I was lucky enough to catch New York-based painter Inka Essenhigh’s recent show at the Victoria Miro and what a show it was. Her style has shifted somewhat from the mythical, magical, equally grotesque, manga-esque depiction’s of the spirit getting lost in the mad machine of contemporary culture to something more settled - a celebration of life cycles, seasons and the environment.
Downstairs in the main gallery, Spring Bar Scene vividly brings to life a group of drunken lost souls who look like they’ve jumped off the pages of Naked Lunch. Upstairs the highlights are Wind Tunnel, which charts a race? or the escape of a boy or girl on a flying horse. The Snow at Night, which shows the mouth of a forest covered in snow, footsteps leading in, and glimmers of light giving shape to trees and snowflakes. And last but certainly not least, a painting that I missed or didn’t really give a chance on my first visit, Green Sea, in which a sea monster made of waves attempts to pull the sky down into the sea, as whales leap/sink below him, in protest/escape? For me, there’s no doubt that Inka Essenhigh’s earlier work resonates on a deeper, more mysterious level which offers more participation from the viewer with more narrative potential and more bizarre, darkly comic, free association, body horror/transformative adventures.
But there’s something so serene and calm about The Snow at Night. Green Sea is a miniature epic, with real world implications and some amazing detail - such as the sky dripping as it’s sucked downwards into the sea and Wind Tunnel, whether it’s an escape or a race, is so full of emotion (the two gate-keepers) wonder, hope and exhilaration that it brings to mind Miyazaki, in particular Spirited Away. The show runs until 2 May.
Inka Essenhigh Website
This is what happens when someone infatuated with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman gets involved in the Democratic fire-fight. Go ‘Obama The Horse Mouthed Hunter’!!! (That just doesn’t have a ring to it, does it…)
McCain: “I am told that Senator Obama would come back to Iraq if al-Qaida established a base [there]. I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It’s called ‘al-Qaida in Iraq.”
Obama: “I have some news for John McCain. There was no such thing as al-Qaida in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq. They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11 and that would be al-Qaida in Afghanistan, that is stronger now than at any time since 2001.”
Sorry for the hiatus… got lost in writing and work, despite having a lot on my mind that I wanted to share, such as my thoughts on the sinister, absurdist horror film, father and sons masterpiece There Will Be Blood, (”…I told you I’d eat you…”) the apocalyptic double-bill of a lifetime: (the grotesquely under-seen) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead and (the lean, efficient killing machine that is…) No Country For Old Men, Obama Obama Obama and the Change Agents, the new Kills album, Midnight Boom, the new Erykah Badu album, (oh Lordy!) new projects, London Film School Q&A’s (Mike Leigh assassinating dumb ass students as if auditioning for NCFOM, then again if I had made Naked, (the quintessential London film) only to be told - “…you should remake this film in America…” I’d probably light their ass up too) and my current obsession: Nashville, M*A*S*H and all things Robert Altman. The Him Over There upload will also be sorted soon, apologies… Expect a constant flow from this weekend. Stay hungry. Don’t Sleep. Return of the Red Eye Jedi. Above Artwork by Delta.
Dear Charles Burnett,
Hope this finds you well, after the 2007 rediscovery slash release of your 1977 masterpiece? I hope you’re neither bitter nor disappointed that this deserved recognition didn’t come much much sooner? From my humble perspective your film is a testament to the longevity of great work and the spirit of endurance found throughout the history of black expression. Anyways, I had to write and tell you that I was lucky enough to catch your film Killer of Sheep at the London Film Festival several months ago and rather than write some hackneyed review that regurgitated or summarized numerous reviews written by American reviewers, I thought it’d be better to write you with my humble thoughts and questions.
I’m not a big fan of the NFT in London where the film was screened. Not because of the venue itself - the cinema one is awesome, (the glowing red lights around the screen, the curtains) no, it’s the shady characters it attracts. It’s not uncommon that you’ll find wannabe film critics giving away plot lines to their girlfriend’s during a film screening. Yeah Charles, it attracts THAT kind of cinema-goer. The type that enjoys talking about the movie (whilst it un-spools) rather than watching the damn thing. Me, I managed to blag a ticket at the last moment, and as I waited for my friend to arrive (which is usually a stressful thing, I used to get so pent up about missing trailers, but hey, since I’m back from Jamaica, which offers a totally, let’s just say… er… DIFFERENT film-going experience, I’ve calmed down a bit, well a lot actually) as I wait, I see many well known UK directors trickling in, (wassup Mr. Leigh?) loads of cool, young, white hipsters… but very few black people.
