some of my favorite animal miniatures from nypl spencer coll. pers. ms. 49, a 16th century copy of zakariya al-qazwini’s 13th century the wonders of creatures and the marvels of creation.
Described by Criterion as a “near genre unto itself,” the Six Moral Tales “unleashed on the film world a new voice, one that was at once sexy, philosophical, modern, daring, nonjudgmental, and liberating.”
Diane Severin Nguyen (California-born): “It comes out of a desire to juxtapose physical tensions and the failures
of their linguistic counterparts. Sometimes words can claim entire
bodies with their symbolic force, but sometimes they’re nowhere near
enough. Working within a non-verbal space can bring about very specific
material qualities relating to touch. I work from these minute tensions,
of being pressed on, pierced, pulled apart, submerged, falling,
twisting, which are often related to pain. And I’m curious to see if
they can be empathised with photographically, or how they can be
transfigured into a different feeling.”
