Posted on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:28 PM
photo: Sarah Lee
Jonathan Jones has written an article in UK newspaper The Guardian about John Cale and the commission for the Venice Biennale:
I am watching Cale's work for Venice on curator Bruce Haines's laptop. (Haines secured the commission after writing to Cale's record company and inviting him to make an artwork - simple as that.) Seeing a five-screen video projection on a computer screen is not ideal, and sounds that in Venice will echo through a brewery reach me on headphones. I am told by Haines to skim through the bits that drag.
I don't touch the cursor once. I am transfixed. This is fantastic. It was one thing hearing Cale talk about his return home, another watching this raw material transformed. The camera focuses on architectural details in an old house - Cale's old house. As it scrutinises peeling paint on a door frame, a passionate, wistful song fills the soundtrack. Cale sings of having to "Hollywood" this place - as if the very act of filming it is a betrayal. In a wonderful spoken-word recording, like a cross between Dylan Thomas and William S Burroughs played on an old radio, Cale says his childhood home was "the first place he became aware of symmetry". On film, he is walking up a mountain, his feet clinking on loose black slate.
The images in Dyddiau Du/Dark Days are lucid and exact, but it is the audio that makes this film extraordinary. In effect, Cale has created a filmed concept album and called it an artwork. It is utterly compelling, deeply felt. His renewed relationship with Wales continues to grow: he has just finished filming a documentary about drug-taking in the valleys for BBC Wales.
» guardian.co.uk
(Thanks: David Squires)
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/12/2009 9:41 PM by
I wish to god I could have been in Ferraro this past weekend! I'm glad you're still at it Hans. Let us know when/ if Cale's commission for the Venice Biennale will be made available for public consumtion.
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/13/2009 11:54 AM by
I just thought readers of this would like to know that I am interviewing JC, about the Venice work and other things, at the National Gallery on Friday 15th May at 10pm...admission free.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/events/2009/may/1505_museums_at_night.htm
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/13/2009 6:17 PM by
That picture is gorgeous !
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/13/2009 11:19 PM by
Colin suggest you post your message on Cale's myspace...it was mentioned here as long ago as April 20...ask him if/when a new album and tour will happen please.
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/15/2009 2:27 PM by
Cale's other contribution to the Venice Bienalle was back in 1993 and is available on vinyl for the 1st time here (scroll down half way on page)
http://www.forcedexposure.com/labels/get.back.italy.html
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
5/15/2009 4:48 PM by
@Colin Wiggins
Your May 15 interview with JC was announced on my blog here:
http://blogger.xs4all.nl/werksman/archive/2009/04/20/467024.aspx
# re: John Cale: The Guardian about the Venice Biennale project
6/4/2009 12:17 PM by
'pparrently, Mr Cale was (very) briefly on the Toda Show this morning. Only said a couple of sentences, though, about how images are no harder than music, it's all about emotion