by osmosis

I just found these stills from the late Bas Jan Ader, and became fascinated with the filmmaker and performance artist.  First I want to point out that I discovered these images on an amazing visual blog experiment called But Does it Float. 

Bas Jan Ader was a Dutch artist and filmmaker whose final experiment, a trip across the Atlantic in a 12 ft long sail boat, cost him his life in 1975.  While his body was never found, the tiny boat was discovered off the coast of Ireland.  His life was as mysterious as his death, and shipwreck wasn't anything new to him.  It was actually a sunk vessel off the coast of California that brought him to Los Angeles, where he stayed and went to art school.

Bas has been described as the "master of gravity."  His work captures the terror, force and grace of that invisible force keeping us grounded to the Earth.  His films are short eerie pieces of isolated incidents.  They come off as visual and mental experiments.  One has to imagine that Ader is a early hero for the likes of Johnny Knoxville and Jackass - if they happen to be into 70's Dutch visual art.

Just recently a feature documentary was made about Bas Jan Ader titled, Here is Always Somewhere Else.  The trailer and other short films can be found on Ader's site.