Countess Elizabeth Bathory serves as an inspiration for vampire myths. She supposedly took baths in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. No doubt, she committed atrocities, but has history exaggerated them? Certainly history possesses its own unique prejudices, which is why I am drawn toward myth. Herein the myth of the blood countess, whom I feel an affinity for due to our shared Hungarian heritage. An Eternal Lightness of Being fuses the image of Elizabeth Bathory with that of Kat Bjelland, tying in the occult to rock 'n' roll culture and its obsession with youth.
Watching rock 'n' roll icons grow old in the media can be a fairly grisly experience. Over the years Elvis Presley, Keith Richards, and Courtney Love all turned ghoulish to various extents. To some degree, rock stars slow down the aging process by transforming themselves into illusory figures. Little Richard, David Bowie, and Marilyn Manson achieved this through playing with androgyny. These three represent an evolution, from Little Richards' over-the-top showmanship to David Bowie's sophisticated use of theater to Marilyn Manson's total immersion in an androgynous persona. Ironically, androgyny had a greater impact on visually defining rock 'n' roll than female imagery. And I don't need to emphasize how important visuals are in both the marketing and aesthetics behind rock culture. Women may have their place, but rock remains largely male driven. In other words, it reflects the world we live in, a world not so different from the one Elizabeth Bathory raged against. Despite major political gains by women, socially/culturally a male centered paradigm still overlays modern life.
Elizabeth Bathory practiced magic. Whether she did so in a warped or deluded manner is for historians to determine. My concern is her myth and the place of magic within that myth. It's only natural a woman in Elizabeth Bathory's position in late 16th/early 17th century Europe should turn to magic. Years ago I read Robert Graves' The White Goddess, which described how in Europe male dominated religions came to supplant female based worship. Magic via witchcraft offered women a means of redressing this. An Eternal Lightness of Being is a meditation upon tapping feminine magic. The 26 brief animations comprising it are thematically connected, but in no way do they form a narrative. The order in which the animations appear on the index page is a suggested viewing order. While there is no narrative development, there is thematic development. I consider An Eternal Lightness of Being an abstract character study about infusing light into a dark soul. I do not view Elizabeth Bathory as a villainess. However, in a sense I do consider Kat Bjelland a heroine. In the context of An Eternal Lightness of Being Elizabeth Bathory serves as a sort of mystical portal Kat Bjelland steps through. Yes, I realize I am talking about the sampled image of Kat Bjelland, rather than the lady herself. I created this work in response to Kat Bjelland's graceful beauty.