art spiegelman

art spiegelman on Elsewhere by Graham Reid - browse 23 items of content tagged as 'art spiegelman'.

MOHOLY-NAGY AND THE BAUHAUS, PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION ESSAY (2003)

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy would argue that our eyesight was defective and limited. He would cite the pioneering 19th-century German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz, who told his students if an optician made a human eye and brought it to him he would say, "This is a clumsy piece of work".The punchline for Moholy-Nagy would be that we have a...

culturalelsewhere/1683/moholy-nagy-and-the-bauhaus-photography-exhibition-essay-2003/

FROM HELL BY ALAN MOORE AND EDDIE CAMPBELL (book review) 2002

That there's yet another version of Jack the Ripper in cinemas - From Hell starring Johnny Depp, and based on this graphic novel - is hardly surprising. The mysterious Jack has fascinated generations of film-makers for three reasons: location, location, location.Think London in the late 19th century: narrow cobbled streets barely illuminated at...

writingelsewhere/1688/from-hell-by-alan-moore-and-eddie-campbell-book-review-2002/

CHRIS MARKER (1921 - 2012): Film maker and photographer; Darkness at the break of noon

Few poems of the 20th century have as much emotional resonance and visceral power as T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men. Published in 1925 when the trench horrors of World War I had been fully revealed, the poem conjured up a philosophical ennui as Old Europe was trying rebuild out of ashes and despair. Book-ended by much-quoted lines -- it...

film/1766/chris-marker-1921-2012-film-maker-and-photographer-darkness-at-the-break-of-noon/

1812: NAPOLEON'S FATAL MARCH ON MOSCOW by ADAM ZAMOYSKI (2006) reviewed

Few people -- even American Republicans these days -- still believe the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq had much to do with containing terrorism, and various truths about the impetus for these events contend for attention. Doubtless, as with most enormous affairs in world history, time and access to more information from all sides will...

writingelsewhere/1844/1812-napoleons-fatal-march-on-moscow-by-adam-zamoyski-2006-reviewed/

THE BOOK OF THE FILM OF THE MAN (2006): From silver screen to serious stuff

You know how it is, you see Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea and you think, “Man, I should read that book. It looks kinda neat.” Or you watch Michael Jackson: The E! Hollywood True Story and decide you’d love to read a biography of that troubled and troublesome soul. Right now there is a glut of bio-flicks in cinemas...

writingelsewhere/1876/the-book-of-the-film-of-the-man-2006-from-silver-screen-to-serious-stuff/

PIRANESI'S ENGRAVINGS: Exploring the dark discomforts of Roman ruins

When the English author Thomas DeQuincey was describing nightmarish drug-induced visions in his early-19th-century autobiography Confessions of an English Opium Eater, he reflected on curious and compelling images he had never seen. They were a set of engravings by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and DeQuincey referred to...

culturalelsewhere/1883/piranesis-engravings-exploring-the-dark-discomforts-of-roman-ruins/

EGBERTO GISMONTI: An interview, illustrated by Dylan Horrocks

Some time in 1996 I did a phone interview with the guitarist Egberto Gismonti in advance of him appearing at an Arts Festival in Wellington which, for reasons of language and a poor connection, just didn't work out. There was no decent way to salvage the piece but then a thought occured. I contacted comic artist Dylan Horrocks whose work I...

jazz/2002/egberto-gismonti-an-interview-illustrated-by-dylan-horrocks/

NORMAN McLAREN, ANIMATOR: Making the screen come alive

When a history of animated film is written, it is possible that the largest chapter about how this genre emerged will go not to Walt Disney or Otto (Felix the Cat) Mesmer but to a modest quietly spoken Scots-born Canadian, Norman McLaren. McLaren’s whimsical films charmed and delighted audiences for nearly 50 years. He entered the...

film/2010/norman-mclaren-animator-making-the-screen-come-alive/

WRONG ABOUT JAPAN by PETER CAREY

The Japanese phenomena of manga (comics) and anime (animated films) have long commanded Westerners‘ attention: they are often violent and sexual graphic, some explore arcane myth, others are hopelessly romantic, and some are social documentaries. There have been numerous attempts at penetrating their layers of meaning (Frederick L...

writingelsewhere/2027/wrong-about-japan-by-peter-carey/

BARRY HUMPHRIES ON THE RECORD: The early life of an agent provocateur

At his first Pan-Australia Dada exhibition, Barry Humphries had packages printed up bearing the name Platitox, which allegedly contained a poison to put in creeks to kill the platypus, that much-loved, much-protected and playful native animal. “So why have an exhibit which offers a pesticide to destroy these animals? Because everything...

culturalelsewhere/2168/barry-humphries-on-the-record-the-early-life-of-an-agent-provocateur/

OLIVER JAMES INTERVIEWED (2004): If You're Happy and You Know It . . .

