Nadeem SalaamZiemba | “Rapture | Music Video
“This is the seashore. Neither land nor sea. It’s a place that does not exist.” Those were the words Alessandro Baricco penned in his book Ocean Sea, forever in my mind, and the sort of image that floats to mind when I take in the latest from Ziemba.”
Artist/singer/songwriter Ziemba is no stranger in profoundly using medium to mirror something granular, her latest “Rapture” acts as the next visual diadem for her debut record Hope Is Never. Here, we are faced with a dance reflecting a woman’s relationship to the endless environment and the endless self–tied together by an almost invisible type of gossamer. The journey can become mythology, (the journeying through death and rebirth are coated all along the way), but the symbol play is just a tip of the iceberg. Ziemba (moniker of artist René Kladzyk) and sibling co-star Anna Kladzyk, (not a first as a feature on René’s work) are like conduits to kaleidoscopic themes of impermanence; just as shape shifting as the sea they stand before.
If you thrive for artists work that funnel mystical presentations of varying tethered parts, the video for “Rapture” is somewhere near having every frame taste like a new flavor: it’s the sort of combination that’ll lift your senses but hide its magic wand.
The proof of magic fully on our eyes compounds through their use of the body and color for new language. This rush only strengthens for me, what i’m feeling, gets wrapped up with the reds in the lightness of blues, but for you maybe it’s the reds in the deep brown? That’s one of the beauties of “Rapture,” that it is so well laced, you’re not sure why images co-exist in this sense, but rather see that they can exist, and with a splendid kind of wonder, a golden feeling off amaranthine draped fabrics; they inspire wonder. Some of these more hushed elements of surprise are not quite intentional for me, the certain kind of smile on René’s cheeks, seems to glow as natural as rising heat off skin, and the furrowed brow and gaze of co-star Anna, makes one pause in their tracks. Somewhere along a flow of repeated viewing, i’m still pulling the layers of this carousel without loosing the joy in discovering something new. But if we don’t stop to note the physical performance the two contributed to “Rapture,” i’d like to think something special was passed over, and it’s easy to pass over, they are so graceful after all; it borders on performance art. The duo exist in accord with the natural world by a kind of physical surrender. Perhaps a kind of Marina Abramović school of thought, (minus the penchant for pain of course), because this work inspires other planes to play upon, like the child that can’t help wander away from their parents to explore the bubbling world outside, it’s the wonder at play that pulls your hand and invites you to explore.
“Rapture” may remind you of a tune that is off Farewell Aldebaran by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, that’s because it was off the album issued in 1969 on Frank Zappa‘s innovative Straight record label.
The attitudes I or you may feel, are a part of the joy in discovering Ziemba’s work, you’re bound to go somewhere within yourself, this much is apparent, but in her own words, René Kladzyk had recently expressed in A Cost Magazine that, “There’s a feeling of impossibility that accompanies nihilism. One that says that in order to observe the oppressive sadness of the world, there is no space for hope, mesmeric fantasy, or (that dirty word) reverence. This music video, and the entirety of my recent album, is completely fixated on death and grieving. Its a loving and euphoric attempt at locating hope through eternity, within the endlessness of existence and the constance of decay. It’s an active assault on the nihilistic worldview that pervades pop culture today. And this video expresses those feelings visually— the ecstatic joys of life and the transcendence of form in death. We struggle with the mingling of excitement at the mystery of existence, and the fear that that mystery holds. Most of this video is a depiction of the process of embracing fear; harnessing it and capsizing it within the force of your vitality. There is a fascination here too with the relationship between femininity, queerness, and violence.
In casting myself as the grim reaper, I’m rewriting a power relationship embedded in every fairytale I ever loved. “She will betray you as she sings,” the song warns, and we abandon so-called empirical reality in favor of shadow and ephemera. Linear dichotomies of truth and lie, good and evil, black and white, give way to vibrant shades of scarlet and blue. The finite is replaced by the limitless. Pain and beauty, hope and despair, they’re all jumbled up! This femme Santa Muerte is a new kind of angel for a postmodern world.”
Ziemba just completed a tour early in July, but odds are you can find out when she’s set to play here on her official website, and never, never, ever, lose the wonder, you can watch “Rapture” when you feel it slipping away.