Art.beyond.Art – AlldayNight

YouTube video by Jakob Zaaiman Fighting Wegie kittens

Wegie (Norwegian Forest Cats) kittens learning how to make life more interesting. Norske skogkatter 3 brothers, about 12 weeks old, just starting to get their big furry jackets.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UGJ...

Not necessarily - there's decorative art & there's narrative, & then there's stuff which doesn't quite rise to either level; I'm not a fan of the idea it's art because someone labelled it that; it is possible with some effort to discern art from not-art.

It’s Just an Unmade Bed: Why Tracey Emin (Amongst Others) Fails as an Artist Artworks need to tell us something unusual and unexpected, not simply reflect what we already know

Tracey is not an artist; she's a self-publicist with bits of crafting attached. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, it's good fun, but it's not art. Contemporary art is about discovering new realms of unusual experience & inviting viewers inside. (Article free to read as always)
tinyurl.com/yc4uzu55

Not meant to be cruel to a very successful poet but Jorie Graham's output over the last few years is very weak sauce. She is channelling Sam Beckett's 'Not I' stream of consciousness voice & like all late Beckett, is not very interesting/meaningful to say the least. Mystifying.

Harry Pussy (1992–1997) Masterpieces of modern/contemporary art #10 Extraordinary noise band led by the wonderful Adris Hoyos - you really need to give them a listen.
(Article free to read, as always)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/harry-puss...

How to understand modern contemporary art, enjoy it, and not be fooled Modern contemporary art remains a mystery because most people — including art critics and even artists themselves — are unable to see…

How to understand modern contemporary art, enjoy it, and not be fooled (Article free to read)
Contemporary art is not self-evident - it often needs quite a bit of effort: all is explained!
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/how-to-und...

The Secret Agent (2025) (dir Kleber Mendonça Filho) Wagner Moura. Great start; desolate countryside, saturated colours, a dead body. Military rule; a contract killing. But plot & action slacken as if secondary to the vibrant Brazilian look & feel plus way too much explanatory chatter. Loses its way.

Poster of movie 'The Rip' (2026)

The Rip (2026) Matt & Ben go about dangerous cop ‘work’ apparently unaware of safety procedures, despite having been threatened with sudden death; & when the shooting starts they fire wildly at nothing. Much noise to no effect. Action becomes so inexplicably silly not worth watching beyond halfway.

‘I was sick of beauty.’ Louise Bourgeois
One reviewer complained her new works looked as though ‘the sculptor hadn’t felt like working.’ (LRB article) but the point is that Louise was inviting us to explore a new realm in which 'beauty' & 'fine crafting' were no longer key ingredients.

Peter Hujar's Day (2025) Gently compelling as a conversational record of an artistic workday; too prosaic for some perhaps but writers & poets will soon respond to the flow of elemental detail.

Which Hitchcock for a beginner? The Birds, followed by Vertigo. Why? Birds is a science fiction nightmare in which a parallel realm crashes into ours temporarily; Vertigo is a romantic psychopathology which teams nicely with Phantom Thread; these movies look innocent but are sure to detonate later.

Clarice Lispector (talk with Edilberto Coutinho)
"I am Jewish, you know. But I don't believe in that foolishness of the Jews being the chosen people of God. No way are they chosen. The Germans must be because of what they did. What special kind of choice was that for the Jews? "

Different kinds of trauma: some make you psychotic (Irreversible; The Golden Glove); others can be fun (The Monkey). Go for the latter b/c we can also laugh at the apocalypse. As the man said 'Well Sir, can't speak for you but I don't feel especially fucked to hell!' Dance.

Liz Truss=performance art. Pinheads for Incorrect - Shaggs, Lucia Pamela, Jandek, William Shatner - find Liz does spoken word. David Icke - 100% LIZard - could sing. Lizard TV is borderline hebephrenic garbage & unwatchable yet glorious. Angst: das Grauen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpH8...

Wazzing as a girly artform not squalid post-pub emergency; Sophie Rickett graces the cover in a neat standup slash; very elegant; not a Vivienne Westwood suit but a cheap charity shop number. Other pissers (all dressed for work) give off a more boss woman vibe. Great book = art.

John Calder badly misunderstood Sam Beckett by trying to 'domesticate' (ie tame/blunt/ameliorate) his key theme: failure wasn't a badge of honour or bad luck; it was the inevitable destiny of anyone with the least decency. Too much for most, this message needs to be hidden in misdirection.

Metal is a great sub-genre yet only about 0.3% hits the spot. Hard to get the attack right on stage or in studio. Motorhead had strategy (bludgeoning) but were often tinny & shrill with a weak guitar. However Hamburg 1998 it was perfect; what a noise!
youtu.be/tshOdkqYZhU

Contemporary art is not self-evident; you need to do a bit of thinking! (Article free to read.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...

(Weapons) Gladys was so fantastically captivating - at least as good if not better than Hannibal/Hopkins - she was kinda wasted in a not very interesting movie. Talk of a prequel, but please don't waste her talents on another weak script. Go Aunty Glad.

Eraserhead (1977)
Midsommar (2019)
Kill List (2011)
Tony (2009)
Beau is Afraid (2023)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Kiss Me, Deadly (1955)
Performance (1970)
Vertigo (1958)
Fish Tank (2009)

The Pale Horse (2020)
ZeroZeroZero (2020)
Sharp Objects (2018)
The Leftovers (2014)
Station Eleven (2021)
Chloe (2022)
Red Riding Trilogy (2009)
Hinterland (2013)
Twin Peaks 3 (2017)
Maid (2021)

10 magnificent TV miniseries; Sopranos has been left out as it is in an indisputable class of its own; Maid is so brutal one can only watch it once; the rest will repay repeat viewings for the rest of one's life. These multi-episode stories are effectively long-form movies.

Criterion closet? Maybe. 10 very best deranged contemporary artworks but they will not help you to get me because – like everyone else – I am a mystery to myself. Huh? Yes; you never know how you’re going to respond until it’s too late. These movies prove it.

The Golden Glove (2019)
Irreversible (2002)
Audition (1999)
Orphan (2009)
Dracula’s Angel (2014)
Snowtown (2011)
The Vanishing (1988)
Titane (2021)
Dagon (2001)

9 movies to get to know Sadako; English versions of all of them available; view them at your peril; why? because you'll be in total congruence with Sadako's mind.

Perhaps the greatest novel so far about the total dissolution through technology of our familiar view of ourselves & how we might hack normal life; reality as the unreal. Reads like a hallucinatory thriller; unfilmable? Don't try. Amazing achievement. Philip K Dick: Ubik (1969).

Fleur Jaeggy: Proleterka (2001) My idea of fiction: short, sharp, to the point. Whilst also being unsettling, unusual, perplexing. Why spew 850pp when 100pp will be just as good & keep it tight? Only pity is the English edition doesn't have a cover like this one:

Eddington: Sheriff Joe’s otherworldly ruination Certainty is eternally uncertain

Ari Aster's 'Eddington' (2025) what on earth was it all about? Critical review, free to read (Great movie, btw.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...

Popular accounts praising classical architecture & sneering at the modern; this is simplistic; many older buildings look like torture chambers inhabited by vampires & zombies; surprising no one sees this; modern buildings can be bright & inviting & positive; very bizarre this love of old horror.

(Alien Earth paradox) In 2120 no one has seen any of the Alien movies & will make the same mistakes as the crew of Nostromo in 2122, failing to isolate ‘lethal unknowns’. Ok. So the future will be ‘uninformedly’ prequelled, & still no sign of AI. Figger any of this if you can.