#;I’ve Aged Quite Well {13th Incarnation}

[femreader]

I know you - 13th Doctor

Summary: Before Yaz, Ryan or Graham confronted her, Y/N was there first. 

Pairing: 13th Doctor x fem!reader

Warnings: ANGST, but also comfort 

A/N: Quarantine really making me bored

Y/N was one of her longest companions. She had been there since The Doctor was a child-like, energetic man whose eyebrows were almost nonexistent. She had been there when they met Amy for the first and the last time. She had been there when she had regenerated into a grumpy and white-haired Scotsman. She knew the stories of Martha and Rose and Donna. What they did, what they sacrificed so the earth could be saved. She knew about Gallifrey, she knew it was saved. Y/N had been there to see it when they closed it into its own small, time bubble. 

She had been with The Doctor for so long she knew how she acted in different situations. How she would talk if she was getting irritated or provoked. How her hands would slightly twitch when her friends were insulted or threatened. Y/N had seen the clam rage in her friend’s eyes countless times, how’d she look almost like a predator but eventually (and always) taking the high road. She didn’t get scared of her antics anymore, even though The Doctor liked to beg to differ. She was the oncoming storm, the nightmare of Daleks and Cybermen. Everyone feared her at least once in their lives. That’s how it always went. Because in the end, The Doctor was no hero. 

But it just seemed, that whatever she did. Whatever she said Y/N would not budge from her side. She was always there like a piece of gum stuck to your hair. She didn’t leave after finding out about Gallifrey, the screams The Doctor had caused. No, Y/N had done the exact opposite in fact. She had hugged her, told her it was alright. That’s why The Doctor needed her by her side. Like all the companions, she kept her grounded. Reminded her of her morals, reminded her why she loved the Earth so much. Y/N made her a better being, even if her previous incarnation never admitted it. 

Two years with new friends had gone by like in the speed of light. Yasmin, Ryan, and Graham were fun and Y/N loved having once more people closer to her age on board. They had a genuinely good time, and she even began to think their scars from Bill had begun to close. 

That was until they were faced with the Master once again. 

This time Y/N couldn’t hold in the string of cuss words and murmured them under her breath, earning a rather pointed look from the Doctor. She helped Ryan, Yasmin, and Graham to get to safety, assuring them they could leave her to deal with everything. 

“Ain’t happening kid,” Graham had been quick to disagree. 

“Yeah, we’re family now. We’re not leaving you or The Doctor alone,” Yasmin had backed him up. 

So they fought The Master off as a team, stopping yet another one of his evil plans to take over the world before it could happen. The three of them, still a bit confused about the mix up between O and The Master, tired to ask The Doctor what was going on with him. While The Doctor plainly ignored them, distracting them with her never-ending talking, Y/N told them to wait and let The Doctor tell them when she was ready. Yasmin had been the hardest to convince, Y/N knew she was just worried about The Doctor but she still did her best to assure her everything would be alright. 

“She just needs a little time,” She had smiled slightly at the unintentional joke. To be honest, Y/N knew The Doctor would need a little more time than just ‘little’. Meeting The Master had clearly thrown her dear partner haywire, and at first, even Y/N didn’t know just how badly The Doctor had taken it. 

At first, she thought it was seeing her old friend, now an enemy in her good friend’s body that made The Doctor snappy and distant. But when her mardy mood began to stain their adventures and The doctor started to genuinely be fed up with anyone’s questions, Y/N knew something else was up. 

She started to tread the waters carefully, asking her if she was fine when everyone else had gone to sleep. Casually offering the Doctor to talk with her if she needed to, Y/N had told her even tho she was over 1000 year old alien even she needed to talk sometime. It had ended with The Doctor almost ushering Y/N out of the control room, saying she had to concentrate on the landing. Y/N knew they weren’t flying in the first place. 

Those things being said, Y/N was absolutely furious with the Doctor right now.

