The second episode of "Squik Squik" features underground artist Princess Demeny. Princess Demeny is a force of creative nature that has pursued working in multiple mediums such as film, poetry, painting, music, children's books and audiobooks. She is still creatively very active- as she noted in the interview that creativity does not have an age. This is a thought pattern highlighted in the episode, seeing as we comb through her films that have rarely been discussed, her music beyond New York Grief 86',  her life experiences and continuing imagination that undoubtedly captures how true she is as an artist. Sometimes it is more than the conclusion, it is the way of life.

The episode features audio from Princess Demeny's dreamlike and introspective films "Isolation"(1994) and "Surface"(1992) both encompassing sounds and imagery concerning a spiritual character. In "Isolation" we are met with the light, and dizzied with the darkness of dark; in hallways, bedrooms, small corners, empty spaces and brick walls. We feel the tension of mind and setting, the plague and alienation of trauma, and a subsequent light that washes over the darkness (or our darkness). The light persists in "Surface". We see angular crowds with exposed surfaces, bodies seeping step by step into a pool of light through windows and exits and doors, double exposed imagery of birth and awake-ness; skewing the essence of religiosity as an act of within rather than a scripted divinity. There is a sounding of nature's noise and tones. Within that  is the echoing chime of Demeny's antique baby rattle, that was gifted to her when becoming a mother during her university years. It is a calming clang that brings together the effulgent light, and contextually notates a sustaining character of birth, personal rebirth, and with the closing pointed light, a feeling of renewal.    

When Princess Demeny sent me the audio piece of the actual baby rattle, I was overjoyed and played its calming reverberation on repeat. 

At some point, I found myself prematurely living in New York for the better half of five years. I was lost, returning home at an early time via train when the sky in Queens looked gray-haired, and everything around me seemed pensive, grieving almost. With me, I held only the surface of things having confused my way of life, stupefied and betrayed in a haze. On that subway ride home, I came to realize Princess Demeny's masterpiece "New York Grief '86" after a friend recommended it. I started crying, laughing even, because someone had managed to mumble the sentiment of my confusion. Her voice murmurs and spatters language otherwise faintly otherwise angrily. She doesn't really have to say anything coherently for one to understand (although she does). Her tone on all of the tracks transmits shades of pink and blue. From songs like "Whipping Cream", "Distant Voices" and "Sometimes You're a Stranger" we get a stream of thoughts followed by characteristic synths and motifs of sound. I could describe her songs as entire books of literature in my mind, with scattered chapters and decorative font. "Office Space" and "The Dance Rats" offer a daunting rhythm with a distinct political trajectory; embedded Demeny's critique of political power and the insanity of modern labour conditions. A lot of her inspirations particularly stem from films like Dr. Strangelove (or How I stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb) and Metropolis. There is something evidently tying both her visual and sound narrative: both pervaded by imprecise systems of power. Whether it is with a direct or subconscious lyric, Demeny can wholly encapsulate the experience of a dream (or a spiritual experience). Her melodies often embodying for me, the unknown.         

More recently, she has been working on new music to be released, and continues her wide artistic practice in Canada. My favorite recent release has been her children's bedtime story and audio book "The Very Very Shy Butterfly", also featured on the episode. Her passion for cats, the earth, music, poetry, writing, and childlike things, yields the beauty she pours into everything she does.   

Princess Demeny is an artist you could interview for hours, having experimented so much in everything: it really is her way of life.            

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