In Search of Truth

Documentaries and Artistic Licence

Our infamous [1, 2] Governor General is in the news again. Her husband and cohort has entered a documentary film at the now internationally acclaimed annual Hot Docs Festival (of documentary films) held in Toronto.

The problem is, Jean Daniel Lafond's film “American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan” is raising eye-brows for his portrayal of an American assassin who killed the former Shah of Iran’s press attaché in 1980, and who is now a fugitive living in Iran.

Lafond's film includes speculations that the Carter administration allowed the assassination to occur in order to gain favors from the Iranian government in the release of the American hostages, and that Reagan’s campain team asked to delay the release of these hostages to ensure Reagan's presidency.

Well, conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. But, if it hadn’t been for the role that Lafond plays in Canadian politics, his film would have suffered the same obscure fate.

Film critic Brian D. Johnson interviews Lafond in MacLeans magazine, and here is a pertinent and interesting quote from that interview, in which Lafond thinks of himself as a protected, self-appointed artist.

"I'm a filmmaker, someone who treats discourse in an artistic manner and puts it up for debate. It's not up to me to answer the question. I'm not an investigative journalist. I don't want to be a journalist. I'm someone who gives voice to what's being said and challenges it. I'm a spectator working with the same moral offered by Spinoza in the quote at the start of the film: "Neither laugh nor cry, but understand."

Here are some simple dictionary definitions:

doc·u·men·ta·ry, adj.
Consisting of, concerning, or based on documents.
Presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film.

fic·tion, n.
1.
a. An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented.
b. The act of inventing such a creation or pretense.

2. A lie.

3.
a. A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.
b. The category of literature comprising works of this kind, including novels and short stories.

4. Law. Something untrue that is intentionally represented as true by the narrator..

Upon reading the interview, it seems as thought Lafond is following the definition of fiction more than documentary. This is well and good, but if only he would admit it.

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What's in a Logo?

When Diversity Weakens Design

There are many immigrant services agencies around Toronto. One of the most famous is an organization called COSTI. It was originally founded in the 1950s for Italian immigrants, mostly to help them with trades-related employment.

It has since grown to accommodate any current immigrant that enters Toronto.

Recently, the organization updated its website, and even changed its logo.


Original COSTI logo

Its original logo, obviously meant to represent the colors of the Italian flag, was much more dynamic and effective. It had three colors (red, green and usually a tan background rather than pure white), and a subtle symbolism with the red line indicating a path , leading the new immigrant into their new society. Its colors, concepts and message was, ironically, more diverse than the new logo.


New COSTI logo

The new logo has a two color scheme: a bland white background and an indeterminate (is it green, turquoise or blue?) logo. Thin, awkward lines resembling the skeleton of a not very stable umbrella embrace the diversity that COSTI is now meant to represent. Rather than indicating a path of integration as the original red line implies, this broken skeleton of an umbrella suggests instead that these diverse newcomers remain under a separate, unified ghetto, rather than seek the manifold opportunities of an open society. And not only that, but that their shelter is not stable or protective.

Diversity, in this case, means a badly designed logo, a paucity of colors and mixed (or even incompatible – for the new immigrant) messages. Diversity becomes enclosure - a lack of diversity.

The proud Italians at least understood that their bold colors would get them into their new society. Whereas this new diversity seems to prefer that its members remain in the bland, broken and unstable boundaries of its own making.

My humble advice to COSTI would have been: do not change the logo. The Italians have left a mark in Toronto. Their success can only serve as a role model for future immigrants. Just the bold confidence of the original logo's design would have conveyed that!

But, I'm afraid in these days of diluted diversity, COSTI deliberately sought just the kind of logo they got.

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Northern Spirits

Uncanny Resemblances

One of the surprises of art is how one artist influences another, even if in sublime and undetected ways.

I'm not sure how much of Nolde's total work is a direct influence on Milne's, but there are some surprisingly similar elements that have cropped up.

They both were rather removed from their current art scenes, preferring to work alone. Yet, they deeply imbued many of their contemporaries' ideas and philosophies on art.

At various instances in their lives, they preferred to live a close to solitary existence in the "wilds" of their native lands - Milne living in various cabins that he built himself, while Nolde living in the Northern German Friesland.