Well, worried but also furious. She had known The Doctor for so long. They had shared so many laughs and cries but still, Y/N felt like it meant more to her than to The Doctor right now. 

What had gotten Y/N to walk around the Tardis to find the alien were the actions in their last adventure. They had split up to find clues on who could have murdered the king and why and once she and Yaz had found something she had snapped at them for losing the proof. In reality, the clue had been stolen or removed. Anyway, the wall graffiti that held a close meaning to the king had been destroyed while Y/N and Yasmin had gone back to get the others. 

“What did it look like?” The Doctor had asked after they had stared at the empty wall for several minutes. Yasmin blinked, trying to imagine the picture, but it was too complex, too many lines and symbols to remember. 

“I... it looked something like a lion. I’m not quite sure,” Y/N cut in, remembering the animal in the midst of the colors. The Doctor, like everyone else, was already on edge. If they didn’t find out the killer, they’d kill the princess. She had looked at Y/N, with abnormally dark eyes. 

“I’m not sure isn't enough right now! There are lives on the line Y/N,” She had exclaimed. “Were there colors? Symbols? Anything? ”

Y/N had reassured Yaz she was fine after they had saved the kingdom and were walking back to the Tardis. In reality, Y/N was pissed The Doctor didn’t even acknowledge her outburst in any way. Happily moving on with her life, she had offered to stop by Earth to “refill the tank” so to speak. 

So now Y/N was standing by the panel, The Doctor was flipping different switches and buttons to keep her mind busy. It was only after the third time /N had cleared her throat when The Doctor even glanced at her direction. Her eyes were red on the edges. 

“Y/N didn’t see you there,” Her response could have been interpreted as happy had it not been for her volume. Her sentence was almost only a murmur under her breath. 

Y/N pursed her lips, smiling slightly to ease the tension. “Doctor, can I be frank with you?” She asked carefully. The Doctor turned a knob and flipped yet another switch. 

“Always, you know that,” She said, but still didn’t completely direct her attention to the woman. Y/N cleared her throat and decided it would be easier to just drop the bomb rather than to try and place it down gently. As that hadn’t worked out before. 

“What’s wrong Doctor? You’ve been a little... distant lately?” Y/N tired to make her voice sound as nonjudgemental and comforting as she could. The Doctor stopped in her tracks for a moment before continuing to work on the panel. 

“’ S nothing,” She said, sending a tight smile to Y/N. Usually, if Y/N was tired of going on and on with this same conversation that smile would have been enough to give up and leave. But not this time. 

Y/N inhaled heavily, trying not to let the irritation make her say things she didn’t mean. 

“I know it’s not nothing,” She pressed on and walked a little closer to The Doctor. “There’s something going on, I’ve been with you long enough to see it,” Y/N ended her sentence with a small, dry chuckle. “C’mon Doctor, what is it?”

“I said it’s nothing didn’t I?” The Doctor’s voice slightly raised by the end, she exhaled heavily. They both went silent, The Doctor was once again moving the switches, her foot went to the custard cream dispenser but she seemed to be in too bad of a mood to have a biscuit.

“You just wouldn’t understand, okay? So don’t bother your mind with it,” She eventually said, calmer and collected this time. Y/N scoffed silently shaking her head. 

“No, don’t even try doing that?”

“Doing what?” 

“Belittling me,” Y/N explained. “I’ve been here with you for a long time Doctor. Out of anyone else on this ship right now, I would be the one who could understand you the best.”

This time it was The Doctor who scoffed. She looked up at the ceiling, leaning to the panel with her slender arms. Y/N clenched her jaw a little, anticipating the final straw to break the camels back. It was always the same when fighting with the Doctor, she was older than her. She’d always have the last word, and it would always in someway imply to the fact she knew better. And even though most of the times she did know better (she was the one who had traveled over hundreds and hundreds of years) Y/N was sure this time was not one of those. 

