Whehey! You thought this post was going to be about me! Only in the figurative/nonliteral sense (does that only make sense in my head?) sense, as in, I won't be writing about "_______ is what I did today, it felt like ___________ and ___." Well, that's definitively not true, actually, I just won't write about where and how this above picture was taken. Except to mention that I found the button that gives my phone photos the great Instagram-quality that make my life seem really interesting and beautiful and I am totally aware of all colours around me at all times. I also like to take photos of things from above, circles and shit. I'm in a toystore! Great story!
Here is a photo I took of my coffee cup from above in the "Vintage warm"-effect (do you picl up on the commentary on contemporary art in the complex circle-in-circle-in-circle composition, an attribute to Baudrillard's theory of the simulacrum, obviously!). It doesn't feel entirely convincing of the good times I had today, so I decided to let it go, and instead take "natural photos of what my life actually look like," meaning very gaunt and usually in fluorescent lights.
Yes, yes, this is indeed great. Although it feels strange to write in English again, as if my blog has two lives; one in English oriented towards art, inspiration and my work, and the other more personal, "emotional" part that is written in Norwegian. Interesting! My brain will probably explode, or I will have two quite different sets of people reading this blog. That is probably also because I somehow have a hard time even imagining myself writing about bondage in Norwegian. I don't even know the Norwegian word for that, so there you go.
But wheey, look at that! Already the English half of the blog has got 1-0 to the Norwegian part, because, and I'm sorry cultural heritage, but there is really a whole lot to be said for bodily jewelery and bijouterie such as this that I just cannot articulate in my native tongue. In the words of a gentleman in the shop that I subsequently entered (speaking to his friend):
"Derrick, you know what's nice about this stuff, is that a woman, looks like a woman." [hoarse laughter]
So yes, indeed, life in New York is interesting, or would probably be more if I decided to talk to this man. Alas, I did not. Here are some more photos of this incredible shop:
This is incredibly relevant! My mind went whooosh after this and span in all sorts of different directions, and I don't really know how to describe it, but it felt great.
I mean, just look at that. Who wouldn't want to wear that? In a performance?
This is a still from a video I made in my second year in Hong Kong; it was a video playing in slow motion inside a small and confined space. You had to crawl in to watch the video, which basically was this young man, my first year from Zimbabwe, dance, covered in silver glitter. Being here in New York I feel like walking backwards through the snow (which I think I've mentioned before), to hide my steps, or to find out where I started. Thus, something I've really wanted to do since I came here is to cover myself completely with silver glitter, and then dance. I've been practicing.
I contemplated putting a still from my dancing here, but that would be too much in one night, and I don't know if I want people knowing how I dance to Wrecking Ball, since they now know that I do it. That'll be the next step.
But yes, glitter and go-go dancing! How glorious! And this bijouterie (a luscious word, save for what it actually describes) in itself. I mean, in my opinion, those are types of harnesses, and I should harvest them! Get it? It's funny because the words are slightly similar, and writing a funny art blog is pretty hard.
Harnesses! I've written a lot about them, and now I want to write a whole lot more. I should purchase some of these, and then experiment with them. Making things is fun, but it's not really what I want to be doing right now. Making performances, however, that's a different story. I'm in a free class at the Bruce High Quality Foundation titled Performance Critique, and it's very good so far. Progress reports will follow this initial statement, too. The point of informing of that was that just the first class made me want to perform and perform and perform. I don't know what else to say about it, except that it is such a rich thing to think about... Oh words, don't come when I require you to, that's fine.
Then I went for a run and begun thinking about harnesses as being structures for the body, but for holding the body up, not for holding something in, like a scaffolding on a building. It is awe-some to think about, and it makes me think about Janelle Monae and Catherynne Valente's The Melancholy of Mechagirl and other things all in one go (excerpts will be posted as soon as 1st person is back in studio). More will be written on the topic.
Above is a photo of some great smoke I saw while I was running. Was a little creepy - rich "neighbourhoods" or hotels are often strange, especially if they're a little (very) futuristic and you're already thinking about all those things. In the hotel there was one of those chairs that swing in a circular frame, very space-y, but thought it would be creepy to try and enter to investigate further, plus would probably be kicked out. Ah, next time.
I end with some more great bijouterie. Not sure if I'm brave enough for this one yet:
Oversettelse: om smykker og seletøy og spennende, futuristiske hoteller i New York. Og jeg kan endelig lage kule bilder på Instagram om livet mitt!
