Friday 30 May 2008

In sickness


Horrors have long been an element of the film industry and despite being able to appreciate the old classics, I cannot quite comprehend why people give so much attention and spend so much money to see all the modern trash horrors that are being produced. There almost seems to have emerged a whole new genre of horror cinematography, which produces horrors with not just the classical thrill, but also with sickly sex and unentertaining violence. The bad acting and predictable plots draw even more questions about this genre's popularity, but maybe this is a sphere in which we just don't seek high-brow stimuli? Could it be that in our uber-comfortable castle lives drive us to seek out more basic experiences and emotions that we can no longer find much of in our modern lives? Horrors, both old and modern thrive on one of our most basic emotions like fear and disgust.


In principle, I have nothing but a pause of 'wonder' for these films - after all we should all be able to watch whatever we want so long as no one gets hurt on the way. What does disturb me though is the common perception that it is perfectly okay to play trailers for these films. I realise that this is fiction and yet another genre of cinema, but I am time and again disturbed by sitting squased between film viewers chewing on their popcorn and having really unpleasant images thrown in my face.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Bending spaces

I have recently come across a wave of artists who have created something of an art form that is a fusion between illusion, graffiti, and architecture. Georges Rousse, Felice Varini, and Julian Beever are some of the most prominent illusionists in the sphere of anamorphic art. They create illusions of objects by painting in interiors, on streets, and pavements. The illusions are visible only from specific angles and disappear if they are distorted.