“The world fascinates me” – Andy Warhol
I am a long time fan of Warhol’s work, but I think my favourite pieces are his Screen Tests series, where he set up a camera in front of someone (he shot both non-famous and famous regulars to his studio, Factory, in NYC ) and just let the camera roll. I went to a Warhol exhibition at The Southbank Centre, in London, and there was a room dedicated to his Screen Tests and other films like Chelsea Girls (featuring Nico), Blow Job (guess what that is about) and Sleep (where he filmed his close friend asleep).
“Warhol’s filmmaking was motivated in large part by his fascination with individuals, but he was also driven by his desire to capture the actual experience of living. As he wrote in his book, POPism: The Warhol ‘60s: “What I liked was chunks of time all together, every real moment… I only wanted to find great people and let them be themselves… and I’d film them for a certain length of time and that would be the movie.” – Taken from http://screentest.warhol.org/about.php
What I love most about the Screen Tests is how something so simple can reveal a person’s inner beauty, strength, fears, awkwardness, hopes, dreams, and peel back the layers, just by observing and focusing on them in their stillness (or non-stillness as some were!). There was one in particular that stood out for me, it was of a girl looking at first quite fierce and defiant, holding up her hair at the sides. The more you got into it, the more her defenses dropped – her masks – and you could see beneath all of what she originally projected, and that she was a damaged human being wanting to be loved. It was really interesting and intriguing to get under all of these masks and I have always remembered it. I have watched many others and most of them put up barriers that gradually fall, and you get to see their inner darkness and their inner light. The famous people he shot include Dali, Nico, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, they seemed to fidget more.
I can’t find that particular one online (from having a google, I think it was Beverley Grant), the below are quite good and well known, I guess the others are kept for exhibitions.
Soul Gazing – See the beauty inside
A little exercise on this note: eye contact for intimacy. I thought about doing a separate post for this, but I quite like it here; observation of the soul inside.
This is a partner exercise but it doesn’t have to be done with a love-partner, you can practice it with a friend also. It allows you to see deep into the soul of another (eyes are the windows of the soul – the left eye especially is said to be where the soul resides – see how the girl who cried a tear did it with her left eye) and go to a place of deep connection.
Sit cross legged, opposite (your partner, for this moment) and look into eachother’s eyes for two minutes. If you have to blink, this is fine, but take a breath and go back to it. It can be really intense, but if you can go there it leads to a deep place of understanding and connection. How willing are you to be seen? We put on so many masks in life, but you need to be willing to be vulnerable to really open yourself up – the good and the bad – to experience the realness and fullness of life in all its beauty. I know from my own experience that it is always work in progress! And you can also remember that the other person is you; everything is but a mirror of the inner self. See what comes up for you!