we are slaves to the pyramid of needs. we will never be content with what we do, have, are. there will always be progress to be made, stagnation is death. entropy the finish line.
ikr, i aspire to be like that someday, merry christmas!! btw if anyone is interested, i make videos on films! including the Mandalorian, Queens Gambit and Her!
I'm not at all an art connaisseur. And yet I thoroughly enjoy being whisked on a guided journey through an art piece or an artist. I miss The Art Assignment. And I miss the artsy friends that I have had at various points in my life.
This might sound strange, but, after reading your comment I went to watch the last The Art Assignment video. I only have a passing familiarity with the channel, but I started crying while watching the video. Not even sure why. But now I too, miss The Art Assignment. And I also miss my artsy friends. Guess the solution is to make art myself? Not too sure really, but, thanks for your comment!
I love empty cities. Honestly the first 2 months of lockdown were so calming for me. I live in the middle of downtown and for the first time there was no people, no noise, I was allowed to stay in my house forever. I loved walking the empty city (or rather, 5 blocks of it) the 2 times I went out to buy food. It was the happiest, clamest, healthiest I'd been in years.
That's nice to hear, glad it did you good! I live in the middle of downtown too (it's a capital city too) and back in spring I was going crazy with all the silence and calmness.
I also enjoy the empty cities. Not only the silence or the lack of people which you get in rural areas but rather the calmness that come from something that is so busy normally, now being slow and calm. That's why I enjoy the way home late in the late evening after work when most people already sleep. So mystical and beautiful.
I love empty cities too. I love silence. I love how architecture is without cars. I love the freedom to walk easily on pavements. For many lockdown and the various attendant emergency measures improved their lives considerably.
This reminds me a bit of liminal spaces. They are photos of places that can bring both nostalgia and/or unease depending on the location photographed that are mostly devoid of things and thus have removed context. These spaces are often places tied to a lot of emotion (such as school, arcades, and whatever you would classify Chuck E Cheese and sjmar places as). When robbed of the things and people that make these places what they are, they take on this unreal dream aspect that inspires different emotions. For me, I feel sorrow seeing the passage and transition of things from their glory days to the slowly fade into memory until forgotten, abandoned, and alone.
This made me think of the video here on RU-vid with Toto Africa playing in an empty mall. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D__6hwqjZAs.html
I love liminal spaces. There's something eerily beautiful about them, and I love the unsettling nostalgia that they bring. They remind me somewhat of being in a car journey at dusk or night, when your mind enters a kind of dream state. Idk, just my thoughts on the matter
I actually know about this because of a video I watched on Liminal Spaces; the next one was on fake Liminal Spaces, and mentioned De Chirico... Ah, yes, solar sands is the creator: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N63pQGhvK4M.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u_dRqMDgdp8.html
_"Metaphysical art combined everyday reality with mythology, and evoked inexplicable moods of _*_nostalgia,_*_ _*_tense expectations,_*_ and _*_estrangement."_* *~ Giorgio de Chirico* This man discovered "liminal spaces" before the time of the Internet.
@@CosmicTeapot Despite what Alvaro said, I was thinking for fifteen minutes now why not neither? Wouldn`t it be better to admit that life is easily strong enough without masks? (for example by learning the difference between dread and fear)
This artist and those town square paintings were clearly the inspiration for the Ico cover art. In fact the cover art finally makes sense to me now, I never understood why the architecture looks so... off, but after hearing you talk about how he simplified the church facade it makes a lot more sense.
Yep, that's what made the thumbnail jump out at me. The Ico cover had always seemed so incredibly strange and alien, but it makes a bit more sense with this context.
Yes. So dream-like. I really love Dali's 'Outskirts of a paranoic critical Town'. Both artists create townscapes that seem to have passed into history.
I am the funniest RU-vidr of all time I watched my latest video and laughed for 69 minutes straight I am extremely funny I am dangerously funny and I have two girlfriends who think I am extremely dangerously funny and they watch all of my videos thanks for listening dear steve
I was studying abroad in Italy earlier this year, but it was cut short because of COVID-19. At the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, I came across several de Chirico paintings and they haunted me. I never actually made the connection in retrospect between his work and the global experience in following months, so thank you for this!
I absolutely love De Chirico and was planning on making a video on one of his paintings myself. You killed it! Good job as always and keep up the great work!
