Al Gebra: Folk Story
There is a new folk story among Kosovo Albanians about the man who followed his wife and children into the woods and to safety along a trail of torn-up family album snaps she had laid out for him.
Åsa maria mikkelsen + spunk - other sounds, other spaces
Å: I’m interested in experimenting with still images and sound. I have made a series of images that I would like to show you. It’s small-scale models of interiors in empty rooms. They simply crave for being filled with something! [Laughter] The cultural references depend on the viewer’s own taste, and I have emphasised the choice of carpet and wallpaper which to me is very English. M: I know how it is. I’ve been there... [Laughter] Å: I’ve photographed the rooms with a ray of light falling on the wall, to play with the conception of the deceptive photograph. M: It looks very good! Å: I wanted to explore where the flatness of the photograph starts and ends. Where’s the line between a two-dimensional surface and a sense of space? Or: what exactly is it that evokes a sense of space? M: The associative are made the moment you say “wallpaper” and “carpet”. Then my head quickly analyses it as “room”. It’s when your mind is connecting you start bringing in external elements. In music, there’s the notion of “absolute music” versus associative or narrative music. It means there’s an extraneous story that is being told. For example, when I’m composing sound, I’m bringing in recordings of sounds that you may know the origin of. That does something to the listener, and how the sounds are placed differently in the various contexts…those images are incredibly pure and beautiful. The colours...[Laughter].
Å: Yes, it has been important to me to play around with the cultural references. M: The carpet and the wallpaper together give such an oppressive feel to it. Å: It’s very much about taste. M: It’s about colours, as well. And there’s a vacuum cleaner ! Å: Well, lately I have started connecting it to the title of the first SPUNK album: Det eneste jeg vet er at det ikke er en støvsuger (The only thing I know is that it isn’t a vacuum cleaner). M: And there it certainly is… I think it is very well composed. I tend to think composition when I experience creative displays from other people. When I see your work in front of me, I relate to my knowledge on composition and how I work with music. It’s in many ways a mutual language. In both fields one could talk about form, contrasts, breaks/fractures, layers, spatiality and so on. In your rooms the light comes in and reveals the space. The stream of light is arresting the room the way it squeezes into it. I get the feeling that something else presses on. It’s a little bit uncomfortable. Å: Good. Then I have achieved what I wished to achieve. [Laughter]
Å: In SPUNK’s music there is a sense of human presence, but it’s rather dubious and undefined . I think that might fit very well with the strange atmosphere in my images. M: I like the absurdity in bringing the delicate and refined in your pictures together with ugly and filthy impro music. I think it will be incredibly cool. All samples are from the following records on Rune Grammofon: Spunk, The only thing I know is that it isn't a vacuum cleaner RCD2010 / 1999 Spunk, The very top of a bluepainted flagpole RCD2026 / 2002
A conversation between Åsa Maria Mikkelsen and Maja Ratkje (Spunk), Oslo , 1/9/04 Å: Criticaldictionary.com is a website soon being launched and its profile is being described as “an adventure in modern photography”. I like that- makes me feel this is going to be fun! M: Makes me think of the fairytale genre, and that’s connecting with something positive, as well! Å: The artist Rut Blees Luxemburg has made an opera together with the composer Paul Clark. The final piece will receive its world premiere at the ICA in October. A sample from this opera, Liebeslied, will have its first performance on the website. [See criticaldictionary.com 1, 2004 ] M: On the internet ! That’s incredible. It sounds very interesting, and it’s about time to open up the opera as a genre by including other creative people. Not just the regular designers, for example. New opera of today is hindered by a very conservative choice of singers. People tend to use traditionally trained opera singers. Why not use folk or rock singers or other types of singers? It’s often so modern and innovative in every way, but not when it comes to the choice of singers. I’m curious to see how this has been resolved in Liebeslied.
MARK BOLLAND: INTERVIEW
Did the Iraq War take place?
'The Iraq War' took place in front rooms all over the world, but this had little relationship to the invasion that was going on in Iraq.
