Wednesday 10 July 2013

The Artist Unleashed: SLAP ME IN THE FACE by Dan Holloway

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14 comments:

  1. Dan's word 'slap' here reminds me of the longest word in Andre Breton's statement 'Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all'. And as he indicates, that convulsive slap-in-the-face quality in art births not just beauty but also connection and truth, which are just as elusive.

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    1. couldn't have said it better!

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  2. Yes! I agree wholeheartedly with Dan, for me there is a sense of selfishness with my writing as I write for me, but by doing that I also offer myself, open and unashamed, to readers to delve in and be with the writing. So by being selfish I end up being selfless, open and emotive. Everything art can be and so can writing if writers are prepared to take the risk and be their self and not the voice that is felt needed to sell books. As Dan says that voice we have all read and will never finish reading, what we haven't read is your voice, my voice. Let's keep those voices alive.

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  3. I wonder if part of the problem is that people feel that they have to construct themselves - I was going to say that this was a peculiarly online phemomenon, but of course it isn't, it's always been with us - whereas actually the truth ios they have to deconstruct in order to arrive at themselves - adding just further obscures, taking things away until we are left with ourselves is what is needed but I think the reason so few look that task in the eye is the very real fear that at the end there will be nothing there

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    1. I think that is a major part of the problem, when many of us look at constructing our identity we look externally for materials/ideas and not internally. This I feel is also encouraged by peer pressure, media, society. To be individual is deemed odd. So yes there is then a lot of fear in deconstructing that identity even so, I believe, we know that it is the right thing as there is the sense that it doesn't fit and there is 'real me' that does fit. It is if/when we hear that sense of fit beyond the fear of nothing that we can change. Then when that deconstruction is captured in writing/art/music you have original art and not just another well told story. You also have more than nothing when it comes to yourself. Though from my experience it is far from an easy ride and is is for life.

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    2. "when that deconstruction is captured in writing/art/music you have original art and not just another well told story."
      Perfectly put

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  4. Loved the voyage through your landmark moments, Dan. It doesn't so much matter what they are as what they meant to you - always the hallmark of an original thinker.
    Loved your description of the Rothko moment - and of course Veronique. I believe I first noticed you in the Wide Wild Web because you wrote a post about it. It has that perfect haunting quality without doing too much. I also know the soundtrack by heart.
    This is what I value most about the artistic life - though I guess I write more conventional stories than you. I enjoy paintings, stories, music and film for what they mean to me. If they've really hit hard, I then have to work out how to pull someone else there.

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    1. It's one of the most perfect soundtracks to any film - and I love the way Kieslowski and his composer Zbigniew Priesner continue to play upon the musical themes in Three Colours: Blue by referencing the fictional composer van den Budenmeyer as the composer of the works from Veronique. I love the visual way he conveys music as well, in both films - nowhere more perfectly illustrated than in teh magical scene with the marionettes

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  5. Written in numbers? Now that I have to see.

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  6. Curious about the book written in numbers. Sounds like an artistic experiment. Art has its own rules.

    Interesting post, Dan!

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    1. Thank you. It's possibly as much art as lierature, although it is very much *about language* - specifically about the fact that language distances us from ourselves, and that we need some way of thinking about ourselves that is not linguistic but nonetheless has a coherent narrative

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  7. I feel inspired now!

    Will my vignette also be considered for the journal?

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    1. I can't answer the second, that's for Jessica, but thank you!

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“I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.” ~John Mellencamp

“Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace” ~Judith S. Marin

“I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.” ~Paul McCartney

“I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.” ~Charlotte Bunch

“Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth.” ~Sally Kirkland

“We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.” ~Katherine Harris