“We’ve had this conversation already. You’re human, you cannot understand what’s going on inside here,” The Doctor motioned at her head. “You just cannot know what it feels- You just don’t, so please, now drop the subject.”

There it was. 

Y/N exhaled and rolled her lips together. Sure her brain was yelling for her to leave, but her body was stuck to the ground. Her heart screamed at her to make The Doctor see she wasn’t alone. 

“No, no I’m not leaving until you speak,” Y/N said, much more stern this time. She leaned to the panel, on the opposite side of where The doctor was now staring at her. With undivided attention. 

“All the other times yes, I would. But this is going way too far,” Y/N continued. “First you distant yourself from all of us, then you began to snap at me and Yaz when we are just trying to help you. Tell me, Doctor, please let me help you,” She was almost pleading. The Doctor’s mouth was in a straight line, the small crease a bit more visible between her brows. Y/N saw the oncoming storm brewing in her eyes but was only merely phased by it. 

“You want to help me?”

“Yes,” Y/N immediately answered. 

“How are you thinking about doing that?” The Doctor asked, almost sneering at her. “How do you think you can help me? I was serious I said this team is not flat, you out of all should know that. No matter how much you claim to know me, it doesn't change the fact that I’m up and alone. How do you exactly plan to even begin to phanthom-”

“By making you talk,” Y/N rudely cut her off before even thinking. She quickly closed her mouth, both of them surprised at her outburst. 

“By making you understand that you can open up,” She added, softly. The Doctor held in an eye roll and looked down at the panel. The Tardis had gone quiet long before their argument had begun. 

“I don’t need that.”

“Yes, you do! Why are you being so stubborn about this?” A bitter laugh left Y/N’s mouth. 

“Because for once, this is a thing you cannot help me with!”

“How can you know that?”

“Well for starters-”

“What’s this?” Y/N suddenly crouched down, holding a circular, shiny object in her hand she found fro under the panel by her foot. She looked at The Doctor, uncertainty in her eyes while The Doctor reached about her hand. 

“Give it to me,” She commanded, her voice neutral. Y/N squinted her eyes at her sudden change of demeanor and shook her head. 

“Not before you tell me what this is.”

“Y/N, I’m not playing around, give it to me,” The Doctor stressed each of her words. “Please.”

Y/N looked at her, not quite sure how to react. Here they were, talking to each other over the panel, both of them on the verge of tears when only minutes ago they had been almost screaming their lungs out. Something about this object, which reminded Y/n a lot like a recorder had made The Doctor land from the lone mountain she claimed to be on. 

“Is this it?” Y/N asked quietly, walking towards The Doctor. “Is this why you’re so hurt?”

The Doctor wasn’t sure whether it was her genuine caring expression or the fact she was still standing there, after all the things she had said that made her nod to Y/N’s question. She was strong, very strong and tough, but Y/N’s stubbornness and determination to help overrode those traits. The Doctor licked her lips anxiously, feeling her lower lip quiver slightly. As soon as this happened Y/N had wrapped her arms around her and placed the recorded on the panel. 

The Doctor squeezed her as tightly as he could. She had missed her hugs, before O, before The Master, before Gallifrey, hugs had been an everyday thing for her and Y/N. Then they had suddenly disappeared with her bubbly, energetic aura. 

“He killed them,” She whispered, a couple of tears which had been burning the back of her eyes for a while now rolled down her face. They made a couple of dark spots on Y/N’s t-shirt. “He killed them all. Destroyed everything.”

Y/N pulled back and cradled the Doctor’s face, with her eyebrows furrowed together and eyes glassy. Her hands were warm and soft against The Doctor’s cheeks. 

“We’ll be alright,” She said, rolling her lips together, wiping the tears from The Doctor’s face. “I know you. You’re so strong. You can get through this. We can get through this. Okay?” 

The Doctor looked at her while another set of tears left her eyes. She tasted the salt against her lips before it was replaced by a gentle, sweet kiss. The Doctor was a long way from healing but she knew if she had Y/N by her side, she could get through anything. 

