Hilma

This post is extremely late coming.

Sometimes shows come along that are just so mind blowing that it takes some time to process them.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, of course, but sometimes you just need to take a step back and take a moment to really figure out what you’ve just seen.  I honestly think these are some of my favorite types of shows.  There’s something very intriguing about a show that finds you in this place.  They don’t come along often, which I think is a completely legitimate thing, because otherwise, we’d never be able to just enjoy a show.  But Hilma was one of those shows, and that was sort of my first hook.

Hilma is about the artist Hilma af Klint.  She was a Swedish artist and Theosophist, and is often considered to be one of the first abstract artists in the western world.  Honestly, I didn’t know much about her going into the show, aside from the fact that she was a controversial artist.  My mom, who has a degree in fine arts, didn’t know much beyond that either.  I think I liked that going in, as strange as it sounds.  I wanted to experience her story without anything getting in the way.

It’s a very interesting subject matter, looking at Hilma’s story.  And going in, I loved that the show was being billed as a “contemporary opera”.  I’m an opera lover, and I especially love contemporary ones.  But let me tell you…contemporary is the only word you can put next to this opera.  It was so well done in that respect, not needing subscripts and all.

In act one of Hilma, we got the artist’s story, starting in 1896 and going into the early 1900s.  Looking back on it now, I totally understand why they wanted to share Hilma’s history with the audience.  There was no way we could properly appreciate and enjoy what was to come later in the show.  But I guess I’m sort of getting ahead of myself here.  It was a really beautiful setup, with a seemingly simple set that the actors/singers could interact with.  We saw a lot about Hilma, from her relationship with her friends, her beliefs in the Masters and a different world from ours, and even her relationship with another woman in the movement.

Hilma was a very intense woman, and we see this in Hilma.  She had a completely different mindset than those around her, and in many ways, it alienated her.  The actors/singers told her story so well.  It was put together in a way that we saw many different perspectives, though of course, the show mostly revolved around Hilma.  The music was beautiful.  I was truly struck by it, and the actors/singers.

The second act was, what I would describe as, a Theosophist rock concert.  I say this because it was definitely set up like a rock concert, and had the music of a rock concert, but all of the lyrics were about Theosophy and related back to Hilma, and everything we saw in act one.  It was super cool, and super strange.  They clearly had fun with everything in this one…from the costumes to the set to the music.  It was a brief interlude, but an awesome one.

Finally, the act that finished the show, was like a round table discussion.  We saw all the actors/singers that we had seen in act one and two in modern clothing, sitting with their water bottles.  They were discussing the story we saw in act one, as well as going forward with it.  They talked about how little we actually know about Hilma, especially compared to figures like Rudolf Steiner, one of her contemporaries.  In this modern world, the actors/singers talk about seeing Hilma’s work in museums, what it meant to them, what it meant to the world.  They talked about her beliefs, and the type of person that made her.  It was super cool to see a sort of reflection from the start of the show.

Hilma was a thought provoking show.  I like to think the actors/singers knew that when they performed.  As I was watching the progression of the story, from Hilma’s story to a modern perspective on it, I really started thinking about things.  Some things really haven’t changed since Hilma af Klint was creating art.  There’s still the need to make art accessible.  And how do we do that, anyway?  In a hundred years, what are people going to be thinking about art we now consider modern?  How do our beliefs influence our lives and the lives of those around us?

And above all, how do artists view their work?  Hilma thought she was doing something amazing for the world, something rewarding.  And yet, in her time, she definitely didn’t get the credit she gets now.  I really loved how Hilma made me think about all of this.  The actors/singers had me fully enchanted, and I felt like I was really learning about Hilma, and an entirely different world than the one we know now.

I think it takes a really special person to decide they want to write an opera on Hilma af Klint.  But thank goodness they did, because this show seriously blew me away.  I took away so much from it, from the start of the show to the very end.  I can’t wait to see where this goes next, because I think the world really needs Hilma.