Relationship between the Motif of Transcendence and AIDS Activism in Derek Jarman's BLUE - Essay Example

?Derek Jarman’s BLUE: What relationship do you discern between the motif of transcendence and AIDS activism in Derek Jarman's BLUE? Introduction Since his time studying at the Slade School of Art, University College of London visual artist Derek Jarman has been outspoken about his homosexuality and gay rights. Discovering he was HIV positive in 1986, it comes as no surprise that Jarman’s work passionately embraced the call of AIDS activism. Indeed, until his death from AIDS in 1994 a great amount of Jarman’s visual and sound art concerned the nature of homosexual identity and the need for increased attention to victims of this disease. While Jarman’s artistic production exhibits a considerable range of work, from stage design to writing and even conceptual pieces, it’s unquestionably his work in the filmic medium that has garnered him the most critical acclaim. While beginning with crude super 8 mm films, Jarman progressed to more elaborate film art visions. In Sebastianne (1976) Jarman is credited with producing the first British film that depicted homosexuality from a positive perspective. In the 1980s Jarman increasingly turned his attentions to questions of homosexuality and AIDS activism. These themes and style continued until Jarman eventually experienced health concerns and began constructing more paired down works. It is in this context that Jarman’s seminal film Blue was produced in 1993. During the time of its production Jarman was dying of AIDS and his sight was rapidly diminishing. The film itself consists of an entirely blue screen with text and music interspersed in a stream of conscious like narrative format. Rowland Wymer has articulated the film as, “The return to the suffering body - the blue screen representing not only an 'open door to the soul' but also an after-image on the retina left by the 'shattering bright light of the specialist's camerea' - is also a return to politics.” While the narrative contains ambiguity characteristic of Jarman’s personal artistic approach, it’s clear the film exhibits a relationship between the motif of transcendence and AIDS activism. This essay considers Derek Jarman’s Blue within this context, and attempts to situate it within the broader context of Queer theory, and the aural landscape of the relatively new field of sound art. Analysis In great part one detects in Derek Jarman’s Blue the interrelation between the form of the film and the underlining subtext of the film’s narrative and artistic intentions. Perhaps the most pervasive and overarching structural concerns one notes is transcendental nature of how the flow of life equals the stream of conscious flow of the narrative. In these regards one thinks of the transcendent in the Emersonian sense, as life is understood not as the singular entity of the individual, but rather as a universal oneness. This flows from Jarman’s own confrontation with morality in the film and the impending questions all individuals with AIDS must face regarding their own transitory existence. While the film returns to a number of thematic tropes, it is this underlining subtext, namely the motif of transcendence and AIDS activism, that is perhaps most prevalent throughout Jarman’s work in this film. As the film progresses these thematic concerns gradually become articulated through a number of structural means. While the predominant emphasis is on the nature of sound and text, one must also consider Jarman’s implementation of the blue background throughout the entirety of the film. Early in the film, one notes Jarman’s direct discussion of the color blue. The film states, “Blue is the universal love in which man bathes. It is the terrestrial paradise.” The film then transitions to the narrator describing himself walking along the beach in which he hears the voices of dead friends. Here the blue background represents the transcendence of the ocean and sounds of past friends. It functions as a testament to these individuals who perhaps died from AIDS, drawing attention to the transitory of nature of existence. The film then continues these thematic concerns as it repetitively states the names of the narrator’s deceased friends, “David. Howard. Graham. Terry. Paul....” This repetition functions not simply as remembrance of these deceased individuals, but to encourage active recognition of the profound and devastating effects of AIDS. During this early section of the film the viewer notes the film’s implementation of a largely dissonant tonal quality. This tonal noise is punctured at distinct junctures throughout the film. One of the notable instances this occurs is during the mention of the ocean, when the sound qualities reflect the actual ocean current. This allows the film to change from the simple imposition of text on a blue background, to a possible interpretation of the blue representing the actual depiction of a metaphorical ocean of remembrance. At other instances the atonal noise transitions to a more melodic sound. It’s clear that these changes of tonal quality function to indicate the transcendence of the moment. For instance, in one such instance the text on the screen reads, “blue transcends the solemn geography of human limits” this is accompanied by guitar solo indicating the transcendence