Art Review - March Issue - (Page 61)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 FEATURE DAVID LYNCH dating from the late 1980s to mid-90s explore similar perspectives in an almost entirely black palette with simply delineated stick figures scratched angrily into the paint’s thick surface. Their titles demonstrate his interest in childhood fears that are both all-encompassing and mildly ridiculous, for example Billy Was Halfway Between His House and the Sickening Garden of Letters 1990 , Oww God, Mom, the Dog He Bited Me 1988 and That’s Me in Front of My House 1988 . Lynch is resistant to discussing the work’s disturbing aspects. He says his use of live insects, for example, in paintings, feeding on sculpture or pinned regimentally to boards to be photographed, is not a morbid thing, evading the issue with deadpan humour: “No, no, no. A lot of insects arrive when something is decaying, but there’s a lot of insects that are very busy doing things, like bees. I’m not sure if they’re busy 24/7, but they’re very good workers, and they’re making honey.” He also dismisses the Romantic notion of the suffering artist, and he distances himself from any autobiographical reading of the work. “I always say that’s a way for an artist to get chicks to help them and take care of them. It’s real nice to be melancholy and kind of poor, and then the girls come and make warm meals, and it’s so beautiful! But at the same time, if you analyse it, the more the artist is suffering, the less the artist can do. Negativity squeezes the conduit of the flow of creativity.” Yet Lynch does discuss certain morbid curiosities. When he first lived in Philadelphia, with his friend the production designer Jack Fisk when they were both aspiring artists, he used to make regular visits to the morgue. “Well, because we lived kitty-corner from the morgue, the city morgue, and I feel like it’s important to experience different things, and if you want to experience something very organic and see something that is pretty, you know, powerful, that will make you think in a different way, then visit the morgue, the city morgue, at midnight. It’s really something. And then you’ve had that experience, and it goes into the machine.” Replete with plans for the kind of atmospheric soundscape that has proved an essential component of his cinema, and curtains that will act as a backdrop to certain works, The Air Is on Fire promises to be the consummate ‘David Lynch’ experience. Yet his own image, specifically as the purveyor of all things weird and freaky, is something he seems less and less comfortable with. His last three films have at times been described as pastiches of his earlier work, as Lynch doing Lynch. As if in answer to this catch-22, Inland Empire is full of knowing winks at his reputation, including a dancing woman shouting “This is so weird!” into camera. “My films are not that weird,” he says, smiling. “But you know, there’s an expression: the world is as you are. Films are as you are. It’s down to the viewer, and everybody has a right to say whatever they want.” His artworks will provide the world with ample opportunities for a fresh perspective on all things Lynchian. The Air Is on Fire, 3 March – 3 June, Fondation Cartier, Paris www. fondation.cartier. f r ARTREVIEW p 54-61 David Lynch AR Mar07.ind61 61 1/2/07 04:15:49  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0 http://www.fondation.cartier.fr

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Art Review - March Issue

Manifesto
Dispatches
Consumed
Tales from the City
David Lynch
Marcel Dzama
Future Greats
Art Pilgrimage: Moscow
Mixed Media: Moving Images
Mixed Media: Photography
Mixed Media: Digital
Reviews
Book Reviews
On the Town
On the Record

Art Review - March Issue

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