Synopsis
An amazing production based on a story on a ballerina who has to embrace her fragility and corruption – by acting as both the white swan (who needs a lover to release her from a swan’s body), and the black swan (who steals her lover away).

In her everyday life, she behaves as a dutiful daughter who listens to her mother like a virginal child. Her evil twin kept hidden in the recesses of her unconsciousness, waiting for the chance to release itself.

Her strive for extreme perfectionism leads to her unwillingness to let go of her duality – for it contains pure lust and corruption.

After a night of drinks, her sultry twin betrays her, and she becomes a seductress – and her nemesis is born.

Towards the end, the black swan kills her – and releases itself – and perfection is achieved.

Reflection

On reflection, the inner struggles of our everyday lives is representative of the struggle she faces as the white and black swan. We have our angels and demons, our lust and passions, for good or evil. This duality is what makes this world complete. For without duality, there will not be black or white.

We constantly fight to retain our goodness and forsake our evil intentions. However, there is no such perfection – for good and evil lies within the same person. Likewise, an evil person will try to kill all the goodness in his soul to become truly evil – only to realise that he has compassion in his heart.

Personally, I struggle daily with my demons. The ability to feel deeply for others can be a blessing and curse. Sometimes its better not to know what lies in the deep end of the spectrum, for once contamination sets in – it is irreversible. I would rather be innocent and kind, but the world is not kind to the good hearted. And to win – is to be truly heartless.

Hence, like the character in the story, I have an evil twin. As much as I try to suppress it inside, it desires to be released, or she haunts my dreams and fills my hands with blood. In the most unexpected moments, she takes over my body and transcends into who I am.

Why hold yourself back, when you are meant what you are meant to be?

Here is my interpretation of this song, an intriguing and dark song with many underlying meanings and messages it is trying to convey to the unaware listener.

“Kiss From A Rose”

There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.

There is a lonely lighthouse in the middle of the sea (him), and she “became” the light of his lighthouse that is on the dark side of him (implying he is the dark shadow of the lighthouse itself).

Him = Lighthouse
Her = Light on the Lighthouse

Love remained a drug that’s the high and not the pill.

He is deeply obsessed with the “light” which he admits it is his “love” and brings him a “high”.

But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.

When it snows, the light (her) on the lighthouse allows the lighthouse (him) to be seen.

Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray.

This is a very contrasting statement “rose on the gray”.

Rose = Bright red and vibrant
Grey = Dull and boring

“Rose on Grey”

= She is the brightness of his dull grey boring life.
= She is a red blossoming flower that lights up his world of grey
Ooh,
The more I get of you,
The stranger it feels, yeah.

Somehow, this has signs of something obsessively wrong or strange/unacceptable. It might be a forbidden love, akin to taboo love like necrophilia or incest, or racial differences in this context. The contrast of “grey” (him) and “rose” (her) is the taboo here. How can a grey lighthouse end up with a rose?

And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the gray.

She is a blossoming rose, and he is a gray gloomy (old/boring) man, and she lights up his life with her presence and prospect of procreation.

…But is it possible for them to have a happy ever after when they are two worlds apart?

There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby

MY POWER, MY PLEASURE, MY PAIN! These are the three strongest words in his whole song that he is literally shouting it out loud for the world to hear. This is the whole meaning of this song, the main central theme. She is the center of his life, his “light on the dark side of me”, his power, his pleasure and his pain. It is a love that is forbidden yet obsessive, twisted with pleasure and pain, power and helplessness. There is so much contrast in his love for her, that he is becoming addicted (in the next verse).

To me you’re like a growing addiction that I can’t deny.
Won’t you tell me is that healthy, baby

He finally admits it – he is addicted to this forbidden yet obsessive love spell this rose has cast on him.

Search for Soul a stop-motion video responding to Jessica Raschke’s poem Bustles for prod! Supported by media@rmit and the Australian Poetry Centre
Videographers: Keshanee De Silva, Danica Revote

A mixed style of Victorian styled art; captured beautifully within a
low-key lighting atmosphere. All fused together in an seductive, high
brow, renaissance like, romantic setting.

On Gareth Pugh (whom i think, is the most talented fashion designer during our time) – If only one day the world will be dressed in his vision. It would be a futuristic – latex – black – leather – cubism – fetish kind of look with a very edgy feel and appeal about it. I would like to get my hands on some of the jackets, but it would be totally weird to dress this way when everyone is still in the blue  jeans era. It would be something like a scene out of the matrix – only cooler without those stupid sunglasses indoors.