COINCIDENCE OF MEMORY |
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Perceval Press 2002, 2003 Perceval Press: In this beautifully illustrated book, the artist combines photographs, paintings, and poems that span his artistic output from 1978 to 2002. |
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FACTS AND TIDBITS
AV. Is coincidence of memory the same thing as deja vu? CONTENT:
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With thanks to Pilar (Perez), Michele and the Lorax, a poem by Immanuel Kant at the end.
COMMENTS:
EXCERPTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD AT THE FARTHEST OUTPOST MESSAGE BOARD
Orpheus, posted: Aug 09, 2002
(..) Now a poet at heart, I have to say that what I find fascinating is the poetry. The more I read, I feel as though I can really see the wordsmith learn how to wrap his fingers securely round the ephemeral words, so that he can feel them, taste them, touch them. But what makes the book truly special for me is the tracery that brings photograph/visual and words together. Ocean and Taupo being the most vivid example to come to mind. (..)
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 09, 2002
Yes, the thing that fascinates me about First Light is the number of people and times that he seems to be talking to and about. He slips in from different pasts and they're a slight blur... mild, so that you can't tell the boundaries, but you know the boundaries are there...
It also seems like a pent-up chain of thoughts that have been released. Allowed expression... Does that make any sense? He rushes into and out of images, and in each and every image, he is the silent one. He is the one nursing his wounds alone and here it seems as though he lets it all come out.
So maybe, in that sense, it's not to more than one person, in spite of the feeling initially that it is. Perhaps he relives the past hurts when he recounts them to the "little god" (love that phrase, brings tears to my eyes) in his effort to shield the little loved one from the flame?
ElrondsMom, Posted: Aug 09, 2002
Yes I agree, it reminds of some conversations I have with my mom when she says that sometimes she felt guilty for not protecting me enough, but that she felt I had to experience life for myself which unfortunately sometimes involved getting hurt and at that time I didn't understand why she was doing that... but with time it was clear... So I do think "memory" plays a big part in this poem.
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 09, 2002
It's a brilliant title and I would be very curious to know whether it was an editorial decision to name the book Coincidence of Memory or Viggo's. Whoever came up with the title, they're plain brilliant. Especially when you consider that they've included poems from the now completely lost Ten Last Night and poems from as far back as 1979.
Subtle changes (like the tense in the last line of Ocean) and the presentation with the pictures, they make such a difference. I love the fact that the books seems to tease us with these elusive connections between pictures and between picture and poetry... like Ruth and Roma flanking Wooed Her Like a Dolphin. Coincidences and memories...
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 12, 2002
I was struck between the obvious disparity between the stark nude branches, white and stiff, and the lush and vivid green of the bush. It's obvious, I know, but that contrast struck me. The entire deadness of Ventura #2 with the reflections on the metallic surface, the leafless branch, the blueness of the light, the gravel (of a carpark?) glimpsed in the background -- its so... lifeless in comparison. And yet it's there, that light... I wish I knew what Ventura #1 is!
Then I wonder, is Ventura above Chaco the first Ventura? And once again I'm struck by the starkness of lush life and metallic car. This time more so, because they've been yoked together. The light on the blue that is so metallic and unreal comes to animated, violet life in this clear sunshine that isn't strong enough to be 'yellow' but is pale enough to purple into shadow the stalks. Yes, I remember that interview as well (I think it was the series of questions that he answered for antipodean viggophile), and I rue the fact that I've seen neither south america nor NZ!!
Castro's... the unsurety that crusts this poem lodges itself in my throat. I love the ending; it's a beautiful twist. Till the waiter barges in, I was so sure that she was sitting there, at the table, as unsure as him. But she isn't. And in a strange way, he isn't there either, is he... he's gone as October. October when he was born, October when winter/summer is setting in (depending on where you are).
I think that's what I enjoy most about the things that he's created in NZ. It's another perspective, often diametrically opposite. Months, time, sunshine... Everything happens differently. You lose old bearings and anchor yourself in a natural rhythm that has a distinct beat, distinct from everything you've known before. He's known before.
Oh, another personal favourite photograph from Coincidence Of Memory: d. don't ask me what it is about the photograph because I really don't know. but the folds, the bruise-coloured shadows, and the bright almost fuchsia-esque red against the utter blackness... I love it.
