August 2011 Featuring

N-SPHERE a world behind curtains | august 2011 Featuring

Symon Chow

Rudolf Koppitz

Henry and june

vincent ducard

Gertrud Stein

s[k]een N-SPHERE AUGUST 2011 EDITORIAL TRANQUILIZERS

It is hot, very hot in these parts of the to perception in an entanglement of world. This is the hottest fraction of the senses. year in the northern hemisphere. It is the perfect moment to listen to Gertrud The night is long, and a quiet breeze slow- Stein's beats and feel the temperature ly moves the curtains. In Henry and June's rising even more. It is the perfect slice bed, a new dimension of sensuality is ex- of time and space to talk about sensual- plored. Reality is bent to will, but a will ity and eroticism and lascivious sweaty of masked resources, hidden affairs and skin while crickets fill out the silent night subtle liberation. However hot, nights are outside the curtains. bound to recline into a slight chill, creas- ing goosebumps on the skin. Time to step When lips part slightly, a faint breath behind a heavy door, feel the stifling air, can be heard. She slowly stands up dance your desires away. I do hope you from your bed and walks lazily, her skin are listening to Plastic Spoon right now. trailing in faint light. The sensitivity of vi- sion creates a connection with all other Ah, dawn. Dawn is here; cool, frail dawn, senses. Symon Chow's works depict invaded by a walk on marble side-walks, intensively the connection between high-heels in one hand and your garter breath and skin, remarkably modelling a in his pocket. A smile, a touch of the fin- story untold. On the other side of the gertips and the world bursts again into window, looking in with delight, the uni- hot sunlight, preparing its protagonists vel Thora verse of Vincent Ducard relates twilight for another parching night.

| 2 INDEX

August Abuse Chains & 2 2011 34 Showcase 66 Scissors Editorial Gertrud Stein Misinterpretations Tranquilizers Interview Of Silence The Centre Cannot Hold

glass Nox eYE 4 showcase 42 Showcase 70 teaser Symon Chow Vincent Ducard Quadreria United States France Romantico Seriale Italy

stone CLOCKWORK 20 showcase 56 Showcase Rudolf Koppitz S[k]een Czech Republic

moving Hanging 26 showcase 62 Cages The Naked Eye Contour Henry and June

3 | GLASS SHOWCASE sYMON CHOW

| 4 GLASS SHOWCASE sYMON CHOW

5 | The Persistence of Memory

Name: Artwork in 4 words: Symon Chow Passion Greed Personal Peace Location: What is inspirational for you: Brooklyn, New York. United States Memories, Stories, Perceptions, Occupation: Francesca Photographer and Graphic Designer Currently favourite artists: Definition of personal sphere: BD Miller, Matthew Larkin, EJ I guess it would be my drive to Bellocq, and all the underrated remember and be remembered, »The creatives on the internet Persistence of Memory«, if you would. Tools of trade: Also, doing something that matters to Fingers, Eyes, Grey Matter, and lots me is a big factor, because as most of of screen space my friends can tell you, I'm completely Current obsessions: useless if I have no interest in it. I don't Cameras (old and new), Chicken, and really consider the photos I take to The Little-Man be necessarily, »art"« To me they are Personal temptation: more like snaps-shots for me to put in Chicken my scrapbook to reminisce about at a later date, but if someone stumbles upon them and enjoys them as well, photo right | Symon Chow then all the better! Courtesy of the artist

| 6 7 | photo | Symon Chow. Courtesy of the artist

| 8 photo | Symon Chow. Courtesy of the artist

photo | Martin Bladh. DES - The Scrapbook19 | STONE SHOWCASE Rudolf Koppitz

| 20 STONE SHOWCASE Rudolf Koppitz

21 | But Eros drowned, drowned, heavy-half dead WIth tears

Name: Institut Wien, Czech Pictorialism, Rudolf Koppitz Pittsburgh Salons of 1926, 1927, 1928 Lived: Connections: January 4 1884 - July 8 1936 Vienna State Opera Dancers, Location: Tatyana Gsovsky, Tilly Losch, Freudenthal (Bruntál), Claudia Issatschenko Czech Republic Style: Occupation: Bewegungsstudie, Portrait Photographer, Graphic Artist Photography, Nude Photography, Influences: Clair-Obscur Technique, Pictorial Karel Novák, Viennese Secession, Processing (pigment, carbon, gum, and Symbolist Painting, Gustav Klimt, bromoil process of transfer printing) Alphonse Mucha, Ferdinand Hodler, Obsessions: Japanese Art, Constructivism Motion, Skulls, the Female Body, Associated with: St. Stephen's Cathedral (Wien), Photo-secessionism, Viennese Hungarian villages, alpine landscapes, Jugendstil, Wiener Werkstätte, Land und Leute, Agrarian Romanticism Diana Daia Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt Quote | Ezra Pound. Canto VII

| 22 photo | Rudolf Koppitz. 1926. Bewegungsstudie. Courtesy of the artist

23 | photo | Rudolf Koppitz. 1925. Composition Courtesy of the artist

| 24 photo | Rudolf Koppitz. 1928. The Brothers Courtesy of the artist

25 | MOVING SHOWCASE Henry and June THE NAKED EYE

| 26 MOVING SHOWCASE Henry and June THE NAKED EYE

27 | a series of mechanical gestures strictly linked with a plain biological process

There is a common mistake to be with no real insight. Copies. Because it made when approaching sexuality in a is not the act itself, it is a raw and pas- film, that of showing without suggest- sionless image. It is very easy to show ing anything. There are dozens of films two people kissing, but it is rather dif- containing wild sex scenes, shoving ficult to make this simple act be felt the viewer's nose in them, but few re- on a nearly organic scale. How many ally are bold ore inspired enough to kissing scenes have you seen and how be committed to their own material. many made you feel like you are the In most of the cases, we have movies one being kissed? And the examples SHADE that serve the viewer's basic needs could go on...

| 28

It is a difficult task to accomplish because then your whole film is no longer focused on a particular topic, or not even on some particular characters, but the intimate interaction in between them which means that somehow the whole films must take their course, otherwise the material might pull itself apart, since whatever is around or in between is only a mere distraction.

In Henry and June, this task is ac- complished: one cold care less about the story itself (or about some other historical or fictional context) once he is drawn into the film's sensuality. Like Bernardo Bertolocci's Last tango in Paris, this film works with contrasts (something that is raw and dirty and something that is frail and »clean« being one example). Of course, in this particular case, expressionism cannot be taken out of the list, which may seem a rather obvious aspect, but largely misunderstood by others. Because you can say that a porn film is expressionist in its own right, but the expressions depicted there, the image, is cheap and common, mostly because the directors choose to be practical in all the wrong ways. They rely on immediate (yet if - in consider- able cases -) pleasures into something the viewer may like, not it to something that viewer may feel.

In fact, expressions and gestures are, in some sense, gateways and they also can cover more obvious aspects because depicting something erotic is mostly like depicting something hor- rific: sometimes you are best advised to show less and suggest more. Many of today's films show everything and suggest nothing, so, what we are left with, at best, is a series of mechanical gestures strictly linked with a plain biological process. Not much pleasure in that, is it?

Amusingly, in one of Henry and June's scenes we are shown an ex-

| 30 31 | cerpt from Carl Theodore Dreyer's The same can be said about Yves La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc and I say Cloquet's character. »amusingly« because as in Dreyer's film Joan, the saint, is mirrored in Naked Lunch is a movie about alien- the suffering of Joan, the human, the ation taken literally. The character inner communication (and meaning) alienates himself, but so is the movie, between partners, may be very well fortunately not a in an unfavorable mirrored in the organic »course of manner, mainly because the film's events«. outlandishness does nothing to un- dermine anything, quite on the con- If Henry and June or Last tango in trary, some of its aspects would not Paris use a simple artifice of con- work otherwise, not even the sexual trasts and movements to unveil an framework (remove the outlandish- emotional world, Peter Greenaway's ness and none of this would sustain Pillow Book takes a more »abstract« itself). approach. Here we have the link between the sexual act and the process In Crash there is an even more organ- of body calligraphy. It is apparently a ic approach, more in the vein of cult more distant approach because most favorites such as Tetsuo. Here, there of the characters' insights are not is an interesting linkage between the shown because they are of no inter- intensity and violence of a car crash est. There is no process of »discov- and the raw intensity of a sexual act. ery« (the mere act of two people un- After all, leaving the physical aspects dressing one another can be called behind, the sound of broken bones a process of discovery), here, in this may be seductive in its own right as aspect, everything is shown (the two it may be the idea of symbiosis be- people ARE already naked), but this tween metal and flesh, but this is an time one has a blank form he has to already visited topic. fill (the calligraphy theme). Where one discovers, the other summons Of course the list can continue with and, in the end, partially offers a films such as In the Realm of Senses, translation (Julio Medem's Lucia Y Lo 9 1/2 weeks or even Eyes Wide Shut, Sexo works pretty much in the same each of them having their own pat- manner, less the summoning part, terns and ideas, but I leave you, dear more the translation part). reader(s), to discover them... with your own eyes. Another interesting approach is presented in two of David Cronene- photo | Screenshots. Henry and berg's films: Naked Lunch and Crash. June. Courtesy of the artist The first choice seems very peculiar, I know and in some respects it may be. But strange as it may be, here we have the same act translated in mutations. It is not unveiled here, but described (remember the Muja- hedeen typewriter scene) and then fleshed out. Not even the Interzone boys or are »unveiled«. It is again the use of expressionism that does the trick: Kiki, for example. His face and voice are doing everything so we do not need any additional descriptions.

| 32 33 | ABUSE SHOWCASE gERTRUD sTEIN

| 34 ABUSE SHOWCASE gERTRUD sTEIN

35 | 80’s as a Mirror counterpart image of everything that sucks nowadays. That’s Gertrud

:: Gertrud Stein is a relatively new :: For the moment, there is only one project in the electro/new wave scene. person behind it, also for the live How did it come into being? shows. Is this set-up ideal for what you Gertrud started it in my bedroom have in mind, or do you want to ex- with the cover of Tanze Samba mit pand it in the future? mir, after the unearthing of my old Well, Gertrud is a bit like a retro fu- post-punk tapes following a particu- turistic folk singer... Think of Tracy larly cheesy disco night. It has also Chapman in a spaceship, i.e. I have been suggested it might have been a the computer and synths instead of reaction to the artistic concept of the the guitar. So Gertrud basically sings DIANA DAIA band named Nouvelle Vague. whatever comes to her mind when-

| 36 photo | Gertrud Stein by Aurélie Genoud-Prachex. Courtesy of the artist ever and however she needs to say it. process on your songs? that’s thrown at us. I am actually most That leaves little room for someone I am going to disappoint you: I didn’t happy when I am sitting quietly in a else – particularly if this someone know much about Gertrude Stein field, somewhere in the green, away else were to write lyrics for example. when I chose the name. It actually from the city and the noise. But Gertrud collaborates on occasion Of course I also have my little cocoon with other people. She is currently of Scandinavian cinema, and movies trying to convince a friend to come with a surreal touch, of listening to and play the ukulele for the next »There is drama on BBC, and the music I like. gig. People are welcome. All, except Mostly 80’s stuff... some classical, drummers. some foreign stuff... What inspires me so much most is actually some kind of longing :: While seeing one of your live perfor- for better things, it’s a feeling. mances in Berlin, an instant thought regarding the aesthetics was the film stupid :: Gertrude Stein also coined the term Liquid Sky. Was that a conscious »lost generation« referring to the con- choice? How do those visual elements dition of artists in XXth century Amer- fit together with your project? music ica. Do you believe we could talk I have never seen the aforemen- about a »lost generation« nowadays tioned movie, except for the little bit in relation to music, and if yes, what that’s on Youtube. The fashion show. around. does it gaze at and what does it op- I like it. I like the aesthetics. But the pose? music is dreadful. In connection to your project: why No, the inspiration to the video band Or the interest in Modernism? How have comes from the Jilted John video Modernist writings/artworks influ- on TOTP. And I’ve actually robbed enced you through the making of your the idea from a friend who had his conversely first album? flatmates dancing on a video while Not really. My music doesn’t deal he was playing guitar. I thought that with this. I don’t refer to it. looked awesome. Oh and stupid play- music that back performances on TV as well, :: You perform both in English and where the instruments don’t match German. Would you in a sense consid- with what you hear. I think that always takes itself er German more »effective« for elec- makes great TV. tro/new wave related tracks because And anyway, having no band mem- of its rhythm flow or maybe simpler bers I thought it would look funnier to too serious structures? have Gertrud and a false band play- Simpler structures in German?!!? No ing rather than just watch me fumble English has easier structures I think... some buttons and dials on a synth. I for its own But it’s true that I like the German can’t sing and play at the same time rhythm... It works well with some anyway, so that would have sounded songs... DAF wouldn’t work in anoth- awful. good« er language. English is my thinking language... my :: Interesting name reference for your comes from a song on an album by intimate language... I don’t know, it’s project. Gertrude Stein asserted at Jeff and Jane Hudson. They have hard to explain. some point that »everyone gets so a song called Gertrude Stein. I just It just comes to my mind in one lan- much information all day long that liked the sound of it, and the fact that guage or the other. I have tried trans- they lose their common sense.« She al- Gertrud is a totally silly name…! Now lating stuff sometimes from one lan- most seems to have predicted the in- I have read a few of her things. But I guage to the other but it just doesn’t formation overload we get nowadays. don’t refer to her writings at all. work, so I just leave it in whatever lan- How receptive are you to the music, I have very little concern for the pre- guage it comes to my mind. Occasion- film and media surrounding you? vailing trends in contemporary music, ally one song will start in English and What influences you during the work in particular the mainsteam output finish in German... whatever.

