Die Basis des Make-Up

Die Basis des Make-Up

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Drawing (486) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Brooklyn, 1975, 240 President Street. A sofa bed complete with cushions floating upwards into weightlessness, a fan set to zero and a woman in a black dress whose braceleted arm is stuck to the plastic covering of the armchair. Zero gravity. On the tour of Morocco that Paul Bowles undertook with Aaron Copland at the start of the 30s, the former admitted in Fez that he wasn’t able to share the latter’s enthusiasm for the country. He said there was nothing new for him there, he’d already seen and heard equivalent things back on President Street in Brooklyn when he was a child. Places can speak to one person, but remain silent for others. I had no idea where I’d ended up, although I knew I was at considerable risk of going mad in this place, just like Nelson Dyar did in Tangiers in 1951. Later, Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan told the story of Joseph Gallo, known as Crazy Joey, on Desire, who was born there and carried to his grave there too. Even more than an experiment, life seemed to me like a forced research exercise." (From: arsenal, july 2021)

(1975) 

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Drawing (146) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Lifestyle nonsense: the blurred boundaries between lifestyle and artistic product, generally celebrated as 'life' that, as we know from Adorno, 'doesn’t live', have become legendary since D’Annunzio’s doings at the very latest. The fact that he was able to indulge his sense of kitsch and drug addiction as a pampered rich man doesn’t mean his endeavors are above comparison with those of, say, Jack Smith, who carefully concealed his lucrative connections. The latter was aware of the normative power of street credibility, the other of the binding force of envy; in both cases, one might talk of arrested development. Many artists live in poverty, but since when has poverty been an art form? Art isn’t ennobled via poverty either. The struggle for recognition all too often pitched before the front doors of the bourgeoisie and their politicians like a beggar on parade is an act of authoritarian fixing. Analyzing poverty and the reasons for it is far from art per se, but rather an academic undertaking first and foremost. Depicting poverty can indeed be an art form, however." (From: arsenal, december 20).

(1993) 

Uncle Fishhead. 

 

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Drawing (292) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Lifestyle nonsense: the blurred boundaries between lifestyle and artistic product, generally celebrated as 'life' that, as we know from Adorno, 'doesn’t live', have become legendary since D’Annunzio’s doings at the very latest. The fact that he was able to indulge his sense of kitsch and drug addiction as a pampered rich man doesn’t mean his endeavors are above comparison with those of, say, Jack Smith, who carefully concealed his lucrative connections. The latter was aware of the normative power of street credibility, the other of the binding force of envy; in both cases, one might talk of arrested development. Many artists live in poverty, but since when has poverty been an art form? Art isn’t ennobled via poverty either. The struggle for recognition all too often pitched before the front doors of the bourgeoisie and their politicians like a beggar on parade is an act of authoritarian fixing. Analyzing poverty and the reasons for it is far from art per se, but rather an academic undertaking first and foremost. Depicting poverty can indeed be an art form, however." (From: arsenal, december 20).

(1993) 

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Drawing (561) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Identity nonsense: when someone says they’re looking for their identity, you should hope for their sake that they don’t find it. In the sense of determination, identity only ever means slavery under our law of economy and that applies to heterosexuals, gays, and transsexuals in equal measure. I’ve never come across two identical sexualities, just soft transitions, as far as they’re permitted. The clone movement of the 70s was a dead end and the political 'identitarians' of today are nothing more than a dumb joke in world history. “Coming out” in whatever capacity may produce short-term moments of joy, but it’s all too easily forgotten that we still live in precarious societies that can turn the tables at any time and will yet do so. Identity is ascribed to people, anyone who ascribes it to themselves is an idiot. Every intelligent person already lives in their own personal closet out of necessity alone. Secrets don’t remain what they are, they merely endure in new forms." (From: arsenal, november 20).

(1996) 

 

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Drawing (565) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Identity nonsense: when someone says they’re looking for their identity, you should hope for their sake that they don’t find it. In the sense of determination, identity only ever means slavery under our law of economy and that applies to heterosexuals, gays, and transsexuals in equal measure. I’ve never come across two identical sexualities, just soft transitions, as far as they’re permitted. The clone movement of the 70s was a dead end and the political 'identitarians' of today are nothing more than a dumb joke in world history. “Coming out” in whatever capacity may produce short-term moments of joy, but it’s all too easily forgotten that we still live in precarious societies that can turn the tables at any time and will yet do so. Identity is ascribed to people, anyone who ascribes it to themselves is an idiot. Every intelligent person already lives in their own personal closet out of necessity alone. Secrets don’t remain what they are, they merely endure in new forms." (From: arsenal, november 20).

