ryan mcginley (en.wikipedia), born 1977, is a new york city-based photographer, short film-director and artist. »ann (slingshot)« is a piece of his taken in 2007 (from the series »i know where the summer goes«): it shows a girl being thrown into the air with a jumping sheet. the interest of ryan mcginley is to portray aspects of youth, life and love to the viewer. heavily inspired by icons like larry clark, terry richardson and wolfgang tillmans, mcginley’s artistic language is to capture moments of detachedness. for his works, mcginley usually gathers different close friends of his together and travels with them to earlier on scouted locations in the free nature. because of this, he predefines what might happen during the field trips, but not, what actually occurs.
in 2001 he was – at the age of 24 – the youngest artist to perform a solo exhibition at whitney museum of american art, new york. in 2007 he was awarded with the young photographer infinity award. 2008 sees the publication of »ryan mcginley«, a collection of 47 pieces of work plus essays by music journalist vince aletti and sylvia wolf, curator of photography at whitney. the 196-pages strong, multicoloured book can be preordered casebound at amazon. a recent interview with larry clark and ryan mcginley by ulrike knöfel can be found here (in german).
sigur rós, » gobbledigook«, dir. arni and kinski, 2008
sigur rós (en.wikipedia) is a 1997 formed icelandic post rock-quartett. similar to bjork, sigur rós defined a genre of their own, combining elements of classical music with field recordings, custom made instruments and the intimate falsetto voice of singer jón pór birgisson. their influence on pop music and modern culture is undoubted. in late 2007, sigur rós released a beautiful photographed band documentation (»heima«), shot entirely on location in iceland. their seventh studio album »með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust« will see it’s release on june 23rd.
»gobbledigook« is the first single off this album, it is avaiable as a free mp3-download at sigurros.com. the video in question is directed by swedish direction duo arni and kinski. recent works of theirs include a documentary on icelandic electronic project gusgus, as well as commercials and music videos for sigur rós, dave gahan, placebo and editors.
the video for »gobbledigook« shows a couple of young, naked people in the free nature: beneath a lake, in the woods, climbing rocks and stones, jumping around the fireplace and taking baths in the sundown. the aesthetic is brilliant: youth, vulnerability and light heartedness are the key points of »gobbledigook«. we see people running, singing, drumming on trees, making out in the grass, falling from the sky, simply celebrating themselves. the photography of arni and kinski is brilliant and sharp, images are edited very fast next to each other, and though the tempo of the video seems very high, there are always some images, that have a very calming function. the music adds to the visuals: rhythmic handclaps, a straightforward bass-drum, soft guitar-pickings and soft vocals backed by hymnic chorals.
the opening credits of »gobbledigook« show the words »inspired by and in collaboration with ryan mcginley«, though it stays unclear, to which part sigur rós and/or the directors arni & kinski worked together with mcginley. the artist himself was also involved in »irregular regulars«, a portray of morrissey’s recent touring and the fans accompanying the moz. also, he shot a well-known commercial for puma clothing.
more information on the new sigur rós-album can be found here. i’d recommend to start watching this great video right now, wouldn’t that be nice?!
bobby van, »small town girl«, metro-goldwyn-mayer technicolor, 1953
bobby van (en.wikipedia) born december 6th, 1928, was an american singer, musical actor and »entertainer's entertainer«. in the 1953 lászló kardos-directed musical production »small town girl«, bobby van plays the character of ludwig schlemmer, whose »hippity hop«-dance performance with it's 8523 hops soon became very popular. more on »small town girl« is avaiable in the new york times' review.
goldfrapp, »happiness«, dir. dougal wilson, 2008
goldfrapp (en.wikipedia), is a 1999 formed british pop music duo concisting of singer alison goldfrapp and producer (i.e. »keyboarder«) will gregory. »happiness« is the second single off their fourth album »the seventh tree«, the video in question is directed by dougal wilson (videoville). recent works of his include videos for jarvis cocker, bat for lashes, four tet, lcd soundsystem and the latest goldfrapp-single, »a&e«.
in the video for »happiness« we see – once again – a kind of suburbia. alison goldfrapp is being shown in the opening scene, sitting on the stairs, singing. nice! but it's getting even better. a young man pops up, pops down, pops up and down, over and over until the end of the video. though it might seem as if it was being filmed in one shot, there are several cuts in the piece. but back to the jumping man again: he's dressed in a nice cut white suit, wearing white slippers and a black&white tie. the similarities in the imagery of »small town girl« and »happiness« are huge, dougal wilson's music video obviously is a deep hommage to the musical. we see alison consistently in different cameos (the nerdy girl at the bus stop, the rigid police officer, the flower girl), we see skipping children, bmx-bikes, the friendly postman, construction workers, a lovely old couple and – a dancing dog! crazyness!
cindy sherman, untitled film stills, »untitled #87«, 1981
cindy sherman (de.wikipedia), born january 19th, 1954, is an american film director, artist and photographer. »untitled #87« is a piece of her 1981 series of images, portraying sherman herself lying on the floor, on the couch, in bed, waiting beneath the telephone. »untitled« shows her preoccupied, distant and intimate at the same time, inspired by american centerfolds and b-movie aesthetics. find a selection of images of the »untitled«-series here, buy her book »centerfolds« there.
róisín murphy, »you know me better«, dir. jaron albertin, 2008
róisín murphy (de.wikipedia), born july 5th, 1973, is an irish musician, artist and former singer of pop duo moloko. »you know me better« is the third single off her second solo album »overpowered«, the video in question is directed by jaron albertin (videoville). recent works of his include videos for emily haines & the soft skeleton, death from above 1979 and maxïmo park.
albertin's clip for »you know me better« shows róisín murphy in a suburban surrounding, sporting (as always) fantastic, oppulent dresses – heavily inspired by cindy sherman (the pictures, not the clothing, obviously!). the use of light and shadow adds a very distant, intimate feel to the imagery. gorgeous!
you can read more about the single-release here, or maybe you would like to buy the 12"-vinyl of »you know me better« right away. but take your 03:47 minutes of time and watch this fantastic video first:
"die monks die waren einfach dieses blecherne oder stählerne geschnatter eines herbert von karajan!"
charles wilpund wenn man dann wilpsieht, wie er inmitten dieses dreißigköpfigen orchesters steht und die klassischen musiker zu dem fluxus-gezerre seiner brause-spots performen ließ, das ist doch äußerst imposant.
alright, my name's gary. let's go! it's beat time! it's hop time! it's monk time! and we don't like the army, what army, who cares what army? why do you kill all these kids over there in vietnam? mad vietkong! my brother died in vietnam! james bond, who is he? stop it, i don't like it!
wenn man dann aus solchen filmen, gezeigt in kleinen nischenkinos, wieder rauskommt, dann beginnt man einmal mehr pophistorie zu verstehen. ansatzweise zwar nur, aber verständlich genug, um die radikalität des gezeigten für die nächsten dreißig jahre mit sich herumzutragen. "control" kann da ja jeder...
würde man selbst nie tun: auf dem laufband in extase geraten
an tagen wie diesen, an denen der rest der welt in parks liegt oder im kühlen wasser sommer spielt, da hört sieht man lieber leslie feist "my moon, my man" singend durch eine schlecht beleuchtete abfertigungshalle laufen, als das eher sommerlich-bunte video zu 1234.
was mich nur verwirrt: wie kommt das vogelgezwitscher ins terminal?
was will einem google da eigentlich verkaufen? wieso lädt da eigentlich überhaupt noch jemand was hoch? der community, der vollständigkeit halber? ach bitte!
da draußen gibt es sovieleexzellentealternativen - sogar im eigenen haus - dass mir wirklich jemand den nutzen von youtube als qualitativ minderwertiger datenablage erklären müsste.
und wenn services wie imeem, die audio- und videostreaming auf einer plattform vereinen, zunehmend auch von medien (2) und labels (2) genutzt werden, welche killer-applikation muss dann youtube erst in der hinterhand haben, um diesen vorsprung anderer aufzuholen?
a video: sigur rós's »gobbledigook«
