Storytelling in sand.

July 3, 2009 8:02 AM

Drawing and storytelling in sand.
posted by dmd (26 comments total)

Wow! That was amazing.
posted by Dr-Baa at 8:16 AM on July 3

I've never seen anything like this. Super cool.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 8:24 AM on July 3

Jeez, I think this has been here twice before but both links are now dead. Internet Classic!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:26 AM on July 3

Can anyone provide context to this? It's clearly a Ukraine's Got Talent type show, but the audience are in tears throughout, and it's pretty clearly about Ukraine's involvement in WWII. Is this a well-known story or archetype?

Aside from that, I think this is gobsmacking performance art.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:43 AM on July 3

Whoa; that was cool. New to me, so thanks!
posted by heyho at 8:47 AM on July 3

Jeez, I think this has been here twice before but both links are now dead.
When I read that, I thought for sure it was going to be this video from way back. Cool that it wasn't
posted by hypersloth at 8:52 AM on July 3

Some background. Apparently:

"Social effect of this stunning performance is obvious: yesterday I've seen dozen of kids in the hood trying to draw with sand on the road and on the parts of the broken window-glass laying on the ground."

Pretty cool.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:58 AM on July 3

There's lots of moments of "What the hell is...OH WOW" in there.
posted by echo target at 9:00 AM on July 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was just going to post this.


Here's a link to lot more videos of her work
posted by Autarky at 9:02 AM on July 3

hypersloth, I may have conflated those two. *scratches head* Now I'm curious what the dead links from past posts go to!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:06 AM on July 3

Also, fyi, the title is "Requiem from/with sand" and the text at the end reads "You are always near"
posted by Autarky at 9:12 AM on July 3

Thirty seconds into that video I knew I was going to favorite it.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 9:19 AM on July 3

That was amazing. The Metallica was like a cherry on top.
posted by aliasless at 9:43 AM on July 3

Great.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:46 AM on July 3

That was fantastic. I got a little teary towards the end, and I know nothing about Ukraine's WWII history...

That was amazing. The Metallica was like a cherry on top.

It's actually Apocalyptica, from the album Inquisition Symphony. Worth picking up; there's a few Metallica covers on there, but there are other covers, as well as some quite decent original compositions.
posted by vernondalhart at 11:20 AM on July 3

Oh yeah, anyone know how she did in the contest/show?
posted by vernondalhart at 11:21 AM on July 3

she made it to the final: part1, part2
posted by de at 11:51 AM on July 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

That's amazing. But what's more amazing is how flawless it seems. Even just throwing the sand onto the table had purpose.

It was a strange joy seeing her carefully scrape away sand from the "wall" she draws at 5:00.
posted by Askiba at 12:01 PM on July 3

The songs are Russian, not Ukrainian.

The voiceovers in the video start off by announcement of the war (the hollow voice over the bench couple); then a ballad about the kid sleeping at home while the bullets whistle in the fields. After the musical interlude it is another Russian song about those who didn't return (the lyrics are along the lines of - those who did not return are only left as voices of the birds in the fields; and that is the reason we are often silent when looking into the skies).
The last musical interlude (as mentioned above) is over the text "You're always near" (Can be also translated as "you are always close [to me]").

The general storyline of the men who were lost in war touches most born in ex-Soviet countries - each family has a war story; everyone lost someone. Soviet Union had the most military and total casualties in that war [cite].

My granddad was wounded in WW2; his wound was so deep that it didn't heal for 50 years. He didn't like talking about the war.

The painting is beautiful, but the story is profoundly touching.
posted by olya at 1:33 PM on July 3 [3 favorites has favorites]

Reminiscent of the work of Gerald Conn, the Welsh sand animator who's currently participating in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. His stuff is maybe a bit more abstract but beautiful.
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 1:55 PM on July 3

Thank you DMD... that was wonderful.
posted by gryftir at 3:08 PM on July 3

Simply stunning. Thanks for the link.
posted by shannonm at 3:24 PM on July 3

DMD, that was beautiful and amazing. Thanks for posting it!
posted by snsranch at 4:04 PM on July 3

Not a single wasted gesture. Makes me think that she must have practiced this quite a lot to get it so seamless.
posted by orme at 10:34 PM on July 3

That was astounding and beautiful, and I am so glad I watched it.
posted by Uccellina at 11:39 PM on July 3

So I'm the only one that remembers this from Sesame Street?
posted by DU at 4:50 AM on July 6