Selections from “The Stars Are Beautiful” by Stan Brakhage:
3) It’s a great roof studded with sequins. The movement of the stars is in relationship to the movement of the sun, giving the impression that the stars are moving across the sky.
4) The stars are optical nerve endings of the eye which the universe is.
9) The fact is, the earth is falling into a well. The sun is the top of the well, the blue sky the walls. The stars are reflections of the real stars behind the sun.
10 ) It is a furry animal. The stars are silver hairs.
12) The sky is all together, not composed in such great distances as we suppose. In truth, it is an old fire. The stars are small sparks, the sun a burning coal. The black of the sky at night is ashes, the moon a bubbling drop of water. This is the same with us, i.e.: as the universe burns, so do we. Our heads contain water very much like the sky holds moons. The burning in us keeps the water in our heads boiling and sputtering.
13) The sky is the dead decaying body of God; the stars are glittering maggots.
20) The stars are trembling silver stings to everyone’s brains. The sun and moon are the eyes of the great puppeteer…Once a month he smiles and winks: He has control of our fates.
21) The day-sky is a pool of al our tears: the world is getting smaller and smaller. The night –sky is a blotter to all our black thoughts: there is very little space left.
30) The sun, moon, and stars are the footprints of God (we are his head) as he walks currently in a circle.
Taking its cue from Stan Brakhage’s The Stars Are Beautiful (1974), this evening of performance, music, lecture, film, and video navigates across the Speculative Frontier, the boundary between the known and the unknown. Expect to see and hear transmissions from the Apollo 8 mission, burning fluorescent tubes, black metal, alchemy, ghosts, gods, cartoons.
Work by:
Andres Laracuente
Frank Borman
Bradley Eros
Twisty Cat
Mark Essen
M. M. Serra
Chemtrailz
Zak Kitnick
Carson Salter and Robert Snowden
Liturgy
Chris Jolly
Pete Deevakul
Jordan Stone
Katherine Bauer
And more
