ISSUE #11: PERSPECTIVE by STYLO

Perspective ISSUE ELEVEN

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STYLO is an online magazine based in Melbourne. Each issue loosely revolves around a different theme. Contributions in any shape or form are always welcome. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

Edited by Andie Phillips

Cover art and photo by Rohan Golestani

Foreword

Words by Andie Phillips

IN ART, ‘PERSPECTIVE’ IS a geometric measure of distance between a subject and its furthest point, most commonly perceived as parallel lines that reach far into the horizon, disappearing. This acts as a visual aid for the artist to create the illusion of depth of field within a work, and is an artistic element that has been discussed, dissected and disputed since its origination during the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century. Since then, the boundaries of conventional artistic values have been pushed and warped, including the rules of perspective, which, along with many other traditional principles, was tilted on its head by the Modernists. What we have learnt from artists is that perspective does not have to be measured and does not have to adhere to any strict rules or canon. Picasso deconstructed perspective with Cubism, Mondrian flattened it, and de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists disregarded it completely. The manner in which we view something is based on our own psyche and can be challenged in myriad ways. The art of thinking abstractly is a practice within itself, one in which perspective is intrinsically linked. This issue we explore what it means to perceive or experience depth, through our own individual perspectives. The contrast of interpretation of each contribution is an aid to shift perspectives that may not have previously been considered. ■

Playlist

Listen while you read soundcloud.com/stylo-mag

Love is Everything Naked Music NYC Trust Me - Guru By Your Side (Naked Music Mix) - Sade Up In Smoke Soul Creation Mess I Made - The Rotating Assembly On Your Way - Omar S Clap Your Hands (Tambourine Mix) Lil’ Louis & The Party Inner Spiritual - DJ Rain A Deeper Love (A Deeper Feeling Mix) Civilles’ & Cole Cascades of Colour (Wamdue Black Mix) Ananda Project

Contributors

Submissions

stylocontributions@gmail.com

Amy Cooke Rohan Golestani Melody Kin Dylan King Charlotte May Faith Ng Andie Phillips Oscar Poiesz Ben Riethmuller Elliott Webb

Amy Cooke Perth

Pool Portal Series

Left: Watching Nature Previous page: Cicadas

My name is Amy Cooke and I make collages using old magazines, books, hand pressed flowers and other recycled objects.

Top: Pool Portal Series #3

When making my collages I take objects out of their normal context and hopefully inspire the viewer to see life from a slightly different perspective. instagram: amycooked etsy: amycookecollage facebook: @amycookecollages

Previous Page: Pool Portal Series #5 (Left), Pool Portal Series #6 (Right) Top: Pool Portal Series #7

Facades Rohan Golestani Perth

Signs

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

You are strong You are independent You are hilarious You are childish

You are generous You are patient You are careful You are dedicated

You are fun You are energetic You are entertaining You are sweet

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

You are balanced You are peaceful You are fair You are gracious

You are determined You are passionate You are respected You are assertive

You are adventurous You are motivated You are happy You are carefree

Melody Kin Melbourne

LEO

VIRGO

You are emotional You are deep You are wholesome You are warm

You are fierce You are protective You are stunning You are brave

You are supportive You are organised You are neat You are pure

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

You are focused You are powerful You are hardworking You are important

You are fascinating You are strange You are intelligent You are steady

You are soft You are creative You are gentle You are communicative

CANCER

Dylan King Perth

Ost

Isometric Landscapes Charlotte May Perth

Asian C*nt

Faith Ng Singapore

WHEN I WAS ELEVEN, a neighbour boy told my first crush that I liked him. Later he relayed his reaction back to us on the driveway, feet padding up and down on the late afternoon concrete. He said he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like Asian Cunts. Neighbour boy winced involuntarily over the word. Even before googling it, something about the way it spat out of the mouth implied poison. I absorbed the shock like some violence I was already intimate with. An exaggerated eye roll, I mounted my bike and rode away - the beginning of a polished nonchalance cultivated throughout my adolescence. The irony was that my crush was himself half Asian. This formative experience did not turn me off boys. My first real love years later was a boy who could have been the grown up version of that crush. They had the same sharp jaw and ethnic mix - the only difference being that he conceded to return my affections for some time. It seems possible that on some psychic level I sought out his love as a salve for the broken promise of that first crush. Like my heart reaching back to its pre-adolescent self to say: See, you can be loved by a boy. You are worthy. Early on, I came to understand that my personhood was definable by my most obvious characteristics - my race foremost, then my gender and my looks. I felt gratified each time I was told that I was a cool Asian or a pretty Asian. It never occurred to me how I was passively internalising harmful messages about myself because I was so hungry for these crumbs of acceptance. >>

