Tender Buttons
--
A PIANO from Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein
“If the speed is open, if the color is careless, if the selection of a strong scent is not awkward, if the button holder is held by all the waving color and there is no color, not any color.”
For tender buttons project, I had to choose 30– 40 word length from Tender Buttons written by Gertrude Stein. Gertrude Stein is an American Author and poet. As you can see, her use of language is very abstract thus it allows readers to interpret it from different and wider perspectives.
When I first read her poem, it reminded of Kandinsky whose paintings have no figure and ground. I gathered images of Kandinsky’s works as well as other reference images from Pinterest.
The song I chose was In Walked Bud by Kenny Barron. I simplified the elements. I focused on using a bar with a line which reminds of a piano key. I also decided to go with black and white instead of adding colors.
My goal was to utilize the shape of the piano key in different ways. I had to repeat the same phrases from the poem a few more times because there were some parts repeated in the beginning and the middle of the music. I’m quite satisfied how the video came out. When I have time in the future, I will make two more videos for different poems in Stein’s Tender Buttons.
