I recently came across Chen Wenling’s work when someone posted it on Facebook asking anyone if they knew who the sculpture was by.
I used TinEye which is great for tracking photos to their earliest cached posts on the internet and was able to find out for them. The sculpture was often recognized as the Big Golden Farting Bull and is called “What You See Might Not Be Real” from a 2009 exhibition at Joy Art Gallery called “Emergency Escape.”
Wenling is a recognized as one of the top ten contemporary sculptors in China today.
The inimitable Saul Bass — designer of some of the most impressive opening title sequences in movie history — on Making Money Vs. Quality Work. Bass has created title sequences for such films as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), Ocean’s 11 (1960), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). He also designed posters for many of the same films, including The Shining in 1980.
These photos taken by Ryan Davis — from a shoot for a print publication that, sadly, never ran — were recently posted in his blog, What He Wears. It was shot on Rockaway Beach in New York on a very cold April evening. They’re raw and full of contrast, Davis crushed the blacks in these ones and I love his style.
Photographer: Jeremy Williams
Stylist: Ryan Davis
Model: Justin Passamore @ Red NYC
Okay so I’m definitely not on top of this, but I am definitely looking forward to the new M83. I feel like it was just the other day I found myself wondering, “when the fuck, Anthony Gonzalez?!” it turns out ‘when’ was soon. Last month ilovem83.com was updated with this teaser for the upcoming album.
Russell Leng is an artist living in Vancouver. His work is inspired by the relationship between natural and built environments, which is expressed in this explanation of his work.
My work is characterized by geometric forms interacting with organic marks. This is seen in a variety of ways, such as a rigid line next to a loose application of paint or gradient. I notice these relationships in nature as well; a tree breaking through a concrete sidewalk, or a housing development by a river. I want to examine these relationships between natural and built landscapes, conjuring a new sense of place. By confronting the viewer’s perception of landscape, I aim to question how these unceasing amalgamations change how we identify with our environments, and perceive ourselves in them.
Reading on, it’s eerie how many similarities I feel I have with Leng, his time is often spent daydreaming about cabins, neon lights, and the feeling he gets while hearing the ocean before seeing it, feels like a page taken out of my own book. Perhaps it’s just impossible not to feel this way living in BC?
“Back to the Future”, an amazing series of photos by Irina Werning. People were invited to re-create their old photos. Very cool, matching colouring and lighting such as this would be incredibly time consuming, she has one marvelous eye.
I was certain I had posted about Matthew Lyons before, but I can’t find anything in my blog. I apologize, it’s almost embarrasing. Anyway, Lyons (who was only 23 the last time I checked, maybe 24 now at the most) has this particular style that I assumed must come from a steady, weathered hand and not someone two years my junior.
His latest venture, a comic called Push It Backwards is consistent with everything he does, meaning it’s awesome. The story he tells here (the pages you can read) is peculiar and wonderful, be sure to check out the process piece he did for ISO50 last year.
Some pretty fantastic double exposures from UK designer Dan Mountford. Mountford’s manipulations seem effortless and magical, he creates a visceral experience, inventing a whole world I’m completely sold on. I want to live here. See more on his Flickr.
Design*Sponge has a great article with Julia Rothman, illustrator & pattern designer. In it she sets out the process of creating a never ending, repeatable pattern for multiple applications, such as a website background, DIY wallpaper for your home or even just as a neat excersize.
One of the questions I frequently get emailed is ‘how do you make a repeat pattern?’ I thought it would be fun today to do a little tutorial showing you how simple it is even with a very complex drawing. And you don’t even need a computer! (I usually do my repeats on the computer but today I’m doing it the way I was first taught.) Here’s the old fashioned way of making a tile-able design…
Kumi Yamashita has a secret power. She can place wood or metal objects in just the right light to make mysterious shadow people show their true selves. The genius of it all lies in the fact that without the lighting and shadows the objects would never give away her secret. These surprising silhouettes only come out when beckoned to do so. Thanks to Shawn (the fabulous producer of the Last Night tracks) for bringing these to my attention!
When I asked for a little inspiration from the world to share back, I wasn’t quite expecting the results I got (though I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?) Sarah Black turned me on to these wonderful and intricate sketches by John Kenn, a writer and director of children’s television shows. Every one of these Tim Burtonesque wonders is on only a post-it note yet the attention to detail and self-contained stories burst forth.
I love the lines and can’t help but feel reminisce to Maurice Sendak’s illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are back in 1963.
A little dark, a little imaginative and a little mysterious, just the way I like it.
A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us “she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places every day.” As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.
With the unexpected success of this series, titled “Mamika,” Goldberger created a MySpace page for his grandmother. She now has over 2,200 friends and receives messages like: “You’re the grandmother that I have dreamed of, would you adopt me?” and ” You made my day, I hope to be like you at your age.”
Initially, she did not understand why all these people wrote to congratulate her. Then, little by little, she realized that her story conveyed a message of hope and joy. In all those pictures, she posed with the utmost enthusiasm. Now, after the set, Goldberger shares that his grandmother has never shown even a hint of depression. Perhaps it’s because her story serves some sort of purpose. That through the warm words of newfound friends, she’s reminded of just how lucky she is to be alive.
Let’s take a moment of silence for Remembrance Day (or Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day depending on where you’re from) and look at some gorgeous photography. The Morning After The Night Before, photographed by Jeff Hahn featuring Sam Thompson of Models 1. The Morning After The Night Before was photographed using film and Polaroid cameras for a vintage effect to capture the essence an old but modern London.
Tomokazu Matsuyama’s work is similarly influenced by both the austerity of post-war contemporary art and the rough extravagancy of popular culture. An upbringing split between Japan and America spurred the questions of national and individual identity that figure prominently in the style and subject matter of his paintings – attempting to parse the “natural chaos” of our social environment, Matsuyama pushes viewers to confront their conceptions of cultural homogeneity, which seems to contradict notions of Japaneseness.
Joshua Liner Gallery
Matsuyama, born in 1976 now lives and works in NY. As a contemporary artist, he exhibits his work internationally showing in galleries and in institutions in cities from Tokyo, Osaka, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, and Vancouver to institutions such as Asian American Arts Centre.
There is something wonderful and exotic in the work he does, a world you hope to get lost in. At once surreal and vibrant, I love the palettes and shapes he uses.
CT is 25 years old, hails from a little town on the hills near Torino, Italy, and has a modern take on Graffiti art. While his work looks infused with Illustrator vector work, he claims to be computer illiterate and does all his work old school with a pen and paper.
