Michel Gondry and Björk's "Bachelorette"

This is another video directed by Michel Gondry which has similarities to the Kylie Minogue video. Both involve a simple situation that grows in complexity and eventually becomes more and more disorganized. In this video the organizational breakdown takes the form of natural reclamation and the process climaxes with a return to the starting point.

I find interpreting these events to be difficult and the most general statement I can draw from the work is a statement about the futility of human action. I find myself trying to draw some kind of moral stance from the work, such as "learn to leave well enough alone" but there are no scenes where the character is shown making any errors--except perhaps by acting at all.

The music here fits with the narrative so well that it is easy for me to forget that the music was recorded before the video. Both the music and the video encompass a grand scale and both have an uncomfortable tension or feeling of impending disaster.

In short, although I wouldn't enjoy watching it every day, this is an excellent work of art.

Michel Gondry and Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World"

Today's post is another excellent work of art in the genre of the music video. Unlike the Massive Attack video I do not like this song, but that isn't to say it is a bad song.

It is unfortunate that there is no relationship between the lyrics of the song and the content of the video--it seems like the idea for the video could have been applied to just about any song--but it was a good choice to unify the music and the narrative by matching the rhythm of the music with the pace of the performer. The sequence of events is incredibly ambitious and clever despite it's simplicity. The actions performed don't really result in any kind of meaningful climax, but it's interesting to watch the chaos build as the quantity increases. I can't even imagine how much meticulous planning went into this work!

Jennifer Kern's Pick: Lady Gaga's "Judas"

Please enjoy Jennifer's fascinating take on this unusual work. If you would like to host this blog for a day, feel free to drop me a line.

Nationality: AmericanBorn/Died: 1986-
Creation Date: 2011Media: Musical recording and video recording

Lady Gaga is a rare performer who is both wildly popular and wildly underrated. I first recognized the "wildly underrated" part when I tried convincing a couple people that the song Bad Romance is an utterly transcendent song by someone who obviously knows "the total passion for the total height." They remained unconvinced.

Now, Lady Gaga has turned out a video that's a jaw-dropping allegory of virtue and vice. Not a simple song "advocating Satan-worship," as some YouTube commentators think, nor a slightly-less-simple ditty about a girl who likes the bad boy, Lady Gaga makes it abundantly clear that in this song, "Jesus is my virtue; Judas is the demon I cling to."

I invite you to watch the video now, before reading this analysis, as many times as you like. The more you notice on your own, the more fun this will be.

Various Works by Theresa Schmotzer

Nationality: American

Media: Etching (drypoint) on paper (?)
Location: The Cleveland Artists Foundation, Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Great Art-Bad Philosophy Week: Francis Bacon's second version of "Painting"

This week I'm going to showcase great works of art which reflect some sort of terrible philosophical stance. Many of these works I enjoy and respect from an artistic standpoint though I don't share the artist's philosophy.



While Francis Bacon's paintings commonly elicit powerful feelings of revulsion and disgust, this attests to their quality as works of art--not to their being something other than art. Fortunately, I don't think there are many people who share his utterly defeatist view of life or his incredibly unhealthy psychological state to extent that he embodied them in his paintings.

Great Art-Bad Philosophy Week: Henry Fuseli's "The Nightmare"

This week I'm going to showcase great works of art which reflect some sort of terrible philosophical stance. Many of these works I enjoy and respect from an artistic standpoint though I don't share the artist's philosophy.