laura mart returns from her sojourns

Spring Break was positively amazing, although after a bit more than a week I am done sleeping in youth hostels for a little while. The break saw many moods for me: antisocial art nerd time (during which I sat in a succession of several cafes/kavarny, bars, and restaurants drawing in my sketchbook and not really talking a whole lot), amazed-by-the-beauty-of-Prague time, guide book time, escapades in the night time, bonding with Julia time, antisocial art nerd in the museum time, shopping time.
The best part was getting to see Julia in Vienna and getting to chill with her. JULIA I MISS YOU!!!! COME BACK TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to see, among other things, Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, a weird film in which Matthew Barney and Bjork turn themselves into whales through some bizarre ritual involving getting dressed up in bizarre theatrical fur outfits, drinking ambergris mixed with green tea and slicing into each other's legs. On a whaling ship (that reminded me more of a tanker). It was visually engaging and quite beautiful at points, and at points too gross for me to watch.
Watching Drawing Restraint made me think a lot about ritual preparation in daily activities. The sending off of the whaling ship was surrounded by a large celebration involving traditional dance and dress and processions. The boat's departure was celebrated by classes of schoolchildren who showered it in confetti, and the crew threw streamers from the deck. The arrival of a tank of liquified vaseline was also made into a large spectacle: the tank was decorated like a whale, complete with faux water coming out of the blowhole. Bjork and Matthew Barney underwent several stages of ritual preparation for their transformation into whales. First, they had to board the boat: Bjork gets picked up by a man in a boat after sort of meditating on the coast, they meet up with the tanker and board it, Bjork takes an intense bath attended by several Japanese women in traditional dress, Matthew Barney gets his head partially shaven, they both get dressed by more traditionally-dressed Japanese women who put them in very strange and beatiful fur kimonos that are reminiscent not only of Japanese dress but also of northern Northern European fur garments and Inuit dress, then meet up with this Japanese guy who serves them the "tea" made from ambergris and green tea. There was also a side narrative about several female pearl divers that was quite beautiful, but I didn't quite get what it had to do with the story. But it sure looked cool.
So that element of the film made me think about incorporating ritual elements into my own work. I was mainly thinking of making everyday actions/happenings into elaborate rituals and the aspects of preparing the body for ceremony. I think this could tie in well with the Spectacle part of this week's assignment, we shall see. I'm going to probably go to Mass today (being as it is Holy Thursday) and witness the washing of the feet. How fortuitous. I just realized that it was Holy Thursday. I was thinking today was Tuesday.
So yeah.
Enclosed in the link are pictures from 1. my sojourn to Centro wearing my outfit from before, and 2. the break.
Prague really reminded me of my childhood (because it smelled like cooking on a fire outside; I used to go camping a lot), but I liked Vienna a lot also and went to many museums there. Andrea and Michelle and I figured out that we look like we could easily be under 18 so we got into a lot of museums for cheaper. It was good.
The last museum I went to was the Albertina, which I think was actually my favorite in Vienna. There was this awesome exhibit of Max Ernst surrealist collage novels, which I enjoyed quite thoroughly with John and Julia. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the Drawing Since 1970 exhibit there or anything else, and I really want to go back! If only.
I also had several existential crises on break, mostly involving my major. First it was, "Do I want to be a sculpture major?" then it was "Do I ACTUALLY want to be a VisComm major?" and now it's "I really think I want to be a Drawing/Printmaking major..." I don't know. I'm so conflicted. I think I may just pick my major out of a hat. I NEED SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE ON THE MATTER.