The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942)

After discovering that the Smiths lyrics I were interested in were adapted from a scene in the 1942 film 'The Man Who Came For Dinner' I decided to find that scene and see if it gave the lyrics even more meaning.

After watched the scene I found the woman speaking spoke about visiting the world heritage site in Pompeii and seeing a preserved woman in which she recalls:

"All those people, all those lives, where are they now ? Here was a woman who once lived and loved, full of the same passions, fears, jealousies, hates. And what remains of it now ... I want to cry."

After watching the scene it has reaffirmed that the Smiths lyrics would be absolutely appropriate to accompany my work. 

Video link to the scene;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAJcP6x3Ueo&sns=em

Mozipedia

Having being a bit disappointed by "all men have secrets" book I looked in the book: 'Mozipedia: the encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths'

I looked for the entry 'cemetry gates' which explains that curiously 'cemetry is spelt wrong which I myself didn't notice.

It said that the verse (I'm most interested in) 

" 'all those people' and ending 'I want to cry' is adapted from the screenplay of one of his favourite Bette Davis films,

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

'Passions just like mine'

I have a book ' The Smiths: All men have secrets' which is a sort of collection of memoirs by fans about the songs/lyrics  by The Smiths. 

In an earlier post I mentioned how lyrics from the song 'Cemetry Gates' by The Smiths could be used in my work/final piece. 

I looked at fans' memoirs about the song but was slightly disappointed to see that they didn't talk much about the lyrics but one entry was about visiting Oscar Wilde's (Wilde is heavely mentioned in the song) grave in Paris, France. And said that on the back of his gravestone " 'passions just like mine' daubed in Morrissey's honour"  

Those were the days, my friend...

carrying on from an earlier post about 'music' there's a song by Mary Hopkins which reached no. 1 in the uk, 1968 entitled 'those were the days' 

that I feel could accompany my work, the mood of the song envokes an old good ol' days nostalgia laced with melancholy. 

It also reminds me of New Orleans style funeral music with the jangly guitars and brass instruments playing. 

And the lyrics, especially the chorus: 

"Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way"

Link to a live recording of the song 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEG3iv0YKsw&sns=em

Studio practice

     A few more cdv's I've drawn on 

Hollowed out bible no. 4

With this one, I modified a little statue painting over the face, hands, feet giving it skeleton features. I was more influenced by the catacomb saints for this particular piece. Using a vibrant floral background (which was a clothes tag) and also the skull beads with paisley patterns on them. I was also influenced by Mexican religious folk art whilst making this.

Hollowed out bible no. 3

I'm trying to make each hollowed out bible piece original and individual while keeping them as an obvious collective. 

For this I used an orthodox icon in  brass with a card depicting mary and Jesus' face/hands being visible. I gave mary the skull characteristics that tie in with my CDV pieces. I chose not to do that to the baby Jesus depicted as I'm not intentionally trying to offend anyone (with him being the saviour to millions) and as told in the bible he's immortal anyway. 

Hollowed out bible no. 2

19 c. Pendant with skull beads.

I liked the frontis piece in this bible so I decided to work around it. I like how the sun sits directly above the crucifix as if offering enlightenment through death.

Hollowed out bible no. 1

I'm very pleased with how this piece came out. The crucifix is a 19 c. Pendant and the skulls are beads used for bracelets. I like how the hollowed out pages create an alcove like appearance reminiscent of the charnel houses. I think the bible accentuates the piece aswell and gives more meaning to the piece rather than using any old books. 

Charnel piece ideas

    sketch idea of a piece 

I've been thinking of making sculpture based pieces inspired by the charnel houses.

With the photographs I've been using being around the 19 c. I thought I could perhaps hollow out old bibles that I have from around the same era in which to make my pieces. 

I know some May not approve of "defacing"  bibles for religious reasons etc. But the way that I see it is these books are falling apart: I'm giving them a new life, an extended purpose. Also it emphasises the Christian inspired old holy practise of my work/research into the charnel houses and how they are within holy places. 

    19 c. And early 20 c. Bibles that I own.

Jean

On the Friday just gone I attended my great aunties' funeral where she was to be cremated. 

as the the final curtain was drawn one of her favourite songs played, a big band number I believe, which I found was a very fitting last song to a person's life.

Cheery but with a touch of melancholy as if a montage of memories should accompy the piece of music as it played. 

This got me thinking that perhaps my final piece could have music to accompy it. I'm not too sure at the moment if I want to have that but it's something to think about and could maybe offer the piece another dimension. 

With loves, and hates and passions just like mine.

The Smiths' song 'Cemetry Gates' 

Contains a good verse that I believe ties in with one of the points  I'm trying to get across to the viewer within my work 

"All those people, all those lives

Where are they now?
With loves, and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died

It seems so unfair

I want to cry" 

In the song he talks about reading the gravestones in a cemetry and realising all these people who have long gone shared some common ground with him.

Link to song 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knM7ow5vMPA&sns=em

Photographs

        Partial section of photographs.

I bought over a 100 Victorian and early 20th c. Cabinet cards and CDV's.

Carrying on with adding skull characteristics over the faces, I think having a wall full of these photographs could make for an interesting piece.

I think the more photographs they are emphasises the inevitability of death and a humanistic side as all of these people were real people. 

Seminar presentation

I've chosen to talk about a light hearted subject... Death.

"Mama always said dying was a part of life, I sure wish it wasn't"

- Forrest Gump

As a society we seem to be captivated by death, but very ignorant to it aswell.

Take the soap operas for example. Almost every Christmas there is a death in East Enders or Coronation Street etc. and just Soap Operas in general, It's a guaranteed way to boost the ratings.

