Jonathan Livingston by Francois Curlet is the Daily Pic by Blake Gopnik
The Daily Pic: Francois Curlet made a funereal Jaguar, then filmed it as a thriller's prop.
(Courtesy Francois Curlet and Galerie Micheline Szwajcer)
At Art Basel last spring, French artist Francois Curlet presented this installation, of a hearse made from a Jaguar E-type roadster beside a video featuring it – and after all these months I've just now managed to get a low-res clip of the video, titled "Jonathan Livingston". (Click on my image to watch the clip.) I'm not sure I've found a profound interpretation of the piece, but there was so much in it I couldn't resist: The gorgeous peculiarity of the hearse (suitable only for dead midgets, as far as I can tell), the video's perfect channeling of a stylish 1960s thriller ("The Avengers", "The Prisoner") and – especially – the harpsichord-jazz soundtrack by XavierBoussiron, perfectly suited to the imagery.
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