The Ensemble Music Society did not set out to have a “theme” for the upcoming concert by JACK Quartet at the IMA, it just happened. We wanted to present the Quartet (1964) by Polish composer Witold Lutosławski because 2013 is the centennial of his birth. György Ligeti’s Quartet No. 2 and Tetras by Iannis Xenakis were both stunning sonic wonderlands of sound and textures that have become contemporary classics and have never been performed in Indianapolis. We liked selecting Xenakis too because he was once as an Associate Professor of Music at Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University from 1967 to 1972.

But a larger underlying theme emerged in the life experiences of these three composers. Darkness as they were all uprooted and tormented by the World Wars and civil upheaval that stripped them of all personal possessions, Indeterminacy as they faced an uncertain future or nearly certain death during these struggles, and later found Rebirth and new beginnings with freedom to express their musical ideas.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, presented last weekend in the Toby, was described in Eric Grayson’s blog post as “still a stunning and fresh experience.” Besides the cinematic elements that make this film so impressive, the use of music by classical composers heightens the experience. The two pieces most familiar to traditional music audiences in the film are Johann Strauss’ Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz and Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra. It is somewhat odd that both of these nineteenth century pieces were featured in a movie about the future, however most of the other music in 2001 was by composer György Ligeti. Definitely on the leading edge of contemporary music, Ligeti was better known in avant garde art and music circles. Three works by Ligeti were in the movie. Excerpts from “Requiem” are heard during the monolith scenes and “Lux Aeterna” is another recurring motif. Ligeti’s Atmosphères is heard in its entirety in the film. Kubrick returned to Ligeti again for piano music to the masked orgy in Eyes Wide Shut.

György Ligeti

Ligeti was born to a Hungarian Jewish family in 1923. During the Austrian occupation of Hungary and the rise of the Nazi movement, Ligeti was sent to a forced labor brigade, his brother to a concentration camp and his parents to Auschwitz. His mother was a nurse and the only other member of his immediate family to survive. When Soviet troops violently suppressed the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Ligeti escaped to the West, hidden in a railway baggage car. Kubrick did not seek Ligeti’s permission to use his music for 2001 in advance. While the juxtaposition of his music with that of Richard Strauss’ did not make him happy, it did result in a top selling film and soundtrack recording.

Witold Lutosławski

Witold Lutosławski’s father was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 when he was five years old. He and his mother moved to Warsaw where, from 1939 to 1945, war was besieging the country. They narrowly escaped the retreating Nazi army that destroyed nearly 85% of Warsaw, but they lost everything. They endured a repressive Stalinist regime that tightly controlled the type of music he could write. The string quartet composed in 1964 came after an easing of government control and uses an aleatoric or random chance technique in each performers part. Each performer within certain structural boundaries has the freedom to express the music of their part as they feel best. If much of life is indeterminate, so is his music.

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was of Greek heritage and born in what was then Romania. In his student days living in Athens, he was politically active and fought against British troops and other efforts to restore the Greek monarchy during the Greek Civil War. In the midst of the fighting, Xenakis was severely injured, losing sight in one eye and having his face permanently scarred in a shell attack. He then escaped to France in 1947 after he was first sentenced to death by the right wing government of Greece. He practiced architecture in France with Corbusier as an illegal immigrant. He was also a brilliant mathematician.  He studied music composition with Olivier Messiaen. Xenakis wrote a collection of texts on applications of stochastic processes, game theory, and computer programming in music. Tetras is one of the most spectacular works in the entire string quartet repertoire. It is an athletic piece that’s powerful and dense — worlds away from the airy styles often mistakenly associated with string quartet music.

Hear these works performed by contemporary music ensemble JACK Quartet in the Toby on Thursday, February 21. Pre-concert discussion with ISO Music Director Krzysztof Urbański begins at 6:45 PM, Concert at 7:30 PM.

Filed under: Public Programs, The Toby

People from Generation Y, often called Millennials, are being lumped into a group by our media.  They are said to have a core belief that modern cinema began with Star Wars: Episode IV (1977), and that any movie older than that is culturally irrelevant. Under these conditions, it becomes difficult to make a case that 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)is still culturally relevant at all, since it is much older and depicts a future now 12 years past. Even though it may seem a distant relic, 2001 is still a stunning and fresh experience.

The vast majority of films that try to depict the future, particularly anything with a science fiction slant, fail miserably both in dramatics and accuracy. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) shows a bleak world of labor unrest and a severely divided culture.  HG Wells’ Things to Come (1936) foretells a second World War that is stunningly accurate, but Wells’ war lasts for 30 years and degrades into global tribal conflict, a worldwide Afghanistan. The triumphant moon landing does not occur until 2036 and is technically incorrect in almost every way.

Learning from his mistakes in Metropolis, Fritz Lang tried again with Woman in the Moon (1929), which is amazingly accurate up until the rocket lands on the moon. This is, no doubt, largely because Lang hired advisors from the scientific community, many of whom went on to work on the German V-2 rockets and, later, the American Apollo program. Similarly, producer George Pal hired only top people for his Destination Moon (1950), which, despite some very hokey dramatics, holds up pretty well.

But 2001 is in a class by itself, and always has been. Novelist Arthur C. Clarke simply projected the American space program forward into the future, making the assumption that we would maintain a constant level of funding.  That was his only major mistake, because the Apollo program was not the beginning of a slow ramp of progress, but a bubble of innovation in a sea of lethargy.

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Filed under: Film, Public Programs, The Toby

Image courtesy of Robert Wilson.

Everybody loves movies, especially Americans. We took ownership of the medium at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and much like Henry Ford via his assembly line, bestowed a beloved commodity to the masses.

