Originally posted December 14, 2013, on Tumblr.
Johanna is one of those great models, totally at ease and comfortable with her body in front of the camera. I first saw her three years ago in Butow Maler’s amazing nudes. She was definitely his muse. I speak with authority: I know a muse when I see one. A built-in app with which I was born.
Lover of palaces, Muse of my heart, O sweet,
When hailstones fly from January’s frosty sling,
On snowy nights amid black ennui, who shall bring
A cheery log to thaw your violet chill feet?
Shall you warm your wan mottled shoulder with the wing
Of bleak nocturnal beams that soar from the dank street?
Knowing you have no coin in purse nor bread to eat,
Shall you rake gold from blue arched skies for harvesting?To earn your daily bread as the dense nights grow denser,Shall you play acolyte and blithely swing your censer,
Chanting faithless Te Deums; or a moment after,
A famished mountebank, sell the charmed mysteries
Of laughter bathed in tears that no man ever sees
To rouse the rabble herd to fits of obscene laughter?—from Fleurs Du Mal, Charles Baudelaire
Later she began submitting her own self-portraits, along with other works, always challenging us with bold eroticism, sometimes shocking, always beautiful and intensely feminine, establishing herself as a fine artist in her own right.
I have always been proud to feature her work on P1xels.
Her self-portraits possess an undercurrent of vulnerability with hints of an abiding melancholy, I think very well reflected in this alternate version of Mein Herz Brennt …
Update 2016: Johanna has given up her self-portrait work for some time now. She seems to have found true love (Congratulations Johanna.) and is baking amazing vegan pastries, pies, and desserts. If you are reading this, Johanna, we miss you.
Mein Herz Brentt (My Heart Burns) by Rammstein
I posted the other official “full score” video for this song some months ago on the old P1xels site. It seems that they re-shot/re-edited the video and you can see it here. There is also a twenty-minute movie about the “making of” the Mein Herz Brentt video that I found fascinating. These guys are operating on a different level of art from most current pop/rock acts.
This version, with piano accompaniment, was shot on the same location, a long-abandonded East German medical facility, intensely romantic and melodic and so so so German – I find this to be the greatest evocation of the oceanic undercurrent of sadness in their music.
Here are the lyrics in English:
Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I have brought you something
I ripped it from my chest
With this heart I have the power
To blackmail the eyelids
I sing until the day awakes
A bright light on the heavens
My heart burns
They come to you in the night
Demons, ghosts, black fairies
They creep out of the cellar shaft
And will look under your bedding
Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I have brought you something
A bright light on the heavens
My heart burns
They come to you in the night
And steal your small hot tears
They wait until the moon awakes
And put them in my cold veins
Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I sing until the day awakes
A bright light on the heavens
My heart burns
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