Opus 2016

Page 1

BURTOGRAPHY



by BURTOGRAPHY


INTRO Photographs of my friends and family members, traveling records, pornography, Google image search, news clips, cell phone snapahots were the instruments to compose the images of OPUS. My lack of talents in “music” and “Painting” propelled me to create something that resembles those art forms. My mind is like a wet paint brush, it tends to blur the line between my inner universe and the exterior reality I have witnessed. Grotesquely, OPUS is also a subtance/by-product of a bulimic soul who couldn’t really digest the intakes of his personal feelings and the world he lives in. “Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen, und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht,uns zu zerstören.”

(For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us....)

as Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote.

Burt Sun, 2016




prelude & ĂŠtude




























aria & ritornello
























impromptu & rhapsody

























chant & requieum





CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASSROOM This day, this day of wrath Shall consume the world in ashes, As foretold by David and Sibyl. What trembling there shall be When the judge shall come To weigh everything strictly. Benjamin Britten




CHERNOBYL NURSERY There trees live by unwavering memories, remember the touch of hands. How bitter for them to know there will be no one for their shade to protect from the scorching heat! At night their branches quietly rock our inflamed dreams. Stars thrust down onto the pavement, to stand guard until morning . . . But the hour will pass . . . Abandoned by dreams, the orphaned houses whose windows have gone insane will freeze and bid us farewell. -Liubov Sirota





SYRIAN KITCHEN This world’s anguish is no different from the love we insist on holding back. -Aberjhani



LAST DAY ON EARTH They say the captain goes down with the ship, so when the world ends, will God go down with it? -Fall Out Boy



THE TEMPEST Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. -William Shakespeare



‫‪PoweR Station‬‬ ‫‪Autumn Conundrum‬‬

‫فيرخ لا زغل‬ ‫فاطملا ةياهن يق عقت نأ بجي ةقرو لك نأ رمألا سيل‬ ‫ًاعيمج اهطاقتلا ً ادبأ عيطتسن نل اننأ درجم هنإ‬

‫‪Piercing the Shell‬‬

‫ةرشقلا ق ارتخا‬ ‫برح لا تايقاو عيمج انعلخ ول‬ ‫>بلق لا دوجو ببس فشتكنس امبر‬

‫‪Epitaph for a Palestine child‬‬

‫ينيطسلف لفط ل ةيثرم‬ ‫ّتم اه دعبو ‪،‬يتعاطتسا ردق تشع‬ ‫عساو ر بقلاف ‪:‬وـّطخت نيأ رذحإ‬





Temple of Baal Parts of the temple were damaged to some extent by bombings in 2013, during the Syrian Civil War. The southeastern corner of the temple wall was damaged further by looters who made two openings to steal the furniture of the adjacent guesthouse. In May 2015, Palmyra was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a militant group with a history of destroying ancient religious structures. Shortly after, ISIL reportedly claimed that it did not intend to demolish the buildings at Palmyra’s World Heritage Site, but stated that it would destroy any artifact it deemed “polytheistic” or “pagan”. On 23 August 2015 (or earlier in July, according to some reports), ISIL militants detonated a large quantity of explosives inside the Temple of Baalshamin, completely destroying the building. The temple’s destruction was announced by the head of the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, Maamoun Abdulkarim. Photographs of the placement of the explosives, the explosion itself and the remnants of the temple subsequently appeared on social media. UNESCO described the willful destruction of the temple as a “war crime”.The destruction was independently verified by a French Pléiades satellite, which photographed the pile of rubble a few days later. Wikipedia



Landfill Is it peace, Is it a philosopher’s honeymoon, one finds On the dump? Wallace Stevens






concerto & sonata



Amazonia and Ophelia Voici plus de mille ans que la triste Ophélie Passe, fantôme blanc, sur le long fleuve noir; Voici plus de mille ans que sa douce folie Murmure sa romance à la brise du soir. -Arthur Rimbaud __

Cristo Redentors Eu já não tenho mais vida! Tu já não tens mais amor! Tu só vives para o riso, eu só vivo para dor. Castro Alves











Fraternity Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find me, unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley


Morning after... Vater: To think that I could have fathered a loon like you! Lola: But you did, you jerk! Vater: Oh, yeah? Your real father didn’t even live to see your birth! from film ‘Run Lola Run’




Seven All 7 and we’ll watch them fall They stand in the way of love And we will smoke them all With an intellect and a savoir-faire No one in the whole universe Will ever compare. Prince __

Thirteen 13 is the number of men you’ve allowed to wound your human with their horns It is fornication disguised as forgiveness which means you swallowed 13 men in two months when you mistook night for lonely but it is all blasphemy it is all reason to forget your mother gave birth to you under sun and sin so your throat is just a canal just an ark your skin so night so animal it is a lust fist it is the daughter of Delilah you are and have always been Tonya Ingram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbS9yNSQyAA















cantata & theme




Neptune I think that in 50 years, we’ll look back and go ‘My God, what a barbaric time!’ from Documentary ‘Black Fish’







Joseph the Shepherd Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. Carl Sandburg





The Calling of Matthew How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive. Kurt Vonnegut




