head about him through my Modernism class for my Fine Arts History, then what really caught my attention was Yale University's exhibition known as "Endless Forms": Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts",  which puts forth works about beauty as well as the "grotesque opposite numbers."  His "The misshapen polyp floated on the shores, a sort of smiling and hideous Cyclops" 1883, is included among the exhibition and was what first grabbed my interest. 


(Top : The Cyclops1914, Bottom: The Crying Spider1881.)

Redon undoubtedly provides a stunning and intense underlying view of bizarre but remarkable creatures which proves how much one's mind can uncover within one's imagination. The view of what's "beyond the visible" made me become fascinated in his artwork and strange beings- like the Crying Spider and the Cactus Man- it made me feel like i was opening this window and venturing forth into this austere and mystical world.

Moreover, for some reason, time and time again i would go back to listening to the soundtrack of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- i must say, Alexandre Desplat is brilliant in capturing the very essence of what Benjamin Button is all about. Especially in "Love Returns", I couldn't help getting my eyes glazed just a little bit...a little bit, mind you.
Someday i'll want to venture out into the places i've never seen, and travel through the eyes of those who have walked before us, in search of themselves, and possibly finding that other half. 
Until then, I am focusing on the topic  Realism and Gustave Courbet's "The Realist Manifesto" for the upcoming fine arts history exam, drinking green tea and embedding Desplat's music into my soul...

And that's all for now, bisous.



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Thanks for brightening my day! Always love to hear what you have to say.

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