3 года назад
I totally relate to this. De Chirico is my favourite painter because for some reason he evokes this strangeness every time I see his work. In 2015, I was in Venice in January. The streets were empty and the sun casted long shadows on statues and buildings. And there I was feeling that I was on a de Chirico painting. Only good art can become real to us when our mindset aligns with the artist's.
bro i don’t even know why i’m crying, the idea of this weird, painful, often tragic phase of human history coming to a close offers so much relief and yet now I can see its value. Rarely do we get opportunities for true reflection individually, much less collectively, and to have someone point out the value of that reflection in spite of the overwhelming pain is a little sobering. I don’t know, I’ll need to think about what emotion this video inspired, but thank you nevertheless. These are the types of conversations that need to be had about the ramifications of the crash course in being human that the pandemic provided.
I love that your videos are works of art themselves! Combining audio, music, video, images, editing, etc. to create experiential art! you should be hired by an art museum to do visual presentations!!!
Literally I also felt that the day I stepped out of my home after more than 4 to 5 months the feeling of uncertainty jumped out of my core and asked me that I am ready or not to face the world with these new changes.
Giorgio de Chirico has been one of my favorite painters since I was a teenage kid. I even visited his house museum near the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy 2018. His paintings looked almost like cartoons at first glance because of the simplicity, but somewhat completely different from any other paintings that I had seen in terms of the dreamy and unique inner vision he had. The deep shadows under the Mediterranean sun, palm trees, ancient statues, hollow squares, and rubber gloves carved into an eternity of time made me feel comfortable and even wonder about the world beyond it.
For me, "Mystery and Melancholy of a Street" perfectly captures the unexpected horror of the pandemic: an innocent child, running headlong towards an unknown figure, standing just out of frame. Great video, as always.
Living in what is probably the oldest source of Western civilization still intact, it sometimes must be really strange to live among all these monuments of ancient forefathers. Unable to speak of all the memories they witnessed, gives them a certain feeling of being bigger than life. In Belgium, we don't really have much old architecture left except for some Roman walls, medieval farms and churches, castles, town halls and leftovers from Celtic makeshift houses here and there, mostly forgotten by most inhabitants. Architecture arrived here only around the turn of the 20th century, so to speak, as that is when most people started being able to afford land and their own property, and even then it took until after World War 2 for the country to move on from agriculture to something more modern, so our architecture is still very young outside of the capitols. We're alot like Americans when it comes to that, calling houses from the 1800s "old", and even alot of the houses get to be torn down or get a makeover and that's also alienating, because most of the time the house you were born in won't be look the same once you grow up unless your parents are still living in it. There's this constant sensation of fleetingness, of being forgotten, life catching up on you, and nothing to remind you of your heritage. There is some kind of consolation I find in Italian culture because of this, and maybe this idea of strangeness is something that struck De Chirico as inspiring, coming from the opposing point of view like the Germans, always being surrounded by history, by culture, as if God were breathing down his neck.
what i think is so cool about this movement is how its both taking away and adding a filter to reality. it shows how differently people see things and how this can be made clear with art. they create a landscape that mirrors our reality but it really makes you question how you see the things around you. just a fresh look at your environment i guess
@@ashmitbajpai390 Originality is an illusion borne of ignorance, and novelty isn't worth as much as most people seem to think. We are all of us standing waves, participating in a culture we did not build, all too soon to be superseded and forgotten. In the brief moment we're here, we can and should find joy in shared experiences, things which remind us of important and mundane moments alike. Rarely do we have the opportunity to form connections, and when we do, they're guaranteed to be ephemeral ones; it is a mistake to let yourself be robbed of a moment of joy simply because you labour under the delusion that originality is a meaningful concept.
I think that you are THE ONLY youtuber, for me at least, that evokes some emotion with every video that you post instead of just filling our time with meaningless banter. Thank you for that
Don't know if you'll ever read this, man, but I just want to say that in this passing strange year (and what a long, strange trip it's been indeed!) your videos... I'm not that good with words... they just helped. They made me think, reflect and ultimately made me feel better. About myself, about the world, about everything really. Thank you.
