Film Art in James Bond Opening Sequences

James Bond endures. What a character. What a franchise. Who hasn't seen at least one James Bond film? Maybe not if you're a member of some far flung isolated tribe, but even then I wouldn't be surprised to find a Bond film poster on a thatched wall.

A constant with the 007 film franchise is the debate over who has been the greatest James Bond. Was it Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or Daniel Craig? Or Barry Nelson, David Niven, or George Lazenby who also had short stints as Bond. Dalton didn't impress, although some say he was the most underrated. Moore could be suave, but compared to Connery, really? Brosnan has a sexy edge. Craig, yea, he's okay. He's got it going. But for me the all time best Bond was the original, Sean Connery. (For Bond trivia experts: True, the first Bond was Barry Nelson, but he portrayed Bond in a television show, not in the film franchise.)

Another constant with James Bond films are creative opening credit sequences. In celebration of these sequences is a new exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art called "... Is James Bond." (Art of the Americas Building, Level 2, through September 9.) Co-organized by the LACMA and Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television, the exhibit pays homage to the 22 opening sequences, created by Maurice Binder, of the James Bond films. 

For Bond fans, it's an exhibit made in James Bond heaven. For film fans, it's an interesting look at opening film sequences, the part of a film often overlooked, or not overlooked so much as rarely examined on its own. Watching the Bond opening sequences today, they may not seem so extraordinary, but when Bond films first hit the screen, the sequences were occasionally groundbreaking. Watching the openings one after another, it seems Binder got his stride and style early on and the later films' sequences are somewhat... familiar. But the exhibit is a fun, visual treat. And when you've had enough, you can always head to the bar for a martini, shaken, not stirred.  

Wall Tapestries a Visual Story of Israeli Culture

There are quilts, and then there are wall tapestries. Israeli artist Noa Eshkol created the latter. I came across her textile art work at a new exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The multi-disciplinary exhibit features Eshkol's wall tapestries, or wall carpets, and her dance compositions in a film installation by Los Angeles multi media artist Sharon Lockhart. 

(I'll write write about Eshkol's choreography in a separate post.)

Eshkol was 83 years old when she died in 2007. During her life she created about 1,800 wall carpets, which she began making in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War.  By this time she was well known in Israel for her innovative dance work and people throughout the country sent her clothing, aprons, umbrellas, and scraps of fabrics for incorporation into her wall carpets. Eshkol only wanted to use recycled materials, clothing no longer being used. Every scrap had its own story. No new clothing or fabrics were used.

Eshkol's process was about using the textiles with as little alteration as possible. So although seams were undone, the clothing pieces were left as whole as possible when sewn into the tapestry design. When you look closely at some of her tapestries, you can clearly see a skirt, a shirt, a collar, etc. 

LACMA explains her pieces as "evocative of the fragmented and disorienting experience of war, the layered fabrics bring together divergent and overlapping stories, cumulatively resulting in a map of Israeli material culture."

Although her work tells an Israeli story, it could easily be mistaken for American quilting. The American folk craft of so-called crazy quilting results in similar displays of mix matching and wild combinations of fabric and

design.

Given Eshkol's dance background, the movement in her designs is not surprising. Los Angeles multi media artist Sharon Lockhart was drawn to Eshkol's tapestries and her choreography. She apparently saw a correlation between the two, resulting in her film installation currently at LACMA, which brings together both of Eshkol's talents.

$10 Million Dollar Rock

"Rock Star" takes on new meaning for a 340-ton boulder that arrived to cheering crowds this week at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) after a painstainkingly slow eleven day journey from a quarry in Riverside.

Along the approximate 60 mile passage, thousands of people lined the route and visited the pre-arranged stopping points as the rock passed through 22 communities. One man proposed to his girlfriend with the two-story high rock in a massive custom built carrier as a backdrop. Doesn't sound too romantic, but I guess they'll always remember that moment.This isn't the first time a rock garnered widespread attention bordering on hysteria. For about six months in the 70's Pet Rocks became a craze, although Pet Rocks cost about four bucks a piece.

This is certainly not your grandmother's pet rock. The cost of the LACMA rock is expected to exceed $10 million which has many questioning the wisdom of such an expense during economic trying times, indeed questioning whether it's art at all. But not earth artist Michael Heizer, who has been searching for the perfect giant boulder more than 40 years when he originally came up with the idea for a creation called "Levitated Mass."

He found the Riverside rock about six years ago and the logistical nightmare moved forward with the help of private donors who don't mind spending millions on.... huh... a rock. Heizer says the rock will be placed over a trench allowing visitors to walk underneath and experience the illusion that it is floating above them.

This is not Heizer's first large scale work utilizing the earth itself. That's what he does. "I think earth is the material with the most potential because it is the original source material," he says.
He has been working on a major project called "City" in the Nevada desert near his home for decades. It's not finished or open to the public yet but photos show more than a mile of desert landscape draped with pyramid style buildings, modernist "complexes."

The cost of "City" is in the neighborhood of $25 million. Heizer is an artist who doesn't let expensive production costs of his projects get in the way. "As long as you're going to make a sculpture, why not make one that competes with a 747, or the Empire State Building, or the Golden Gate Bridge," he says.

Heizer told Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic for The New York Times, he never finished high school and was a "straight F student." Time will tell what grade "Levitated Mass" deserves. LACMA Director Michael Govan is excited the rock is finally at the museum. "It's great," he says, "a real gift for the public."