“ I want to claim my race. To look at myself and see myself. I don’t want to shrink from my skin and disavow the people I came from.” To protect myself, I learned to take nothing but a critically detached interest in the White boys my girlfriends dated. I based my personality on the popular trope of the sarcastic Asian sidekick - a persona that I could finally inhabit freely. There were Asian boys who took some romantic interest in me but the mainstream consensus was that such a pairing was somehow undesirable. When I briefly had an Asian boyfriend, we were often mistaken for brother and sister, serving as confirmation for one of my deepest fears. Wasn’t it true after all that that we were sexless members of one massive monolid extended family? This insecurity still overwhelmingly influences my interactions with men despite the fact that I now live in a country where I am the ethnic majority: an Asian Cunt among Asian cunts. In my early twenties, I rush through first dates, throwing down wine so that I can get straight to the sex. I use my body to win the validation of undeserving boys. Meanwhile I am fully aware of the cognitive dissonance implicit in my actions so I label the experiences exercises of sexual freedom. What I have learned from countless UTIs is that sexual freedom does not equate with free sex. The former has to do with embracing intimacy from a place of strength. I have been using sex to get over an adolescence of feeling othered. I am acutely aware of the fact that my accent paired with my face make me something of a

commodity in this city. I’m Asian Girl-lite for White men starting out in Asia-lite. (Singapore). The attention is disorienting and flattering and sickening all at once and has an inverse resonance with my teenage existence. You speak such good English, I am frequently told. I’ll slit your throat. I smile back. My White best friend is blessedly selfassured. She goes on dates and takes for granted that guys are attracted to her because she is interesting and fun and beautiful. She never has to account for the multitudes of ways that her race might play into an interaction. When she reminds me to ‘play it cool’ with a guy, I can’t find the words to explain how after an adolescence spent at a distance, I often feel lucky to be on the receiving end of white male attention. That I nevertheless second-guess any attention I get because it is often predicated on sexualised or exoticised assumptions about Asian Girls. When a guy did not make a move after a first date, I descended into a spiral of anxiety. I assumed that I must have said or done something or that there was something intimately wrong with me. It did not occur to me that perhaps he simply wanted to get to know me - that my Asian body is not my only resource to plunder. I want to claim my race. To look at myself and see myself. I don’t want to shrink from my skin and disavow the people I come from. I want to accept my Asian body as a neutral one and not a body that is fraught with meaning. Art by Faith Ng I am an Asian Cunt. ■

When Flowers Beat Guns

Oscar Poiesz Rotterdam

IN 1968, GERALDO VANDRÉ entered his song Pra não dizer que não falei das flores (translation: Not to say that I haven't spoken about the flowers) into the Brazilian International Song Festival. It came second in the competition, however it became infinitely more popular than the song of the final winner. Vandré had to flee the country. This had everything to do with the military dictatorship in Brazil that had begun in 1964 and would continue until 1985. Vandré and many other artists had to face the consequences of this new regime, whether having to change their music, go into exile, and/ or protest the new regime to the best of their abilities. The military regime would have profound effects on Brazilian music in the decades to come. Vandré's political hymn called upon those: “...who still make the flower their strongest chant And still believe in the flowers beating the gun.” Many answered. >> 53

“ In 1968, Brazil underwent numerous public protests and strikes...” In 1961, the democratically elected President Janio Quadros resigned and was succeeded by his vice-President João Goulart. His tenure however was short-lived. The already strong military was opposed to his left-wing policies and had closer ties with communist countries from the beginning. Three years later, the military seized power in a classic coup d'état. The new regime immediately began with stifling freedom of speech and political opposition. It used torture as effective means to extinguish its left-wing opponents. Artists had most to fear from the AI-5, a fifth of seventeen major decrees issued by the military dictatorship, which was deployed in 1968. It gave the dictatorship power to use censorship on any form of art that was deemed harmful to the political and moral values of Brazil. Among others, Geraldo Vandré would feel the effect of AI-5. The musical climate in Brazil was dominated by samba and the newly popularized bossa nova. Especially bossa nova brought Brazilian music to a worldwide audience. For example, the famous The Girl from Ipanema, which became a huge hit when it was released in 1962 by Astrud Gilberto and American saxophonist Stan Getz. Generally, bossa nova's lyrics were often apolitical, focusing on themes of women, love, homesickness and nature. However, it would not be totally unaffected by the new regime, some bossa nova artists would find ways to express their dissatisfaction. The lyrics became more politically charged and discussed the sufferings of the everyday people.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In this culture of repression, Brazilian music would go through its most significant period.â&#x20AC;? 55

