A masterpiece in its elliquent eccentricism.
One of my favorite quarantine activities has been watching music videos on my projector. (I just recently learned- shoutout to my 9-5 work at Robofun & the birdBrain virtual classes- that process is called refraction.)
I decided to click bait this specific one, because the Alicia Keys reference in my mind was curious to know if it had life there. Plus 2:32 :) - so we drove my cruiser over to hear its content.
To my surprise- and complete amusement- out of the silence of natural Uni, came a woman speaking Spanish...
"Todo empieza como termina. Supongo que simplemente te acostumbras a ruido
"Everything starts how it ends. I guess we simply just get used to the noise."
Of course, in the name of love, art & brain noise, I was mesmerized at the mention of 'noise', which in this case was used as personification for the life of Love. The middle. The in-between.
I believe every great love story starts with the sound of softness. The release of self, from the silence of holding it in, and the mercy we may feel is requited for its release...
The vulnerability in the vibration of a voice telling its story,
will always mean its most.
Touch of soul.
:15 seconds in and I'm already hooked.
(Optional sidenote: This prelude to the video remindede me immensely of the movie "Arrival". Which I watched in the theaters, on a whim with my best friends. This movie completely shifted my thought process on time & communication, through their scripted abstractness on the concept of extraterrestrial life. One of the major themes of the film was the concept of time as a dimension of life. Unlike us humans, who experience life in a linear span- infant to elder, birth to polar death—the aliens moved through their lifespans in a circular relation to time- where the 'end' is replaced by the middle, and birth and death happen simultaneously within a yin and yang movement of polar synchronicity. Dual-dementional reality that leads to the final moment, where the seprate realities become 1 uni·tied same, but only in/as its final moment of middle.
A measurement in half-life, if you will.
That movie shifted so many things for me.
On how I experience. With·in my mind.
On just how much it takes to have a simple conversation.
On how we often communicate with so much more than just words.
How, often, the words · the words are what gai trust last.
» As soon as I heard that quote, I thought about the end scene from Arrival.)
When it began, I was immediately struck by its ordinary world. The scene structure is amazing. — "Dancing in silence make the truth hard to ignore." —
— "Bilar en silencio hacen que la verdad sea difícil a ignorar." —
Brought right back to bare Uni with the soft sound of moving life, and then two silent Beings, playing in the bareness of Earth, like children.
Young souls.
Learning life, as they learn another.
Encounters with Love.
"...pero, todo los desconocidos en algún momento fueron amigos." "...but all strangers were, at some point, friends."
The contrast in this segment is wonderfully potent.
The opening scene is in black and white.
(I wondered if that was thought to signify something of older age? or a younger time for the Uni? Not quite sure which I'll settled on.)
This video portrays a moving embodiment of opposition.
The polars of contrast in this video play in love, just as the characters do.
The characters are quite polars in physical aesthetic.
One of feminine vessel, with white hair, and fair skin. She is wearing a deep blue blouse and holding a white flower. (A piece of the Earth. Life. Plucked. Foreshadowed?)
One of masculine vessel, with chiseled features, and deep skin. He is wearing a white shirt, and is sitting below.
Within this black and white, they are playing in the grass. Smiling, portraying joy, and softness. Trust.
There is one scene of seriousness in this segment of black & white, quickly skipped over as the scene goes back to its calm playfulness. I don't think I even took note of the stern faces and minced feel, until after I watched it over. What does this tell me about the brain's ability to re-create a moment? Removing any of the realitites that don't fit the overall scene we'd like to keep in our memory of it? I found that extremely interesting, after the end.
This thought process happens all within that first :30 seconds on intro. Where, other than that 1 invisibly cloaked contrast scene, 'close and warm' would have describe the feeling of this ordinary world/ set up scene.
Then the song plays.
Music to my ears | when I hear | that these were indeed the beloved lyrics my mind was hoping would grace us.
Jacob Banks does an amazing rendition, with such a strength & control of his voice that really allows him to showcase his abilities well. His voice is raspy, deep and strong. A combination that is unique in its frequency of song and sound. Beautiful job. Full of soul.
The scene then shifts from black & white to color, which, somehow, only makes some of those contrast deeper in feel.
She, holding the flower, begins circling around him, who's lower to the ground. As mentioned, this segment starts with them being physically affectionate so my initial reaction is one of warmth (which auto correct just changed to "wartime" lolol the irony.) and of calm ease. That light feeling fades as the segment moves forward.
The vessels move closer in parallel.
Both looking chiseled. Both deep in seriousness.
But her high, him low.
Her- moving, fluid, taughting.
Him- still, constrained, condensed...
as she moves around him in a wistful circles.
Then, all of a sudden....
She's choking him out.
Like... what the fuckkkkk?!?
& now in the blink of an eye, the contrast has flipped.
He is the one moving. Taunted. Flailing.
She is still. Serious. Constraining.
The lightness becomes heavy.
The beginning starts making more sense towards the end.
In the last scene, we have cut to a focus of just the feminine vessel. By her lonesome, wistfully circling the flower around her own- face to face with us, the gaze, and herself, in thought.
"... how many really know what love is?"
When the video ends, I am still taken aback, processing the sharp switch up and in search of answers.
What was her motive? Is she feeling remorse?
Is she meant to represent light, and he, darkness? (even her eyebrows are light. Powerful statements!)
Are they representing the waves of a relationship? From love, warmth & closeness to darkness & betrayal?
Does he know her intention from the beginning? After knowing the ending, & replaying his actions back, I could see how maybe it could be that I, the gaze, am the only one who's not it on it. Now I see every split second of turned faces and cold looks. Did I see that in the beginning, the 1st time? Did I mistake these opposites as same?
Does the allignment of the quote and the solo shot of her in the end suggest that she does not, indeed, really know what love is? (insert punny play acknowledgement here. haha)
& when my mind is done spiraling in the unknowns, I realize that I know nothing. That I will likely never get the answers that sooth. In that moment I feel a rush of dry briskness. Feel the feeling of feeling okay with not knowing.
Crashed in the fear, and then waved in my inability to control that.
Felt the love and the loss. The rise and fall, of wanting to know it all.
That feeling, is my representation of good art.
The representation of feeling feeling.
witnessed through the artist' manifestation of emotion through their chosen medium of capsuled tangibility.
Art.
This video was beautiful art, because it made me feel.
So much mystery, told in the beauty of powerful contrast.
A silent telling of angst and love, multi-represented.
Yin yang.
Regardless of stance.
A dance of passion, none the less.
A beautiful Unity.