Quadsville

"Derek Jarman: Brutal Beauty" and "Punk: No One is Innocent" (especially not after viewing the exhibit) take the viewer to London, New York and Berlin during the 1970s when the punk movement defined fashion, attitude, and artistic expression and when genders were being flagrantly bent.

Let's start with Jarman. You may have seen some of his Super-8 video work if you are familiar with the music videos for The Smiths' "The Queen is Dead" and The Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin." He also directed some interesting takes on Shakespeare ("The Tempest") and Christopher Marlowe ("Edward II"). While gay themes and the horror of AIDS are often explored in his work, and graphically so, I don't find that disturbing like I do the mix of sex and violence explored in the Punk exhibit. But we'll get to that later.

The Jarman exhibit began with a film about his life, "Derek" directed by Isaac Julien and narrated by actress Tilda Swinton. It was shown on a large screen in surround sound with several large bean bags for viewers to sit on. In the next room, were a dozen or so screens of varying sizes, all showing different Super-8 films by Jarman. Since Super-8 is a silent medium, this works out well. Again, the bean bag chairs for comfortable viewing, and some paintings by Jarman were displayed in the corners of the room.

The third room contained more of his paintings and mixed media work, mostly late life works when his art was primarily a response to his battle with AIDS. In the final room, his film "Blue" was projected on a big screen. In it, Jarman describes his life and artistic vision at a time when he was blind and dying of AIDS-related complications. The visuals: a single screen shot of vibrant, saturated blue for the entire 55 minutes. The script was also published as a book.

I do see a truth and a beauty in Jarman's art. I had a harder time wrapping my mind around the punk movement as anything but reactionary, using vulgarity primarily for shock value. OK, I take that back. I like some of the music, some of the fashion and some of the art. But the main focus of the exhibit, as far as I could tell, was on extreme sex and violence as the defining qualities of punk.

If the Richard Kern film "Fingered" truly captures the Zeitgeist of the era, I'm glad I was but a wee babe then and so blissfully unaware of it. But, of course, I was raised in rural Illinois, not London or New York or Berlin, so chances are I could have still avoided it entirely had I been of sentient age.

Of particular interest to me is the neo-Punk movement that seems to be afoot here in Vienna (and probably other major international cities). There were several young people taking in the exhibit that also could have been part of it. In a loft area above the main exhibit was a smaller exhibit on the (original) punk scene in Vienna, which had been vandalized by someone who changed all the past tenses to present tenses in the placards explaining the exhibit. "F-- you! I AM a punk!" was scrawled on one piece of signage.

Maybe someone can explain to me why nihilism is attractive.