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Self-portrait behind the mask, 2001
'Each boxing match is a story: a drama without words. Alberto García-Alix's photographs are also condensed stories, silent but eloquent stories. These are images imbued with a lyricism and stripped of artifice, poetry that always finds a place to settle within the framework: the tension in the foreshortening of a face, the tip of a shoe, a skewered vagina, the body of a bird, fuzzy profiles of a building… Direct poetry that explodes before our eyes with the radiance of a whiplash.
'If someone put us in the difficult situation of having to choose only one of the topics dealt with by García-Alix in his work, that which summarizes its totality, that would be the human body. Its flesh, bones, and also the light that hides in its gut. And in the end, inescapably, the fight is bound be a body-to-body between Alberto and the light.' -- Alberto García-Alix official website
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Self-portrait on the motorbike, 1978
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Self-portrait in bed, 1978
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Self-Portrait in Toulouse, 1978
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The badly injured, 1988
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A sad man, 2001
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Self-portrait with moccasins, 1988
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Self-portrait. First night in Italy, 1985
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Self-portrait. A little love story, 1995
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Self-portrait. My feminine Side, 2002
Alberto García-Alix Self-Portrait, La Virreina. Barcelona 07.02.2013-05.05.2013
'In the artist's first negatives at the end of the seventies, we can see photographs that are self-portraits of him either in a defiant attitude, as if the camera were something that he has to seduce, or posing in scenes of his life where he feels the need to occupy the space he is photographing. There are also many examples of actions carried out by the artist himself in front of the camera, with the aim of generating a parallel fiction to his reality.
'The effort of looking at oneself, encountering oneself through the exercise of taking photographs becomes a constant in his work and paves the way to new quests, new settings. So we see how this type of self-portraits evolves from more general shots, tending, as his work advances, towards close-ups or even extremely close shots where his face is cut off by the frame. These shots are of enormous intensity and introspection, as the camera acts at an almost microscopic level that takes us into his gaze, or even beyond, into his thoughts.' -- Extract taken from the exhibition's brochure
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The time a kiss lasts, 2001
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Last night in Madrid, 2003
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The hour of mercy, 2007
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A past in papier mâché, 2003
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Rosa was an angel, 1982
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Cicciolina, 1997
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Teresa and our love nest, 1983
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Juanito, 1997
De donde no se vuelve (From Where There Is No Return)
From Where There Is No Return script
Alberto García-Alix website
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p.s. Hey. Today, the great Pisycaca comes to the blog's rescue with this beautiful post introducing -- well, to me anyway -- the photographer Alberto García-Alix, and I imagine that for you, like for me, it's a pretty awesome discovery. Please follow P.'s lead today, and if you have some thoughts for her, any comments would be a cool thing. Thanks, and, thanks in extremia to our guest-host herself. ** Misanthrope, What, you can't afford soft toilet paper? Please. That is clearly a Wines household choice. Weather over there ... you mean here? Should be quite nice with the occasional, inescapable partially rainy Paris day. ** Scunnard, I think the sports metaphor thing is a general contagion. Even I do it, and sports are pretty far afield for me. Thanks a lot about the rhyming in the stacks. Yeah, the rhyming is the key. Same thing I do in my novels but just necessarily clunkier. ** Wolf, It was there. It was always there. Bob still works in strange ways, clearly. Yeah, I don't understand anything. I'm pretty sure I don't, or at least that's my go-to opinion about myself. Oh, okay, Mirror Box therapy, got it. I grabbed that image without looking at the page/context it was on. Pretty interesting stuff. Wow yeah. Thanks for the lesson. I will do some follow up. The slaves might agree maybe, or some of them, or one of them probably at least. At the least the ones who say they'll do anything that anyone who approaches them with an aura of authority asks. You could try. That's a study whose results I would definitely intrigued by. ** S., They're not dumb. Wtf?! Not at all. A very stylish but not complicated character sounds kind of fascinating. No, I rarely do any of those things. I'm not a painting guy. Paintings have to make a big breakthrough with me. And they do, but not as easily as, I don't know, sculpture or video or something. Thanks for giving the slaves your and their unique due. 