Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley have shared “Picture of a Picture,” the new single/video from their new album Oceans of Time, out on September 16th via Sacred Bones.
“The initial starting point for the lyrics were notes I’d taken years ago, when I saw Chris Marker’s ‘La Jetée’ and ‘Sans Soleil’ for the first time,” says de Oliveira about “Picture of a Picture”. “‘La Jetée,’ is the story of a man ‘haunted by an image of his childhood.’ As we learn in the latter film, ‘each memory can create its own legend’. Thus, in a way, image and sound become vehicles for explorations of time, our human nature and the mysteries of the cosmos. Referencing these themes, ‘Picture of a Picture’ is a very personal account of finding yourself amidst the shards of a broken relationship and the accompanying fractured sense of identity. l very much relate to Marker’s stance on the personal in art – ‘Contrary to what people say, using the first person in films tends to be a sign of humility: ‘All I have to offer is myself.’”
The accompanying video, co-directed by de Oliveira, Christopher Gorski, and Seda Kaçak, was inspired by experimental works, including Chris Marker, Maya Deren (especially her work “The Very Eye of Night”), Bill Morrison‘s “Light is Calling,” George Meliès‘ early fairy-tale cinema, Loïe Fuller‘s Serpentine Dance, as well as Yoshi Omori‘s black and white photographs of Pina Bausch dance performances. “Christopher Gorski immediately came to mind when I was planning the video,” says de Oliveira. “To me, he is an artist that uses celluloid and light just like a painter uses canvas and oil paints. I’d first seen his beautiful 16mm black and white work for Boy Harsher and Konstantin Unwohl, which led me to ask him if he’d be interested in collaborating on the ‘Picture of a Picture’ video with me.”
In addition to Kaçak, the three met in Hamburg to shoot the footage on Gorski’s Bolex and Éclair, which he then developed himself that same evening in his lab. Gorski adds: “When Gloria reached out to me for a potential collaboration, we quickly bonded over a multitude of films and music videos – one particular reference for me was the film Breakaway by Bruce Conner. We decided to shoot on a mix of 16mm B&W negative and reversal stock in part as an homage to these films, but to also achieve the feeling of an infinite, vast, and in ways, bleak but dreamy space. The lyrics of the song reflect a new frontier within oneself. The end of something is like stepping out into a deep, vast unknown – we sought to reflect this space within the video.”
Listen to “Picture of a Picture” and watch the video for it below:
Live shows:
Nov 18 – Gloria de Oliveira show at Synästhesie 7
Nov 30 – Gloria de Oliveira show at Atelier 210 in Brussels, Belgium