I highly suggest anyone interested in De Chirico's art to check out his painting "Mystery and Melancholy of a Street". When I was a small kid I would gaze at the picture for hours, amazed and perhaps intimidated by its melancholic aura of fear, despair, and mystery.
Love the video, as usual. What it made me think about though, is how urban and suburban that experience seems. Living in a much more rural setting, I have often been struck by how little the pandemic is effecting the daily view from my window. I feel it most only when venturing farther out from my personal setting.
How long before our cities become ancient ruins for a future generation? No one anticipates that their societies will disappear over time; but perhaps our creations will be our legacy when we’ve moved on to another planet
If I’m not mistaken, given enough time, like tens of thousands of years, even the greatest constructs of metal and mortar would crumble if people disappeared. And if all the digital proof of such life also degraded and became obsolete then entire civilizations would become largely invisible but with some random clues left behind. Probably in the form of the layer of plastic that would coat the earth and be recorded geologically.
You just described the feeling so well. I live in Jakarta, an extremely dense and populated city. Ive lived here most of my life. So when I went to a part of Tangerang, a city not far from Jakarta it felt extremely alien and I couldnt comprehend the fact that I was in the same country. The part of Tangerang that I went to was spacious and full of flat land. It was extremely quiet too. It just felt really weird but made me reflect on how Jakarta came to be.
I was walking through San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf about the time this video was released - it seemed very odd to be absent of so many people - but I thought to myself in that moment - I'm going to miss this quiet - the quiet of the city.
As a delivery driver, it was weird being in this empty world I knew so well. Everything became eerily quiet. There was absolutely no traffic but also nowhere to park. I remember writing in my journal that I felt like I was running through a museum after closing hours. I wish I had taken the time to take pictures & enjoy this weird moment in time rather than stress about the extra load of packages.
My recent fascination of De Chirico's paintings, and the simultaneous sense of longing and disquiet I feel when I look at them, all stems from what I perceive as a world now lost to us. Specifically, his 1913 painting 'Piazza' contains a somber matrimony of modernity bleached over tradition, to where nothing feels like it could occur naturally in the world yet as a result feeling untouchable, elusive, and to me personally, desirable.
I absolutely love how the last shot's green light matches what you were saying. I realized after that the video was also playing in reverse. To signify 'going back' to normal. Beautiful
the first city that showed up I was like "whewwww that's pretty, where is this? then i looked at the bus stop and the shop signs and realized its literally where I live lol
I think its important to do a formal analysis of De Chirico's work to understand what is happening to achieve this weird effect. He is basically playing with the rules of perspective - different objects in the scene are following their own vanishing points. For the example buildings in the background sometimes look like they are falling forward while buildings on the side look like they are growing higher but the shadows which are late afternoon drag the composition in different perspectives. This creates an overall effect where things seem to be slightly disjointed or moving apart - De Chirico is a legend.
you provide college-level art analysis and insight and I'm so thankful that you make this work available to the world on youtube. What a time to be alive
I just wanted to comment, I like how you bring this all up because the change of pace of life has got me thinking about how I'd like a change of status in my life. I've seen people retire earlier than they planned to this past year, I've seen people take up entirely new jobs, or permanently walk away from old ones. So I wondered in the back of my mind what was leading to all of this change and this video helped me figure it out. We aren't happy with what we've built. At least not in our own lives. We get caught in the corporate cycle, working our lives away for someone else's benefit who doesn't care about us. We waste so much of our precious time and energy doing things we don't want to do. And when we ask ourselves the question, "Why?" I think most of us fail to provide a good answer. But when the world grinds to a halt, like say, for a pandemic, it leaves a lot of people with a lot of extra time to think, more than they had time to think before. And I believe a large number of those people, myself included, realized they weren't satisfied with what they had been doing before the pandemic, and that now it's time for a change.
For anyone looking for this emptyness of public spaces, I can only recommend walks at deep night. A lot is empty, at 3am. Of course this only holds in the less central spots, but it is still an experience I regularly seek out. I know this is harder for women who are uncomfortable walking streets alone at night. I can only recommend to ask a friend to walk with you in silence.
G. de Chirico's paintings kinda of remind me of Aldo Rossi's drawings and sketches. In Rossi's "Scientific Autobiography": "That is why cities, although they last for centuries, are in reality large encampments of the living and the dead, where some elements such as signs, symbols, warnings remain. When the Fair is over, the remains of the architecture are rags and the sand eats the street again. There is nothing left but to return again, with obstinacy, to rebuild elements and instruments, waiting for the next party" (p.48).