Tag list: @morbid-gaymer @g00dl13 @spidey-charles @svmwinvhester @aspiring-bookcollector or @originofthedragonjim @charlotte-writes-blog @rosawright @pharaoh-of-time-and-space @wolfie-doggo @willow-days02 2 @fightuntilyoucan @probablypirates @thegayspunk @habitualworrierwarrior ior @the13teens-wife @gayforjodiewhittaker

[raptorific]

Series 11 of Doctor Who catches a lot of flack for being the first in the revived series to feature absolutely no returning monsters, villains, or characters other than the Doctor herself, but honestly that makes sense on both a Meta level and an In-Universe level

The Meta level is, obviously, that the barrier of entry for most Doctor Who fans is the baggage of its long history. While children are a bit more willing to use context clues or just be satisfied in the assumption that someone has answers to their questions even if it’s not them, adult viewers new to the show are more likely to watch the show with questions like “wait, who is that?” and “there’s an octopus inside that robot?” The long history and deep lore of the show is one of the best aspects, but it’s also one of the aspects that’s really only fun once you’ve already Gotten Into It. 

The new series did a fairly good job correcting this, to the point where fans who have never seen an episode of the classic series can say “I’ve been watching this show for 15 years,” which is a fairly beautiful thing! However, in this age of serialized television, and with the amount of hype Jodie Whittaker’s casting brought to the role, it made sense to have series 11 be the “you don’t need to watch 26 seasons of the classic series or 10 seasons of the new series to jump onboard.” By the time a Dalek finally shows up in the New Year’s Special, the new fans aren’t New anymore. They’ve learned how to watch the show, where the context clues are, are finally ready to enjoy the fun the show’s history brings, and then after that, they’re ready for series 12′s deep-dive into old enemies, returning companions, and the ever-deepening jumble of Gallifreyan Historical Nonsense. I’m sure that somewhere around Series 18 (2040) they’ll do a similar “lore-lite” season and we’ll have this conversation all over again. 

The In-Universe reasoning is genuinely pretty solid. The Doctor has just come from an incarnation where, as far as they know, all of their companions have died horrifically at the hands of the Master and Cybermen. The Twelfth Doctor’s final acts before regeneration were being reminded of who and what the Doctor is supposed to be, and more importantly, what he started out as, and his final words are a speech reminding his successor of what he’s learned. The Thirteenth Doctor is born haunted by the death of Clara Oswald and the cyber-conversion and death of Danny Pink and Bill Potts, as well as the death of his wife River. 

The first thing she does is she meets a group of people who are obviously going to become companions, and the first thing that happens? One of them is killed. From that point on, the series embarks on an arc where the 13th Doctor desperately tries to keep her companions away from anything to do with her Lore. They exclusively go to planets and time periods where nobody’s heard of The Doctor or fought her before, and avoid any adventures that raise questions about her past, questions that she inevitably dodges when they’re eventually asked anyway. 

Series 11 is the story of the Thirteenth Doctor desperately fleeing from her past under the belief that it kills any of her friends who come in contact with her. This arc culminates in what I’ve come to view as a two-part story: “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” and “Resolution.” TBoRAK features a new returning enemy, one she met earlier in the season, who killed her new friend, who’s now caught up with her and threatens the rest of her friends, and her whole planet. The message, of course, being “like vengeful alien supervillains, you can’t run from your grief forever, it only goes away when you actually deal with it.” Resolution, of course, involves her first interaction with the Daleks in this body, marking the end of an era of her trying to keep her companions safe by avoiding her baggage and the beginning of the Series 12 arc, where all of her baggage (old enemies, old companions, old incarnations, her home planet, the word “Shobogans”) shows up on her doorstep.

