-ü-Ä-?-?-Ä-?-?-? (ghosts), #52 and #49 by Becky Slemmons

Cast glass frames created at PGC, ink & graphite on gessoed paper. Frames are 100 percent solid glass; no black paint is used' only black and clear glass.

In the 7 films that Andrei Tarkovsky directed (1962-1986) there are 66 shots in which a dog appears. Most are German Shepherds. In interviews, Tarkovsky refused talk about the meaning or role of these dogs in his films, aside from the comment, They are [just] dogs. But in a separate interview, I discovered that he mentioned this, paraphrasing: The night before I left my family and homeland Russia, not certain if I would ever return, I hosted a farewell party. All of my friends wished me well enthusiastically, but it was my German Shepherd that would not look me in the eye.

Each drawing represents one of the 66 shots in Tarkovsky's films, in which a dog appears. In the drawings, the scene is abstracted, and the dog's movement is documented by a graphite line. Tarkovsky's films are quiet and timeless. His films are comprised of archetypal vignettes which, to me, still seem to be happening now, no matter that the dogs have long gone, no chance of any of them yet being alive.

Pittsburgh Artist

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