'Lords of Salem' ... is that the new Rob Zombie movie? I guess so, right? I forgot its title. It's def, on my list, if so. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. I don't have to try to keep nostalgia out of my work because, one, I decided when I was very young that it was a big enemy, and, two, because I almost never write about myself or my life/past. Why am I averse to nostalgia? Well, it turns your past into a drug, and it's a very addictive drug, and it can cause you to lionize and romanticize your past at the expense of the here and now and future. People can end up thinking that the fact that the music and movies and TV and whatever else they liked when they were young, and the people they knew then, and the things they did, make them feel 'more', that they are superior to things of the here and now. I'm interested in trying to achieve objectivity in order to understand and appreciate the world, and nostalgia is a great de-railer of that effort. I think buying into nostalgia is a big reason why people get old. It causes people to think about their lives in distinct stages, their youth and young adulthood, which nostalgia tends to upgrade into 'the most important time', and then full on adulthood, which then begins to seem a kind of compromised state or an after-effect, 'a time for reflection', and I don't think that's an interesting or productive way to view your life. For me. Whatever works for everybody else. I want to keep searching for the greatest thing ever, the most important thing ever, the most emotionally resonant thing ever. I want it to be possible now and in the future. I want to live that way. I don't think that, just because my past has the inebriant of memory attached to it, it's more important than what's going to happen later today or tomorrow. I guess that's why in a nutshell. Re: the time taken to make the stacks, I never do the things I really want to do based on their money value. That's not a method I necessarily recommend, ha ha, but that's my thing. What about me? What do you mean? Oh, you mean re: the Salter quote? Uh, I don't know, I guess that seems okay to me if kind of vague and obvious or something. ** Lizz Brady, Hi, Lizz! It's super really nice to see you! Thanks about 'MLT'. Wow, that is interesting and weird about the Plan B song. Crazy. I have to hear that song itself, clearly. What's it called? So, are you great? Are you doing great? I definitely and absolutely hope so. ** David Ehrenstein, I think the abs are the gift he's giving or offering,. They're very popular, although I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with them. Look at them, poke them, ... ? ** Alan, Hi. Oh, I see. No, that's not the real wish. It's kind of a clue though, but not necessarily in the obvious way. I think I did say that about the three wishes, yeah. But that would be in my real life. The fictional 'Dennis' in 'Guide' has his own agenda. A satire, interesting. What does she mean by that, do you know? Thanks so much, man, for saying that about 'Guide'. Really, thank you, it means a whole lot. Anyway, you're going to LA! That's awesome. Well, you know I love LA to tiny bits, so I think you being there is awesome, and I like the mental image. Have a really great trip! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Thanks re: 'Frisk' and 'Guide', man. Extension of the mirrors, ha ha, nice, and kind of true. Weird. ** White tiger, She won't be shy, I don't think. I'll ask for sure. And, hey, congrats on finally and officially having your true name! ** MANCY, The videos are really, really great! I love them a lot! Major kudos, S.! I'm curious what Wolf Eyes would be like now too. I'm not so into their new album. I'm kind of more interested in their side projects at this point. If you see some of them, report back, if you don't mind. ** Pisy caca, Hi! Thank you, thank you for today! The work is so very interesting. The novel isn't the George novel anymore. I might salvage some things from the failed George novel to use, I'm not sure. The point of the novel is connected to the one I had in the George novel, but it's not centered on him. Who knows what will happen, but, for now, it's not a novel about George anymore. I tried to do that, and I failed. I don't know 'Tiny Furniture', and I've never watched 'Girls'. I'm pretty much completely out of it when it comes to TV these days. No, but I'll go read the Pitchfork interview with Bradford today. Thanks so much again, and much love to you! ** Chris Goode, Hi, Chris! Performance texts, yeah, that's interesting. That's a very interesting way to think about them. I mean as performative in the sense of being