Black Sun

Experimental sound artist Boyd Rice seems like a cool and interesting guy. Although I cannot consider myself a huge fan of the would be “superman,” I respect what he does (whatever that actually is). I recently read the book Standing in Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice and it seems like Mr. Rice has had an eventful life. Rice has done everything from being a Magister of the council of the nine in the Church of Satan to creating his own colorful Tiki Bar. One could say that Boyd Rice is an eclectic man with very distinct tastes. Rice has also dabbled in the “art” of experimental film making.

Black Sun is an experimental short by Boyd Rice featuring flickering and swirling swastikas for over 8 minutes. Unsurprisingly, Rice also provided the soundtrack for this EVIL NAZZZZZZZIIIIII short. After a couple minutes of the endless erratic swastikas I found myself mesmerized. The National Socialists that took over Germany in 1933 used the swastika as a powerful image and fuehrer Adolf Hitler said of the flag,"As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work." Of course, Boyd Rice’s swastikas in Black Sun lack any powerful nationalist colors. The swastikas in the short look like ruins and are all by their lonesome lacking any type of flag. One could say the swastikas featured in Black Sun are appropriately contemporary as they mark the death of the Third Reich.

Boyd Rice: Occult Neo-Futurist and fascist or Deranged artistic Carny?

Black Sun has been compared to the conceptual art of con-artist Andy Warhol. Boyd Rice also happens to be a co-founder of the Unpop art movement which is known for its application of pop aesthetics, stylings, or techniques to unpopular, unpleasant, repressed or otherwise censored ideas. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the swastika is nowadays an unpleasant symbol. I find it interesting, however, how contemporary anti-Nazi books, films, and other propaganda sensationalize the swastika better than Boyd Rice ever could. One could say that the swastika is a bigger and more power symbol now then it was in Germany from 1933-1945.

As stated before, Black Sun is a mesmerizing short film but it is also far from being a masterpiece. Initially, the film felt like the cinematic result if somehow experimental filmmaker Stan Brakage was stranded at a Nazi rally and he lost control of his bowels out of fear for his life. Black Sun has more to do with cinematic diarrhea than it does with cinematic masturbation. Albeit, this defecation doesn’t feel too bad coming out once you get used to it.

-Ty E