Opinion: Olivier de Sagazan "Transfiguration"

Speaking of performance art.

This is one of the most fascinating performance pieces I have seen in a really long time. The artist's name is Olivier Sagazan, and the title of the performance is "Transfiguration." Aesthetically, I can't help acknowledge the reminiscence of the video work of The Brothers Quay as well as Adam Jones who is responsible for most of the art direction in the stop-motion animation Tool videos. To be fair however, it is not known to me when Sagazan began this particular style of work, so whose influence came first (if influence exists directly or indirectly between the above artists at all) is unclear.

I've included two videos of Sagazan's performance. The first one, from what I gather, is a rehearsal before the official performance in the second video. In the second performance, the lighting is noticeably more dramatic, the physical performance more stage like, graceful hand motions frame the body (his literal body) of work. The pauses are a more affected, more intentional - and the effect is a more theatrical and self aware rendition of the first performance.

There are some aspects that I feel are more successful in the official performance, such as the order of his transformation. I like that Sagazan spends more time focused on just covering just his the face and that he remains in the suit longer,  incorporating its removal as an integral part of the metamorphosis. In fact, I would say that I prefer the overall pacing of the second version, the way it accelerates into a crescendo. I also enjoy, visually, the deliberate lighting compared to the first - although I do not at all think it necessary as far as content, other than for cinematic appeal.

Overall, however, I feel that the first performance is most definitely stronger. The variety of faces that Sagazan builds in the first version are superior in sheer volume and diversity, and have significantly more personality - making them undoubtedly more compelling. The emphasis is on the nature and process of each transmutation rather than the "show." I feel that the official is circus-y and I am left with the aftertaste of a sideshow. The main factor that sets apart the first performance for me is, in a word: sincerity. To me there is sincerity in the simple, the un-showy, the awareness that there IS no audience (although the presence of a camera is perhaps arguable in all cases - though not comparable to a physical group of onlookers). The first performance illustrates the form itself and is less about performance in the thespian sense of the word.

Well, judge for yourself (if you have the artistic gall to make it through the entirety of them both) and then we can resume conversation.

Transfiguration "rehearsal" performance:


Transfiguration "official" performance:


There is not much on Olivier de Sagazan in English on the web, his own website is all in French, however I did find one translation of a portion of his site via Coilhouse.net .The aforementioned art site is an exciting discovery in itself - so much so that I've added it permanently to my list of links, but I digress.

Translation from De Sagazan’s site:

“I will address here the question of the artistic process and the genesis of a work of art. My approach works toward a personal application of painted sculpture and some skill as a biologist. This constitutes perhaps the driver and the limit of my interpretation.

I will rapidly give the elements of my theory of sculpture: materials and elements, to then get to the center of the subject: the transfer of ‘forms’ between the body of the artist and the work of art. At the start: an impression, a vague form, poorly seen, at best without a face, sensed again with the gut, something which one wants to draw closer."

His reference to the "transfer of forms between the body of the artist and the work of art" immediately brought to mind the likes of Orlan... and that discussion is for another day all together.
My research into Sagazan's art is only still in it's infancy. To put it bluntly, this guy is really exciting and doing some incredibly refreshing performance and video work. Maybe you'll hear more from me about him in the future. I applaud your curiosity if you have made it to the end of tonight's post. If you are as intrigued with these pieces as I am, please lets collaborate on SOMETHING, for dear god's sake!

David Byrne, "Playing the Building" New York

This is the type of installation art that gets my gears goin'

Happiness is a warm inhaler.

Some updates from the new Apothecary/Art Den/Office/Play Room - our extra room has been referred to by all of these titles and has yet to have one stick. I moved my herbs and oils and medicine making accoutrements into "the room" the other day, because three digit degree heat and a big metal box unfortunately don't serve them very well. Heat can cause oils to go rancid faster, and herbs to lose some of their potency and color. So I will be crafting my herbal preparations in the house for the time being. Not so bad. Still no air conditioning in here, but its better than the mosquitoes and the heat compounded. A somewhat unsuccessful ceiling fan and a cracked window will suffice for the time being (at least the fan appears to be trying, poor thing, I haven't the heart to tell it that it's not helping).

Regardless, it's a busy room! Shabby, but productive. I suppose I've taken it over, Ryan doesn't spend anytime in here because its all my stuff mainly - books and art supplies and computer and herbs - and he's out gardening when he's home most nights but I DO spend lots of time, and it is in this room that a host of things are coming to fruition! My Bluebeard's Daughter project is going swimmingly! Quite literally. Yesterday we had a shoot at Hippie Hollow, took some water photos (and our breaks also) in the river. I'm very excited about it and the girls have been too. This makes me very happy. Here's a secret sneak peak at the series:


Don't tell anyone because it's not water marked yet, even this photo is still being tweaked, and I'm waiting to premier most of the photographs at the show because I'm a stuck up artist who takes myself too seriously.

In other art ventures, I have a new mixed media series that I will be crafting in ALL my abundance of free time in between working at Wheatsville, working at the Apothecary, filling out applications for a farmers market booth, building my OWN herbal line, failing miserably at playing on the softball team, working on the Bluebeard's Daughter project, being a contributing member of an intentional living community, and generally living/breathing/sleeping/eating. Naturally taking on another project makes perfect sense. The simple theme of this one is lungs. Representations of all types of the subject in as many mediums as my heart chakra can bust out. Mainly this was an obvious project because in the last year of suffering from - let's just call it what it is - chronic asthma and living off of a steroid inhaler, well I've become obsessed with all things pulmonary. Obsessed. From natural asthma remedies, to the chakra it corresponds with, to prana yama, and finally with the image itself.

