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Mandala 

(1964) 

is an extraordinary film by Art Clokey in which transformations of colored abstract shapes in a mystical dreamscape of claymation transition out to the real world and back, suggesting a revolution in thinking, and an evolution of feeling.

This journey through moving clay sculpture scenes consistently lead toward a Mandala in the background, the symbol for eternal life.

 

We asked Art how he made this exquisite work of art.

 

"Well, we shot that in our basement in Topanga. We had an 1100 square foot basement in a A-frame on a hillside. It was perfect for our needs. My whole family worked on it, my daughter and Gloria's daughter. That was our second marriage for both of us. She had a daughter and I had a daughter. They were both artistic, and my son and Gloria worked with the camera. So it was a family effort all in clay."

 

Art explained that the goal of Mandala was to communicate "the idea of evolving our consciousness from primordial forms to human form, and then beyond the human to the spiritual and eternal. The theme was the evolution of consciousness: we begin in the mud and we just go out and up."

 

The film shows lots of masks and tribal images. "The masks were symbols of the condition that we live in where we are all behind the masks and the whole process of life is to discover who it is behind that mask," Art told us. "Who are we? Who is that guy behind the mask we're holding up there? That 's the purpose of all religion. You just have to find out who that guy is behind the mask."

 

Mandala still stands out as Art Clokey's most visionary, abstract, kinesthetic masterpiece.

 

Source: gumby.com

 

 

Mandala is also a 1953 film by Jordan Belson.

 

 

Mandala, sacral, clay, Film

Reading

Optical Poetry (2004) by Dr. William Moritz is the long-awaited, definitive biography of Oskar Fischinger. The result of over 30 years of research on this visionary abstract filmmaker and painter. In addition to Moritz's comprehensive biography, it includes numerous photographs in colour and black and white (many never before published), statements by Oskar Fischinger about his films, a newly created extensive filmography, and a selected bibliography. (John Libbey Publishing)

Sons et Lumières (2004) – A History of Sound in the Art of the 20th Century (in French) by Marcella Lista and Sophie Duplaix published by the Centre Pompidou for the excellent Paris exhibition in September 2004 until January 2005.


Curated by the Pompidou’s Sophie Duplaix with the Louvre’s Marcella Lista, the show required a good three or four hours to absorb, with its bombardment of sensory and intellectual input, including painting, sound sculpture, sound/light automata, film and video, and room-size installations. (Frieze Magazine)

Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 (2005) traces the history of a revolutionary idea: that fine art should attain the abstract purity of music. Over the past one hundred years some of the most adventurous modern and contemporary artists have explored unorthodox means to invent a kinetic, non-representational art modeled upon pure instrumental music. (Amazon)

Links

 

SEE ALSO

Strata #2 (2009) by Quayola explores the icons of french gothic imagery and architecture, focusing on the layering of times function and representations. The video describes an imaginary alteration of architectural matter. By moving through the spaces of Notre Dame and Saint Eustache a process of metamorphosis is slowly revealed, transforming structure and function of the original churches. (Quayola)

Richard Wagner: Siegfried (2008) - In the world of opera, La Fura dels Baus has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Der Ring des Nibelungen production). Indeed, La Fura dels Baus was predestined for Richard Wagner's visionary world: his dream of a Gesamtkunstwerk becomes reality as a shape-shifting sequence of tableaux unfolds before our eyes with all the elements that constitute the lenguaje furero or Fura idiom. (Unitel Classica)

Arabesque (1975) by John Whitney, Sr. Programmed by Larry Cuba. Whitney experimented with the eccentricities of Islamic architecture, which, though ultimately harmonic, contain many characteristic reverse curves in its embellishments. (Animation World Magazine, Dr. William Moritz)

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre (2007) - The idea behind this unusual Ring production comes from Spain's La Fura dels Baus, the ensemble from Barcelona that has wowed audiences in most European capitals with its spectacular performances. La Fura director Carlus Padrissa sees the Ring in terms of Greek tragedy in which the gods descending onto the stage in machines is synonymous with a hopeless situation in which Richard Wagner's gods find themselves. (Opera News)

Venetian Snares: Szamar Mada (2005) by David O'Reilly contains a memorable section where sound and image suddenly cut to a silent blue screen with flickering computer code that makes you think that the equipment you're watching it on has just died. That screen then twists and morphs back to the animation to appropriately frazzled sounds. That was the last animated music video O’Reilly made, although his reel reveals a cluster of short films produced since, their marked stylistic difference to each other suggesting his desire to experiment with animation techniques and visual style. (Creative Review)