Against

“Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders.” – “Here I stand, I can’t do anything else.” – are reportedly the words of Martin Luther as he refused to retract his statements in front of the Diet of Worms on that fateful day in April 1521.
For various reasons, this video is very close to my heart, and has seen two iterations over the years. It first saw the light of day near the end of 1999 as Lone DJ of the Apocalypse; however, I decided to remix it in 2011 and renamed it.
Like many of my videos, it refers to, and is inspired by, a very diverse set of things. These include the etymology of the word Object – (from the Latin – thrown up against, to oppose) – my love of Dutch seventeenth-century still-lifes¹ and Vanitas symbolism – notably by Albrecht Dürer – a contemporary of Luther; and finally Sepultura – the first metal band I loved – with a name very fitting to the theme.
Despite all the seemingly moribund symbolism, this video is of course a celebration of life – against death… at least for now. There’s a lot more to say, but I’ll stop here for the moment.

1: Willem Claesz. Heda and Willem Kalf are personal favourites.