Hey Nerdwriter! Do you have apprehensions about interpreting art in ways the artists didn't intend? Or do you think that's the point? Glad to see you back
My art history teacher used to say: from the moment an artist releases its work, it no longer belongs to him. It belongs to both him and the audience, and therefore he doesn't have a say in what the work is saying. Or more precisely, his opinion on what the work means is as relevant as anyone else's. You can agree or not with that statement, but I find it truly interesting, and at the time it completely changed the way I interepreted works of art. He would also say something like "Whatever you think a painting is saying, you're right, as long as you can explain it"
As an artist, I want my work to inspire people in whatever way it needs to in their moment of contact with it. That means multiple interpretations. The thing that drives me to appreciate and love art and literature is that art in and of itself is the human interpretation of reality, and the fact that humans can interpret the world in so many different ways is interesting to me. I think it's a great thing that the art you create can have the same effect. And that's largely how art stays relavent through time and across cultures; if no one is able to gain anything from it, or interpret the art, it is no longer relevant.
Xavier Shit yes. Once the art goes into the world then everyone is free to their opinion. In the case of certain “critics” their perception is valued and respected because they’re insightful. It still doesn’t mean there is one correct interpretation though. Everyone feels art through the whole of their experiences, which are entirely unique.
There is no difference between art and critic, critic is a form of art. You can write about a tree or about a poem or a picture, but either way wou are writing, creating art. Oscar Wilde wrote an essay about it, I forgot the title...
what a beautiful language! "We’ll pick up the routines we dropped". I jotted down your speech listening to your to widen my English thinking. I watched various videos, but they were sometime too easy, sometimes too difficult to understand, and most notably, they were so boring. Now, I am watching this video - I guess, I finally found what i was seeking for. Thank you!
Seeing scenes of unused spaces usually jammed with people is saddening. But, once past that, you can admire the strangeness and those places become more fascinating; and then it becomes sad that the strangeness of those places will be gone as things return to normal.
I had just graduated from college when the Twin Towers fell, and I remember thinking, after the shock, and sadness subsided, "Well, that's it..life as we know it is over. Nothing will ever be the same." And for awhile there, that was true, but eventually, normalcy returned, time marched on. And despite the fear, and anguish that ruled that day, the most prominent, and indelible stories to emerge, were that of selfishness, courage, and love. People's resolve, fortitude, and empathy were tested in a way that hadn't been in decades, at least not in this country, and they triumphed. The names, and the images of those responsible faded into obscurity, but those of the victims, and the heroes who sacrificed everything to save them, did not. I say all this because I know it can feel hopeless, and infuriating, especially when we're inundated with videos of "anti-maskers", and "Covid deniers", selfishly refusing to do even the simplest of things to help save lives, and end this nightmare, but they will be a footnote, just like those hijackers. They will be remembered for the entitled pricks that they are. The true patriots, the ones history celebrates, not scorns, will be the doctors, and nurses, the grocery store employees, essential workers, and the average citizens who did the right thing, and stayed the fuck home. When the dust settles, and order restored, we will move on, shell shocked, and deeply saddened, never forgetting all those we lost, and optimistic in the fact that no matter what is thrown at us, we can persevere, because despite how it may often seem, the world is made up of mostly decent people worth fighting for. Next stop...racism, income inequality, and climate change. * I doubt many people will make it this far in my post, but it felt good saying it, nonetheless. While I'm aware I'm oversimplifying things, and probably sound a bit pretentious, this kinda feels like the right time, and place to do it. Anyway, stay safe everyone. Happy Holidays, and I'll see you on the other side.
Perfect response! It’s another reason to make art, so we can legitimize the folks that are usually forgotten in the imperialist version of history. I realize that could be a double-edged sword, but if art history tells us anything, that fascist, racist paintings and artwork are pushed to the side, and the most compelling, interesting ones always seem to be memorable.
For those of us that like to be alone, this is a breath of fresh air. As you say he saw the world as convalescing, the world did heal for a time before rampant consumption resumed.
