I first came across Jeremy Blake after seeing Punch Drunk Love, the P.T. Anderson movie starring Adam Sandler. Blake did the films artwork, that pulsating rainbow of merging colours at the start was him. I found it quite absorbing to look at, it was warm, the perfect appetizer for the movie. If I was to compare the feeling it gave me when watching it to something, it would be listening to Paul McCartneys voice when im feeling shity the day after a heavy night, although I think McCartney is a twat, there is something quite familiar and comforting about his voice. His honest, non threatening story telling on Band on the Run is a great antedote to a nights crazyness and a mornings vomiting.
Well, anyway I didn`t hear anything about him again until his death in 2007. His body was found after he had been reported missing off New Yorks Rockway Bay. A witness saw him walk into the ocean and his jeans and personal blongings were found on the beach. This was a week after his girlfirend Theresa Duncan was found dead from suspected suicide. The couple thought scientologists were following them and doing things to disrupt their careers becuase they wouldn`t convert to scientology. This followed Blakes work on the cover of a Beck album. There is speculation that Duncan killed herself because she thought she had ruined Blakes career over these harrassment claims made against the scientologists.
When i was in New York last summer, I watched one of his installations in the Museum of Modern Art, I had Aphex Twin tearing my ear drums apart from my ipod so i dont know if i got the full effect but it was pretty cool to see.
After I heard about the couples death, I started worrying straight away that someone would make a movie about this. Well, someone is going to and it has the potential to be quite spectacular. Bret Easton Ellis is writing the screenplay and Gus Van Sant is lined up to direct. With Ellis taking care of the writing duties, you know there`s not going to be any kind of Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams, shmoltzy puke. So with any luck this movie might be the perfect tribute to a great artist.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/suicides200801
