Magibon's Mu Period Continues
Friday, 15. August 2008, 15:42:34
I have half a feeling (if you can divide a feeling in such a way) that the last masterpiece in Magibon's Mu Series, that is, the last slice of truly classic Magibon-Mu, was Mu 17.
Hear me out.
I say 'masterpiece', but perhaps I should qualify that. In comparison to her earlier work, it seems somewhat subdued, almost valedictory. That wave could just as easily be a farewell as it could the royal wave of Youtube's unofficial queen. Magibon is perhaps here more graceful than ever before, but strangely self-contained, and there is an enigmatic emphasis placed on the final V salute. It feels as if Magibon is closing a chapter in a muted, but flawless fashion.
Just before Mu 17, we have what is perhaps the height of the Mu Series, the incomparable Mu 16, which somehow manages to be both entirely representative of the series, and wholly like anything else within it. In this, and other classic pieces, such as Mu 12, there is a purity of creative energy that even makes it ridiculous to use terms such as 'work' and 'piece'. "Do without doing and everything gets done," the Tao Te Ching tells us (or I think it does). In these early pieces Magibon does without doing and gives us art without art.
Mu 18 marks a turning point. After the sedate, but sad mood of Mu 17, Magibon seems full of contradictory energies. She is defensive and impish. There is a restlessness about her like that of a chrysalis. When I first saw it, I wondered whether she might be trying to deflect all the negative energy directed at her. In any case, a change seemed signalled.
Next came Mu 19, a kind of reprise of the pre-18 classics, now with something about it of fragility and ephemerality. Once we get into the 20s, we find that a previously absent self-consciousness has entered the series. Magibon never quite loses the grace that is her hallmark, but a sense of the mundane has crept into the clips that makes them resemble, in part, what the Youtube undead, pickled in their own ignorance and hatred, always thought they were - just a girl looking into a camera.
I noticed some comments in these clips along the lines of "this is getting old". The difficult-second-album syndrome seemed to have set in. However, I was never one of those who thought that Magibon should 'quit the game', or come up with some 'new gimmick'. To demand such things is to misunderstand the nature of the Mu Series entirely. Calculation, or buckling under the pressure for novelty and reinvention - such things are for mere careerists. No, it's not even that... It's just... Well, in fact, it's hard for me to put into words, but the boredom that reaches its trough in Mu 23 is essential to the honesty of the Mu Series. In allowing artistic 'failure' such as this, because there is no hurry to be or acheive anything else, Magibon makes both failure and success irrelevant. If before she was expressing the innocent zero of plenitude, now she is expressing inevitability. That is something we all struggle with. If there is such a thing as progress, then inevitability is the phase through which we are progressing. By this I mean simply the karma that takes shape with the loss of innocence and development of self-awareness. Things seem to have gone wrong, but there was no other way.
The latest in the series, Mu 24, seems evidence at least for the possibility of progression. Magibon has ascended from the trough. I am reluctant to interpret further at this stage. If there is no hurry about the Mu Series, and if success and failure are equally irrelevant to it, then, just as there is no need for Magibon ever to move out of her Mu Period, there is also no reason why she should not immediately slip back into another trough, or 'quit the game' now, or plateau at an enigmatic elfin playfulness.
Hear me out.
I say 'masterpiece', but perhaps I should qualify that. In comparison to her earlier work, it seems somewhat subdued, almost valedictory. That wave could just as easily be a farewell as it could the royal wave of Youtube's unofficial queen. Magibon is perhaps here more graceful than ever before, but strangely self-contained, and there is an enigmatic emphasis placed on the final V salute. It feels as if Magibon is closing a chapter in a muted, but flawless fashion.
Just before Mu 17, we have what is perhaps the height of the Mu Series, the incomparable Mu 16, which somehow manages to be both entirely representative of the series, and wholly like anything else within it. In this, and other classic pieces, such as Mu 12, there is a purity of creative energy that even makes it ridiculous to use terms such as 'work' and 'piece'. "Do without doing and everything gets done," the Tao Te Ching tells us (or I think it does). In these early pieces Magibon does without doing and gives us art without art.
Mu 18 marks a turning point. After the sedate, but sad mood of Mu 17, Magibon seems full of contradictory energies. She is defensive and impish. There is a restlessness about her like that of a chrysalis. When I first saw it, I wondered whether she might be trying to deflect all the negative energy directed at her. In any case, a change seemed signalled.
Next came Mu 19, a kind of reprise of the pre-18 classics, now with something about it of fragility and ephemerality. Once we get into the 20s, we find that a previously absent self-consciousness has entered the series. Magibon never quite loses the grace that is her hallmark, but a sense of the mundane has crept into the clips that makes them resemble, in part, what the Youtube undead, pickled in their own ignorance and hatred, always thought they were - just a girl looking into a camera.
I noticed some comments in these clips along the lines of "this is getting old". The difficult-second-album syndrome seemed to have set in. However, I was never one of those who thought that Magibon should 'quit the game', or come up with some 'new gimmick'. To demand such things is to misunderstand the nature of the Mu Series entirely. Calculation, or buckling under the pressure for novelty and reinvention - such things are for mere careerists. No, it's not even that... It's just... Well, in fact, it's hard for me to put into words, but the boredom that reaches its trough in Mu 23 is essential to the honesty of the Mu Series. In allowing artistic 'failure' such as this, because there is no hurry to be or acheive anything else, Magibon makes both failure and success irrelevant. If before she was expressing the innocent zero of plenitude, now she is expressing inevitability. That is something we all struggle with. If there is such a thing as progress, then inevitability is the phase through which we are progressing. By this I mean simply the karma that takes shape with the loss of innocence and development of self-awareness. Things seem to have gone wrong, but there was no other way.
The latest in the series, Mu 24, seems evidence at least for the possibility of progression. Magibon has ascended from the trough. I am reluctant to interpret further at this stage. If there is no hurry about the Mu Series, and if success and failure are equally irrelevant to it, then, just as there is no need for Magibon ever to move out of her Mu Period, there is also no reason why she should not immediately slip back into another trough, or 'quit the game' now, or plateau at an enigmatic elfin playfulness.