Five floors up in a swanky Auckland hotel room someone else is paying for, Oliver James should be happy enough, but he's concerned. He is grappling with the issue of happiness. Or more specifically the lack of it. James is asking a knotty question: why is there more unhappiness among the middle-classes of the developed countries than there...

culturalelsewhere/224/oliver-james-interviewed-2004-if-youre-happy-and-you-know-it/

ROGER CORMAN INTERVIEWED (2006): It's a gas. gas, gas-s-s-s

Roger Corman is the King of the B Grade Movie. He has directed and/or produced hundreds of films, claims he shot his cult classic Little Shop of Horrors (1960) in two days and one night, and usually brought in a movie in less than 10 days. He would often shoot sequences for two films simultaneously to save on costs and actors would also work in...

film/231/roger-corman-interviewed-2006-its-a-gas-gas-gas-s-s-s/

SIR STANLEY SPENCER ESSAYED (2003): Of angels and dirt

Sex fascinated Stanley Spencer. But so did angels, the transcendence of the spirit through faith, and life in his home village of Cookham where, as a child, he believed biblical events had taken place and been witnessed by local folk.This confluence of religious and rural influences, and his belief that sexual and spiritual desire were...

culturalelsewhere/233/sir-stanley-spencer-essayed-2003-of-angels-and-dirt/

DYLAN HORROCKS INTERVIEWED (2010): The graphic novelist as social commentator

At the launch of the long overdue local publication of his graphic novel Hicksville in Auckland recently, Dylan Horrocks said he grew up in two places: In New Zealand and in comics, and both were on the edge of the ‘real world‘. “This was stuff I thought after I finished Hicksville,” he says later. “It...

writingelsewhere/3005/dylan-horrocks-interviewed-2010-the-graphic-novelist-as-social-commentator/

HICKSVILLE, a graphic novel by DYLAN HORROCKS

In interviews Dylan Horrocks, the 43-year old New Zealand writer and artist of the graphic novel Hicksville, is candid enough to note that more people in his home country know about his book than have actually read it. That's because it was serialised in his own magazine Pickle over the years from '92 but when the final episode was due he was...

writingelsewhere/3006/hicksville-a-graphic-novel-by-dylan-horrocks/

AVATAR, a film by JAMES CAMERON (2009)

The day after I saw Avatar in a 3D preview screening I wrote a blog about it: here is a modified and updated version of that to coincide with the DVD release. Despite the naysayers who emerged after the initial rush of enthusiasm, I haven't changed my opinion that this a terrific film . . .  I didn’t think much of James...

film/3091/avatar-a-film-by-james-cameron-2009/

IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL: THE MYSTERY OF HENRY DARGER a documentary by JESSICA YU (Ovation/Southbound DVD)

When the reclusive and friendless Henry Darger died at 81 in Chicago in 1973 (after a brief period in the same poorhouse in which his father had died) his story really began. Shortly before his death his neighbours discovered that Darger's apartment was full of the most remarkable, sustained artwork. Over the course of his later life -- in...

film/3197/in-the-realms-of-the-unreal-the-mystery-of-henry-darger-a-documentary-by-jessica-yu-ovation-southbound-dvd/

COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL, a documentary by RON MANN (DV1/Southbound)

This 90 minute doco may look dated now -- and it is rather superficial in some respects -- but it offers a useful comicshistory.001 overview of the US major players from just before the Second World War (given scant attention) and into the more interesting, diverse and controversial period of the Fifties and mid-Sixties. Looked at from this...

film/3346/comic-book-confidential-a-documentary-by-ron-mann-dv1-southbound/

Elmer Fudd: The Fool on the Hill (1995)

There have been thousands of covers and interpretations of Beatles' songs -- from the refined (orchestral and chamber groups) to the ridiculous (dogs barking out She Loves You), from jazz and Hawaiian (by way of Belgium), from reggae to trip-hop and . . . well, then there were the Rutles (whose parodies were also covered). There are also...

fromthevaults/3406/elmer-fudd-the-fool-on-the-hill-1995/

PICASSO, THE FINAL MASK (2003): Into the void

In his last self-portrait -- a crayon on paper work done nine months before his death in 1973, at age 91 -- Pablo Picasso created a disconcerting image: the eyes wide as if terrified, the mouth taut and drawn tightly over the teeth, and the face gaunt with defined cheekbones quite unlike what his bowling ball face actually looked like. It is...

culturalelsewhere/363/picasso-the-final-mask-2003-into-the-void/

THE WORLD OF TINTIN. The timeless boy

Age has not wearied him -- and nor can it. The little adventurer with a distinctive flick to his forelock, oddly unfashionable plus-fours and rarely a change of clothes, is frozen in time. As he globetrots from the old Orient to the Land of the Pharaohs - and even the Moon - he looks as he ever did. Yet in 2009 he turned 80. However he is...

writingelsewhere/384/the-world-of-tintin-the-timeless-boy/

WIZARDS, a film by RALPH BAKSHI (1977, DVD 2011)

The animated, futuristic allegory Wizards by Ralph Bakshi stands as a highpoint of his fantasy work -- and at the time was a marked departure from the tough-edged, sometimes profane "street" stories he told in Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin (1972-75), which had more in common with the US underground comics movement of the...

film/3880/wizards-a-film-by-ralph-bakshi-1977-dvd-2011/

THE BEATLES' YELLOW SUBMARINE RECONSIDERED (2018): Fantasia for the pot generation

Movie producer Al Brodax said it began with a 3am phone call from John Lennon: Wouldn't it be great if Ringo was followed down the street by a yellow submarine?" That -- allegedly/mythically -- was the start and (aside from them knocking off a few songs for the soundtrack and a short appearance before the credits) the end of the...

film/442/the-beatles-yellow-submarine-reconsidered-2018-fantasia-for-the-pot-generation/

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