They brought color to what is generally considered a dark and sombre north. Milne with a lightness of touch, and Nolde with saturated gem-like colors. Perhaps their withdrawal to these remote regions brought out the colors for them.

They turned to Biblical images, not just in their thinking as some artists call their work "spiritual", but by actually depicting images from the Bible and other Christian thought.

And, in an uncanny way, even their illnesses were similar both having suffered through and survived stomach cancer and surgery.

These "Northern Spirits" brought as much light and color into their paintings in their very own environments as artists who moved to the more popular southern regions to capture this light and color.

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Spring Flowers

Worlds of Watercolor


Nolde: Still Life Tulips, 1930

One of David Milne’s influences is clearly the German Expressionist and watercolorist Emil Nolde.

So, here's a chance to post some spring flowers.

Nolde’s watercolors and flower paintings I believe influenced Milne’s own watercolor work, including his later, ethereal Biblical paintings.

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Empty Audience

Shirin Neshat's Plea


A Muslim woman performer in "Turbulent"

Shirin Neshat, an Iranian artist living in the US, makes large-scale, multiple-screen videos depicting Muslim women's relations with Islam.

Her work is censored in her native Iran, and she tapes and photographs many of her projects in neigboring Muslim countries.

In the video installation "Turbulent", she seems to be making a double plea.

That the Muslim woman's voice be heard.

And that the Muslim woman's rendition of Islam be heard.

I am tackling this idea of the Muslim woman trying to save the Muslim world in "Islam's Missionary Women", an essay I just posted.

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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

David Milne at Vimy Ridge


On Vimy Ridge looking over Givenchy to the
Lens-Arras Road and Avion, 22 May 1919
(Click image to see larger version)

Today (April 9th) commemorates the 89th anniversary of the first day of the assault that the Canadian soldiers launched to break through German lines at Vimy Ridge, France.

This assault had a symbolical start, April 9th, 1917 being Easter Monday. I don’t think the troops meant to start on such a day, but all the prior preparations converged to mark this as the most favorable moment for attack.

A winning plan and strategy organized and spear-headed by Canadian Major General Arthur Currie, as well as a united Canadian force (which normally fought in regional troupes) gave Canada a new-found respect and position amongst the world’s important nations.

The battle at Vimy Ridge successfully made headways through the German forces along the Western Front.

Artist David Milne, whose collection of watercolors can be seen currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario, served in World War I in 1918, although he never saw action. After the armistice, The Canadian War Records assigned him to paint the Canadian participation in the War.

David Milne’s crosses at the Courcelette Canadian cemetery near the ridge, of soldiers from the earlier Battle of Somme, look almost inconspicuous. What I find especially beguiling is how the flowers and grass seem to dominate over the crosses. As though the graves of the soldiers had already merged with the landscape, and with the land. The only macabre scene is the background of burnt, leafless trees near the small town of Courcelette. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And life goes on.


Courcelette from the cemetery, 26 July 1919
(Click image to see larger version)


Neuville-St-Vaast from the poppy fields, 5 July 1919
(Click image to see larger version)

The battleground at Neuvill-St-Vaast once again is being overrun with vegetation and life. The ominous background of scorched trees remind us of what recently took place.

Milne’s paintings dwell on delicate lines and colors. He usually makes ample, and unabashed, use of black. Yet he submerges many of his war paintings with white. As though leaving us with pieces of hope and optimism in the patches of blank canvass.

Well, Milne may have been partially wrong, since another great War was to overcome Europe only two decades later.

But, we can hope that he was more farsighted than that.

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In The Company of Artists

David Milne


Easel, 1935

David Milne's exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario shows the watercolor legacy of this Canadian artist.

So many influences, from Mattisse to Monet, Modrian to Nolde, and the Group of Seven, are apparent in his work that I still need time to digest it and figure out the significance.

Of course, in the end, Milne is totally unique, an authentic amalgam of all these influences.

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The Global Runway Part 3

Wrinkles, Straps and Short Hemlines

Vera Wang is the most famous wedding dress designer out there.