of time and place, and the visceral qualities of traditional sense perception. Here Jarman is indicating that the limits of human geography, or potential, can be transcended through the object of activism, evidenced here in the sound and artifice of the art object. In other contexts the motif of transcendence as articulated in Jarman’s implementation of blue is interpreted as a progression. In these regards, it’s argued that blue is initially presented as the promise of life, but as the films progresses it becomes increasingly understood as a sort of poisoning in terms of AIDS and its subsequent affliction within Jarman’s life. For instance one notes that the way the film is constructed directly explores the question of the director’s loss of sight. Jarman, as the narrator, openly acknowledges the nature of his retina and its gradual deterioration. The narrator states, “Though when the bleeding stops what is left of my sight might improve. I have to come to terms with sightlessness.” In these regards, one gradually comes to understand the nature of the film as not only constructed from the perspective of the artist without diminished sight, but structurally constructed as a reflection of this human condition. The blue background then functions as the ever shifting signification of transcendence and meaning, with the ever pervasive remembrance of the motif of human mortality. In considering critical interpretations of the film and Jarman’s artistic intentions in Blue there are a variety of perspectives that must be considered. One of the most encompassing critical interpretations is that presented by William Pencak in his book The Films of Derek Jarman. Pencak explores a number of interpretations of Jarman’s utilization of blue as a device in the film. In these regards, it’s noted that Jarman understood blue as both the infinite and as a sort of poison; these interpretations greatly being influenced by the seminal painter Caravaggio. In terms of Blue one witnesses Jarman’s implementation of these perspectives. The motif of transcendence and AIDS activism is articulated through these competing interpretations of blue. For instance AIDs is compared to blue frost catching individuals. The film states, “Like a blue frost it caught them. At work, at the cinema, on marches and beaches. In churches on their knees, running, flying, silent or shouting protest.” In these regards, blue is neither the transcendent color of the ocean, but functions just as encompassing as the AIDS virus. As Jarman advances this metaphor there is a continued connection made between blue and the all-pervasive nature of the disease. The film goes on to state, “It started with sweats in the night and swollen glands. Then the black cancer spread across their faces - as they fought for breath TB and pneumonia hammered their lungs, and Toxo at the brain.” It’s here that the viewer first becomes overtly aware of the activist intentions of the narrative through its direct acknowledgment of the effects of the devastating effects of AIDS. During this section of the film the sound implementation is highly notable as it shifts from an atonal dissonance or slight melody to a sort of crescendo like foreboding sound. The sound has much in common with the progressing nature of Jarman’s signification of blue, as in this instance it represents the ominous effects of AIDs. To some degree the point can be made that these tonal qualities shift from being simply non-diegetic background sounds to metaphorically representing the actual effects of the virus. The conceptual presentation of the sound is articulated as a sort of infestation while the screen text reads, Then the black cancer spread across their faces - as they fought for breath TB and pneumonia hammered their lungs, and Toxo at the brain.“ Throughout the film there is this significant alteration between these tonal qualities, in interrelation with the film’s textual significance. At some instances Jarman even foregrounds the sound background over the textual stream of conscious narrative. In these regards, a band playing music is heard while the screen contains no text but the blue screen. In some regards the viewer even begins to experience the vicarious feeling of Jarman’s condition, both his blindness and his impending demise at the hands of the AIDs virus. Perhaps this is the most effective aspect of the film; that is, it not only seeks to construct an activist stance towards AIDs, but manages to transcend the limits of the filmic medium and truly place the viewer in the condition of the sufferer, pushing them to understand their own mortality and those afflicted with this virus. It’s an interesting feature of Jarman’s work in this film that he is able to challenge and transcend a simple categorization of the film into one singular genre or artistic form, and instead achieves the work’s powerful activist message through a mutable series of alterations of significations of sound and text. As the film advances the viewer becomes increasingly aware of Jarman’s activist intentions as related to the motif of transcendence. In terms of the film’s activism, Pencak notes, “Jarman spares no effort to convince us, to make us feel, that AIDs is indeed a disaster that is equal to the greatest in history. He delves into various eras of the past…But now other eras and people are all imperfect