Junkopia

junkopia.jpg

A curious short film over at Ubuweb by Chris Marker, John Chapman and Frank Simeone, depicting driftwood sculptures at the shore of San Francisco Bay which resemble the remnants of some Ballardian cargo cult. The film was made in 1981 and the sculptures look weathered and dated enough (rainbow stripes; what appears to be a lunar lander) to be products of the early 1970s. The atmospheric soundtrack is reminiscent of Max Eastley’s recordings, some of which use the force of sea-borne winds to generate their sounds.

And while we’re on the subject of Mr Marker, I hadn’t noticed this Marker-related blog before.

Previously on { feuilleton }
Max Eastley’s musical sculptures
Penguin Labyrinths and the Thief’s Journal
Short films by Walerian Borowczyk
Monsieur Chat
Sans Soleil

2 thoughts on “Junkopia”

  1. I remember these — the Ubuweb page says Emeryville, and maybe that’s where they are in terms of city lines, but they’re along the freeway between Berkeley and Emeryville. I always assumed they were built by Berkeley art students.

  2. Hi Claire. I tried looking for the area on Google Earth but there’s several places it might be. Oddest thing for me is we probably drove past this spot when I went through SF from LA up to Petaluma in 2005. We drove all over the Bay area later and stopped off in Berkeley on the way back.

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