Nevertheless, bossa nova would lose it's position to other upcoming genres as the voice of the artistic resistance. In 1968, Brazil underwent numerous public protests and strikes, as a result, the aforementioned AI-5 was passed down. The censorship was fierce, but was not fully successful in stopping the opposition. In this culture of repression, Brazilian music would go through its most significant period. Under the umbrella term of mĂşsica popular brasileira (MPB), many artists found ways to vocalize their displeasure of the military regime. Television was the most popular form of mass communication for artists. Musical festivals were broadcasted and helped propel a new generation of songwriters to nationwide fame. When the censorship hardened in 1968, artists had to find new ways to convey their message to the public. They did so by travelling across the country, visiting university campuses where the power of the military regime was less strong, performing their message of social change. Another means of overcoming the censorship was changing the lyrics of the songs. To escape censorship, while still being able to communicate messages against the repressive system to the public, they used devices such as made-up words, metaphors, antithesis and analogies. For example, Chico Buarque used antithesis in his work. He sang about the situation in Brazil prior to the dictatorship, a nation that he missed which did not exist anymore. Without going into too much detail over the devices songwriters used to either confront or confuse the censors, Chico >>

“The music matured and artists realised how much power they had in undermining the new regime.”

Buarque and other artists alike used these methods increasingly, especially after AI-5. Brazilian music did not only change lyrically, their form did as well. Most notable in this evolution was the tropicália movement, which brought forward many of the biggest music stars Brazil has to offer. Artists such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa were part of the tropicália movement that experimented both lyrically and musically. Rooted in an anarchistic, anti-authoritarian tradition, the tropicália movement found themselves targeted by the censors. Needless to say, they were also firm opponents of the military regime. Inspired by The Beatles, the tropicália tried to create a melting pot of musical genres, eventually finding ways to combine Brazilian samba and more psychedelic influences from the new wave of American and British artists. Ironically, this put them at odds with the leading figures of the Brazilian left, who deemed their music as having the corrupting influence of Western capitalistic popular culture. In 1969, both Caetano Veleso and Gilberto Gil were imprisoned and would be only released if they left the country. They did so and settled in London. Tropicália as a collective of artists was death, AI-5 made sure of that. However, the spirit of tropicália brought a new energy into the Brazilian musical climate. The emergence of tropicália was partly a response to the developments of music in the world as a whole, but the military dictatorship definitely had a profound influence both lyrically and musically on tropicália. In many ways, tropicália was a direct response to the repressive policies of the men in power and although the movement itself was short-

Art by Andie Phillips

lived, it gave power to music rarely seen before in Brazilian society. The female voice was also a powerful tool in combatting the military regime. Most noteworthy were Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia and Clara Nunes. Their voices were predominant within música popular brasileira and as such were essential in dispersing the message of the oppressed. Elis Regina was perhaps most popular of them all. She was brave enough to call the Brazilian leaders “gorillas”, but too popular to be thrown into jail. While her songs in the sixties were mostly apolitical, this changed during the mid 70's. A prime example is the song O Bêbado e a Equilibrista (The Drunk and the Tightrope Dancers). This highly political song is linked to a movement demanding the amnesty of political prisoners and exiled artists during the military dictatorship. This movement was able to organise powerful social resistance, which eventually led to the Amnesty Law signed in 1979. Over 5000 artists and intellectuals that were forced into exile were allowed to return. Elis Regina vocalised the will of the people. The military regime became less fierce as it had also ended the feared and hated AI-5 in 1978. The regime would last until 1985 but the most repressive elements were already thrown off. Within this period, Brazil underwent a huge transition, very much so musically. The music matured and artists realised how much power they had in undermining the new regime. They found new ways to combat the dictatorship, both lyrically and musically and in the meantime made deeper music than the Brazilian people had heard before. Eventually, the flowers beat the repressive guns. ■

Confide In

Ben Riethmuller London

n Them

Brick House Nap

Elliott Webb Melbourne

the vanished can still be felt. off-axis stirrings pulled like limp gut strings across the court of clay and fill loose aggregate swells its elasticity snaps and shards lie cracked and blue on its own drained of terracotta glow cast and vanished now as strings swell and are scaled unparalleled growths exponential and predictably crisp in western light dropping face vanished warmth remains as hovering breath over blue stone

Eddy Observations

digestible grid digesting grin dug ground lifts its skirt a dark innard reveal

Elliott Webb Melbourne

cracked aggregate fills the already present paths dormant trunks split the sky and land into digestable portions of leisure. green cloth uneven and consuming sweeps my eyes datums in recline men in wool caps track the earth beneath them canes swinging metronomically finding a place to land beyong one hundred and eighty degrees groups of women plot themselves carefully within a grid too animated against a still picturesque. paths intersect, colliding with their tails found insular loops within its staked boundary a carefully ordered playfulness cackling â&#x20AC;&#x201C; poised content as it fills a symbiotic animation no edges spill a turbid surface is kept scissoring segregation of cloth as more plot within.

Issue 12

The Future Issue Coming soon

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