The German-born artist Klaus Rinke finds inspiration in and harmony with cacti. Indeed, these resourceful creatures, which grow slowly and – per Rinke – evoke the German soul with their prickly exteriors and soft interiors, surround his Venice, California studio. Evoking Rinke’s droll, absurdist sensibility, the short documentary The Cactus of Klaus (2023) takes viewers inside his perspective on life and art as framed by his decades-long cactus obsession. Through this construction, Rinke’s idiosyncratic worldview emerges – one that’s centred on vitality through creativity, and moored to the Earth and the steady drumbeat of time.
Directors: Tony Blahd, Lydia Fine
Websites: Double Solitaire, Little Moving Pictures
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Mathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes
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Consciousness and altered states
What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?
12 minutes
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Architecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
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Home
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
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Childhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times
29 minutes
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes