Musings. Ex Libris

                                                   Walter Sickert, The Camden Town Murder   ( I consider Walter Sickert one of my favourite painters. Despair and despondence exert their tension through every rough-and-brisk brushstroke, whilst danger lurks. Sickert often capitalised on the outcome or aftermath of an incident, rather than detailing the narrative. Although outward emotions are shown, sentimentalism, I assume, is only playing a bit role in Sickert’s paintings. Therefore they often read more like non-fictions, but with the pathos of a Russian epic.) As the lamplights grow dimmer each day the sign of an imminent end of everything looms. To economize what precious little the villagers have left, many of ...

                                         * Francesca Woodman, Untitled   ( Francesca Woodman’s photography is akin to performance art. The performers’ (repeatedly featuring the photographer herself) self-awareness is clear. But they often seem more compelled than voluntary to give their performance. Looking at Woodman’s photographs of bleak, unnerving drama I was immediately reminded of the typical interplay between an abductor-cum-masochist and his prey, in which the former will entertain himself by commanding the prisoner to put on various grotesque (often erotic) poses. It becomes obvious that Woodman was steeped in surrealist tradition, yet unlike Man Ray, the allegedly pivotal figure of surrealist photography, Woodman did not lean on photographic techniques to create the ot...