performed by external beings. Oh, no, I didn't think you were dissing Turrell. I must have accidentally engaged a tone I didn't realize I was using or something. Mm, I don't think I've done a Turrell day, no. Huh. I should, right? I'll go scout him and see if and how I could do a post. Nice idea, man. Nice about the happy ending re: the older, previously hostile actor. Ha ha, annoying douchebag, you? Come on, maestro. Thanks a lot for the link to your friend's piece on 'NToO'! I'll go read that post-haste. I've only read excerpts from that Rob Halpern book too. Very interesting excerpts. I do quite like the work of his that I've read. Yes, I do. And I'd like to know his stuff even more, and I will. Love to you, pal. ** _Black_Acrylic, Great luck to Dundee! I'm guess that's kind of like being chosen the Cultural Capitol of Europe, or whatever they call that annual decision/reward over here, but on a much tighter budget? ** Steevee, Hi. Cool about the review. I'll read it shortly. Everyone, here's Steevee's short review of the film 'Post Tenebras Lux' @ The Village Voice for your delectation. No, I didn't get a chance to listen to Yung Lean yet, but it's on the schedule for today. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! So very cool to see you, man! The slave posts, and the escort posts too, are pretty labor intensive. I usually work on them off and on, now and then for a month or so. I look at zillions of ads/profiles every month, it feels like. Something like 90+% of them all say basically the same minimal, expected things and are not interesting at all or usable. The ones I choose are rarities that take a lot of exploring and hunting. So sweet that you're so close to finishing the novel! That's amazing and very exciting to think about! What you said made total sense to me, yeah. Yeah, totally. Are we such weirdos? I guess we are. My novel is ... not reborn because it's not the same novel. In a way, it's about the same thing, and, at this point, I'm still going to work with my autobiography, but I found it impossible to represent George and my relationship to him. And ... it's too difficult to explain, right now at least, but I have an idea of how I could write about the things that made me want to write a novel about George, but without him at the center. Yeah, it's too hard to talk about. We'll see. Since I'm in the beginnings right now, I have to say that, yeah, while the openness is exciting, I'm really feeling the difficulty of how to shape and focus that openness at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting a little further along whereupon that awe you mentioned will hopefully become more present. Man it's really nice to see you! ** Billy Lloyd, Hi, Billy. Very cool about the successful photos! Yeah, makes sense: your attitude and plans re: the album. Whoa, three popcorn bags. Good thing that popcorn is whatever-huge percentage air. The great muffins-producing place is otherwise just a usual seeming train station quick food seller, so I know what you mean. Great day to you! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. It was kind of a good poem, wasn't it? Interesting about Burroughs. No, I don't consider him a great moralist at all, but, long story short, I had/have some ins re: what he was like a a person, so that either colors or clarifies my thinking about him and his work's morality. There have been critics who've written about my work as being centrally concerned with morality. I think about issues of morality when I work, but it's more in a kind of maintenance way, to regulate and design the voice so that the reader's issues around morality won't interfere with the work as much as possible. I think I'm a moral person, I guess. I definitely do not think my work is either immoral or amoral. I think when people say that about my stuff, they don't understand it. One could argue that my characters are sociopaths. I don't see them that way, or I see any seemingly sociopathic behavior by them as an accidental outcome of their severe focus. I see them as individuals, or, rather, as unique representations since I never think of my characters as being book-trapped real people. Guilt is there. I guess there's some morality working its way out through that. I don't know. I don't know if that's interesting or clear. I really appreciate your interest in asking me a lot. ** Rewritedept, I will. I'll try. One quick read of your poem in my not particularly concentrated p.s. writing state tells m that it's a very interesting piece. I'll reread it when I'm a free man. My week has been quiet and kind of lonely and filled with some writing and a lot of preparing for the upcoming trip. I'm not into having pets, so I don't have a favorite one. Theoretically, I guess a dog. I like dogs. Thanks in advance about the guest-post! ** Sypha, Hey, James. Cool to hear that you're back in writing and writing/planning mode. Fun to read the table contents. That was cool and intriguing. ** Right. Be guest-host Pisycaca's guests today, and, if you do that, you will have spent a productive day, I guarantee. See you tomorrow.