Without having seen her spend a whole season being like “let’s go on low-stakes, friendship building adventures! Don’t ask about me or my past! My ever-growing Rogues Gallery can’t hurt you if we don’t see them,” it wouldn’t hit quite as hard when the Cybermen turn up again and the Doctor snaps at her companions that she refuses to “lose anyone else to that.” The Master’s return in series 12 has a deeper impact if it came from a place of “I hoped they were safe from you,” knowing that the last update the Doctor had on Missy was “she’s evil again, and she killed Bill.” 

I understand where the frustration, for die-hard fans who wanted to see 13 in the Established Formula straightaway, but the fact of the matter is that Chibnall’s debut arc delivered something that, with the show’s almost 60-year history, should’ve been impossible. He’s found a way to simultaneously “pick up where his predecessor left off by building on existing character development and plot threads” and “replicate the experience of watching Doctor Who in the 60s before there were Recurring Villains or an Established Formula, so that when all that stuff shows up, all the new fans are primed for it.”

But, apparently “narrative cohesion” and “character development” are less important to the nerds on GallifreyBase than “the SJWs are trying to indoctrinate us with Identity Politics and the dreaded morality lectures,” which they pretend are a new phenomenon and not “the thing the show has been known for since the 70s”

[cxlxurbliind]

        ♫ - This Post Is Just A Tag Dump. You Are In No Way Obligated To Pay Any Attention To This. Please Enjoy Your Scrolling.

Made Posts:

;OOC ;IC ;Time Companion ;Six Posting {Crack} ;Are The Scanners Working Right? {Dash Commentary}

Reblogged Posts:

;Reblog ;Memes ;Mun Memes ;Shows You Who I Am ;What I Once Was {Classic Who} ;Change Is Inevitable {Older Classic Who} ;Fashion No More {New Who} ;President Of Gallifrey Has Spoken {PSA} ;Crashing Into A Coat Rack {Musings}

Asks:

;Questionable Traveler {Anon} ;Answered Quarry

Doctors Posts/Interaction:

;Original {1st Incarnation} ;Cosmic Hobo {2nd Incarnation} ;Fancypants {3rd Incarnation} ;Scarf For Days {4th Incarnation} ;Cricket And Celery {5 Incarnation} ;True Self ;Spoons And Umbrellas {7th Incarnation} ;Shoes {8th Incarnation} ;Leather Jackets {9th Incarnation} ;Sandshoes {10th Incarnation} ;Why Bowties Again? {11th Incarnation} ;Doctor Guitario {12th Incarnation} ;I’ve Aged Quite Well {13th Incarnation} ;An Older Me ;Younger The Not Better

Canon/Non-Canon Companions (Will Constantly Be Adding More):

;First Face Peri ;Missed The Kilt {Jamie} ;Granddaughter {Susan} ;Two Teachers In A TARDIS {Ian & Barbara} ;My Best Friend {Sarah-Jane} ;New Companion? {New Interactions}

The Master(s)/Rani:

;My Frenemy ;It Was A Bad Beard {Delgado!Master} ;There Aren’t Any Drums {Simm!Master} ;Killer Dress {Missy} ;Craziest One Yet {Dhawan!Master} ;The Rani

Verses:

;Alone Yet Not ;Lonely Pockets ;Multiple Colors ;Unfortantely Human

Custom Tags (Not Everyone Has One):

;Travelling With Myself {rainbcwhearts} ;Sister Faye {rainbcwhearts} ;Doesn’t Talk Much {Diamond!nctamused} ;Human Or Not? {Five!hargreevesbrothers}

Queue:

;Time And Relative Dimensions In Queue

[moonlightmadnessreviews]

1931’s Frankenstein and the “Slow Turn”: The Lost Art of the Subtle Scare

A friend of mine recently asked for my thoughts on subtle scares in horror. I asked her to elaborate and she responded “You know, those scares that aren’t exactly in your face but are still super effective!” Immediately, my brain shot to one of my favorite scenes in classic monster cinema: Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, and his slow turn towards the audience. Here, we’ll discuss that particular shot and why I think it’s the perfect example of what I feel is a lost art in today’s cinematic climate.

