Homepage of Zachàr Laskewicz

My name is Zachàr Laskewicz and I was born in Western Australia in 1971. My unusual name reflects a largely Eastern European family history. I've been a composer, a performer, a lecturer in places as diverse as China, Finland and Belgium, where I now concentrate primarily on film-making and composing. At the moment I live in Ghent, a truly beautiful and interesting Belgian city.

"I am as frenetically creative as ever. In retrospect, I've always applied my creativity to sculpt a sort of lense through which I can gaze at the world in an attempt to understand it better. The bitter pill of experience has taught me that this sword cuts on both edges; although on the one hand I long for people to return my gaze, I always fear that the focus-providing glass on my side will not produce the desired effect in reverse. All the same, I've realised that those who find what they see unusual would probably understand me better if they realised they were looking in the wrong end of a telescope!"

This site contains a lot of personal property over which I maintain the ultimate copyright. I offer you it all with joy but I kindly request that you credit any references you make to my compositions, writings or films. Telling me about how you may have interacted with my work or this site would be an extra added bonus. My email address is zachar@nachtschimmen.eu.

2 February 2012 - New Current Project seeing that I'm selling my studio in order to buy a small house. Visit the studio1000vuren page for a detailed description, price and photos.

16 January 2012 - Poem called The Tiny Assailant I wrote on the SARS virus while in Taiwan finally included in the collection as well as a page for Remnants; all other poems also updated to new page format.

8 January 2012 - Video uploaded - ZAUM opening film designed to introduce all future films of ZAUM performances, a new music-theatre composition based on Russian cubo-futurist poetry. This film is new replacement in rubric 4 - Current Projects below.

17 December 2011 - New poem 'Remnants' added below to update this page; will soon be included as a downloadable PDF file on the poetry page.

STUDIO TE KOOP

Residentie 1000-Vuren

In order to buy a small house I've decided to sell my flat - on the studio1000vuren page you can find detailed description, price and photos.

25 November 2011

[Obscene 'Objets 'd'art' of Onan-obsessed Odd-one-out (or) Audacious Art Asking All Amelioration and Amicability]

After a successful run of about six-months I regrettably changed the art-work below which until recently has been viewable in all its 5 metre long glory at one of my two large windows which looks out onto the busy street below. I say regrettably for two reasons. The first one is that the intention was to keep it up until there was finally a new government in Belgium which is continuing its unbelievably long period of coalition negotiation. There was a major breakthrough with resolution relating to a final decision regarding the Brussel-Halle/Vilvoorde split which has torn this country apart for generations; I thought incorrectly that this was a sign that things were changing and that within the next couple of weeks (as predicted by the politicians) all the other problems would be solvable. I've removed the first, second, fourth and fifth panels; I did it gradually over a two week period. Fortunately the third panel is still there; I say fortunately because there is still no resolution and the large number of parties currently negotiating are digging in; the most recent problems being the liberals digging in for the middle-class vote. It's really sickening considering the clear damage this is doing to Belgians economic condition in a European crisis but typical of politicians anywhere in the democratic world. I really regret replacing the four panels, however, because of a letter I received from the syndicus. I was threatened with a fine of 50 euros per day if I didn't remove the work immediately, because apparently a hairdresser (who is not even situated anywhere near the work) complained because of its 'obscene' content. I told them clearly that their request would be denied because how dare they threaten me with a fine they have no right to impose when they could have just contacted me (among many other reasons, including infringement of my right as an artist to a express myself freely in a democracy, but I won't go into them here). Further I told them that it would stay until there was a new Belgian government; the work itself was a clear tribute to collaboration between the increasingly polarised sides of Belgium and was thus of cultural significance. I thus regret that it is not shown in completion because the ridiculously small-minded idiots who requested that I take it down may get the impression that I was intimidated by them. Otherwise, my third hamster has escaped and my pet rat (named aptly Ratticus) won't escape no matter how long I leave its cage door open.

From this homesite, the six major areas of my work can be viewed from various perspectives by clicking on the icons here to the left which indicate the major ways I have of interacting with the world and to help me make sense of reality: [1] music composition, [2] film design, [3] graphic art, [4] performance, and [5] writing - both fiction and non-fiction. I believe that any sort of exchange of knowledge, from musical, through conversational, to sensual, is equally valid and enriches us every day if we stand open to it. Each of these individual sub-pages has a set of 4 or 5 active links to a profile for that category, a 'complete list of works' page, among other possibilities depending on the nature of the skill - composition, for example, has a link to the music-box.

As far as seeing individual examples of my work is concerned, the 'complete list of works' pages contain a set of links to individual pages, to either listen to, watch, download, read or admire in some other way my writings, music and design. Links for the major complete lists are included below :

In addition to the five categories to the left, however, reading further will demonstrate my most recent projects, both finished and unfinished, including poetry, interesting and/or remarkable events and even anecdotes, aphorisms, recollections or other bursts of written inspiration which form as a result of the constant motion inherent in 'the incessant cycle spinning away inside my head'. Seven separate 'places' which often cohere with a particular website with all the collected set of that category, are used as points to show recent developments in my work. Therefore the bars which seperate the seven categories below also provide a link to a seperate page.

Here I try to reflect my rather ironic way of looking at things by presenting short anecdotes, recollections, aphorisms, opinions or short poems; they are taken from the page which includes a collection of all my various types of commentary and I transfer them to this page depending on mood and environment :

"I often find that people who claim to be able to speak to my friends and family postmortem should really improve their communicative skills with me before I die."

"Some people complain about awkward parents who attempt to provide their lives with meaning purely through their children. Mine, however, are welcome to this quest because - who knows - if they're successful at finding some meaning there maybe they'll fill me in on what continues to completely elude me."

"Obscene book title of the day: 'Why I Went Ass over Tit' by Guy Huntingbum."

Here I provide links or information surrounding new works that are finished or have been recently uploaded; something that could possibly be downloaded.

Click the link below to download my book on music, epistemology, semiotics and the Balinese culture :

FREE POSTER [A3 size in pdf format for the film 'The Painstaking Cycle'. It is from a series of 10 posters all of which are on display in this site's galleries, although only this one can be downloaded at high quality] :

This short film is intended to provide an introduction to films recording original performances of my new music-theatre composition ZAUM (composed and premiered at a theatre festival in Belgium, and then taken on tour to various festivals and conferences in places as diverse as Finland, Linthuania and Taiwan). This film only lasts a minute, but it hopefully provides a good introduction to the work based on poetry by the Russian Cubo-Futurists. It opens with a series of interlocking pages of Russian futurist books.

An example of a poem (or a fragment from a poem) which suits my current state of mind.

You're the light that's
fading from the
remnants of the day;
You're a hollow whisper
leaving darkness
then dismay . . .

You're the sight
forever lost from
one sad blinded eye;
You're a muffled moan
and a stifled
aching cry . . .

You're all those things
that long ago
I did so long to do -
but most of all
you're all the lies
I once believed
were true.

What's there to fear
because of you there
is so little left;
Now I've just got
remnants being of
so much bereft.

Though you're just
a blurry shade
one always here
who never stayed -
still I know you'll
never go away.

Examples are included here of recent art-works, inventions, designs, scultpures or photos.

In this work there is a frame within a frame within a frame; a recurring theme in my work. The first frame directs the viewer towards the 'Evil Eye' which remains of course invisible behind a bizarre little mask (sculpted out of a camera lense and an old pair of glasses. Moving back, the stained glass windows, also a representation of an eye, obscures the face, just as the film strip further distances the viewer from the subject of this work.

LAST MODIFIED: 2 September 2009