October 19, 2018

Haunted.

My favorite word in this sentence from "Ugly Beauty/Cindy Sherman's New Self-Portraits Are Her First Pure Protagonists: Gloriously, Catastrophically Themselves" (NYT):
After a number of high-profile relationships — with the Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, the artist Richard Prince and a 16-year marriage to the filmmaker Michel Auder that was haunted by his heroin use — she is now single, “except for my bird,” a 28-year-old macaw named Mr. Frieda, a superb mimic in his own right.
And they go tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet...

24 comments:

Rob said...

Mr. Frieda, the gender-bending macaw—the perfect pet when you need to fill the vacuum left by no longer living with a heroin addict.

Fernandinande said...

I remember Cindy Sherman from the early 80's or so, and a phtography-magazine level "controversy" regarding a self-portrait which looked like kid sex abuse or some such.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Daddy! If I blame men for anything, it’s leaving us with this string of neurotic, self-obsessed, women.

Henry said...

Schnabel reference from the article: Exasperated by the inflated art market and prices commanded by “boy painters” — Schnabel, Salle ...

She was right to be exasperated.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Haunted” removes responsibility. Like Jacob Marley just showed up one day, with a syringe, a spoon, and a match.

Oso Negro said...

A very hip bird sits in his cage in

Henry said...

"Haunted" removes responsibility

The writer does say by his heroin use.

But what is haunted by the heroin? The marriage is.

It's like four people there. Sherman, Auder, Marriage, and Heroin.

* * *

Haunting is today's theme.

Gaslighting is a kind of haunting. The context for gaslighting is the gothic tale which are always about haunting. In the classic tale, the haunted young woman -- or Cary Grant in a Hitchcock movie -- must fight to be believed because what is happening is inexplicable. Sherman's work, too, is gothic. Which is why it is interesting.

Happy Halloween.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I never thought I'd see a quotation from "Blurt, Master Constable" here, but from memory, helped enormously by Benjamin Britten,

Midnight's bell goes ting, ting, ting, ting, ting,
Then dogs do howl, and not a bird doth sing
But the nightingale, and she cries "Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet."
Owls then on every bough do sit
Ravens croak on chimney's tops
The cricket in the chamber hops
The nibbling mouse is not asleep,
But she cries "peep, peep, peep, peep, peep."
And the cats cry, "Mew, mew."
And still the cats cry "Mew, mew."


Britten set it to strings and horn, and despite all the respect I bear the "Serenade" (where the horn is the only participant outside tenor and strings), just that little horn vignette from the "Nocturne" is even better.

wildswan said...

Notes Toward a Thought

right song for the pictures.

pictures, not portraits.

of what?

pictures of eighties to movies of fifties
as pictures of Instagram to? carnival people in a funhouse mirrors
or?
let a thousand mirrors blossom
because

Ann Althouse said...

He rocks in the treetop all day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' his song
All the little birds on jaybird street
Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.
Rockin' robin (tweet, tweet, tweet)
Rockin' robin (tweet, twidly-deet)
Blow, rockin' robin cause we really gonna rock tonight.

wildswan said...

Notes Toward a Thought

article obviously thinks Portraits of Deplorables

GrantWood

so stupid,

grantwooden asks
how can I be
The
Most Obvious Person in New York?

but what is it
?
I really hate ugliness
and Im not going to think about it any more.

Earnest Prole said...

Her new work appears to be influenced by the paintings of John Currin.

Rick.T. said...

If I had a macaw, I'd name him Tim.

SeanF said...

Rick Turley: If I had a macaw, I'd name him Tim.

I'd go with Tug, or maybe even Quickdraw, which I think means I'm older than you. :)

roesch/voltaire said...

Joan Semmel's portraits of women and the female body has been in this anti-romantic vine for four decades but Sherman has pushed this depiction into a playful staged grotesque.

Michael K said...

She better not get a cat.

madAsHell said...

The dysmorphic 14 year old girl.

I've never understood women and make-up.

tim in vermont said...

If you are seeking happiness and contentment, be sure that all of your significant others are name dropping worthy. It worked out great for Carly Simon. She got a hit song out of it!

Saint Croix said...

Cindy Sherman's early work ("film stills") is really cool.

After a number of high-profile relationships — with the Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, the artist Richard Prince and a 16-year marriage to the filmmaker Michel Auder that was haunted by his heroin use

She was also in a relationship with Paul Hasegawa-Overacker, who made a movie called Guest of Cindy Sherman.

Sherman has made one film, a horror comedy called Office Killer that I've always meant to watch but I've never gotten around to it.

Saint Croix said...

Sorry, the title of her work is Untitled Film Stills.

I think Hitchcock was a big influence!

pchuck1966 said...

Cindy Sheehan? Oh, I forgot the Democrats haven't needed her at least for the past decade.

dustbunny said...

I thought ‘And they go tweet,tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet’ was an oblique reference to Lou Reed’s Walk On the Wild Side lyric “And the colored girls go ‘doo doo doo doo doo doo’”

Tina Trent said...

By reading the article I learned that Cindy Sherman doesn't like selfies.

That's two women this week who make no sense, if you count the Arizona loathing bisexual bi-agnostic congressional candidate in Arizona as just one person.

Tina Trent said...

By reading the article I learned that Cindy Sherman doesn't like selfies.

That's two women this week who make no sense, if you count the Arizona loathing bisexual bi-agnostic congressional candidate in Arizona as just one person.