In the age of the jump scare, it’s easy to see why some horror fans may feel jaded when watching what Hollywood has offered up as of late. However, in an effort to avoid beating a particularly dead horse, I don’t want to spend this article talking about how bad jump scares are. Overused as they may be, jump scares aren’t new, and they aren’t always a bad thing. The real problem is that big budget production companies have a tendency to get the wrong impression of what audiences want. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, where a franchise ratchets up the gore and jump scares in lieu of the more subtle elements that made the original films so well received, ie The Conjuring and Saw. As I said, jump scares aren’t always bad, and we can look back to two iconic examples to see where they’re utilized extremely well.

The first example comes at the end of the very first Friday the 13th film, where just as Alice (Adrienne King) thinks she’s home free, a rotting Jason Voorhees (Pre-Kane Hodder behemoth incarnation, here played by Ari Lehman) jump scares her out of a dream. It’s a closing jump scare that we still see used now a days, albeit without the same effectiveness the original had. Another great example comes by way of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) during the intro of A Nightmare on Elm Street. This jump scare signals the beginning of a chase scene through a dark alley way, jolting our adrenaline like a gun going off at the start of a race. Now a days, that jump scare would get a laugh out of the audience instead, draining all tension from the scene and revealing it’s just one of the protagonist’s friends popping out of the dark to ask them out for drinks.

With my applauding these last two examples, why is it I find the scene where we first see the Monster’s face in James Whale’s Frankenstein to be so effective? One thing that sticks out to me right away is the lack of a score in the original Frankenstein. We have been trained to recognize a coming scare the same way a boxer learns to read body language, and a lot of this has to do with musical cues. Movie goers know that when they see their protagonist stare into a dark corner of their room, the ambient noise and score of the movie slowly dropping out til it’s completely silent, a loud musical stab is sure to pop out of the darkness to startle them. However, Universal’s Frankenstein has no musical aid to warn the audience of what they’re about to see. We watch as Boris Karloff, beginning with his back to the audience and filling up the frame of a doorway, enters the room and turns ever so slowly towards the audience. The camera then cuts between shots, pulling in closer and closer on the Monster’s face with each cut, all of this playing out free of a musical score.

As synonymous as Bela Lugosi is to Dracula, as is Boris Karloff to Frankenstein’s Monster, and his legendary face creeping in closer to the audience is extremely startling. Much of this of course has to do with Karloff’s facial structure itself, but the icing on the cake comes from make up wizard Jack Pierce. Pierce is responsible for most of Universal Studios’ most iconic monster makeups, and his work on Frankenstein is one of my favorites. He and Karloff worked tirelessly on the look of the Monster, and I believe it was Karloff who suggested pulling out a bridge he wore in his mouth to help give his cheek a sunken in, corpse-like look. The blend of practical effects, and a face made for scaring audiences resulted in one of Universal’s most terrifying shots.

Of course, it takes more than just great makeup and stark silence to make for an effective and understated scare. The direction of this scene plays a big part in its delivery, and our response to it as audience members. Imagine how differently the scene might have played out if the Monster entered the room facing us, as opposed to walking in backwards. He would walk out of the shadows and into the light of the shot without the build up of the original. The decision to have the Monster enter the room with its back to the audience does two important things:

First, it gives us a sense of how disoriented the Monster is. The hulking corpse hobbles backwards and gives us a sense of his size and mass as he slowly, and carefully, turns to face his creator.

Second, by forcing us to sit through this slow, and quiet reveal, it helps to draw the audience closer towards the screen. As I watch Karloff take his time revealing the Monster’s face, I can feel my back come away from my couch as I lean forward to meet his gaze. As an audience, we are frightened and intrigued, but most importantly, we are engaged. This last piece of the puzzle is what great directors strive for, and Whale did a fantastic job capturing the moment.

