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Wednesday 5 December 2012

Ad Marginem / Men and Women


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Men and women (1950s group): photographer unknown, n.d.; image by Christian Montone, 9 December 2009 (collection Christian Montone)




One man and one man

One man and one woman
One woman and one woman
One man and many men
One woman and many women

Many women and one man
Many men and one woman
Many men and many men
Many men and many women
Many women and many women

Endless complication
Of entangling interrelation
Between human beings
Meaning absolutely nothing
To two cats walking on snow






Leafy and Saphiri, searching for Asian: photo by Zenera, 24 January 2007


Men and women (1969 photo party): photographer unknown, n.d.; image by Christian Montone, 21 December 2009 (collection Christian Montone)


Les Grandes Baigneuses /The Large Bathers (detail): Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), 1900-1906, oil on canvas, 210.5 x 250.8 cm (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

 

The Bathers (detail): Paul Cezanne, 1894-1905, oil on canvas, 127 x 96 cm; image by mbell1975, 11 May 2011 (National Gallery, London)


Sept Baigneurs (Seven Bathers): Paul Cezanne, c. 1900, oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm; image by Nate (ngclark), 1 October 2010 (Leopold Museum, Vienna)

Baigneurs (Bathers, small plate [Bathers in Landscape])

Baigneurs (Bathers): Paul Cezanne, 1897, lithograph, 24.13 x 28.91 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

File:Paul Cézanne 011.jpg

Bathers: Paul Cezanne, c. 1870, oil on canvas, 33 x 40 cm (private collection)

The brilliant young international avant-garde-with-a-difference artist Krisztina Dányi (aka morningdeer) has set this poem to music, and performs it with with her own vocal under the title Ad Marginem

15 comments:

TC said...

It was a big kick for this senior citizen when Krisztina came calling with a polite request to do up this poem musically.

Her song title Ad Marginem comes from the Paul Klee painting you will have just seen on that sound link page.

The piece is the third track in Krisztina's brand new album The Four Painters.

If you're into surprising fun, check out this bit: Krisztina Dányi, live at TEDxYouth @ Budapest, January 2012

In this TED show Krisztina creates a group chance composition employing "Serendipity" (the one English word you will hear her say here, and a perfect choice at that), interactivity (audience volunteers as instrumentalists), a rainbow-hued Slinky, an autoharp, a skillet, a chopstick, a maraca, a guitar and a synthesizer, in an amazing feat of musical multi-tasking. When the sound system in the hall breaks down eight minutes into the action, Krisztina demonstrates the stage aplomb of a veteran trooper. TEDxYouth maybe, but a lot of poise to go with the extremely sophisticated chops(ticks).

It is the good fortune of the world that Krisztina has released a torrent of terrific music under her stage name morningdeer. Her Youtube videos are wonderful for many reasons, not least the relentless participation of (upstaging by?) her friendly little black & white dog. A few select samples:

Goldman

And a bit more recent:

Closer (Nine Inch Nails cover)

Krisztina's Youtube channel is here.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Great! You're now a star on the Budapest Lo-Fi Scene (as well as everywhere else)! What a line-up from the 1950s men and women photo to the two cats to the 60's party scene to all the bodies of those Cézanne bathers.


12.5

grey whiteness of fog against invisible
top of ridge, drops falling from branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

distribution of mass, space
with respect to being

which system of coordinates,
body observed, motion

grey white clouds reflected in channel,
shadowed green slope of ridge above it

Susan Kay Anderson said...

Cool, cooler, coolest!

Anonymous said...

cats behaviour is more foreseeable...

TC said...

Thank you Steve, it seems I have at last found my niche, I hope.

Also I do hope Saphiri and Leafy have found Asian by now. Five years is a long time to be lost in the snow.

TC said...

(Talking of multi-tasking... How can I have forgot to mention the thumb piano?!)

Mose23 said...

Music and poem are a damn good match. All those permutations for that smooth feline indifference.

Thumb pianos should always be at the forefront of our minds

TC said...

Yes!

And giving away one's age yet again... Krisztina's work, while absolutely contemporary and a total one-off, has triggered this unwonted nostalgia-for-bizarre-instrumentation jag.

TC said...

And here's a full view of Paul Klee: Ad Marginem, 1930.

tpw said...

Beautiful piece. I loved it.

Anonymous said...

Me and you,
you and him,
him and her,
us and them,
we keep score,
love as war,
Valentine's Day.

—James Taylor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-5DXLgGyFM)

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

You and Krisztina together--two cool cats, man--and that's no snow job.

TC said...

Terry, Joe, Vassilis, many thanks for sharing our humble permutational marginalia.

Nin Andrews said...

I've always thought people must seem so stupid from the animal point of view . . . Or maybe any point of view.

TC said...

Nin,

The older I get, the truer that seems (and I would not plead personal exceptionalism).

Our cats regard us as their servants, and with this attitude comes a clear impression of superior intelligence.