Errantvine, Posted: Aug 12, 2002
(..) The incredible indigo/violet/blue (what is it?) of both Ventura's link them together for me and the contrast between the natural rainforest Ventura against the unnatural, cold, invasive and corporate blue of Ventura #2 stark contrast. Yet both hold a beauty for me... It's the light!!
I have never been to the Northern hemisphere, but will do so one day. I just have to two words: Aurora Borealis. (I adored the series "Northern Exposure") my other blood lines are from up there, so I don't think I should have too much trouble getting climatised.
d. ... links me to the "early evening curtain shadows" of Communion. It's a stretch but... the feminine aspect of the lace and pink colour surrounded by all the darkness brings to my mind the feminine mystique that so fascinates/pre-occupies/befuddles the minds of men.
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 12, 2002
d. - yes, i see your connection with communion... for me though, the only poem that I hear whispered when I look at this picture is Apart. There's that similar quality of dream-like suspension in both poem and picture. More than feminine (though it is that, for sure) what strikes me is the fragility and translucence almost, of the lace. something about the way it hangs, the softness of its fall, the little depths of its folds, it reminds me of Apart. No idea why...
Rain, Posted: Aug 12, 2002
ElrondsMom wrote: ...I particularly like "First Light" is it my impression or the first part seems to be about one person (or more) and the last about Henry?
I certainly get that feeling, even more so when he read it in NY. He dedicated the entire poem to Henry, but I got the impression that in the first part he was talking to a woman. At the "little God", his face changed -- this was definitely an intimate moment between father and son. Incredibly moving. Viggo's voice sounded more fragile somehow. I got the idea that he found reading this part aloud quite difficult.
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 12, 2002
(..) First Light, it disturbs me more and more as i read it again and again. Especially at the end when he spins that moth and flame imagery. There are too many wounds in that poem, too much anxious pain. Too much unconscious pain that has mottled and hardened. And then the keening cry of,
Quote:...Will you soon
wonder why I didn't warn
well enough how it
would hurt to lose your
precious petals and grow
scars on your hands?
I look at the picture alongside, Topanga, and the scars have already formed. They've already struck skin and peeled open another world, another eye with which to look upon this world. Head lowered, is it only through this eye that the world may be viewed? Can only burn-black fingertips touch the world? Will he look up? Will he still want to see when he does?
ElrondsMom, Posted: Aug 14, 2002
I think it is amazing how the images play so well with the photos next to them. Like the Oceans poem next to Taupo, but the image modifies the poem in a way, makes it read it in different light... This book is an incredible collection pieced together, and the editing makes old pieces look new... (..)
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 14, 2002
That picture is PHENOMENAL!! that and Sueño del Retiro -- oh god, to have those on walls...
While I don't think I could handle the idea of this photograph on my wall, staring back at me, I'm entranced by Lesson. It's a child's body, to my eyes, innocent and without the depressions and shadows of maturity and muscle structure. And the light falls showing the softness, the way it's being cut into... are those scars or tricks of light... oh Lord... what did he learn from that lesson? Can you learn anything from that biting pain? Anything other than knowing the feverish intensity with which you ache for release? And then I look down at the verse below the picture, and I can't suppress the trembling shudder that racks my body as I connect the picture and the verse.
Meara, Posted: Aug 18, 2002
(..) So many of the photos in this book are just stunning. Sometimes that is stunning in a good way (like the Venturas, Kawarau #2 and Taupo), and sometimes that is stunning in a shocking way (like Lesson and Slaughter Sequence #4). What intrigues me about the last two is their juxtaposition with part 2 of Communion. One of my ultimate fantasies (non-physical, so just pull your minds out of the gutter!) is to just sit down with Viggo and have a talk about his work. Why he chooses certain images, how he puts them in place in a book, and what exactly is the story behind Lesson?
One of the themes that I have noticed in this book is the disintegration (maybe? for lack of a better word...) of language. In Communion: Don't dare write/ it down for fear it'll/ become words, just/ words. From Hillside: We underestimate the damage/ done to the sky / when we allow words/ to slip away/ into the clouds. There's an impermanence to language it seems. The true importance is communication and the sharing of feeling, but somehow words seem to get in the way of this. Does anyone else get this sense?