Although the “Slow Turn” is a technique that’s used less often these days, it doesn’t mean it’s completely absent. A great example comes from the classic Halloween, directed by John Carpenter and released in 1978. The shot of Michael Myers, The Shape, slowly manifesting from out of the darkness behind Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is perhaps the closest to this “Slow Turn” idea we see used in Frankenstein. The mask seems to appear out of the dark like a ghost and the dread that moment cooks up is wonderful. Andy Muschietti’s IT holds another great example as Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) flips through a book of Derry, Maine’s gruesome history. You’re likely to miss it, but in the background is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, here disguised as a librarian, staring menacingly at Ben. There is a faint smile visible, and the distance it keeps from his intended prey helps to up the “Slow Turn” scare factor of the shot. We even get a tribute of sorts to the “Slow Turn” in Capcom’s classic video game Resident Evil. A decomposing zombie looks up from its meal and turns to meet the player’s horrified gaze in an iconic cut scene that gave me nightmares for quite a while.

Frankenstein has long been my favorite of the Universal Monster movies, and I’ve often sited this moment, lasting all of 21 seconds, as one of my favorite shots in the entire film. The patience with which the scene is shot, the make up on Karloff’s face and the amount of character he puts into simply turning towards the audience is so beautifully effective. As I said, jump scares have their place, but the “Slow Turn” is an art form that embodies all that I love about classic horror. Though we may be able to find other examples of it in horror cinema history, for me, the Monster’s entrance is a moment whose electricity is hard to resurrect.

[belindakeyte]

Week 10 Research.

I couldn’t really see the relevance of looking at John Baldessari for his use of shape and colour as a way to direct viewer to my work (any more so than any other artist), but any excuse to revisit his work. Baldessari re-evaluated traditional notions of what constitutes art and has an endearing sense of humour.

I saw this at ‘The Broad’ LA

Baldessari, J, Your Name in Lights, 8 – 30 January, 2011, Australian Museum façade, Sydney. http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-23-john-baldessari?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_j1BRDkARIsAJcfmTEOBkBtXIcySvgGKqhtEXLx3Svwli_bA8NPeiUNZAR_KpDKe3b0IxoaAt1QEALw_wcB

The Broad says about this work - John Baldessari never touched this painting. He did not paint it. He did not write the text. “There is a certain kind of work one could do that didn’t require a studio,” Baldessari said, “It’s work that is done in one’s head. The artists could be the facilitator of the work; executing it was another matter.” This concept — that an artist could present an idea rather than a material object from their own hand — was a way for Baldessari to take apart the notion of what art could be. In 1966 art meant painting, sculpture, or drawing, and with wry humor, Baldessari challenges this expectation. The viewer receives a painting in Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, but the painting is completed by sign painters. The viewer is presented with a painting’s content, but the content is text taken from an art trade magazine dictating what content should be.

This led me to the 1st work in my hometown that turned me onto his work. Way before I was an artist. Kaldor’s (Kaldor Public Art Project) Project 23, Your Name in Lights. Presented in partnership with the 2011 Sydney Festival.

Like earlier works, the new work he created for the 23rd Kaldor Public Art Project, Your Name in Lights, reflects the changing cult of celebrity in modern society, drawing on ideas of fame in the modern world and the conflation of the roles of celebrity and artist.

Using imagery taken from historic symbols of celebrity, such as Broadway neon theatre displays and Hollywood film / lights, Baldessari gives any participant a glittering moment of fame. A snipped up and fastened version of Andy Warhol’s prediction that in the future everyone will have their 15 minutes, Your Name in Lights lasts for just 15 seconds.