I don't know if this will ultimately help or hurt or neither. Maybe reproducing healthy lungs, and also how their condition affects my emotional and daily life, and life view (which has changed significantly in the past year) will help me nurture a better relationship with my own respiratory system. Maybe we'll finally come to terms with each other, kiss, and make up. Anxiety, wondering where I would fall in natural selection were I without my heroic pharmaceuticals, limitations of control in our lives, and meditations on mortality have all been under consideration since the lungs took a big dump on my overall health. It has literally at times put me into existential crisis!

It's really strange to me also, because I've never identified myself as an "asthmatic" - it's never factored in, much less defined to a large degree who I was. Now I not only consider myself to be an "asthmatic" - I'm a full on "asthmaniac." It's practically a shtick, and to a degree I've embraced it as a humorous caricature. But, worst of all actually is that technically, my lungs should be healthier now then ever probably! I don't smoke, I'm not around smoke the way I used to be, I'm healthy nutritionally and physically, I take pulmonary health supplements.....what the fuck, seriously. I still can't get off the damn steroids and breath on my own like a regular person should and does and takes for granted every day.

Well there's a tangent, and here's the conclusion. Whatever breeze has blown in that's brought all of this artistic charge into my life, keep blowin'. I'm producing the most I have since school, without the limitations of deadlines or assignments. Whatever you are, just keep a'blowin - I've got my sails out and am just gaining speed.

Letters to my Lover

Sometimes I wish that we were students in college and that we would stay up all night at 24 hour cafes together writing papers and studying for finals....is that weird!? I think it's because I'm at Epoch Cafe listening to these two people at the table next to me having a very academic conversation and reading to each other out of their texts to prove their points. Is it strange that I find that romantic?

Asthma Kid Tip of the Day:

Ayurveda considers excess mucus to be a poison in the body that can be removed by omitting certain foods from the diet (namely meat and dairy, but also sugar and foods high in yeast), oil pulling, or using a netti pot among other methods. Since mucus is made up of protein and sugar, people with excess mucus (one cause of asthma) can also try supplementing enzymes like bromelain that help to break down protein in the body.

Bromelain is derived from Pineapple fruit and can be bought in capsule form at most health food stores. Additionally, the fresh fruit also contains anti-inflammatory properties, so asthmatics, eat up! This is a delicious ally of allergy and asthma sufferers everywhere! And no, piña coladas do not count.

Oil pulling is a method performed by swishing a tablespoon of cold pressed, unrefined sesame or sunflower oil backwards and forwards in your mouth - first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, before brushing your teeth or drinking any liquids, including water. Fifteen to twenty minutes is best, and at the end, the oil should turn from yellow and translucent, to white, thin and frothy.Don't swallow the oil, and rinse mouth with water when finished. Ayurvedic tradition teaches that during this process, the oil and the enzymes produced by swishing draw out toxins and bacteria and stimulates the body's elimination abilities. Daily oil pulling has been reported to improve gum disease, asthma, constipation, migraines, kidney disease, arthritis, other chronic and autoimmune disorders, and whiten teeth. All of these conditions have one thing in common, a toxic build up in the body! What do you have to lose? Toxins? And at the very least you'll have a lovely smile in the end!

The Legend of Bluebeard's Daughters

The order had been given to extinguish the mad baron’s lineage
the bad seeds he had left behind.
Though born of many mothers
a particular shade of blue peeking from behind their lips
gave them away as his heiresses.
Their mothers, every one of them, slain –
beheaded by the hand of their patriarch
left the daughters orphaned, even before their birth
while still floating ignorantly in the belly of their bearers.
And even so, their willful little bodies crawled into the light with an unmatched tenacity –
a legacy that, it is said, they shared with their common parent.
and a fact that many believed testified to their inherited perniciousness.

If it wasn’t for a particular good citizen, a handmaid in the house of the Baron
the little creatures would have perished for certain.
For it was well known that Bluebeard abhorred the innocent,
surely then, a child,
much less a female child
much less such a unrelentless sequence of babes.

So swooped them up, she did, the servant,
quickly under her apron
severed the chord and delivered each one to the tall brick house
with crumbling corners and a decidedly sagging roof
where so many other children had been taken and set
bundled in a course sack and screaming,
they who had befallen quite a similar fate
with a knock on the door
and a hastening of feet against the cobbled streets,
a nose with a lantern prodded out into the night
from the dark of the doorway
finding no one.

There is a clearing at the end of the world
to where the villian’s daughters were banished.
Just follow the girl with the unkempt laces
past the empty purple house and under the fallen tree
deep in the brush just a spell to the left and then twenty-two paces due east
There will you find the notorious clearing
where the maidens were left to fend off wild beasts
and the hunger that would inevitably ensue.

But parish, they did not.
Instead, the forest enraptured them
browned their skin and caused their fingers to callus.
Its inherent abundance came willingly to their aid
and for the first time in their ill-omened lives
the girls were mothered.

The Trailer Grows Up