Art Cures, our new series, offers a themed list of music, films, books, events and other cool stuff in hopes of supplying you with a sufficient art fix, as well as the cures you didn’t know you needed. So whether you’re reeling from a recent break-up, seeking inspiration for your creative block, or just needing a change of scenery, these lists will help raise your spirits and remedy your ills.
This week actress and producer Virginia Rand shares her art cures. Virginia’s experience in the arts has never been conventional. Her experiences being immersed in counter-culture movements, her passion for the study of philosophy, and her time spent living abroad have given her a unique lens from which she views and consumes art.
MOOD — Underworld
Hidden desires, primal natures, secrets, the more grotesque truths of humanity. Our true natures are revealed when our surfaces are broken open. Rippling beneath our cultivated demeanors lies our darkness, our sexuality, our humor, our horror, our history. More uncanny and evocative than outright fantasy is when the rumination beneath our facade bubbles up and disrupts the veneer. We become unhinged, tempted into delirium. In ways, we are all monsters and clowns. Roiling until the surface tension breaks, we can discover what is truly distorted about our perception, what we may have hidden from ourselves, and how it can all be transmitted through both darkness and laughter.
BOOKS
Angels, by Denis Johnson (1983)
Play As it Lays, by Joan Didion (1970)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera (1984)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong (2019)
White Noise, by Don DeLillo (1985)
Matate, amor (Die, My Love) by Ariana Harwicz (2012)
Bloodchild and Other Stories, by Octavia E. Butler (1995)
The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene (1951)
I Love Dick, by Chris Kraus (1997)
ESSAYS
Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston, by Jia Tolentino
From Trick Mirror, full essay titled Ecstasy, (2019)
The Creative Process, by James Baldwin
From Creative America (1962)
James Baldwin photographed by Richard Avedon
Guy Walks Into a Bar Car, by David Sedaris
Holy Water, by Joan Didion
From The White Album (1979)
MOVIES
River’s Edge, directed by Tim Hunter (1986)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, directed by Stephan Elliot (1994)
Young Frankenstein, directed by Mel Brooks (1974)
American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes (1999)
Sunset Blvd., directed by Billy Wilder (1950)
The Usual Suspects, directed by Bryan Singer (1995)
Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi, based on the comic by Robert Crumb (1972)
The Lobster, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (2015)
Sorry To Bother You, directed by Boots Riley (2019)
Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (1999)
The Big Lebowski, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (1998)
SERIES
Euphoria, created by Sam Levinson (2019–present)
Absolutely Fabulous, created by Jennifer Saunders (1992-2012)
The Sopranos, created by David Chase (1999-2007)
Peep Show, created by Andrew O’Connor, Jesse Armstrong, and Sam Bain (2003-2015)
The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling (1959-1964)
Fleabag, created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (2016-2019)
Key & Peele, created by Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key (2012-2015)
BoJack Horseman, created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (2014-2020)
Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker (2011-present)
Maniac, created by Patrick Somerville (2018)
Russian Doll, created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler (2019)
PAINTINGS
Children’s Games, Dorothea Tanning (1942)
Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Francis Bacon (1953)
Untitled, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1981)
Minotaure No. 8, Salvador Dalí (1936)
Attirement of the Bride, Max Ernst (1976)
Tribulations of Saint Anthony, James Ensor (1887)
The Witches Sabbath or The Great He-Goat, Francisco de Goya (1821-1823)
