Perhaps all the dragons of your life are princesses

Linda L. Page and Alex Page

Medium: Digital video.

Public Domain artwork referenced in this piece:

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Briefe an einen jungen Dichter. Leipzig : Insel-Verl, 1929.

Artist Statement

We have been inspired by the letters Rilke wrote to a young Franz Kappus, who wrote and encouraged a young man while he went through ups and downs in his own life. We've embodied the subject in our derivative as The Writer, who lives in present-day New York City and struggles in various ways to find inspiration around them, who gets bogged down by the expectations that people around them have for writers, and who gets lost in their sorrow. The journey, told through both live shots and stop-motion animation, resonates with creatives to this day, and is our homage to Rilke's ever-prescient message of perseverance, staying true to oneself, and working through personal struggles.

About the Artists: Linda L. Page and Alex Page

Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Student (Linda)

Linda and Alex have been married for over 3 years. They have both studied and worked as writers and creatives in various avenues, and have enjoyed creating videos, puppet performances, and pieces of writing together. In their spare time, they love cooking and eating vegan food, exploring places near and far, and spending time with their equal parts angelic and demonic cat Jasmine.

Footnote

To access an English language version of Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke:

https://search.library.nyu.edu/permalink/01NYU_INST/1d6v258/alma990081860200107876 

Citation for English version:

Rilke, Rainer Maria, Franz Xaver Kappus, Joan M Burnham, and Kent Nerburn. Letters to a Young Poet. 2nd ed. Novato: New World Library, 2000. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5840425 

*Please note that only the German version Briefe an einen jungen Dichter, originally published in 1929, is in the public domain.