While our editor, Vishwanand Shetti, has been busy editing this film in Mississippi, our assistant camera and editor, Ian Candler and I have been busy filming in Fredericksburg with Jóhann for the past three weeks, mostly capturing his body of work and some last remaining shots before our big shoot in Iceland. We chose to do most of the filming either in the early morning or late afternoon hours, which is when the lighting is magical and more interesting. We’ve compiled a few still shots from the some of the filming. Enjoy!
For more details about becoming involved in the film project as a supporter or even a producer, visit the following site: http://igg.me/p/74318?a=473813
“My challenge to both John Rajchman and David Hickey:
Dave Hickey, in the 1990’s, stated “nothing new has happened for 30 years.” I don’t agree. I feel, Mr. Hickey has to redeem himself. He has to reevaluate that statement. He says that nothing new has happened during my lifetime. That made me loose interest in investigating what he was saying. In fact, I don’t think I read anything by him since that statement because I judged it all worthless. I need a different kind of attention. As a thinker and an artist, I need to be aroused, not be put to sleep. In a way, putting people to sleep is common now. They should be giving lectures to a group of cows. No kidding! Have you ever seen a cow look up? They don’t look up. They just act like “life is wonderful.”
John Rajchman I believe does have an insight in what I do as an artist. Yet, I also question some of what he writes. He stated that “The house (materiality of life) has not been designed yet”. The word ‘design’ in this context I find questionable. It implies that creation or birth is intentional and that there is a Creator behind it. That’s a very culturally correct phrase to say, yet in my mind, birth is unintentional in it’s purity. John Rajchman writes “the jurisprudence of the singular,” I say, “the laws of chance.”
My fundamental questions to people are, does infinity have to have a starting point? Are beginnings the opposite of infinity? Is everything made of two halves? If you ask a scientist today why the solar system works the way it does, his response would probably be because it simply does. There is a word for the solar system in Icelandic which literally means “Circular Nonsense.” This acceptance of nonsense or unexplained events around us is the basis of faith. Even though it is nonsense, we have to have faith in it, in order to enjoy it. Chaos and delirium are necessary, for we should accept them for what they are. They are simply things without an end product or result. My recent sculpture, Plus and Minus Zero, represents the eternal synthesis of the infinite past with the infinite future. It’s the strangest unity in the universe. It’s also hard to distinguish between a Creator/Super Author and the actual creation or product. It’s a synthesis of contrast.
Only eternity is autonomous and self sufficient, and only a birth implies an absolute critic. We need a new perspective, period.” Jóhann Eyfells
Dave Hickey’s response made April 24, 2012:
“I was wrong. I am writing a book called Pagan America to make up for it, so I’ll have to wait for redemption. Thanks.” David Hickey
“If you ask a scientist today why the solar system works the way it does, his only response would probably be because it simply does. There is a word for the solar system in Icelandic which literally means “Circular Nonsense.” This acceptance of nonsense or unexplained events around us is the basis of faith. Even though it is nonsense, we have to have faith in it, in order to enjoy it. Chaos and delirium are necessary, for we should accept them for what they are. They are simply things without an end product or result.
My fundamental questions to people are, does infinity have to have a starting point? Are beginnings the opposite of infinity? Is everything made of two halves?
In my new piece, Plus and Minus Zero, it’s hard to distinguish between a Creator/Super Author and a product. It’s a synthesis of contrast. The eternal synthesis of the infinite past with the infinite future. It’s the strangest unity in the universe.
We need a new perspective, period.” Jóhann Eyfells
Hayden de Maisoneuve Yates and Jóhann Eyfells have collaborated together on this film for over six years now. The film is about 85% shot, and the remainder of what they need are the spectacular breath taking landscapes of Iceland as well as interviews with people who know the artist well.
To donate towards the making of A Force in Nature, the Film go to:
We, my cameraman and myself, booked our flights to Reykjavik, Iceland, arriving on the 18th June…It’s happening!!! Join and help us make this film: http://igg.me/p/74318?a=473813
Jóhann Eyfells, a defyingly active 91 year old Icelandic artist, redefines the meaning and purpose of art for the 21st century. Art is no longer a commodity or something that is there merely as a status symbol or to satisfy a superficial aesthetic need. It has a higher more profound purpose, to reformulate human consciousness. It is there to remind humanity of its own eternal infinite nature that goes beyond time and space.
Through Jóhann’s insight and body of work we can begin to catch a glimpse at the infinite and unknowing universe of our own existence…in spite of our own collective tendency toward complacency.
“Complacency is the unwillingness to explore the chaotic unknown and the undefinable, and resigning ourselves to the coziness of the knowable.” Hayden de M. Yates
As Jóhann Eyfells continues with the finishing work of his new piece, “Plus & Minus Zero“, nature shows off it’s colors in the Hill Country. There is an element of both intention and chance with every drop of molten metal. “Every event of a drop falling and landing leads toward an unexpected outcome.”
Donate now to this exciting journey we are about to take…Iceland, the land of “Fire and Ice.”
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