Page 4 out of 4.
No catharsis.
Let us now employ the Holistotron. Steel yourselves, humans.
Ids and superegos and fragile here and nows mediating between wound and aspiration. When are you outside, when are you inside? When is when, where is where? Humans with limited scope, short-sighted and myopic, probably for the best. The psychoarchitecture we surround ourselves with remembers everything but never tells anything but lies. Common houses we use and abuse and we expect them to extend the courtesy of privacy but there is nothing a human makes that doesn't become a human too. A growing resentment for what a city in its bare essence is, it shows in everything we do in these large grey buildings. We are not meant to stack, there is a hybris there, we are meant to stay to ground lest some think they are above some others. The existential 'penthouse suite' never amounted to anything more than to a scope of further, richer, cubically expounded despair.
And from broken, armless crosses, locusts.
-Helm
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11 comments:
Hi Helm!
I've been reading this blog for a little while because your work is mesmerising. I'm not much of a commenter, but this post feels like the surprise reveal at the end of a brilliant film and is irresistable for it.
Reading the fourth part, which I thought might explain a few things and didn't, still left me confused. It's quite the dramatic gesture when you put the pieces together.
I adore the Escherian reinterpreting of shapes, the insides impossibly turning out, the non-existant parallelogram, the clouds that look like big muscly arms...
Even though I'm not sure I 'get it', I'm still mighty impressed.
I have no words.
I've burdened myself with the assumption that you will, probably, never surpass this masterpiece and pray to prove me wrong, again and again and again and for ever.
There's a theme I can't explain; everything is ultimately about just talking to the dark, so to speak.
The last page is fearsome.
Once I thought that "locust leaves" meant "leave" as in to go away.
Lackey: I feel I confront a very real loneliness sometimes when I make some of these comics. I think it happens because I spend so much time on my own to finish one that the ingress mirrors darkly. To stark comparison, the 24hr comic that was made in pleasant company never goes into such unpleasantness.
Locust Leaves is also for me "locust is leaving" so yeah. Sometimes I also use the name LLeft. My friend Nick is LRight in my brain.
Otto: thank you very much for your kind words. This is not a burden for me as to have touched you in some significant way even once is more than I could ever hope for.
Car to Pol: first of all, I think I like your music. I will have to listen to it a few times more to tell but I'm intrigued. I also care for minimalist composition in the vein of Steve Reich or Glass and also for intelligently structured electronica like Autechre or Arovane or SND and so on and your music paints with these colors and some others too.
About 'getting it': do you feel some suspicion there is something more than what you got out of it? I never could understood this concept really.
The 'getting it' is of course surrounded by apostrophe's because the notion is a little absurd. I'm highly suspicious that you put in more layers of meaning (and hundreds of different aspects of the soul \obscure reference) than I can safely swallow and that I ate some layers that aren't there. Unless there's a context-lens through which everything magically makes sense, there really is no 'getting it' beyond that which you get.
Thank you so much for taking you time to listen to my music! In some part of my body I'm flattered by your ambiguity.
Well yes there are things in there that are real to me. But in a sense, them being there but cannot being seen directly is more 'the point' than that theoretical situation where you'd know all about my experience and would be able to decode the individual signifiers fully.
What I mean to say is, if my artwork awakens that thought of the other human, distant and different yet struggling to manifest and communicate in your personal space, that's a great thing. Much more important than making sense, which is also sometimes I'd say a numbing and automatic experience. "It makes sense" sometimes means "it is as I already had thought it would be" and although outwards validation is good too, it's not exactly artistic communication.
I didn't know of Olivia Tremor Control. Should I check them out? Bear in mind my tolerances for indie rock are very minimal.
Also, context-lens: if you read the rest of the blog fully, that's as close as you might get.
Yes, check out the Olivia Tremor Control if the following sounds appealing: it's the closest you'll get to a continuation of sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles.
Trying the 'get' things is a way of detecting obfuscation. It's comforting to know there is a 'point' being made as it helps us believe in a stranger's mastery of his art.
Because art is so much about communication, maybe all we want from art is to understand the artist, through his work to reach deeper into another's being than we would otherwise be able to. Art, if honest, is more than anything a direct result of the artist's history.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm ultimately more interested in you then in your art. We all live in our bubble of subjectivity, and honest insight into someone else's is precious, and tells us we're all in this together.
I agree with what you say and we also share the sentiment. Thank you for the discussion, Car to pol. I made the blog for words such as these.
I enjoyed this series although I didn't understand much of the text part, but as said , understanding isn't always what matters. Stop Making Sense! ( Well,not realy ). I have decided to focus the feelings and the aesthetic impact a piece of art invokes rather on some 'logical' sense, although very often I strive to construct a meaning out of everything make it fit my own perceptions and make it a part of me. I like 'abstract' but I think it's better when there is some piece of ground to step on instead of completely floating in chaos.
As for them music comments above, if you enjoyed Arovane ( Lillies being my favourite album from him) you will most definitely find some interest in Near The Parenthesis. I recommend this album named Near The Parenethsis - Of Soft Construction :: http://www.discogs.com/Near-The-Parenthesis-Of-Soft-Construction/release/1129134 ::
It's melodic emotional IDM/Ambient and I consider it a classic in the genre. Curious how you would find it though.
I had uploaded it @ rapishare recently to some friends and still have the link, so if you can't find it and want it just let me know here or @ msn.
:]
Oh thanks! I will definitely check them out. My favourite Arovane material is easily "Tides".
What you say about trying to find personal meaning while at the same time not completely floating in chaos, that's the fine line I want to go for too.
Thank you for your comment :)
Awesome. If I hadn't saw all four so quickly I would have liked to think I might have realised they were all physically connected as well as thematically!
Heh who am I kidding. Great stuff Helm.
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