The Brief
Lucrecia Dalt is an electronic music producer whose compositions are known for their textural experimentation and conceptual underpinnings. Dalt has taken inspiration from sources as varied as New German Cinema and Colombian myth, and her albums have received acclaim from publications including Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes, and XLR8R. Her collaborative projects include Terepa – in which she composed ‘telepathically’ with musicians including Laurel Halo and Julia Holter – and, more recently, her work with artists Regina de Miguel and Henry Andersen. Dalt’s sixth album, Anticlines, was released on RVNG Intl. in May 2018. Influenced by her previous profession as a geotechnical engineer, it combines elements of minimalism and the avant-garde with spoken word.
Which landscape painting would you recommend?
Homage to Goya by Odilon Redon. A female head floats over a rocky landscape. I particularly like the palette and how scale is puzzled.
Which public sculpture would you recommend?
Tilted Arc by Richard Serra. I had the chance to know about this sculpture from my friend Sonia Fernández Pan. I agree with what Serra has stated that art’s function should not be pleasing. I also find appealing the idea of generating such disruption in a public space.
Which visual artwork about transformation would you recommend?
Autorretrato en el tiempo by Esther Ferrer. A classic! Also, had the chance to work on the production of a special podcast about her work for Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA).
Which 20th/21 st-century visual artwork would you recommend?
At the risk of being self-indulgent, I would like to say V.I.T.R.I.O.L., a collaborative audiovisual performance I made with the artist Regina de Miguel, which we presented at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It invokes the enunciation of new alchemical formulas that might offer forms of affective resistance to extractive imageries and the geographies of violence linked to these, as well as to technological and cultural mechanisms of representation.
Which documentary would you recommend?
Burden of Dreams, directed by Les Blank. It documents the chaotic production of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. A true artist exposing himself to the most severe, extreme conditions with such ambition just to be able to capture the right essence for this film. Plus, I think, there’s nothing more soothing than listening to Werner Herzog speaking.
Which LGBT* film would you recommend?
The Angelic Conversation, directed by Derek Jarman. Just a wonderful combination of elements, the voice ofJudi Dench, with the music of Coil and stunning images.
Which non-fiction book would you recommend?
The Thing: A Phenomenology of Horror by Dylan Trigg: Poses questions about the human body, its limits, and if it’s possible to talk about a phenomenology outside of it.
Which 20th/21 st-century novel would you recommend?
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector. A story about a woman who becomes an absurd hero by entering a state of delirium after a minor event at her place. In that state and from that event, she’s able to build a very interesting compendium of meditations about history, pre-history, psychoanalysis, feminism, and literary theory.
Which poem would you recommend?
‘Shy One’ by Alice Fulton. In just one poem we are confronted with ideas about quantum mechanics, feminism, and love, so emotionally charged and elegantly achieved.
Perspectives
The following questions relate to our Perspectives column, in which two writers respond to an artwork that they are experiencing for the first time.
Does art encourage solitude?
It could. A certain degree of solitude is fruitful, but one’s work could get well enriched by letting the work of other artists and other fields permeate your own work. Music, I think, should be a more absorbent art form.
When we perform in character, do we lose our own voice?
No, we allow for our own alienation, therefore the chance to discover parallel voices, silenced voices, undiscovered voices or voices that are rather difficult to convey.
Rule of Three
The following questions relate to our Rule of Three column, for which each article includes a trio of artworks that share an association with a single word.
Which film associated with the word ‘Parallel’ would you recommend?
The Parallel Street, directed by Ferdinand Khittl. I read this quote about the film that cannot be more exact on how I felt about it: “a philosophical thriller, a western of meditation which compensates for a whole year of inevitable manifestations of stupidity.”
States of the Arts
The following questions relate to our States of the Arts column, for which each article includes four artworks that share an association with a single nation or territory.
Which Belgian poetry would you recommend?
Stanzas or The Law of The Good Neighbour by Henry Andersen, an artist based in Brussels. This is a work of spoken poetry, a wordplay that reminds us that we are human bodies. Even the cover of the record suggests skin, or some kind of pornographic amusement object.
Which Colombian artwork would you recommend?
Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo. I really like works that relate to borders, in this case stemming from the artist’s personal experiences of Colombian history.
Which Slovenian theatrical work would you recommend?
Noordung::1995-2015-2045, directed by Dragan Živadinov. This is a really peculiar project, a Cosmokinetic Theatre that takes place every ten years with the same group of performers. If an actor dies during this period of time, a module will be created. All the modules generated during the piece will be sent into orbit around Earth.
The art of discovery
The following questions relate to Silent Frame’s aim to celebrate the art of discovery.
What is your greatest artistic discovery?
The one that stimulates movement, the continuity of creative work.
More to discover
Lucrecia Dalt: Visit Lucrecia Dalt’s Bandcamp page here, her Soundcloud page here, and her Tumblr page here. Her Twitter handle is @LucreciaDalt. Watch the videos for 'Edge', 'Tar', and 'Inframince'. Other interviews with Dalt available online include those by Julia Holter for Electronic Beats, Birkut for Tiny Mix Tapes, and Maya Roisin-Salter for Thump (Vice).
Today’s recommendations: Homage to Goya (image), Tilted Arc (Silent Frame article), Autorretrato en el tiempo (information, in Spanish), Regina de Miguel (artist’s website), Burden of Dreams (trailer), The Angelic Conversation (trailer), The Thing (excerpt), The Passion According to G.H. (excerpt), Alice Fulton (artist’s website), The Parallel Street (trailer), Henry Andersen (Bandcamp page), Shibboleth (video interview with Doris Salcedo), Noordung::1995-2015-2045 (information).
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