Old and New Russia: in NYC

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A changing of the guards:

It used to be artists who left Russia and came to NYC were the product of strenous and rigid training, and could sketch the human figure like nobody’s business. The product of a strict schooling system and all the other features of communism, they enjoyed a greater freedom of expression here, perhaps, but lacked the state salary.

Communism is over, and Russian artists still come to NYC. It has an arts scene that is inspiring, but is now considered a training in itself, as many have not had the training of the state system.

Reason and Emotion in Poetry

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Stumbling upon a book of Jonh Donne’s poetry, reminded me of that great virtue of 17th C. poetry: reason.

Before the confessional angst of the Romantics, where feeling guides the pen and the poet is the amanuesis of higher sensibilities, poetry was dominated by the controlled and thoughtful poets such as John Donne. Donne’s style deigns the shimshammery of claiming ‘inspiration’ and ‘pure emotion’ guided your hand instead of thought, as it uses intellect to frame a complex argument. Reading Donne is like wrestling with an intellect as it takes you through the course of an argument until you end up somewhere quite different from where you started.

Lovers’ Infiniteness


If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall;
And all my treasure, which should purchase thee—
Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters—I have spent.
Yet no more can be due to me,
Than at the bargain made was meant;
If then thy gift of love were partial,
That some to me, some should to others fall,
Dear, I shall never have thee all.
Or if then thou gavest me all,
All was but all, which thou hadst then;
But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall
New love created be, by other men,
Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,
In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,
This new love may beget new fears,
For this love was not vow’d by thee.
And yet it was, thy gift being general;
The ground, thy heart, is mine; whatever shall
Grow there, dear, I should have it all.
Yet I would not have all yet,
He that hath all can have no more;
And since my love doth every day admit
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store;
Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,
If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it;
Love’s riddles are, that though thy heart depart,
It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it;
But we will have a way more liberal,
Than changing hearts, to join them; so we shall
Be one, and one another’s all.

Matthew Barney and Bjork, and Facebook?

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Matthew Barney, artist, and Bjork, musician, are a glam, hip celebrity couple. A tidbit on Art Fag City rumoured that Barney ‘Facebooked divorced’ Bjork. While it is amazing in that these cool adults update their relationship status like tweens across the world, it is probably completely untrue. Delicious bit of gossip though.

Barney is perhaps best known for his Cremaster cycle, and Bjork for her swan dress, erm vocal abilities. I’ve always been struck by how these unsteriotypical people, who seem very much outside of society’s narrow perscriptums, fulfill gender stereotypes.

Matthew Barney had a strong background in science and works rationally, methodically and precisely. The Cremaster cycle takes the cremaster muscle as the start of a biologically-based exploration of creation through a series of videos. Bjork, like her much of her singing, is emotionally-driven,intuitive, and wild. The New York Times captured this in a 2006 article:

“In person, they are sometimes strikingly different. Mr. Barney, 38, is friendly but detached and analytical, exuding a conceptual coolness that is reflected in his films…By contrast, Bjork, 40, who arrived alone for the interview in white rubber rain boots and a sweater with a knitted owl across the front, was animated and introspective. She said her music was always grounded in her life and her emotions…That often made collaboration with Mr. Barney a disorienting experience.”

For the record, I always liked the dress.