Husk of Time: The Photographs of Victor Masayesva, University of
Arizona Press/103 pp./$40.00 (hb), $24.95 (sb).
Close your eyes and imagine deer antlers spinning in a circle,
half-submerged in a shallow, unnaturally green pond. Accompanying this
vision is a poem titled "Laughter to Crying--Duwanasaveh, Center of
the Earth Ice Cream!" that reads, in part: "My truck bed liner
is ripped out./The grit hails in gusts, stalling my forward motion./ The
light so long in arriving away from the center of the universe."
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
This surreal phenomenon is key to experiencing the imagery of
Victor Masayesva Jr., a Hopi from northern Arizona. Masayesva uses
digital manipulation, found objects, and floating ephemera to give
substance to cultural concepts. Some pictures, particularly those
featuring people, seem to be the CliffsNotes version of a lengthy movie,
told from multiple perspectives. The fact that more than one point of
view seems presented can be confusing, yet refreshing in the sense that
the viewer is not bullied into a belief or opinion.
In one overtly Hopi image, pink ice cream cones wielded by the
passing girl at the forefront of the image become larger parts of a
fractal-like painted-desert background. In a memory, eating ice cream is
as much a part of the mental landscape as the form or color of the
mountains. Masayesva joins cultural heritage and digital techniques to
achieve a new language and, in doing so, creates something wholly
original.
The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation, edited by Alan
Cholodenko. Power Publications/576 pp./$59.95 (sb).
Images of Bliss: Ejaculation, Masculinity, Meaning, by Murat
Aydemir. University of Minnesota Press/384 pp./$24.95 (sb).
It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan American Odyssey, by
Catherine L. Benamou. University of California Press/416 pp./$60.00
(hb), $24.95 (sb).
Me and You and Memento and Fargo: How Independent Screenplays Work,
by J.J. Murphy. Continuum Books/288 pp./$19.95 (sb).
Museum Frictions: Public Culture/Global Transformations, edited by
Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja, and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto. Duke
University Press/632 pp./$99.95 (hb), $27.95 (sb).
Mystic Bones, by Mark C. Taylor. University of Chicago Press/120
pp./$25.00 (hb).
New Work, by Hellen van Meene, with text by Els Barets.
Schirmer/Mosel/77 pp./$39.95 (hb).
On Earth's Furrowed Brow: The Appalachian Farm in Photographs,
by Tim Barnwell. W.W. Norton & Company/159 pp./$35.00, $43.00 CAN
(hb).
Out of Mind, by Shawn Mortensen, introduction by Glenn
O'Brien, afterword by Richard Prince. Abrams Image/224 pp./$24.95
(hb).
The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent
Producers, by Thomas A. Crowell. Focal Press/342 pp./$32.95 (sb).
Postcards from the Cinema, by Serge Dancy, translated by Paul
Grant. Berg/149 pp./$84.95 (hb), $24.95 (sb).
Project Rewire: New Media from the Inside Out, by Judy Daubenmier.
William, James & Co./180 pp./$15.00 (sb).
Residual Media, edited by Charles R. Acland. University of
Minnesota Press/400 pp./$25.00 (sb).
Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media,
edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. MIT Press/408 pp./$40.00
(hb).
Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini's Rome, by John David
Rhodes. University of Minnesota Press/240 pp./$20.00 (sb).
Traveling Light: Chasing an Illuminated Life, by Deborah DeWit
Marchant. William, James & Co./96 pp./$18.00 (sb).
DAVID MILLER is a photographer and writer living in Phoenix.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Visual Studies
Workshop Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.