approximations or intimations of his own plight” (Pencak, pg. 160). In these regards, one notes Jarman’s frequent reference to atrocities in regions throughout the world. The film references Sarajevo early on and later mentions Bosnia. Indeed, the scope of the narrative throughout Blue is expansive. At times it feels as if the Jarman is taking the audience on a metaphorical journey throughout the world or even his own consciousness. Traditional western keyboard and guitars are juxtaposed against atonal dissonance and then coupled with exotic Indian music. The coupled effect of these sound juxtapositions is to both indicate the advancing and shifting narrative emphasis, as well as indicate an interest in both worldly and transcendental aspects of the universe and existence. Indeed, other critics note the transcendent motif within Jarman’s message, noting, “Jarman, the consummate image-crafter, whose films are quite literally "moving pictures," coming to grips with the disappearance of all images from his field of vision, then the disappearance of his own self-image into the all-transcending blue of death. While the sound and visual qualities of Jarman’s film are perhaps some of the most conceptually impactful aspects of the work, the poetic dexterity with which the textual message is constructed works in great conjunction with these other elements. While a noted filmmaker, Jarman is also recognized as a writer and diarist, and the textual significance of Blue cannot go unrecognized. While it’s been noted that the film exhibits a stream-of-consciousness narrative style, it’s the symbolic and metaphorical elements that Jarman profoundly and seamlessly interweaves together that make the film a truly visceral experience. When encountering the text one considers the stream-of-conscious nature of a Virginia Woolf, but also the dexterity of a James Joyce in so comprehensively articulating the structure and perspective of an individual human conscious. However, in Jarman’s instance, one can argue that his work is able to transcend mere textual representation and present his vision through the concomitant and varied implementation of sound and visual elements, giving the piece added artistic dimensions. While Jarman’s narrative intentions in Blue greatly implement the motif of the transcendent in AIDs activism, one notes the film’s extreme emphasis on the vicarious perspective of the individual. Indeed, it is impossible to consider Jarman’s film without also considering the nature of identity. The film itself through its articulations repeatedly plays with these concepts of self. In these regards, one can consider a great amount of Queer theory that approaches identity in regards to the question of homosexuality. For instance, Michael Bartos articulated the identity concept as an individual who engages in homosexual acts, rather than an individual that is singularly defined as a homosexual. It is this invisibility of gayness and sexual identity that is apparent throughout Blue, and in part gives the film its power as an activist work. In these regards, Jarman is not asking the viewer to consider the plight of gay individuals, but instead to consider the plight of humanity that is facing the atrocities of this virus. In extending the discussion to these limits, Jarman is ultimately able to advance the motif of transcendence in articulating his stance on AIDS activism and his own consciousness and mortality. Conclusion As Jarman’s Blue concludes one comes to comprehend the powerful nature of the film and its implementation of the motif of transcendence in terms of AIDs activism. The film itself stands as a living testament of not only Jarman’s work, but of the individuals with whom the AIDs virus is a continuing threat. In these regards, Jarman’s interrelation between artistic meaning and the film’s structural elements function as pivotal elements in understanding the film. Within this overarching understanding of the film’s dynamics one notes the utilization of the blue background constitutes perhaps the most pervasive structural dimension of the film. This artistic element is demonstrated to have a number of competing significations. Working in conjunction with the blue screen are a diverse array or tonal and textual elements that develop the motif of transcendence in terms of AIDs activism. As the film concludes, it offers perhaps its most poetic message, stating, “Our name will be forgotten. In time no one will remember our work. Our life will pass like the traces of a cloud. And be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays of the sun. For our time is the passing of a shadow and our lives will run like sparks through the stubble.” Here one witnesses the acknowledgment of the mortality of these individuals inflicted with the AIDs virus, but also the futility of the art object to attempt to transcend these humanly limits. At the end, the best one can do is pay testament to the fallen. References Bartos, Michael (1993) Meaning of Sex Between Men. New York: Avant. Blue: text of a film by Derek Jarman. Evanizer.com http://www.evanizer.com/articles/blue.html Minima, Gridley. Blue by Derek Jarman. http://www.h2so4.net/reviews/blue.html Pencak, William (2002) The Films of Derek Jarman. McFarland and Company. Wymer, Roland. (2005) Derek Jarman. 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