Is it better?
November 14, 2008 at 12:38pm | In art, discussion, photography, video | Leave a Comment
Really nice sculpture and video work by Tom Dale. Added bonus: this guy was in the awesomely-titled show, ‘Is It Better to Be a Good Artist or a Good Person?’ featuring various artists represented by Warsaw’s RASTER Gallery. Here’s an excerpt from the show’s rather-lofty mission statement:
Our focus is on the figure of the artist as a regular or even average man. It’s not just by chance that the exhibition is dominated by portraits and self-portraits of artists. Their authors reflect upon the mission of the contemporary artist and his place in society, but they also share their doubts regarding their own art’s power to influence. Hence, the action of the exhibition takes place between the lure of engaged art and a feeling of the social marginalization of their own art – between a longing for full freedom and the beauty of artistic form, and the basic existential limits of human existence.
So, what do you think, gentle readers: is it better to be a good artist or good person?
(Found via VVORK. Thanks, VVORK!)
Let Me Blow Yr Mind
October 3, 2008 at 4:28pm | In internet, obsession, photography | Leave a CommentTags: google image search, nothing/everything
From the Dept. of Recent Obsessions: Nothing and Everything at the Same Time
Confession: I opened this “new post” window without a single idea of what I am a recently obsessed with. In case the lack of updates to this blog for the past over-a-month didn’t tip you off, Michael Tom and I pretty much obsessed with nothing, which is possibly the same as being obsessed with everything. Instead, here are the results of a google image search for “nothing and everything at the same time” :
Missing Everything
May 27, 2008 at 2:59pm | In art, culture, photography | Leave a CommentTags: english literature tropes, man vs nature
“When I shoot, I subtract things,” New York-based photographer Philip Toledano writes. “What if I went to an environment that was missing everything. Instead of subtracting, I would have to add. So I went to the Arctic Circle.” Mr. Toledano’s images of the Arctic Circle contrast nicely with his photographs of recently-abandoned, bankrupt American offices. He dwarfs human and arboreal figures in the landscape of the Arctic, while pencils, books, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera loom large in his images of the modern built environment. No matter what we’d like to think — Mr. Toledano seems to say — we are an afterthought in the greater scope of our world. Or, as one of my high-school English teachers might have put it, the “Man vs. Nature” battle is refreshingly stacked against us.
Via Urban Planning Blog.
Where has all the good design gone?
April 28, 2008 at 8:06pm | In art, culture, design, history, illustration, photography | Leave a CommentIf you, like me, recently attended your last day of college EVER and are now desperately in need of some inspiration to get you through finals and help you finish that children’s book you’re supposed to be writing, feast your eyes on these gorgeous babies (courtesy of the National Magazine Cover Archive).
Strange Moments
April 17, 2008 at 10:56am | In art, culture, photography | Leave a CommentTags: matt stuart, street photography, talking heads
Matt Stuart has an amazing eye, and uses it to take pictures of small, strange moments on London streets. As the bio on his website puts it, he’s “not sure which came first, being nosey or an interest in ’street photography.’” Street photography often walks a dangerous line between art and exploitation. Stuart’s images, however, are totally magical and feel imbued with an appreciation for the deep weirdness of human beings and everyday lives. Is it just me, or are these photos sort of the visual manifestation of the Talking Heads’ songs? David Byrne solo, at least.
Via It’s Nice That.
I wouldn’t change you if I could
February 26, 2008 at 7:33pm | In art, culture, new media, photography, video | Leave a CommentTags: art collectives, bad beuys entertainment, hip-hop, hypermasculinity, music videos
I Would Like To Be In America, 2007
Bad Beuys Entertainment is a French art collective, founded in 1999, working somewhere on the border between popular culture – specifically that of the French banlieue suburbs, or the hyper-masculine world of hip-hop – and contemporary video, sound and installation art; in other words, the place where Bad Boy Entertainement meets Joseph Beuys.
Sauvageons, 2004
The images above – from the DVD I Would Like To Be In America (2007), which provides subtitles in a random language to the song “America” from West Side Story, and Sauvageons (2004), a cliche photograph of the unemployed masses of the French suburbs, used as Bad Beuys Entertainment’s official press photograph – come from pieces which make hilarious but cutting comments on American and French pop culture forms and stereotypes, as well as the meanings and biases they help to create. However, Champions #4 (1999), a ridiculous performative send-up of the music video, is probably one of their most entertaining videos – and even more interesting now than it was when it was created 9 years ago; in 2008, it is impossible to see something like Champions #4 and not think of the massive numbers of people creating and distributing similar videos every day for a shot at online fame. Humiliation through music-video-imitation: it’s not just for artist’s anymore.
(Thanks to Cat, for the info on Bad Beuys!)
Was The 20th Century A Mistake?
October 24, 2007 at 10:31am | In art, culture, film, history, photography | Leave a CommentTags: bffs, dickhead in a good way, henry viii's wives, rad senior citizens, the 20th century, werner herzog
This is the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a while: Iconic Moments of the Twentieth Century by Henry VIII’s Wives. Who are these people and how do I make them (the artists and the rad senior citizens who agreed to participate in their project) my BFFs 4 life????!! (Found thanks to the weirdos over at VVORK.)
Also, Werner Herzog will be speaking for free tonite at the University of Pennsylvania’s Meyerson Hall. The event starts at 5pm; seating is limited. Not really sure what Herzog (who professes to hate the academy, has been quoted as saying, “film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates,” and is kind of a dickhead in the best way possible) is doing here, but apparently the talk will address the question, Was the 20th Century a Mistake? I don’t know about that, but I’m pretty sure you could make a case for the 21st Century being a mistake, at least thus far.
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