Un Chien Andalou

The famous opening scene, the full moon and a woman’s eye being cut shocked me again.

But the most intersting scene was the one with ants at this time. In Dali’s painting, "The Persistence of Memory," ants were on the pocket watch. The pocket watch with ants was not meting but the other of clocks were melting away. The ants show immortality.

In the film, another scene, a male's hand caught and was being pushed in a door. The hand waved to come out of the door, and ants in the hand began to move away from the center of the palm. Here in this part of the film, the characters looked at the ants curiously with questioning eyes. It seems to me the ants show human being's struggles about life and searching the meaning of life.

Influenced by

1.Kunisada’s print, the Series of Famous restaurants of the present day, Untitled 15x9.75,1820

2.Whistler’s painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black N.1:
The Artist’s Mother, 1872

3.White’s photograph, The Mirror, 1912

The pictures have similarities in their works.
Using the perspective of Japanese prints suggests limited depth to emphasize the position of the subject in relation to the background. All of them have picture frames or windows at the top of the work and minimized pictorial elements.

Clarence H. White was an Amerian photographer and he was a member of Photo-Secession which was the name of a group of photographers that promoted the Pictorialism, a fine-art approach to photograph. Clarence White's The Mirrior chracterized by his use of light and nonphotographic effects - tried to make a photograph look like a painting.

Whistler was influenced by Japanese prints. White was influenced by both.
Artists are always aware of other artists and inspired by them and in turn inspire others.

Alice

Here is a film "Alice" which is depressing, helpless, dark and not very cheerful by a Czech film maker, Jan Svankmajer. It presents Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in a different way. Alice is exploring a creepy, confusing and bizarre environment. The environment could be the dark place in our mind or the place where we live now.



Another film by Jan Svankmajer, "Darkness/Light/Darkness"

William Anastasi

Time is an interesting concept; people try to give their lives a sense of order and try to exercise some control over their lives. “Out of Time” was a well-orchestrated group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, 2006. The exhibition raised the issue of the relationship between time and people. The show focused on variations on the theme of time. It was poetic and political.

For example, in William Anastasi’s 60 Minutes, time was used as an element of physics; it is rigid and linear.

In Anastasi's early work, Nine Polaroid Portraits of a Mirror, 1967, time divided into smaller parts and became an endless labyrinth. It shows the ironic tension of reality and nonlinear time.

Elliott Hundley

Elliott hundley had a show at Andrea Rosen Gallery 2007. Hundley uses multiple mediums merging sculpture, painting and photography. His works are shown in New Museum now.

Lesley Dill's Kite

Lesley Dill made a 10-foot handmade paper kite which is called Healing Man with a kite expert in 2006. The magazine Hand Papermaking commissioned Dill to make the kite.

A Dream of a Butterfly

...Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.
-Essay: Jorge Luise Borges, "A New Refutation of Time," 1946

I try to assimilate and fit in with my surroundings.
I want to become receptive and transparent.
But I still struggle with my new surroungings.
I am naver quite satisfied.

The story of Taoist Zhuang Zhou (Chuang Chou) (370-286 BC):
One of the most famous stories to be found in the Zhuangzi is the one found at the end of chapter 2: "Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things." (Basic Writings, p.45).

昔者 莊周夢爲胡蝶, 栩栩然胡蝶也 自喩適志與 不知周也.
俄然覺 則蘧蘧然周也 不知周之夢爲胡蝶與 胡蝶之夢爲周與?
則必有分矣. 此之爲物化.

"장자"의 〈제물론편(齊物論篇)〉에 나오는 이야기. 장자가 어느 날 꿈을 꾸었다. 나비가 되어 꽃들 사이를 즐겁게 날아다녔다. 그러다가 문득 깨어 보니, 자기는 분명 장주가 되어 있었다. 대체 장주인 자기가 꿈속에서 나비가 된 것인지, 아니면 나비가 꿈에 장주가 된 것인지를 구분할 수 없었다. 장주와 나비는 분명 별개의 것이건만 그 구별이 애매함은 무엇 때문일까? 이것은 사물이 변화하기 때문이다. 꿈이 현실인지 현실이 꿈인지, 도대체 그 사이에 어떤 구별이 있는 것인가? 장주와 나비 사이에는 피상적인 구별, 차이는 있어도 절대적인 변화는 없다. 장주가 곧 나비이고, 나비가 곧 장주라는 경지, 이것이 바로 여기서 말하고자 하는 세계이다. 물아의 구별이 없는 만물일체의 절대경지에서 보면 장주도 나비도, 꿈도 현실도 구별이 없다. 다만 보이는 것은 만물의 변화에 불과할 뿐인 것이다. 이처럼 피아(彼我)의 구별을 잊는 것, 또는 물아일체의 경지를 비유해 호접지몽이라 한다. 오늘날에는 인생의 덧없음을 비유해서 쓰이기도 한다. *네이버에서