Tuesday, August 12, 2008

My friend Barbara sent this photo of a rainbow over Pine Ridge Sanctuary. I can't stop looking at it. Such an alien and beautiful terrain...

Last week I went and saw After Nature at the New Museum. I think this show is such a revelation. No more glitter and neon on canvas for pete's sake.


William Christenberry's work really moves me. His photographs show buildings and landscapes in Alabama that have been smothered in Kudzu (a devastatingly invasive vine). When he was little his mother said never to lay down in the fields, else you'd be eaten by the kudzu.


Werner Herzogs film Lessons on Darkness from 1992 is also mesmerizing. It is the most eerie and seamless junction of beauty and destruction. The show is worth it just to see this film.

2 comments:

(wife.) said...

Wow, you convinced me with the Herzog reference! :-)

I was in Alabama last summer and saw the kudzu, which I'd never heard of before... it's crazy! It's strangely beautiful and made me sad that it's such a destructive plant.

17 beats. said...

when i was a kid, our readers had a story called "kudzu: green bully of the south". that fact has stuck with me for over twenty years, and i thought i should share it with you.