(1996) 

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Drawing (174) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"The dark phase of a solar eclipse at Lake Hambach on August 11, 1999. Two naked men in boxing gloves disappear within the long grass on the edge of the lake. A wheel gymnast from the photo book In Licht und Sonne by Kurt Reichert from the 1930s crosses the sunbathing area, as does the shadow of the low-flying Air Force One with President Clinton on board on its way from Schönefeld to Moscow. Or was it just a second Air Force One flying the same route as a distraction without the president on board? The men in the grass are startled by the noise and feel bothered by this possible doubling. Like rabbits on their hindlegs, they sniff the air to pick up the scent. Everything stinks of fumes, the space seems to solidify, a temporal anomaly begins, and a futuristic, jet-propelled, three-egged sexual organ appears in the sky like a ghost. Everyone acts as if they hadn’t seen anything, turning away silently and continuing to go about their urgent business." (From: arsenal, september 20).

(1999)

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Drawing (174) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"The dark phase of a solar eclipse at Lake Hambach on August 11, 1999. Two naked men in boxing gloves disappear within the long grass on the edge of the lake. A wheel gymnast from the photo book In Licht und Sonne by Kurt Reichert from the 1930s crosses the sunbathing area, as does the shadow of the low-flying Air Force One with President Clinton on board on its way from Schönefeld to Moscow. Or was it just a second Air Force One flying the same route as a distraction without the president on board? The men in the grass are startled by the noise and feel bothered by this possible doubling. Like rabbits on their hindlegs, they sniff the air to pick up the scent. Everything stinks of fumes, the space seems to solidify, a temporal anomaly begins, and a futuristic, jet-propelled, three-egged sexual organ appears in the sky like a ghost. Everyone acts as if they hadn’t seen anything, turning away silently and continuing to go about their urgent business." (From: arsenal, september 20).

(1999)

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Drawing (224) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Experimental nonsense: let’s assume that you, as a filmmaker, are planning to rewrite the film funding laws in such a way that the money flows straight into your own pockets in the future, then one would have to counter this by saying that there’s nothing new under the sun. Ideally, you would then force them to give you your own television channel and fill it primarily with your own products. The quantity of what you’ve produced may not be sufficient though, meaning you’d be dependent on external commodities. As you don’t intend to pay for any rights, but rather want on the contrary to cut all rights of use for these programs yourself, you distort and shift the colors of the visual and film quotes you’re using and edit some sort of unnecessary trifles into them and voila, you already have a product for which you can claim that 'artistic adaptation' has been carried out; that way you end up with all the profit. The fact that critics will praise your adaptations in glowing terms is only logical, as there’s nothing more beloved than experimental nonsense." (From: arsenal, october 20).

A tart made of shoes. 

(2007) 

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Drawing (224) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Experimental nonsense: let’s assume that you, as a filmmaker, are planning to rewrite the film funding laws in such a way that the money flows straight into your own pockets in the future, then one would have to counter this by saying that there’s nothing new under the sun. Ideally, you would then force them to give you your own television channel and fill it primarily with your own products. The quantity of what you’ve produced may not be sufficient though, meaning you’d be dependent on external commodities. As you don’t intend to pay for any rights, but rather want on the contrary to cut all rights of use for these programs yourself, you distort and shift the colors of the visual and film quotes you’re using and edit some sort of unnecessary trifles into them and voila, you already have a product for which you can claim that 'artistic adaptation' has been carried out; that way you end up with all the profit. The fact that critics will praise your adaptations in glowing terms is only logical, as there’s nothing more beloved than experimental nonsense."(From: arsenal, october 20)

A tart made of shoes.

(2007) 

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Drawing (67) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"International nonsense: the fact that Hollywood is acting as if it were 'left-wing' and votes 'Democrat' presupposes a considerable degree of emotional confusion in the face of the range of products being offered there. The permanent repetitions and re-stagings of visions of the apocalypse from which we are saved by the actions of individual superheroes and leaders show no shortage of fascistic ideologies. It is thus no wonder that a well-known American avant-gardist wished for director Spielberg to spend time in a gas chamber 'without a happy ending' after watching Schindler’s List. The casting of superhero roles and models also leaves a lot to be desired in terms of racism. The fact that Ashley Judd went to court because such a superhero role was stolen from her – along with the clearly essential remuneration – because she didn’t take part in sexist casting couch customs also won’t change anything, even if fifty percent of these roles are given to women. The only thing that would then be more fairly distributed is stupidity." (From: arsenal, februar 20, where it was falsely numbered Nr. 238 and published with drawing Nr. 238).

(1984)

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