This especially eery case of barren and empty streets remind me of the Nighthawks in their brightly lit cafe not quite even talking to each other. It used to be contextualized by the deep loneliness urbanites found in direct proximity to each other, but it takes on another meaning for me now.
My partner and I live in NYC and this was our exact observation, that New York on lockdown felt like a museum. Especially in March/April of 2020. Walking around felt like an strange expansive gallery, a once in a lifetime experience that will never be forgotten.
I’ve been fascinated by De Chirico’s work for years. He was a big inspiration for my A Level fine art course. I find the haunting, abandoned nature of his work beautiful. Looking back on his work through the lens of 2020 is something hadn’t thought to do, but it oddly does give a whole new layer to our lives currently.
In a way, I wish it was like how it was in the intensest stages of lockdown. It's been a nice safe feeling place to make changes in my life without having to worry as much about other people's opinions, a warm cocoon. Simply seeing images and videos of the beforetime give me genuine anxiety because of the optimal format of todaytime. I also enjoyed the baren cities even if I didn't get to visit them myself, that eerie silence and stillness is beautiful in pictures and video. However, my major is metropolitan planning, and the good city is the happy city, the place where all can fill their social needs and feel comfortable with lesiure. In a way, this is something I long for online. I enjoy creative games, but so few games, just in general, feel alive. You can browse through GTA and other people are mere nuisances, you can build cities in Minecraft, but need real players in order to give the life. The living city is a happy city. If people stopped being in those city centers for too long, then there'd be no need for them to be made pleasant, and we'd be back to American cities of the 70s and 80s.
The members of an edgy art movement turning on an artist for no longer pushing boundaries is a representation of what’s gone wrong with art. Art should be sincere. If it doesn’t speak to you but you know the artist created it with the intent to express something, what does it matter if that art is a stick figure or a mountain villa with foamy foliage? This is what they wanted in a visual form. But if your entire goal in creating art is to get the attention of pretentious people who claim to see meaning in wads of copper wire while dismissing skilled and meaningful art because it’s too representational, then you’re not an artist, you’re a freaking clown. And yeah, not exactly the point of the video. But that one moment really pissed me off.
Art was never only about Realism But Surrealism even though not accurate and realistic has inspired and cultivated many creative ideas and continues to do so. The fantasy illustrations, a fictional world it gives us FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Also, after coming of cameras, realistic paintings are left with only single point of skill development. This era strives for New ideas Something the world can't see but you, and that's how you stand out
Hey, this is a bit ahistorical and it ignores surrealists struggle. The whole movement, as did all avant-garde, tried to break away from art that has been standard in europd for thousands of years. They were different, because everything else was the same. The breaking of art from ideology and elitist mindset that you speak of is possible today presicely because of movements like that of Breton. Furthermoore, art isnt only about what you feel, it has its strict analysis and requieres a lot of contemplation. Surrealist movement itself was defined by their aproach to art, so if a member of said movement went against it, would it not make sense for the movement to turn on him? I get your perspective, and it is that of compassion, but surrealism wasnt just a bunch of edgy jerks, it was a movement of free association and it tried to make the art world of museums just a little bit more laidback and fun
@@RobGodMC How so? As I see things the "Artists" are more and more terrified of running afoul of the censors. Weak and tamed. Step by step they are locking in to the big corps and government held views... you need to wake up... mate.
It's good to get perspective, and I can count on Nerdwriter to provide that. Perspective is the best and worst thing that can happen to a person in competition. It takes advantage and gives insight to both sides. Equal in all regards. Perspective is the great equalizer.
I've been watching your videos religiously for about 7 years now. I have lots of favorites. But I just want to say, I think this is the best video you've ever made. Thank you.
This reminds me of the last stanzas from one of my favorite poems, Numbers Man by Phil Kaye- is this what it means to be human? to be all powerful? to build a temple to yourself and leave only the walls to pray
As a construction worker, I've been inhabiting the strangeness of an almost empty San Francisco financial district since early May. It has been quite arresting, seeing downtown minus all the people who work in offices doing office things. We are there, though, construction being essential or something. It's just much quieter. And don't even get me started on the day of red skies and darkness during the summer! Lovely video, btw. Have loved DiChirico since I first saw his work in a wonderful class in college which took us from him through WWII and the Futurists and the Surrealists, including the Russians who did some of my favorite things.
