Late Postage -|diˈstrək sh ən| of |ətˈlantis|

Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?

In the film he seemed to be mesmerized by her or the memory of her in relationship to his childhood. Montez being a B rate actress fit in with the Post-modernist idea of blurring the lines between high and low art. He seemed to try and pull exaggerated almost campy performances out of the artists in his own films as well. Many of Smiths films seemed to loosely resemble Cobra Woman is costume/mise-en-scene, as if a child was trying to recreate the film with the available resources they could get a hold of. In Smith's case this was often literally garbage.

4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]

As I said before he made 'trash art' using scraps of materials to create elaborate costumes and debris to make cucaloruses to further abstract his films visually. He also used old out of date film stock to cut cost as well as give the film a gritty feeling especially in Flaming Creatures.

5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?

There was a falling out between the two. John saw Mekas as a scavenger attempting to steel the fame/glory/travel from him, when in fact he was furthering Smiths's career and securing him a spot in american film history. Smith created the Lobster metaphor, comparing Mekas to a bottom feeder of the sea.

6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?

This sections on my copy of the DVD seems to be skipping a lot. From what I could understand Normal Love is about a sort of alternate reality, void of the struggle and problems of 'real life'. The city is the 60's was poor and torn with the War in Vietnam, and this film seemed to ignore the social climate completely and deliberately. The magic in the film was the escapist feeling it projected, which in some way kinda of went along with what was happening in the world, being that everyone wanted to escape the horrors. Normal Love was also described as a documentary of artist and how they live their live, which is exactly what Warhol attempts to do around the same time in New York City.

7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?

Jack smith believed that once his art was packaged and sold i became devalued and all original intend becomes lost. His solution to this was very completely finish a work of art. If he become part of the 'package' then the artist/piece relationship can never be severed. This is how he came about editing and playing live music and rearranging his films as they were playing for live audiences. The art became about the process for making a piece as opposed to a commercial packaged commodity.