âShiny Collarboneâ from The 1975âs new album, âNotes On A Conditional Formâ. Out now -
the1975.lnk.to/noacf The 1975 and Ben Ditto have curated an online exhibition of 15 artists responding to tracks from âNOACFâ.
05 Frederick Paxton responds to âShiny Collarboneâ
Filmmaker and artist Frederick Paxton takes us on a journey into an unknown land. We begin on a mysterious train ride over a long bridge. A solitary figure in white falls through the darkness. At first itâs unclear where we are but as we move through the layers, through anonymous suburbs, it becomes apparent weâre in North Korea, at the Arirang Mass Games: a spectacular gymnastics and artistic festival held in Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang most years.
Paxton is interested in finding moments and places that reveal our shared humanity, our hidden euphoria. This is what he hears in âShiny Collarboneâ, in the looping ragga vocal (âMash up the place/ Free up the orderâ) and the climbing synth.
âIt has a strength to it, a weight to it, but thereâs a euphoria hidden under that,â he says. âAnd that was also my takeaway from my brief experience in North Korea: you can subject humans to any sort of control and pain and suffering; but thereâs always this human reality, a child being a child, or someone smiling, hidden underneath that.â
North Koreaâs Mass Games are a visual representation of the countryâs ideal of the collective whole. However, after filming their choreographed performances on his slow-motion camera and watching the slowed-down footage, Paxton found that the individuals in the group were revealed, that their characters became more apparent as time was slowed down and his attention focused in on them. Now, set to the music of this club track, the children in their sequined costumes with their pompoms, the undulating dancers carrying the giant Earth through the stadium and the parading soldiers show us how the human spirit is always present; how technology can reveal it, and how thereâs beauty everywhere.
www.instagram.com/frederickpaxton frederickpaxton.com/ Directed by Frederick Paxton
Edited by Andrew Cross at Assembly Rooms
Director represented by Ella Giradot at Academy Films
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@petrova7603
3 years ago
Apart from North Koreans suffering in pain, being controlled, dying of hunger, can't even wear jeans, cut their hair the way they want to, watch a movie they like, or even believe in Jesus Christ and/or other religions, I somehow hope that there's still joyness that they experience. In a cage they are in, I hope they still smile underneath the pain they're suffering with. I hope that joy and smile lasts.
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