It’s colourful, catchy and certainly directs, even intoxicates he viewer…but not by its visual means. By our human nature to seek out immortality. Fame & celebrity is contemporary society’s answer to this. And we are drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Baldessari, J, Your Name in Lights, 8 – 30 January, 2011, Australian Museum façade, Sydney, http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-23-john-baldessari?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-_j1BRDkARIsAJcfmTEOBkBtXIcySvgGKqhtEXLx3Svwli_bA8NPeiUNZAR_KpDKe3b0IxoaAt1QEALw_wcB

So that brings me to Kaldor Public Art projects.

John Kaldor is a philanthropist that established this arts organisation from a vision he had had in the 1960’s. Kaldor Public Art Projects became a pioneering organisation, dedicated to taking art outside museum walls and transforming public spaces with innovative contemporary projects.

Over the years the projects have changed the way the Australian public sees and experiences the art of today.

They are now supported by all three levels of government, as well as a group of corporate, philanthropic and private supporters.

Making Art Public brings together 34 ephemeral (Kaldor) projects, creatively re-imagined and presented together for the first time, always free to the public.

A celebration of 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (7 September 2019 – 16 February 2020) it revisited every project since inception including Bill Viola and Thomas Demand.

https://50years.kaldorartprojects.org.au/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnv71BRCOARIsAIkxW9H63QKTesmsSh1w6wEM2jMMPek2FX76y3CfiEY4DCno2VHZcDdRKdsaArGLEALw_wcB

Viola’s video works utilise sophisticated media technologies to explore the spiritual and perceptual side of human experience. Focusing on universal human themes of birth, death and the unfolding of consciousness, they have roots in both Eastern and Western art, as well as the spiritual traditions of Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism and Christian mysticism.

The images don’t do it justice, these works demand your attention for the entire 10-15 minutes and absorb you into their world. I’ve never seen any video art work quite like it. Highly charged emotionally & visually.

Thomas Demand is known for his life-size recreations of environments made entirely from paper and card that he photographs and then destroys. Maybe it’s architect in me, but I love his work, simply as photographs. It wasn’t until I researched him for my undergraduate Vis Arts that I realised the photograph of the aeroplane I was looking at was a cardboard model.

For the 25th Kaldor Public Art Project he presented a new series of images, The Dailies, within a space inside Harry Seidlers fantastic 1970’s space age MLC Centre in Martin Place. The work occupied an entire hotel floor on level 4. His installation, displayed throughout the bedrooms that extend out from a circular corridor, had a disorientating effect.

https://50years.kaldorartprojects.org.au/program/making-art-public

Kaldor’s latest project is ‘Do it (Australia)’. Envisaged in this time of global lockdown, the project invites audiences to follow an artist’s instructions, enter their world and realise an artwork of their own.

This project is the latest incarnation of do it, the longest-running and most far-reaching artist-led project in the world. Initiated by Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1993, the project asks 16 artists to create simple instructions that generate an artwork, whether an object, a performance, an intervention, or something else entirely.

The instructions were not yet up for the artists I was interested in, Tracey Moffat & Glenn Murcutt (I wouldn’t actually call him an artist…we really don’t want to claim someone that is so heavily entrenched in an ‘old school’ patriarchal architecture system), I chose from the 4 or 5 artists that had already included their instructions. The online exhibition only started 4 days ago (May 13th) and has no closing date, as yet.

Rafael Bonachela is a choreographer working across art forms, including contemporary dance, art installations, film and fashion:

Find yourself alone in a place. Play some music (or not). Stand, sit or lie down. Find a position you feel comfortable in. Be still for a while. Imagine you are surrounded by blinding light. It feels heavy. You want to break through. Use as many parts of your body (or not) to physically push the light away from you. Take your time. Move from a gentle state, to a state of frenzy. Explore different possibilities with your body. There is no right or wrong. When you feel you have broken through the light, find your way back to stillness. A state of weightlessness (or not).

Options

Explore this task anywhere by yourself for yourself.

Place your smartphone camera anywhere to record your experience using the slo-mo option.

Share a section of the film on social media, send it to a friend, (or not).

http://doit.kaldorartprojects.org.au/