Artworks Damaged/Destroyed by Islamic Totalitarians: Various Works from the Mosul Museum

Location: Mosul Museum, Mosul, Iraq

Here are a variety of works recently damaged or destroyed by the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq.  I am trying to find "before and after" images of the same works, but this is difficult as many of these works look similar and the Mosul Museum does not appear to have a website.  If you can offer help in this regard, please feel free to do so in the comments.  Additionally, many of these works have been damaged over the centuries, so I can't assume every imperfection was caused by ISIS.

Works Destroyed/Damaged by ISIS:

Jewel Kilcher's "The Walmart Song"

Nationality: American

Born-Died: 1974-

Creation Date: 2012

Size: 00:03:05

Media: Music

Is this a good song?  Well, it's cute, but it's not for me.  However, I'm posting it today because I find it absolutely incredible that 1.) Jewel sang a song about Walmart and 2.) a celebrity dared to depict Walmart in a positive light.  What a bizarre occurrence!  I'm sure this is going to open up a huge can of worms for whatever remains of Jewel's career, but I applaud her performance because I don't have any problem with Walmart.  And I'm not ignorant of many of the criticisms.  I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the celebrities that criticize capitalism and corporations like Walmart have their products sold there.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if Jewel herself had anti-capitalist leanings in that I saw the nigh-socialist Green Party of America once used a quote by her on their home page. 

Sadly, I can already see that an unusually large number of people "disliked" this peppy little song.  

Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer"

Nationality: American
Born-Died: 1867-1917

Creation Date: 1902

Media: piano music

Jay Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell"

Nationality: American
Born/Died: 1946

Creation Date: 1982

Despite how American this music seems to me, I think that after America is long gone this music will still bring tears to people's eyes.

Justin Wisniewski, Degree Show at the Edinburgh College of Art

Nationality: All American

Born/Died: 1978

Creation Date: 2008-2010

Media: Primarily oil on panel, graphite on paper and etching ink on paper

Location: Various private collections

Natalie Merchant's "Golden Boy"

Nationality: American
Born/Died: 1963

Creation Date: 2001

This song reminds me very strongly of a Peter Keating type of person. When I first heard this it several years ago I could relate to it very strongly because I was in close proximity to a Peter Keating and I found it very frustrating. It was one of countless instances where the character of Howard Roark gave me encouragment.

Lyrics below.

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!

Massive Attack's "Angel"

It is a shame that most music videos are bad because it is a medium that has great potential, particularly now that the technologies needed to produce and distribute them are cheaper and more available than they were previously. There are few treasures in the music video genre, but this one is a gem.

I think that if you watch this video you will easily see what is good about it. Instead of writing about its virtues I think it might be more interesting to articulate the small error in this work. It might be difficult to catch at first because the music video genre is replete with this mistake, but nonetheless it is a mistake that stems from an aesthetic error. I invite you to watch the video now, but don’t let a search for the mistake distract from your enjoyment of the piece—I’ll explain what I mean afterwards.

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.

Elia Cmiral's "The John Galt Theme" and Modest Mussorgsky's "The Grand Gate of Kiev"

I've listened to this a few times. My personal response is that I waiver between liking it and tolerating it. I have heard better, but I've also heard worse. At first I was really enjoying it, but the more I listened the less impressed I was.