 

More than 10 million people tuned in to itv on (21/01/14) as Hayley Cropper, sick with incurable pancreatic cancer, took an overdose with drugs and died in the arms of her loving husband Roy. Some praised the storyline for its sensitive handling of illness and death but others said it risked  encouraging suicides. 

Everyone dies, it's one of the indisputable   facts in this world,

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

- Benjamin Franklin  

It's a subject we see everywhere, on tv and in films, in popular culture and in the newspapers. It's a thing that happens every day but it's also a topic we rarely discuss with one another.

It was Oscar Wilde who once said: 

'Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.'

And maybe that goes for death as well... 

I'm not saying that it's something we should discuss every morning over our bowls of corn flakes, but it is something we should discuss with one another more openly. Although, as death is a very subjective thing it can vary from person to person I.e in their beliefs, personal experiences: such as losing a loved one.

I'm researching this topic in my self directed work and I've come across quite a bit of misunderstanding and readily dismissal from some without listening to why I've done the practises I've done and the things I've researched. 

Take the charnel houses situated throughout Europe and the "catacomb saints" 

I've been looking at two books by critically acclaimed author and photographer Paul Koudanaris:

The Empire Of Death ( A Cultural History Of Ossuaries And Charnel Houses) 

Heavenly Bodies

(Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints From The Catacombs) 

Here are some photographs from the books; I won't list all the details but the so called " catacomb saints" are mostly situated in German speaking regions of Europe and came about from Rome after the Protestant reformation in which saw a vast array of catholic relics destroyed. Known as "catacomb saints" because under a vineyard (Bartolomeo Sanchez, Italy) in 1578  a vast labyrinth of underground cemeteries were rediscovered and believed by the church to contain early Christian martyrs. 

    Most were decorated by nuns in Rome 

 Here is an extract from the Empire of death;

"To understand the great charnel houses we must first acknowledge that death itself is not a fixed concept. The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, one of the greatest cultural theorists of the modern era, defined death as being simply the line of demarcation that separates the dead from the living. Within that axiomatic statement is an important implication: the line can be fluid. The process of living inevitably brings the cessation of life, but death as a concept is an intellectual construction that can vary from society to society and era to era." 

                                                       
                                                                   EVALUATION

I think I touched on some interesting topics such as death in pop culture and the media, it was a bit hard to seamlessly go from that transition to the charnel houses etc. and this showed in the presentation, it didn't go as well as it could've for these reasons. next time I will make a presentation that's more inter connected and flows easily.

La Vie et la Mort, Leben und Tod

La Vie et la Mort, Leben und Tod (life and death) postcard c. 1900-10

"As a young couple bid a poignant fair well to each other in this turn of the century interpretation of the vanitas theme. The phrase "Vanitas vanitatum omnia Vanitas" comes from the bible (Ecclesiates I) and is translated as "vanity of vanities; all is vanity", a moralistic invitation to dwell not on the pursuit of earthly pleasures but on the necessity of eternal salvation."

I'm including this into my research as the skull is being used as a symbolised message it's trying to get across to the viewer. 

Andy Warhol's brush with death

Untitled, Andy Warhol ( 1928-1987, USA)

Photographs, machine-sewn, 1987

"This patchwork of photographs appeared in a special edition of the magazine Parkett in 1987, the same year as Warhol's death. Writing in the issue, Glen O'Brien, a former member of Warhol's studio the Factory, observed "Andy was what a sports fan call a most valuable player. His works are more valuable now, but not because he's not around himself. Those works are souvenirs and relics. They're pieces of Andy.

Warhol's interested in mortality was perhaps informed by his own brush with death: in 1968 he survived being shot in the chest three times in the chest by Valerie Solanas.  

Smile for the camera

      I like the juxtaposition of the family/group photographs: they're all sat really formally and quite stiff and they don't smile, that is until I draw on the Skelton grin- I think it's quite unnerving.

This one I used a cut out print of a skull (from my Rothwell visit ) influenced more by George Grosz - I like the result but as I'm hoping to use a lot of photographs I find using a pen allows me to be less restricted in depicting  the skull faces as I can work with the faces in the photographs which I think flows better. 

Like this one for example.

Pose for the camera

To keep in with the theme of "death" I've drew skull characteristics over their faces, I think this will create different feelings within different viewers as I've discussed earlier that death is a very subject thing to the individual. Also skulls are inexplicably linked with death: take the poison symbol for example with is a skull and cross bones.

You will become as we are

After looking at Raya and Grosz's pieces it influenced me to make some work in a similar way.

I've decided to use Victorian and early 20th c. Era photographs, I feel they have a certain atmospheric quality. They appear more frozen in time, Perhaps photographs were more of a special occasion back then as the commodity wasn't as readily available or as disposable in contrast to our social media and "selfie" era. As a result they dressed more formally for the photos which make it more poignant with a touch of melancholy when it dawns on you that the people you see are long gone.. Is this photo in which I have of them the last image depicting them? Of their existence? 

George Grosz

                    Faces of death

George Grosz (1893- 1959, Germany)

                    Collage, 1958 

    " George's witty collage reveals the final truth about death - it's uncanny faceless ness. By transposing skulls onto 'found' photographic portraits, the artist is also poking fun at the conventions of art and advertising. 

Marcos Raya

"Raya's images remind us of the disquieting reality haunting every photograph: the presence of death in our own lives and in the lives of family and friends" Vintage photograph with gouache and ink 2005 ( b. 1948, Mexico)

      Untitled (family portrait: woman in yellow dress) vintage photograph with mixed media 2005
      Untitled (family portrait: grandma. Vintage photograph with gouache and ink, 2005