Images from Music of the Spheres artwork, 1977
© Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music
Is it possible to represent filmically the nature of consciousness? On the very same day (6th September 2011) that George Kuchar passed away (American ‘underground’ film director), so too did Jordan Belson (1926–2011), arguably one of the most influential artists and Experimental filmmakers of his generation, his films focusing on the abstract depiction of mystical and meditative states of the mind.
Produced predominantly in a time before the advent of digital film and computer editing software, Belson found inspiration, like many of his artistic contemporaries, from Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs and the works of Carl Jung. Indeed, watching his work – a symphony of psychedelic imagery and music – seemingly bypasses all thought processes, touching directly our intuitive and unconscious faculties, tantalizingly evoking latent emotions and repressed desires, rarely touched upon by more conventional film.
Before his death, Belson specifically stated that he did not want his work to be uploaded onto the web, owing to the low-resolution quality of the footage and the fact that it wouldn’t do his artwork justice. The only means, therefore, is to watch his films by either going to a rare screening event or ordering, as I did, the recently released DVD, Jordan Belson: 5 Essential Films (2007), which showcases Allures, Samadhi, Light, Fountain of Dreams and Epilogue.
Each short film is an intense spiritual soliloquy, an exquisite stream of consciousness, provocatively orchestrating through sophisticated manipulation of visual and audile aesthetics, life and death and the meaning of existence.
For further information on the DVD, together with details of Jordan Belson’s complete work, visit centerforvisualmusic.org/Belson. The Center for Visual Music is also currently running a project to raise funds in order to digitalize a number of high quality clips from a selection of Belson's films to place online; for details on how to make a donation to this worthwhile project, visit centerforvisualmusic.org/Donate.
Allures (1961)
© Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music
… xylophone, spiraling, pulsing, vortex, geometric, mandala, birds, piano, Star Trek, echo, flash, sun, throbbing, pink, red, bleeding, Samurai sword, Tibetan bell, headache, Mandelbrot Set, gyroscope, NASA, explosion, iris, harp, Big Bang …
Samadhi (1967)
© Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music
… om, clouds, coffee, clouds in my coffee, fire, water, blue, womb, sun, HAL, Space Odyssey, donut, icing, breath, green, planet, red, sun, pulse, anger, pain, train, tunnel, All Seeing Eye, Tolkein, clouds in my coffee, you’re so vain, sun, desire …
Light (1973)
… black, blue, bruise, rain, cloud, orchestra, piano, sea, Monet, rocket, sun, rising, egg, melting, eye, lover, jelly strings, Japanese fan, sand, grains, caress, fairy dust, blue, eaux, heaven, magic, harp, Bewitched, Tabatha, candle …
Fountain of Dreams (1984)
… ouroboros, dance, piano, kaleidoscope, beauty, rhapsody, gossamer, rainbow, palette, seductive, sheets, bed, ephemeral, apophenia, pareidolia, osculation, such stuff as dreams are made on, J M Barrie, The Fountain, William Blake, solitary bird …
Epilogue (2005)
© Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music
… painterly, ambient, lush, textured, surreal, tapestry, angel, beatific vision, meditation, collective unconscious, baptismal, lotus lands, birth of creation, crescendo, quantum field, Intrinsic Mind, artificial sentience, sun, ocean of consciousness …
All images are courtesy of Center for Visual Music.