Author: Diana Whiley
Adelaide, South Australia
08/15/19
I have just finished reading my latest copy of the magazine “Heavy Music Artwork.”
I started reading the magazine a few years ago, first hooked by the artwork then by the artists’ creative processes.
Many of the artists are also members of the band and the songwriters. The way they translate their ideas and values into the visual, reflect the mood and content of the music is both enlightening and empowering.
Their philosophy on life is an intriguing mix of thoughts on rituals and myths, religion and big themes like the state of the world, the Universe and our place within it.
In many cultures animals have been used in ancient ritual and ceremony. Totems and shaman spirit walking to name but a few. A way of infusing the attributes of the animals into our body, linking us with the primeval. It can be a twice edged sword.
I thought about that and how it pertained to my life. The part music has played in it and converged.
A Piano Solo
Fingers traced the polished octave of ivory ghosts,
the hot winds of the dark heart connecting to my childhood
where I drifted across red hills to the ancient call to water;
river reeds a dangerous slither against skin.
Above, white corellas danced the blue sky layers into night
And the intimate grotto of constellations;
Music of the spheres reaching past injustice and cruelty
To immortalize majestic, lost spirits.
In the Heavy Music Artwork magazine, the duo, “ Mothmeister” make their own tribute to animals through taxidermy and ritual. They create surreal photographic images with these animals and paired with individuals who are masked. Despite the suggested anonymity, the portraits are intimate and posed very theatrically and with intensity.
I’ve felt that same sense of intimacy at the theatre seated twenty feet from Shakespeare’s Hamlet as it unfolded. The body language as much as the voice of the actors stayed with me long afterward. Potent. And like being a part of, and listening to the bards and performers in the time of travelling shows.
I shared that experience when I learnt contemporary dance.
With body and mind I sought to interpret the meaning behind the choreographer’s story. Inevitably included my own point of view – which was also The Point.
A duality that can cause tension. Like a metaphor.
Arms pivot to the gilt edge
Of a finely wrought blade slicing through air
Make music of their own
Fly in their own sky, arc and extend toe to toe,
Vibration moving from the floor
In waves up through my poised backbone
A delineation; life or death.
Tension often causes conflict. An essential ingredient when novel writing.
The inner conflict of the characters being as important as conflicts brought about by outside influences.
I write up detailed backgrounds for each character. Won’t always use all of it, but it’s there and I can mix up what happens to them. Bring out their fears; push them into situations contrary to what they’ve experienced or have hidden.
In books I’m reading I want to see into the characters mind. To move with them as they evolve. How they cope. How they are challenged and wait for their philosophy on life to be revealed.
Absorb and appreciate their differences.
Note: Heavy Music Artwork #10 Vol 3 April 2019.
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