St. George Not my best side, I’m afraid. The artist didn’t give me a chance to Pose properly, and as you can see, Poor chap, he had this obsession with Triangles, so he left off two of my Feet. I didn’t comment at the time (What, after all, are two feet To a monster?) but afterwards I was sorry for the bad publicity. Why, I said to myself, should my conqueror Be so ostentatiously beardless, and ride A horse with a deformed neck and square hoofs? Why should my victim be so Unattractive as to be inedible, And why should she have me literally On a string? I don’t mind dying Ritually, since I always rise again, But I should have liked a little more blood To show they were taking me seriously. U. A. Fanthorpe


St. Gabriel Tyrell: I’m surprised you didn’t come here sooner. Roy Batty:It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker. Tyrell: What can he do for you? Roy Batty:Can the maker repair what he makes? Tyrell: Would you like to be modified? Roy Batty:I had in mind something a little more radical. Tyrell: What seems to be the problem? Roy Batty:Death. Tyrell: Death. Well, I’m afraid that’s a little out of my jurisdiction. Roy Batty:I want more life, father. Roy Batty: I’ve done questionable things. Tyrell: Also extraordinary things. Revel in your time. Roy Batty:Nothing the God of bio-mechanics wouldn’t let you in heaven for. Roy Batty:Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled round their shores. Burning with the fires of Orc. Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Roy Batty:I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. from film ‘Blade Runner’




COSME E DAMIĂƒO Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart. Melodie Ramone




St. Miguel’s Wrath I MURDER hate by flood or field, Tho’ glory’s name may screen us; In wars at home I’ll spend my blood— Life-giving wars of Venus. The deities that I adore Are social Peace and Plenty; I’m better pleas’d to make one more, Than be the death of twenty. Robert Burns







The Last Supper 月季花慢慢爬墙 青苔也比它快了 点点白花 是我永不移的星星 许多年了 夜总也不能过去 总有人来 来问我的婚期 我说 织完了这又要开的一朵 又一朵 又一朵 一朵又一朵 一朵又一朵 才是时候 -三毛



oratorio & medley





Red Couches in Detroit Where Nature is ever hidden, and cowers under mist and cloud, snow and darkness, there man feels himself master; he regards his desires, his works, as permanent; he wants to perpetuate them, he looks towards posterity, he raises monuments, he writes biographies; he even goes the length of erecting tombstones over the dead. So busy is he that he has not time to consider how many monuments crumble, how often names are forgotten! Rabindranath Tagore







The Seven Acts of St. Francis Diese Mühsal, durch noch Ungetanes schwer und wie gebunden hinzugehen, gleicht dem ungeschaffnen Gang des Schwanes. Und das Sterben, dieses Nichtmehrfassen jenes Grunds, auf dem wir täglich stehen, seinem ängstlichen Sich-Niederlassen—: in die Wasser, die ihn sanft empfangen und die sich, wie glücklich und vergangen, unter ihm zurückziehn, Flut um Flut; während er unendlich still und sicher immer mündiger und königlicher und gelassener zu ziehn geruht. Rainer Maria Rilke






Lösch mir die Augen aus: ich kann dich sehn, wirf mir die Ohren zu: ich kann dich hören, und ohne Füße kann ich zu dir gehn, und ohne Mund noch kann ich dich beschwören. Brich mir die Arme ab,ich fasse dich mit meinem Herzen wie mit einer Hand, halt mir das Herz zu, und mein Hirn wird schlagen, und wirfst du in mein Hirn den Brand, so werd ich dich auf meinem Blute tragen. Rainer Maria Rilke




Als das Kind Kind war, Du im Voraus verlorne Geliebte, Nimmergekommene, nicht weiß ich, welche Töne dir lieb sind. Nicht mehr versuch ich, dich, wenn das Kommende wogt, zu erkennen. Ach, die Gärten bist du, ach, ich sah sie mit solcher Hoffnung. Ein offenes Fenster im Landhaus—, und du tratest beinahe mir nachdenklich heran. Gassen fand ich,— du warst sie gerade gegangen, und die spiegel manchmal der Läden der Händler waren noch schwindlich von dir und gaben erschrocken mein zu plötzliches Bild.—Wer weiß, ob derselbe Vogel nicht hinklang durch uns gestern, einzeln, im Abend? Rainer Maria Rilke



Als das Kind Kind war, war es die Zeit der folgenden Fragen: Warum bin ich ich und warum nicht du? Warum bin ich hier und warum nicht dort? Wann begann die Zeit und wo endet der Raum? Ist das Leben unter der Sonne nicht bloß ein Traum? Ist was ich sehe und höre und rieche -nicht bloß der Schein einer Welt vor der Welt? Gibt es tatsächlich das Böse und Leute, die wirklich die Bösen sind? Wie kann es sein, daß ich, der ich bin, bevor ich wurde, nicht war, und daß einmal ich, der ich bin, nicht mehr der ich bin, sein werde? Als das Kind Kind war, ging es mit hängenden Armen, wollte der Bach sei ein Fluß, der Fluß sei ein Strom, und diese Pfütze das Meer. Als das Kind Kind war, wußte es nicht, daß es Kind war, alles war ihm beseelt, und alle Seelen waren eins. Als das Kind Kind war, hatte es von nichts eine Meinung, hatte keine Gewohnheit, saß oft im Schneidersitz, lief aus dem Stand, hatte einen Wirbel im Haar und machte kein Gesicht beim fotografieren. from film “Der Himmel über Berlin”









by BURTOGRAPHY

© 2016 Burt H. Sun burtography@gmail.com http://burtography.tumblr.com/



by BURTOGRAPHY


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