| 38 photo | Gertrud Stein by Sieloj Ramu. Courtesy of the artist

One language I will never sing in minimal electro etc. I would put hours become more powerful onstage, in a though is French. into polishing a snare drum sound for live a setting? example... Now I don’t give much shit It’s best listened to while standing :: Regarding your live performances, about it anymore... Of course I like atop a collapsing dam. you seem to be focusing on creating it when a track sounds nice, but if it effective minimal sets for both the au- doesn’t, then it doesn’t... :: Besides doing music, you are also a dio setup and the visuals. What instru- DJ, what interesting events have you ments do you generally use? :: Concerning your visuals – how do been involved in so far and how pliant I have a couple of retro synths, drum- you usually make a video and what are you concerning your playlists? Do boxes and a computer. I have a com- do you use as material/setting during you have some tracks that you enjoy plete studio... but I have given up do- the process? spinning no matter the event? ing most music from home... Most of Well I had just one month to do the I just want to be able to play the stuff the ideas happen under the shower video, so I bought a camera, and we I like. Sounds like a very basic de- anyway, so by the time one gets to went to a friend's place, covered the mand, but it’s not always as simple to the studio it’s gone. It’s a lot more walls with black curtains, and went implement as it sounds. practical. filming... Very very basic really. I then Regarding tracks I enjoy playing, I And I don’t care about good mics etc spent a few long nights editing in my must admit that I have this taste for anymore... I used to care a lot about room. Schlager that has the unfortunate sound quality – recording etc... I am a tendency to manifest itself after a trained sound engineer and I used to :: Would you say that Gertrud Stein is few drinks, no matter what musical produce electronic music like techno, ideal for an indoor listening or does it direction the night is. That has some-

39 | photo | Gertrud Stein. Courtesy of the artist times caused a few strange looks. But it is mind numbing... There is so much new romantics. The 80’s as a mirror in the end they were all dancing away. stupid music around. Or conversely counterpart image of everything that Gertrud knows what’s best! music that takes itself too serious for sucks nowadays. That’s Gertrud. its own good ... :: On your official myspace page, I quite enjoyed the electroclash :: I think we’re witnessing a resurgence you've included: »Gertrud is happy thing... but I suspect that many were of the 1990’s in music, growing espe- to play anything pre 1988. Gertrud is also doing just their version of the cially in the self-entitled witch house/ happy to play anything post 2001«. poser thing by copying what they per- ghost drone scene – many musicians How come the gap between 1988 and ceived as being only a pose... name- seem to have adopted colourful 90s 2001? Would you also draw a parallel dropping Depeche Mode because it aesthetics in their projects. What’s between some of the music released sounded cool to do so... your take on that and do you think it during the 80s and post-2000? I felt more love for the posing than could become a point of interest for Well most of the music was shit, love for music in that scene. Very nar- Gertrud Stein as well? wasn’t it... What did we get? Losers cississic... and not in a funny way. Well, I have already uttered my mind in pyjamas unearthing the rock’n’roll Now a few years have passed and to the 90’s. poser thing... or doing the rap poser you don’t see or read anything about thing... The great blossoming of the the electroclash people anymore, so questions | Diana Daia bimbo. It’s all shit. It even gets worse their music has become quite enjoy- answers | Gertrud Stein during the 00’s... In the beginning able. of the 90’s we did get early techno. Gertrud is a bit my impersonation of That was fun at least. And I liked the the ideal 80’s... The 80’s of the awe- whole Madchester Britpop thing... some music, the amazing haircuts, What now? Just trying to think about the pointy shoes, the make-up, the

| 40 photo | Gertrud Stein by Sieloj Ramu. Courtesy of the artist NOX SHOWCASE vincent ducard

| 42 NOX SHOWCASE vincent ducard

43 | Name: vincent ducard Location: Caen, France OCCUPATION: independant filmmaker, photographER WEBSITE: vincedrac.deviantart.com dai.ly/pgGCbF

| 44 photo | Vincent Ducard. Von Harden II. Courtesy of the artist photo | Vincent Ducard. Alex Wants To Escape. Courtesy of the artist

| 46 photo | Vincent Ducard. Von Harden. Courtesy of the artist

47 | photo | Vincent Ducard. Nuke Them First. Courtesy of the artist

| 48 photo | Vincent Ducard. My Reflection Dirty Mirror. Courtesy of the artist

49 | photo | Vincent Ducard. Claire. Courtesy of the artist

| 50 photo | Vincent Ducard. Asleep Reflection. Courtesy of the artist

51 | photo | Vincent Ducard. Image D'un Souvenir Courtesy of the artist

| 52 photo | Vincent Ducard. Deviation Courtesy of the artist

53 | photo | Vincent Ducard. Secretion De L'Esprit Courtesy of the artist

| 54 photo | Vincent Ducard. Chemical Angel Courtesy of the artist

55 | CLOCKWORK SHOWCASE s[k]een

| 56 CLOCKWORK SHOWCASE s[k]een

57 | THE SYMBIOTIC UNION BETWEEN THE GARTER AND THE LEG

By the time the world has seen its exterior, it carries over sensations, it first elastomer, a long lasting entity shapes the feel of object touched. On has been centrifuged in the midsts of an abstract level, skin is to be shown, sensuality and depravity. The skin, as to be used as a defence mechanism, personal as it gets, is and will always to be transformed into the erotic sym- be the last layer between two bodies, bol that it needs to be. The more one the most unattainable and desired ob- steps into the depths of s[k]een (seen ject to be touched, the one thing that skin), the more meanings and shapes is protected by garment. The freedom and fantasies are possible. of looking, however, is infinitely vast, as skin becomes not a tactile goal anymore, but a visual stimulus for ages to What patch of skin would you like come. to touch? Where does your mind go when you embrace your lover, seeing On a biological level, skin is what sepa- your hand moving lower and lower? vel Thora rates a living, breathing body from the It's not, ahem, you know, that place.

