DECONSTRUCTING WOODY ALLEN
Collage projection Deconstructing Woody Allen on the external part of Spokojna Gallery
Allen - magical personality: charming, irrational, ironic. A decent piece of onanism, biggish addition of shredded humor, a little bit of philosophy on the side, topped with a sauce of narcissism, with a touch of failure based on the drama and the whole surprisingly tasty. Is this dish in different proportions? 4 oscars, 133 other film awards? How is Woody Allen? Over 40 films including a large part of his participation becomes an excellent exit material for analysis of his work. He was born in 1935 as Allan Stewart Konigsberg, in 1952 he was reborn as Woody Allen. In this pseudonym traced the hint to Woody Woodpeckerand, one of the U.S Presidents Woodrow Wilson, as well as abbreviation to the Midwood district where he spent his childhood. Allen’s father recalls: „Children form our house called him Woody, because he always brought the sticks to play stickball” (“New York Daily News”, 18th of March 1967). He made his debut in the role of director in 1969 at the age of 34 with the movie „What's Up, Tiger Lily?”. He has been married three times. Since 1997 he is married to Soon-Yi , adopted daughter of Mia Farrow. This situation raised a lot of controversy and it has caused a lot of problems to Allen. His biography is devoted a large part of the publication that showed in detail both the character of the creator and his problems. The issues has concerned him from the early age and the discussions on the way of sloving them we can find in his numerous works. Delving into the works of Allen, his life and proclaimed beliefs I decided to present selected issues that caught my attention particularly in a creative way.
Decomposing individual Allen’s works as audio visual works, his literary works and analyzing publications dedicated to his person (that consist of even the most intimate facts from his personal life) I made a multi-stage selection process. I selected to separated collections in this way that components would include the ones close to each behavior or to characteristics of the author. Among many collections I chose and presented the biggest multi collection in the form of a collage. What is surprising, the group of elements that was created shared common feature. On the 14th of February it was screened on the external part of Spokojna Gallery in the courtyard of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. This is the last complementary element of my work that is an impression caused by creative work of Woody Allen. Still, not only the film is a component of the play, but also the circumstances of Valentine’s Day as well as the display form completesthe picture in its entirety.
Arena of progress of cyber culture and the logic of the cube with the next layer as projection of “Deconstructing Woody Allen” escalation of intensity of performance at the same time placing in space like da Vinci “Vitruvian man” in two symbolic figures. There were actresses from Allen’s images all in arms of the master in film layers. “He loves women. He values women. He wrote few of the best women’s roles. Penelope Cruz says: I admire him for that how well he knows neurotic women. In the interview with Janusz Wróblewski, Allen confides: Only after binding to Diane Keaton….I started to think deeper of tints of feminine sensibility”. There is no doubt if we look at actresses list nominated to the Oscars in 2011.
The screen for the projection has been monumental monochromatic apple sculpture that has been presented on the stage in a form of block cut from the cube where the foundation was a square and height of 1/4 of a square. We have an apple in a square. Fruit that is part of nature on a geometric shape is not occurring in the environment. The clash of two worlds: nature and culture that show their mutual struggles. “The Big Apple” is a symbol of Manhattan. Apple that presents itself majestic on a quarter that is a part of orderly system of this city and culture and its density. An apple: symbol of power and temptation.
External part of Spokojna Gallery during the day
before the screening of “Deconstructing Woody Allen”
(photo: private archives)
As many as five times the actresses appearing in his films received the award of American Film Academy: starting from Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”), Dianne West (“Hannah and her sisters” and “Broadway Danny Rose”) Mira Sorvino (“Mighty Aphrodite”), after Penelope Cruz (“Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona”). “I have been always more interested in women than men... They are more mature, less militant, milder… They know what the sex should be and never separate sex from love.” ( Roger Eber A kiss is Sill a Kiss, Andrews. Mc Meel i Parler. 1984) He also said: „With the exception of roles that I write for myself I fee much more comfortable when I create female characters. Probably, because I wa brought up mostly by women. Apart from my father I was the only man in the family. My mother had seven sisters and they had only daughters. Constantly I interacted with aunts and cousins. I always played only with girls. Therefore, I felt a great sympathy towards them. ( “Moviegoer”, May 1985 ) His second wife recalls: „Women are looking for a man who has control. And film directors are the best in that, because this is their profession. “ They have to have a full control over everything”. ( Tim Carroll “Woody Allen and his women” Poznań: Zysk i s-ka, 1999, ISBN 83-7150-473-X ) Writer Ron Rosenbaum noticed: ”Woody Allen did a wonderful thing creating an image of intelligent creative woman that changed Hollywood stereotype. Women portrayed by him are also very sexy”.( “Mademoiselle”, March 1986)
Therefore dealing with a group of different operations forming spatial spectacle of Woody Allen’s dominant features that eventually became his individual signature. Everything has to constantly evolve, because lack of change would be an anomaly impossible to accept. This struggle of sphere of monolith, ball and the polyhedron, the fruit of nature with its denial defines relations between nature and culture or probably even between nature and the law.