Shells and Rushes1987

"The lush and mysterious realm evoked by SHELLS AND RUSHES recalls the uncanny eclecticism of the surrealists. Strange, flesh-like sea shells, restlessly turning and quivering; enigmatic allusions to classical mythology, such as the Birth of Venus and Leda and the Swan; and paradoxical uses of positive and negative space variously bring to mind Man Ray, Dali and Cornell. But Couzin's film creates its own rich, secretive world and provides its own astonishing pleasures. Accompanied by an otherworldly soundtrack of ancient throat-singing, this deftly edited film is by turns seductive, humorous and serene." – Rafael Wang
"Two simultaneous trips: one around summertime Alaska where the grasses are trying to grow and the children are allowed to point; the other upon the artist's magic table. Here nature is frozen into a pretty marble chessboard with slate backside. Here culture and imagination, seashell sexuality, bits of string, oceans of dyed silica gel dewing petally ladies, twittery families of seashells, seashell logic and perspective, Madonna ... romp supreme. Deep guttural Eskimo chants. You're in the land where Beauty lives and dies. No, you're back in summertime AL. sorry AK." – Dennis Couzin