Orpheus, Posted: Aug 18, 2002
(..) Yes, the distrust of language/words, the wavering belief in their capacity to communicate, seems to be a theme as you've pointed out. Curious isn't it, when you realize, that he is expressing his doubts in precisely the medium that he seems to be distrustful of! I wonder if this comes from his parallel artist-identity of being a photographer and a painter. Especially in his photography, for me personally, he has that capacity to catch the detail that you saw but didn't notice. In a sense, he finds a way to let something be expressed while almost absenting himself (because, in his photographs once again, I always feel as though I'm looking at a vision through his eyes, rather than being shown a photograph separated from him). Maybe that is why he places words and photographs together -- to somehow make up for the inadequacy of words?
Hellcat, Posted: Jan 24, 2003
(..) Self Portrait April -- very interesting because it's not a self portrait of what Viggo looks like, but a self portrait of what he does/creates. The fragment of instructions on how to use paint, his lips (speaking through acting or poetry). The boy he was but is no longer. That hand reminds me almost of the Leonardo Da Vinci sketch. He's also been at the nail varnish again, those purple blobs. Warning over analysis ahead: It's like he saying know me by what I do/make/create (the word I would use here is the French word faire which kind of means all three) not my physical appearance -- that is incidental.
The same is also true of the photo Self Portrait - Winter where you cannot see Viggo only his camera, it's the fact that he's a photographer that's important not the face behind the camera.
Gulf Stream - Again one of my favourites. I just looked at it and thought he must have been utterly relaxed and happy to paint this one, I'm so glad its recent! It just drifts past, the gentleness of the green colour, the nostalgic poems wading and Progress both in English and Spanish. It just made me smile contently.
sera, Posted: Jan 29, 2004
(..) The pictures that piqued my interest the most were the series that included similar golden "light leaks". The smudges are similar in colour and shape, showing streaks on the left and dots (appear to be rivet-like) generally on left. Good examples are the Shipshape series, There's That Cock, Follow, and Lyall Bay.
I was wondering if these were happy accidents, or planned, and if so, how did he do it? Perhaps by taking the lens off the camera and exposing those frames to the same object? Purposely using a leaky camera? Are they even on the same film? The film seems all to be hi speed, possibly Kodak but I'm not sure.
Mackie, Posted: Feb 06, 2004
Well, they were like sparks from a broken connection inside the camera -- I remember reading it whomever he told it to -- and to a certain amount he learned how to control it (camera was wonky after falling into the water when man was fishing). So I don't know if he had different ways of mis-handling it for different kind of "effects", but at some time camera decided now to be really gone.
I guess that the little crescents in your pic are the "light" version, and the streaks in other pix are the "heavy" version of the defect.
CONTENT:
POEMS:
Lullaby 1992 Clear 1995 Wooed Her Like
A Dolphin1996 Weekends 1985 Five Thousand Years 1991-92 Chaco 1995 Hillside 1994 Apart 1999-2000 Matinee 1997 Keepsake 1991 Fossils 1992
Edit 1992 Lead 1979 Hallowe'en 1990 Communion 1999-2000 You Are Sweating 1992 Castro's 2000-02 Last Leg 1990 They Roll Over
The Swells1990 Oceans Take Our Secrets 1991 First Light 1999-2000
PAINTINGS:
After Darkly Noon 1999-2000 Another Spring 2000 Indiana 1997-98 Kissinger Dream 1999-2002 Self Portrait, April 1999-2002 Parzival's Back 1999-2002 Gulf Stream 1999-2002 Finland Aerial, Harvest 2000-02 Bette Davis, 1962 1999
PHOTOS:
The Low Countries 2001 Friday 1996 April, N.Y.C. 2002 Ruth 1978 Roma, October 1995 Green 2 2000 Ventura 2 2002 Intrusion 2 2000 Kawarau 2 1999 Ventura 2002 Wakatipu 1999 Saxon 1994 d 2000 Noon 2000 Fon 2000 Delay 2000 Shipshape 3 2000 Shipshape 6 2000 Shipshape 2 2000 Shipshape 2000 Shipshape 5 2000 There's That Cock 2000 Follow 2000 Kapiti New Year 2000
Lyall Bay 2000 Fun House Lemons 2000 Pancakes 2000 Spring, Wellington 2000 Scared Brigit 1998 Daisy 1994 Lesson 1997 Slaughter Sequence 4 1985 Madrid 1995 Medium 2000 Greenpoint 1997 Sunday New York City 1985 Christina y Ray 1995 Laura 1993 Sueño Del Retiro 2001 Florence 1, 2 1995 Santa Ana 1998 Elf Head 1999 Te Anau 1999 Rohan 2000 Taupo 2000 Topanga 2002 Self-Portrait, Winter 2002