I must say this kinda bit me on the toe. I’d read many reviews for your film, following this year’s theatrical re-run in the States, (”An American masterpiece, independent to the bone,” Manohla Dargis, NY Times, etc etc) so I knew that other’s believed this to be a forgotten cinematic masterpiece made by a black director, and I was ashamed that black London didn’t come out to support you. But hey, their loss, I say. If they want to moan about the representation of black folk in contemporary film and media and then dodge one of the most lyrical and affecting portrayals of black family life, then hey, that’s their damn problem, just remind me to put on my headphones when they start moaning: “yack, yack, yack,” again. Either way, it was a full-house and I was very happy for you.
So, the lights dim, the movie kicks in. The first thing I notice is the music. Most notably the Dinah Washington track. I haven’t seen a film, about the lives of black people and the African-American experience that used music so well. (This includes my life-changing moment in Spike Lee’s underrated, Clockers (which isn’t better than the book, and perhaps abandons Richard Price’s bleak precursor to HBO’s The Wire for an unbalanced, muddled narrative) when Preemo’s Crooklyn Dodgers surges up and Mekhi Phifer walks into wide shot) The music in Killer of Sheep was sublime and uplifting. Goddamn those who kept this film locked in the vaults for god knows how long, over clearances. (These, along with many Scorsese and Wong Kar Wai moments, oh, and several moments in Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes are my favourite film music moments so far, and the Killer of Sheep joins them, alongside the opening of Raiders, Do The Right Thing and the end of The Conversation, Jaws, Three Colours, Star Wars, A Bout de Souffle and many others that I can’t remember right now) I’m so glad the clearances were paid off ($150,000) and big-up to Steven Soderbergh for forking out some of the dough.
So, the music hits me, BANG! Uppercut. And then came the children of your story. Left-hook. THUD! He’s hit the mat and isn’t getting up. It was your portrayal of kids that really touched me. Sure the family dynamic and the grind ‘n’ gruel of the main protagonist’s dehumanizing work at the slaughterhouse resonated. But man, just seeing kids playing, having fun, I hadn’t seen that on screen for eons, not since I watched Ozu’s Early Summer. God knows most of us have experienced it, aimlessly mucking about in local parks, streets, teasing and being teased, but to see it on screen, in post-war L.A., with the absence of violence, the drug epidemic and gangs. Well, goddamn it. I had to hold my breath.
No doubt, the Italian Neo-realist references rang true, but more importantly, I was seeing some of the things I’d lived up on screen, and It’s been a long while since that feeling of recognition struck so deep and lodged itself into my cinematic consciousness. Cinema right now is about escapist fantasy, the audience wants as much distance from themselves as they can get on the screen. But this was about recognition and identification, and not one that tried to get in my face (which isn’t a bad thing) but one that seductively washed over me, like a lullaby guiding me deeper into my dreams.
When I saw the kid wearing the dog mask (which David Gordon Green so lovingly ripped off for his acclaimed debut George Washington - which I liked on it’s release, but now see as a total Charles Burnett and Terrence Malick homage) I was filled with so much joy, which became a sort of sadness, realized perfectly by Michael Tolkin’s (screenwriter of Robert Altman’s The Player) point blank statement: “If Killer of Sheep were an Italian film from 1953, we would have every scene memorised.” How do you feel about that? I know it was a student film of sorts, but how did this affect the film’s that followed? I also wanted to know how you made this for $10,000? What with the various locations and characters?
One thing I hate about film criticism, especially when applied to cinema depicting black life or culture (or URBAN for those of you shuddering at the mention of such words, I know you’re out there) is the importance of credibility and authenticity over story, storytelling and character. And I hate to plumb such depths in my letter to you, but your film did feel ’super real’ through the layering of specific details and I became immersed in the everyday minutiae of working class black life. There’s very little plot in Killer of Sheep but I managed to soak up the rhythms of the family home, of child’s play and of the slaughterhouse, and those rhythms and grooves and the cracks in-between the grooves of this record: became the story. For me, this is what made it great.
Anyways, I’d ask what you’re doing next but I guess we have www.imdb.com for that! I am interested in what you think of the term ‘black filmmaker’ is it a useless term? (regarding African American directors) I also wondered what you thought of other African American black directors who have come up? Do you think I’m too harsh in saying that after you, only Spike Lee has (more than) delivered on his initial promise? Also how do you feel about African cinema? Questions questions questions. Sorry, I’m getting hyper inquisitive, so perhaps it’s time for me to end this letter and let you answer some of the questions I’ve posed. Once again, I hope this finds you very well, I wish you and your family all the best and most importantly, I hope your new project is going well.
Yours Sincerely,
John Vanderpuije
Linkage:
Killer of Sheep Website
Charles Burnett Imdb
Killer of Sheep Metacritic Page
