Reading/Viewing response 4

1. Briefly respond to one of the following Fluxfilms, which are on-line here:

14 Yoko Ono—One

I liked this fluxfilm better than the Yoko Ono one we watched in class that was filmed with a high speed camera of her “un-smiling”. This one I felt wasn’t quite so slow, and was actually quite intriguing to watch. It is something that we’ve all done. Light a match. But I would dare say very few of us have lit a match in slow motion. It’s taking a closer look at an everyday thing, which I enjoyed. I also like how the

2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilms compatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?

Fluxus does not fit with Sitney's argument on the American avant-garde because his argument is that the "American avant-garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind." Fluxus films are films that anyone can make and don't try to represent the human mind or psyche. Fluxus was more about the act of creating the art than the art itself and the ideology that goes into it.



Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?

She was a diva actress whom many gay men could associate with, and she brought her “oppressed” audience into these fantasy worlds. Fantasy worlds that Jack Smith was so enthralled with and obsessed with in his own art.

The Montez films seem very staged, very old Hollywood. It’s a bit surprising that Smith was so taken aback by these films, yet at the same time, they hold the same aesthetic of being staged and dramatic and fanciful.

4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]

It was an open and free environment where artists could work wherever they wanted on whatever they wanted. The artists of New York were more of a cohesive group. They attempted to create all the glitz and glamour of New York on a very small budget, so they would take things out of the dumpsters from behind department stores (mannequins, clothing, fabric, etc.)


5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?

Jonas made as much money off Smith’s films (esp. Flaming Creatures) and give little or nothing to Smith. The “lobsterism” metaphor emerged that lobsters take and scavenge only for themselves.

6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?

He thought the real show was the actual filming, not the film itself. This goes along with the idea that film was supposed to be interactive, and the fact that artmaking was the art, and not the end result.

Warhol filmed Smith while he filmed Normal Love. A lot of Warhol’s sensibilities came from Jack, and a lot of current artists site Warhol as a muse, but not Jack. It serves as a sort of domino effect. Other people took things that Smith did and became more successful with it. For example, Fellini used a lot of Smith’s ideas and imagery in his films.

7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?

He would play his own music at the showings of the films and edit it as the film was showing. I think “no more masterpieces” meant he would no longer finish anything completely, because then things could no longer be banned, and no one else could “take the travel” out of it like Mekes had done, and the only way it could be shown was on his terms.

He resisted commodification by doing the art only for himself and the experience. He saw ownership of things as “landlordism” and that people shouldn’t own property or things. He hated capitalism. But he would give free shows in his apartment for plays and whatnot.



Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”

8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?

Warhol’s first period was made up of silent, minimalist films which were extremely long, and static shots set up on a tripod. Sleep and Empire are both examples, as well as Kiss, Haircut, Blow Job, Eat, and Henry Geldzahler. These were more focused on the artform of what Angell calls “publicity” – an art form that Warhol pretty much created and capitalized upon.

The differences between Sleep and Empire are that Sleep was filmed from different angles and different intervals and was edited together by Warhol. Empire was a single shot on an entirely stationary camera of a subject that would also not move, The Empire State Building.


9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?

The Screen Tests served as a strict example of Warhol’s style at the Factory and his filmmaking in general, in that, they exemplified his filmmaking as a “continuous, cumulative mode of serial production.” He was always making films of whomever decided to stop by, and very oftentimes in strikingly similar, if not identical, forms.



10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?

Warhol collaborated mainly with Ronald Tavel when it came to sound films. Some of the first films consist of Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. All of these but Vinyl were focused on Edie Sedgwick (although she was also in Vinyl) and her living her everyday life. These followed the portrait films that he had made all along. In these films, camera movement was much more readily used, and he tried to focus on non-acting, more documentary style.