Michael J Stewart

Mirare l’armonia / Gazing at Harmony

Un progetto di Mariangela De Toni per la sua tesi di laurea all’Accademia di Belle Arti a Bologna: tre incontri/interviste e un saggio su Maria Korporal, con una selezione di opere.
A project by Mariangela De Toni for her master degree at the Academy of Arts in Bologna: three meetings/interviews and an essay on Maria Korporal, with a selection of works.
In Italian and in English.

Click HERE for full-screen reading / Cliccare QUI per per leggere il catalogo a schermo intero

Third Eye Flying

In this video, the artist acts with what she calls her “third eye”: a small video camera attached to her forehead. On the runway of the historical airport Tempelhof in Berlin she takes off and flies into outer space. We see what she sees through her third eye, as she reaches the area of which Man Ray spoke about in his “Pepys Diary” (1959): “Somewhere in outer space the images of the entire history of mankind travel on the airwaves”.

The video was screened in many festivals and exhibitions.
Recent screenings:
• August 25 – September 29, 2019: Over the Real – The Selection, X Biennale d’Arte di Soncino, DAV – Dipartimento di Arti Visive di Soresina.
• September 28-29, 2019: Video Program “Interrupted” at the New Mills Festival, High Peak, Derbyshire, UK.
• October 23, 2019: CONNECT 2019, International Video Arts Festival, curated by Dee Hood, University of Tampa, 401 West Kennedy BLVD, USA.
• November 22, 2019: CONNECT 2019, International Video Arts Festival, curated by Dee Hood, In Absentia Digital Pavilion – Cineporto Foggia, Italy.

title: Third Eye Flying
technique: Experimental video and animation
length: 4’54”
year: 2014
music: “The Geometry of Time” by Michael J. Stewart
camera: Maria Korporal, Astrid Astra Indricane
all other art work, concept, acting, effects and montage: Maria Korporal

Dotswaves TV

In DW TV | EP 1.4, the new episode of Dotswaves TV: Maria Korporal’s video “Third Eye Flying” and a special interview about the video, by Maria to Felix on the Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin.

Dotswaves TV is a UK series showcasing international digital hybrid, multi-genre, noise, performance and AV artists.
DW TV’s 1.4  features UK Power electronics pioneers Consumer Electronics and  Manchester experimental pioneer Eric Random.
Joining EP 1.4 is Yusuke Fuyama (Tokyo), Valerie Renay (Berlin), Anna Biani (Los Angeles), How I Quit Crack (Texas), John Karabelas (Greece), Oddscene  (London), Kevin Eskew.   EP 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 artists’ Embryoroom (New York), Wolf Party (US), Sean Derrick Cooper Marquart (Germany), Maria Korporal (Germany), Cecelia Chapman (US) and DATACODE.

See website for all detailed information: www.dotswaves.com

The Pelican of the Wilderness

title: The Pelican of the Wilderness
technique: Experimental video and animation
length: 7’06”
year: 2015
poem: “Scheletri nottambuli” by Mario Maroccolo, from the book “Annelies Marie Frank” by Nina Maroccolo, published by Edizioni Empirìa, Rome, Italy
English translation of the poem: “Nocturnal skeletons” by Emiliano Pietrini
voice: Nina Maroccolo
music: “Memoria II” (excerpt) and “Elegy” by Michael J. Stewart
sound mix: Emiliano Pietrini
video concept, camera, animation, effects and montage: Maria Korporal

A crucial scene in the video is a pelican biting itself in the chest to save his children with his own blood. It is an image of great allegorical significance in antiquity and in Christianity, usually representing the paternal or maternal love, the act of sacrifice oneself to save one’s own children. In alchemical iconography the image of the pelican is a metaphor for the unselfish aspiration to the ascent towards purification, for the absolute generosity.
The title “The pelican of the wilderness” refers to a quote from the Bible: “I am like a pelican of the wilderness …” (Psalm 101.7). The quote is also present in the book “Annelies Marie Frank,” from which was taken the poem “Nocturnal skeletons” by Mario Maroccolo, father of the author Nina Maroccolo, who reads the text in the final scene of the video.
The video has been presented at the festival “Bologna in lettere“, May 16, 2015, in an extended form with a performance by Nina Maroccolo and Maria Korporal.

 

Slideshow of the performance:

 

Still images from the video:

WOR(L)DS WITHOUT END

“Wor(l)ds without end” originates from a very special relationship between two women who never met, but have been connected since ever. They invented several ways to communicate through networks, and they managed to cancel the (physical) distance by means of words, images, colors, sounds. In this way, they created a bridge which allows them to meet, to dialogue, to share emotions, thoughts and sensations.
A bridge generating a constellation in which stars are born and re-born, are moving and are being transformed into a journey, without departure or arrival… the place is always Here, the time is always Now.
The constellation dancing on the background of the two videos has been composed of words taken from a text by Jiddu Krishnamurti on “Love”; the text is moving constantly in a fluid and light way, sometimes readable, sometimes completely fragmented.
Against this background spheres are moving; they are stars, giving birth to poetic verses which transform and generate other stars; there is a continuous dialogue between words and images, colors and sounds. Sometimes the hands of the protagonists appear, interacting between themselves and with the forms.

title: WOR(L)DS WITHOUT END – interstellar dialogues
technique: Experimental video and animation
length: 11’00” in loop
year: 2011
video and animation: Maria Korporal
texts: Mariacristina Ferrari
music: Michael J Stewart

Ars Amandi

The theme of Ars Amandi is Love in mythology, not only in antiquity but also in the 20th century: the myths of cinema. The title recalls the famous book by Ovid, and we see also many references to the Metamorphoses.
Ars Amandi consists in two parts: 1. a series of 15 images, lambda prints, composed with several digitally elaborated photographic elements, and 2. a video made by means of digital animation. The soundtrack of the video is The Art of Seduction, a work by the British composer Michael Stewart. The video and the images show a series of metamorphoses from stones to sculptures, alternated by classic movie sequences. Body fragments, but in particular Faces: sculpted and cinematographic heads that move to each other, join and separate in an infinite game.

title: Ars Amandi
1. The video
medium:
Digital animation with sound
length: 4’11”
2. The images
medium: Digital images, lambda prints
size: variable
anno: 2009
video and images © Maria Korporal
music © Michael J. Stewart