And once again, the informal wins the day in her Spring 2006 Wedding collection.

Compared to Amsale's serious formality, Wang seems to revert back to the dishevelled, rebel adolescent.

Surprisingly, her best cut wedding dresses are the short ones. But she is just following a certain juvenile tendency exhibited by many top designers these days.

Of course, designers don’t come out of the blue, they have to cater to their clientele. Yet, I can’t help but believe that people will follow the choices designers make, rather than dictate how these designers should design.

Designing is a big responsibility. Which requires a strong mind, and an even stronger principle.

Some Vera Wang examples:



Straps and lace;Wrinkles and uneven hemlines. Radical statements.















And her best designs also come incomplete - in length!

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The Global Runway Part 2

Formality and Culture

One of the most formal events of anyone's life is one's wedding. So, it seems hardly surprising that (Ethiopian) American fashion designer Amsale chose to design wedding dresses.

Amsale's Christian, formalized background, I would argue, led her to pursue one of the most formal clothings of all.

At her wedding, a girl is finally a woman. She leaves her parents' home to start her own. And will soon have her own children with whom she must interact as a fully matured adult.

Although, in Christian households, there is a hierarchy of adults, the woman is still the head of the internal runnings of the household, and the behavior and upbringing of the children. She cannot afford to regress into the child she was at her parents’ home.

That is the ideal, in any case.

So, the wedding dress expresses this ideal. It shows a formal and aesthetic acceptance of the woman's adulthood and womanhood at a most important turning point in her life.

Amsale captures this beautifully.

Almost all of her designs are exquisitely formal. Her choice of the stiffer satin rather than the formless silk, her clinching of the waist, her emphasis on clean, straight lines, and above all a mature femininity of beautiful lacework, show her innate understanding of this unique moment in a woman’s life.

I’m not surprised that Amsale has so far stuck with designing bridal wear, rather than branching out into other clothing lines

Until she has mastered her trade to the level of the formal designer greats like Valentino, she is better off keeping out of the limelight which might force her to compromise her style for the running market.

At least, that would be my advice to her.



Amsale's ivory-toned wedding gowns

The Global Runway

How Much of it is Influenced by Cultural Backgrounds?

Does cultural and ethnic background predispose one’s artistic style?

Well, in fashion design, there seems to be a correlation.

For example, the (Iranian) American fashion designer Behnaz Sarafpour appears to be following the usual experimental, non-formal, slightly playful and rather immature tendencies of recent fashion designers.

Form, or formality, is abandoned for a certain wistfulness, or youthfulness.

Unfortunately, this translates to bad design.

But, I think there is something else at play in Sarafpour’s designs. She seems to be working with a combination of prudery and immaturity.

The blacks and grays predominate, shorts substitute for skirts, and a fifties frilliness – without the lines and formality of that decade – adorns much of the clothing.

Perhaps it is her Muslim cultural background which influences her to design in such a way. The Iranian woman is after all enclosed behind a black cloth, unable to appear as a fully grown and mature human being.

And surprisingly, Sarafpour’s prudery, lack of maturity, avoidance of colors, and abandonment of formality is exactly how many young designers are working theses days.

Sarafpour’s culture has merged quite unexpectedly with that of the young modern, New York, LA and Paris fashion designers.

A strange merger it is, where a fundamental religious background seems compatible with some of the most progressive modern cities in the world.

In the case of the moderns, I believe the problem is that they discarded formality. Form and line are the ones that shape the woman’s body best, and the most successful at bringing out the maturity of grown women.

Without being faithful to form, the woman’s body looses all shape. Clothing then become straight sacs – as in the Muslim clothing – or boyish pre-adolescent cuts.


Sarafpour's colorless gray well-cut dress inevitably leads to the colorless gray formless "short" suit.
















A pretty, girlish dress, short on the sleeves and hemline results with a formless school uniform of a 'rebel' girl.

And even attempts at a formal gown looks like a sweet sixteen birthday dress.



And, as a reference, the whole of Narciso Rodriguez's Fall 2006 collection looks like the woman-girl who cannot quite get out of her sweat pants (sport-wear theme is big in his collection) and who insists on wearing her shirts and jackets a little too baggy.

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