Corruscating Cinnamon Granules

I was poking around Rop van Mierlo’s website this morning because I’m obsessed with his Wild Animals project. On the one hand, I love the way he works with ink, acrylics, and gouache, and on the other hand I’m always grateful to have a seat in the theater while someone works through one of the great Acts of their life. While I was reading through an interview of his, he mentioned how much he likes the gift shop at Museum Voorlinden, an art museum in Wassenaar in the Netherlands. While looking through their gift shop, I found a photography book from Rodney Graham titled That’s Not Me.

I’d never heard of Rodney Graham, but after digging into his work a bit I stumbled across a documentary on the book shot in 2017, 5 years before his death. This is a good one to check out this morning if you have 20 minutes or so, but I wanted to call your attention to one of his pieces in particular. About halfway into the film, Rodney discusses his love for making single-tape films. Shorts, basically, whose concept doesn’t require any editing. My favorites of the ones they preview here is called Lenticular Coruscating Cinnamon Granules, and I’ve only been able to find a bad-quality version of it online. One of the commentors in the documentary mentions that in this piece Rodney takes us from the cosmos to the kitchen, and I loved the shock I got from that phrase’s electricity. I’ll include the short below and then the documentary after it. Happy Sunday and don’t be good.