To Val Kilmer
“We’re all ghosts in a way. I found Val’s ghost in his poetry, while he was still around. And I listened back to it today.” - Laurence Fuller
Bird Poetry, 2022. (Still from) Animated painting by Tania Rivilis. Produced and Performed by Laurence Fuller. Produced by Kamp Kilmer.
On the occasion of Val Kilmer’s passing, we pay a small tribute to him and his legacy on objkt. You might not know this, but the actor had two of his poems minted on our platform through Kamp Kilmer—a community of artists and art enthusiasts focused on Fine Art, dedicated to creating and evolving an ecosystem of spaces founded on love and healing.
Laurence Fuller, actor, poet, and award-winning storyteller, had the privilege of lending his voice and talent to Kilmer’s poetry. A good friend and very active member of our community, we asked him to look back on those days and share his thoughts—and he promptly answered us back.
“I remember getting a comment from @KampKilmer under one of my artworks that said “let’s collaborate”
It came at a time when I was looking to put together an exhibition of collaborations with some of my favorite artists in web3 specifically who had come out of HEN days.
I came to learn more about the project and Val’s wish to create an artistic collective. He had an art gallery and bought land where he wanted this collective to come together. And so we’d be helping to fulfill that wish in the digital world, or be a part of its progression.
It was in these conversations I discovered Val’s poetry and so my part became clear ~ I was to adapt them with cinematic poetry. Just like I’d done with classic poems from the Romantics to my late father’s writings. It seemed a very natural thing to do.
Though the weight was not lost on me, as Val had lost the ability to use his voice at the time, I would be performing the poems. It made me think of how vital the voice is to an actor’s instrument and to our experience as human beings. It made me grateful for my voice in a way I’d never considered before. The voice is a gift. That actually to be trusted to perform Val’s poems, that was huge trust. And to collaborate with artists with Val’s poems as the central guiding force for the works. The artworks were already infused with his spirit.
It’s funny to think of that objkt twitter spaces we did with WiseApe, we had Val there with us for 20 minutes or so, speaking about art. He shared some stories from his legacy and with the artists we collaborated
Then Misan Herriman acquired the “Bird Poetry” collaboration with myself and Tania Rivilis for the Tezos Foundation Permanent Collection. Which was a controversial move at the time, but I’ll always defend his reasons for doing it. It was Val’s Tezos genesis. I listened back to the piece this morning ~ there’s so much freedom to that piece, the poetry and the feeling of the birds in the sky.
Val’s other work on tezos was the collaboration “Shamrock Clock” with myself and Goldcat. The piece was collected by Cozomo Medici, Sunny, Ida, Animus, Bflo, Tezos Foundation, Detty Too, Studio Litchfield, Marching Square & Back to whose ~ all participating in the act of art acquisition.
The subject of the piece itself, art and commerce. Adapted from Val’s poem of the same name. It was a funny and ironic piece with dark atmosphere to it, the idea of Val on his way to sign his name on a contract somewhere, and insight into the life of a movie star in the 90s. That was really the peak of what it was to be a movie star in the classic sense, the 90s maybe we’ll never see again. It was before social media and the only dreams people consumed were on the big screen or the silver screen. An era of scarce screens.
Shamrock Clock, 2022. (Still from) Digital painting by Goldcat. Produced and Performance by Laurence Fuller. Produced by Kamp Kilmer.
To get back to what I found funny about the space, was that we discussed his movie with Marlon Brando, “The Isle Of Doctor Moreau”. Which was wrought with drama throughout the production and was known as a cautionary tale in Hollywood. Probably one he didn’t think back on too fondly. But he worked with Marlon Brando, who was a hero for him, a father figure. And that Brando portrayed this cult like character in the movie, and Val the young and brilliant rebel with an Oedipal complex. It was life, life imitating art. Whether it was a triumph or disaster in time to come, we’ll see.
Val ended the twitter spaces with a quote from Voltaire “Poetry is the music of the soul”.
But we live our lives well not just for ourselves but for all the others in our world too. When we make coffee and listen to music, everybody who lives inside of us listens too. Val’s a character in our collective memories.
We’re all ghosts in a way. I found Val’s ghost in his poetry, while he was still around. And I listened back to it today. 🥀🔥”
Laurence Fuller