Gerome
Kamrowski's Garden Menagerie
16mm Film Memorial 2003
A portrait
of the aging artist, Gerome Kamrowksi, one of the last
American surrealists from the thirties and forties movement.
Kamrowski moved to Ann Arbor in 1948 to teach art, remarking; “If I stayed
in New York I’d either be very rich or I’d be dead. I’ve
outlived most of my contemporaries.”
Outside his studio is a garden of wind machines, sculptures, fantastic beaded
wooden creatures, mosaics, and dancing, spinning reflective mirrors. In
the brief time that we shot the film, especially the time we spent with
him in his studio, his age and his frailty and physical incapacity were
apparent, if unspoken. It is not until Goldstein reworked the piece in
2004 that he saw it fit to give Kamrowski the voice of the late poet /
publisher James Laughlin of New Directions Books. In doing so,
Golstein made this work fiction, but perhaps a more emotionally precise
fiction that speaks more to the recent loss of my grandparents.
This piece was shot on an old Scopic 16mm, layered with the voice of James Laughlin. Kamrowski
passed away recently, his work and this film was showcased at the Chelsea
River Gallery.
| Credits |
Direction/
Production - Yoni Goldstein, Jessica Hill
Voice
Over - James Laughlin
|
|
