Sunday, January 25, 2009

my screen saver or scream saver


I don't know about you but I have been through a million(maybe 9) screen savers over the last few years, I just cant seem to settle on one. So recently when I went into the apple store (as I tend to do every 30 minutes, it seems) the guy helping me (I think he was a genius) said ''what a scary screen saver''. In fact this Isn't the first time I've heard this and probably wont be the last. As an artist I usually like to work with a white screen, it seems cleaner and somewhat fresher. But since I bought my laptop, I have settled with one image. It's by one of my favourite artists. The painting is called 'l'historie centrale'and it was painted in 1928 , its by (as I'm sure you know) Rene Magritte. I have only used the top half of the painting, the best bit as far as I'm concerned. The story behind the painting stems back to when Magritte was fourteen, his mother committed suicide by drowning in the river Sambre. Following her footsteps to the river, Magritte saw a group of men pulling a woman out of the water, which turned out to be his mother. Magritte saw her body which was naked apart from the nightgown which had become wrapped around her face. This is all true, except that Magritte never actually saw his mother being fished out of the river. After some research, it seems the story was probably told to him in glorious detail, by his nanny .

I told the apple genius this story thinking it would put his mind at ease. He stared at me for a few seconds and replied ''will that be credit or cash?'' I probably wont tell the story again but I will keep my screensaver, at least till I find a gloomier image.

Screen Saver (also screensaver)
noun Computing
a program that, after a set time, replaces an unchanging screen display with a moving image, originally to prevent damage to the phosphor and now mostly for decoration or entertainment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And yet...there is nothing like burying your mother...smelling the soil...and realizing she is no more.

"Will that be cash or credit?" hmmm...the relationship in a purchase seems to be gone....truly telling.
M

PHILIP BROOKER said...

nothing indeed.......But I love it that a moment like that can come from a screen saver....how modern

Anonymous said...

Oh boy I have an appointment at the Apple store tomorrow.

PHILIP BROOKER said...

be very careful with your screen saver...you will be judged x

Anonymous said...

In a son's mind a mother has no body or sexuality. Whatever their age he can't even imagine the way he was conceived and discovering one's mother nudity or libido is a terrible choc.
Maybe this is a "natural" way to prevent mother/son incest, the greatest taboo of all...
My question is : "Would Magritte have painted all this veiled faces had he been trough a therapy?"
Can artists go on creating as much if they lie down on a shrink's coach?
I would say yes, just look at Woody Allen...

PHILIP BROOKER said...

we could talk for hours about this and maybe we should...