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 Film subject, Barry Lynn Seeking venues for this project. |
ONE MILLION YEARS IS THREE SECONDS is an experimental documentary project about human knowledge, the creative act, and ways in which 20th century cultural and technological developments impacted the lives of four men who avoided the homogeneity of America’s aggressive consumer-driven society. The men are Barry Lynn, a modern dancer; Herman Christel, a farmer; Bob Watt, an artist/poet; and Paul J. Hefti, a self-taught sculptor. They all live in our home state of Wisconsin. One component of the project is a gallery exhibition of black-and-white and color photographs, and film and audio loops, juxtaposed with pages torn from vintage history and social studies texts. Seeing these “official” didactic versions of 20th century events along side idiosyncratic individual stories emphasizes how dissent is glossed over in the retelling of history. These men lived their own cultural evolutions, creating monuments to their experiences along the way. A second component is a 60 minute 16 mm film, shot with a hand wound Bolex camera on black-and-white reversal film. This technique references home movies and early experimental film. The footage responds to topics discussed by the four men. Each man is represented by a theme performed on instruments enjoying short-lived popularity in the 20th century including a pump organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, Theremin and 12-string electric guitar. The film revolves around the ideas of Barry Lynn, mainly his idea that every person is a story that needs to be told. Barry states that “the purpose of life is to be enjoyed” and in properly enjoying life, a good story will evolve. Herman Christel challenges this idea. Today, his condition after the death of his parents would be characterized as chronic depression. But what this period of mourning provided was a way for him to be at peace with the nature of life. Frostbite brought him into the mainstream and facilitated his rebirth. Outsiders were able to penetrate his hermetic world and be exposed to his passive approach to basic living. Bob Watt might reject Barry’s ideas as being “overly sincere” but there’s no art more passionate than his pursuit of beauty, which involves creating photographic figure studies of amateur female models. Bob says his ideas are inspired by craziness which he defines as an escape from a down reality. He made the statement that “a million years is three seconds”, not so much as a proclamation about time as about the inherent smallness of a single life. Paul J. Hefti blossomed at age 74 when he began his project decorating his yard like no other. Creating impromptu temporary sculptures from plastic pop bottles and other junk, he reacts to cultural ephemera he’s been exposed to throughout his life in a way that is immediate and fleeting. Even a technologically sophisticated invention like the plastic pop bottles, which ares the basis for his yard sculptures, is subject to fading and cracking apart. They are four very different people. What is similar about them, however, is what separates them from the status quo. They have no children, no material wealth and no institutionally dictated ideals. Their ideas, everyday life and backgrounds are dissimilar. Yet the essence of their accumulated knowledge can be similarly expressed in short, concise statements. Ideas that are universal and profound, superficially ambiguous, but contextually rich. What is to be learned from these lives is everything. But the unifying message is that everything is hardly anything. Yet this experience is not contained by the limitations of an individual lifetime, just as human knowledge is not limited to documented forms. These are the ideas that seep into human culture in an organic, subterranean manner. An unmonitored evolution. Seeking venues for this project. Email J. Shimon & J. Lindemann for details. |