So, it’s appropriate to consider film to be the first great democratic art form. It invites and reflects all walks of life and social classes. It inspires us to imagine how far we can go, while simultaneously shaming us for how pathetically we have evolved. We sit together in the darkened theater, collectively taking a ride that even Ford could never deliver.

Two such epic adventures can be found in Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. These movies ranked #14 and #6 respectively in Sight & Sound’s definitive 2012 poll. They remain staples in Roger Ebert’s all-time top 10. They are intrinsically linked as the best modern myths of Homeric proportions. Both take us on spiritual journeys toward the edges of existence without looking back.

Still from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968.

Francis Ford Coppola’s bizarre odyssey to complete Apocalypse Now is well documented as being just as surreal as the story (Heart of Darkness) and war (Vietnam) that inspired it. The filmmaker and his crew nearly lost their minds by the end of the 18-month production. Even star Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack that almost killed him. The result is a primal nightmare that challenges the existence of humanity’s soul. The voyage through the Nung is a Hellish descent down the River Styx. By film’s end, “the horror” will burrow into your core and challenge everything you’ve ever believed in.

Still from “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.

A decade prior, the meticulous Stanley Kubrick set sail on a journey of even greater magnitude. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, he takes us from the dawn of time to the conceivable end of existence through methods exclusive to the magic of movies. The drums of Stauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra themselves transport us to an age beyond human comprehension. It might be the closest that mankind will ever come to appreciating the expanse of our limitless universe.

Still from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968.

I could go on, and on, and on, but no amount of hyperbole can live up to experiencing these masterpieces on the big screen. Please, I beg you to put aside life’s worries, crowd into the darkened Toby theater for two Friday evenings, and lose yourself to the ultimate power of cinema. Trust me, it’s a ride you won’t want to miss.

Apocalypse Now screens tomorrow evening at 7pm in the Toby.  2001: A Space Odyssey screens at 7pm on Friday, February 8 and at 2pm on Sunday, February 10 in the Toby. Both are part of the Winter Nights film series at the IMA.

Filed under: Film, Public Programs, The Toby

“Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.” – Coco Chanel

I grew up in a family of artists: my father was a painter and my mother is a sculptor. At home, it was like an open house for other artists to come over and passionately discuss art and politics. For me, the best painter was my dad and the best sculptor was my mom. So I guess the other “real” artistic professions, in which I will not compete with them, was to become an architect. I was good in mat, loved problem solving, and was fascinated by shapes and colors, so becoming an architect was a very natural path for me to choose. From here comes my deep interest towards fashion as an art form, with its volumes, colors and proportions.

This is my second participation in Project IMA. Two years ago, my daughter and I created a dress made from rubber bands as part of Project IMA: Fashion Unbound.  It was a great experience to be involved with the Indianapolis Museum of Art and I am thrilled that I have the opportunity to contribute again. For my current entry, I found inspiration in this evening dress by Norman Norell:

I wanted to grasp the spirit of Norell’s work and give it a new, contemporary interpretation. My work, which will be made entirely from different sized black rubber bands and industrial felt scraps, is continuation of the design ideas developed in my conceptual project “Recycling of the Architectural Office,” in which I explored the ever-changing character of the contemporary architectural office and how standard tools become obsolete in lieu of digital technology. Recently I’ve also been thinking about our current economic condition, and opening our senses towards the use of alternative materials, recycling and upcycling. I believe that we have to be environmentally responsible and conscious about our surroundings. My submission to Project IMA is my creative response towards finding new sources and expressions. Intrigued and inspired by the Chantilly lace that Norell used, I created my own version of the delicate net by using only black rubber bands. Thousands of rubber bands are knotted, interlocked, twisted together and assembled in order to create the unique texture of the garment. Looking for a fusion of past and present, I’ve chosen to pay respect in this way and give a modern interpretation of the artistic techniques associated with creating fabric, all done by hand. Norell used fox fur to trim the lampshade-shaped top of the evening dress. Half a century later, and living in different environment, I decided to interpret his design by using colorful industrial felt scrap circles. The felt that I used is 100% wool – a biodegradable and renewable material.

In my work, I am inspired both by the artistic and cultural heritage of couture, and am intrigued by innovative designers like Norell who changed the shape and the mood of fashion with his geometrical shapes and attention to detail.  You’ll have to come to Project IMA tonight to see the results of my work.  I hope that you will find it interesting, challenging and a valuable contribution to the show.

Filed under: Art, Public Programs, Textile & Fashion, The Collection, The Toby

I work at a large table in an old candy factory in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve been designing and making clothes for thirty years, and my passion for it has has only grown over time. Though I live in Brooklyn, I visit Indianapolis often and I came to the IMA this summer with my sister for a tour of the fashion exhibition that inspired this year’s Project IMA.

Norman Norell, “dress,” 1968-1971.Gift of Clare Eggleston Geiman in memory of Norman Norell. 1985.667.

I met Niloo and Petra, the curators responsible for the organization of fashion arts and textile exhibitions at the museum. After speaking with them, I decided to  make a couple garments and submit them as entries in Project IMA.  Below is an image of the pattern I drafted after being inspired by a dress in the exhibition by Norman Norell.  This deceptively simple day dress was carefully constructed with a fitted torso and molded waist.  The skirt’s beige fabric was cut on the straight grain, using a technique called slashing and navy blue fabric inserts were then added. It’s an excellent example of the precision Norell brought to the cut and construction of his garments.

For my dress, I cut it completely on the bias from silk chiffon, which adds a draping contour to the body without darting. I work on the bias often, as it lends itself to soft feminine shapes. Here’s how it turned out:

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Filed under: Public Programs, Textile & Fashion, The Collection, The Toby