| 58 photo | Miriam Hopkins. 1931. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. Screenshot It's the upper leg, the inner skin of the garter belt? What is so enticing which is always sought, always elusive about it? The road: the road to no- and so hard to come by. That part of where, the road to perdition, the path the leg is the one embracing hips, the of no return, the stairway into the light. one that is most felt, the one that can Ask your partner to wear a garter belt, be shown outside carnal circumstanc- watch it closely strung on the edge of es and the only one that can provoke the stocking, pulling slightly, vibrating these images without even a hint of at each move. Watch it draw the con- depravity. tour of the hips, creating ripples in it's path, both wave and particle, much Along the ages, that visible portion of like light. Take a deep breath, a very the leg has moved higher and higher deep breath. until reaching the inner thighs. Start- ing from simple bows tied to the leg, Garters and garter belts alike are vi- and reaching towards today's intri- sual entities. They breathe in gazes cate designs, the garter has been the and breathe out fantasies. They draw instruments of s[k]een, the voice of in glances and generate those minute hidden thoughts, the gateway to un- electrical impulses that feed hungry named fantasies. minds. The seen, the sin, the skin, the s[k]een, the malleability of senses be- A means to purely hold up the stock- comes pregnant, like suddenly having ings, for both men and women, gar- one's retina caressed. Some psycho- ters have evolved into an attractor of tropic drugs, like LSD or psilocybin gazes, a symbol of the upper thighs, mushrooms, are able to mix up exter- a mark of femininity in all its glory. nal stimuli, making one smell sounds Pointing to the cold, grizzly facts, the and hear colors and whatnot. Howev- garter, and later on the garter belt, are er, the hallucinations pass quickly. Un- mere articles of clothing. Once use- like s[k]een, invasive substances that ful, nowadays they carry a mirage, a are unnatural to the body are more of world within itself. With origins well a temperamental tomcat that is being into the deep forgotten past, garters taken to the vet for castration, than a were usually made of a heavy mate- comforting long lasting apperitive of rial and tied below the knee in order perception. Once skin is meant to be to keep stockings form falling. Up un- revealed, yet lavishly concealed, the til the roaring twenties, when garters sky is the limit. became an object of subterfuge, a weapon of the new-woman, a place There is a fine art in wearing a garter. to hide contraband flasks or an entity There is an acquired talent in show- of emancipation. Together with the ing skin. There is a subtle sensuality in invention of artificial silk, stockings seeing skin. There is a symbiotic union became more accessible, and so did between the garter and the leg. Lift the girdle and the garter belt, halfway your skirt, let my eyes touch you... through the 20th century. Not different in purpose, the girdle is constrictive in nature while the belt allows freedom of movement.

In a way, the garter closes a circle, captures the leg adding undefined sensuality to it. The garter enslaves, possesses, transforms and regener- ates towards s[k]een. But what about

| 60 photo | Anonymous author. Originally published in LIFE.

61 | HANGING CAGES Contour

| 62 HANGING CAGES Contour

63 | The bottom of the pit still holds fragments

Again the stream of my words lies night. It inspires the stories dormant choked six feet under, and the only beneath your skin and divine interven- clue of its former existence is an an- tion at your doorstep keeps the sanity noying groan than sticks impenetrably watching over the last empire of care- to my ears bringing the madness upon fully crafted imagery. Ever wicked tools me. I still feel drained and incapaci- of your trade disappear briefly beyond tated beyond belief and repair, inca- the candle light.« pable of stepping outside both the wreckage of my flesh and that of my But now you leave. And even if I did consciousness. not realize, or maybe I’m just deluding myself again, for I do not know what is »Some would say that you are the ar- real and what is not anymore, the bot- chitect of your misery, and that just tom of the pit still holds fragments of might be true. Not that I want to be … something … something that causes another voice in the horde of judging the putrid walls of the soul to bleed bastards scrutinizing every frame of again. And just when I was getting your colorful yet gray days, but there’s the feeling that things were starting still a higher understanding of all this to go right. Just when I finally turned that still eludes you.« »Yes… here comes my head away from the endless line the spiritual approach of mediocrity. of exterior and altered creations But I still want to wonder the streets in passing before my eyes, that cloud the dark and gaze upon my distorted my judgment and keep me inert and reflection in the concrete that will one powerless. And I scream in pain and day cherish and nurture my remains. shriek inside with every image that I’m I still want to plunge into the nothing- doomed to see. ness of the stars and search the lost touch of the god that once protected »Good thing you don’t need to get bahak b me.« »Indeed a subject to study late at out… right?«

| 64 photo | Bahak B. Courtesy of the artist

65 | CHAIN ZCISSORS

| 66 CHAIN ZCISSORS

67 | Vel Thora | Misinterpretations of Silence. Courtesy of the artist Diana Daia | The Centre Cannot Hold. Courtesy of the artist EYE TEASER QUADRERIA ROMANTICO SERIALE Italy

n-sphere magazine | ISSN 2068 – 620X Sfere.ro © 2007-2011 all rights reserved. The reproduction of all material presented in the N-Sphere is restricted. The photographs and portfolios are property of the respective artists. For editorial matters, please contact the gallery. graphics &layout: diana daia | www.in-circles.org words: vel thora, bahak b, shade, diana daia contact: [email protected]