Coffins to die for December 9, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Photography, Thoughts, Travel.Tags: bbc, beer bottle, bright colours, carving, cigerette, Coca-cola, coffins, death, fish, funeral, Ga, Ga tribe, Ghana, Mercedes, planes, sneaker, tribe
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A BBC In Pictures article got me thinking about death again. Or rather, the celebration and remembrance of life. Preserving my karaoke efforts in vinyl was my last will and testament until I read about the the Ga tribe of coastal Ghana. The Ga people carve intricate, brightly coloured, cartoony coffins, representing and celebrating the lifestyles of the deceased. Career caskets such as fish for fisherman or planes for pilots. Or sinful sarcophagi reflective of failings: Coca-cola, cigarette, beer bottles etc. Even fanciful symbolism like Mercedes cars or sneakers. Truly amazing craftmanship – now if only I could ‘whittle down’ my vices….
Which vice to choose... fags, beer or fish?
Phantom billboard October 28, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Advertising, Art, Thoughts.Tags: Advertising, America, Art, billboard, border, Canada, ghost, highways, Lead Pencil Studios, metal frame, non-sign II, phantom, US government, USA
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Billboards litter the eye-level of American highways. Motorists are bombarded with mileage countdowns to the next McPitstop, pointless “points-of-interest” (does anybody stop for the World’s largest pecan in Missouri?) and even religious sermons. A ghostly scultpture (fitting given the approach of Halloween) commenting on such profileration of roadside advertising has recently been erected on the US-Canada border.
Entitled “Non-Sign II”, the piece was commissioned by the US government and created by US art studio Lead Pencil. The artists, Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, painstakingly twisted metal to frame nothing. Apt considering the products the billboards usually market.
The rendering (below) depicts an ominous sky to immigrants… welcome to post-recession America?
Sculptor of satire October 21, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, News.Tags: Art, banksy, Cattelan, hollywood, L.O.V.E., la nona ora, LOVE, Maurizio Cattelan, meteorite, middle finger sculpture, palermo, pope, rubbish tip, satire, satirical, satirist, sculptor, sculpture, sicily, the ninth hour
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Cattelan flips Milan's bankers the bird
Ever heard of Maurizio Cattelan? Italy’s most famous living artist and sculpture’s equivalent of Banksy. The satirist’s current work, officially titled L.O.V.E. but popularly known as The Middle Finger, beautifully sculpted from Carrara marble resides in Milan’s Piazza d’Affari. This piece’s particular controversy – the huge hand’s middle finger extended skywards with the gesture of contempt apparently directed at the nearby stock exchange. The artist denies any anti-capitalist sentiment.
More smartass art from Cattelan’s back catalogue is exhibited below.
La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) - Pope John Paul II hit by a meteorite
A full-sized HOLLYWOOD sign over the largest rubbish tip on Palermo, Sicily
My eyes are broken September 23, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Thoughts, Web.Tags: Andrew Lipson, Ascending and Descending, Escher, Lego, M.C. Escher, optical illusions, Penrose, Penrose Triangle, rubin vase
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Squares A and B are the same color. See... a rectangle of the same color has been drawn connecting the two squares. Bloody eyes
Sick of the Rubin Vase and Young Lady/Old Hag? What if such tired, overplayed optical illusions were remastered in 3D (tis the season after all) via the medium of Lego? Locked in his shed since the 70s, Andrew Lipson has dedicated countless hours (and Lego sets) faithfully recreating the mind-bending lithographs of Dutch artist, M.C. Escher – check out his portfolio and step-by-step photographs.
My personal favourite is Ascending and Descending where Lipman cleverly applies perspective to render Penrose’s impossible staircase (below). Speaking of Penrose, check out the Penrose triangle sculpture in Perth, Australia.
Geeky, but kind of cool
Ukuleles & overweight nudity… September 3, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Edinburgh, Festival, Music, Thoughts.Tags: arcade fire, Art, damien rice, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, george formby, Half price Hut, karma police, life drawing, life modelling, lucky dip, mumford & sons, naked splendour, philip herbert, radiohead, rebellion, the ukulele project, ukulele
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… just another Saturday afternoon lucky dipping the Fringe Half Price Hut then. Whilst I appreciate the festival is over for another year (tear), I thought another couple of reviews wouldn’t hurt in case you happen across the shows next year or elsewhere.
The Ukulele Project 8.5/10 – Cowgate Udderbelly Belly Bancer
Size isn’t everything. Disregarded previously as a musical punchline (not helped by the comical strummings of George Formby), the ukulele has enjoying a recent resurgence thanks to folk rock bands like Mumford & Sons. The Ukulele Project, a trio of teenagers, apply their wee guitars to an eclectic range of hits from Dolly Parton to the Beatles. Lead male vocalist Oli Peacock is pleasingly reminiscent of Damien Rice and his acoustic covers of Radiohead’s Karma Police and Arcade Fire’s Rebellion were arguably better than the originals. The only criticism being the inclusion of a Bond medley was uncharacteristically childish but only because the maturity of performance makes you forget the age of the performers.
Naked Splendour 9/10 – C-Venues Carlton Hotel
“Contains nudity, drawing involved” warns the ticket. Audience members are handed sketch pads and pencils upon entering the worryingly intimate auditorium (drawing involved – check). Philip Herbert has dedicated his life to life modelling and through innovative participatory theatre, recounts witty and absurdist anecdotes. After the subject strips (nudity – check), an initially embarrassed audience soon settles to intense concentration as sketchers attempt to capture Herbert’s naked splendour. The show certainly answered my questions about life modelling (what happens if you fall asleep or get an erection?) and I’m now considering giving life classes a go – drawing not modelling mind.
Apparently the rendering of the model's genitals says a lot about your personality - do you go for the darkened area, acorn or exaggeration?
Beyond cartoon felattio May 21, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Advertising, Art, News, Sport.Tags: Aaron Robinson, Anish Kapoor, avant-garde, logo, london, london 2012, London 2012 logo, London 2012 mascot, London 2012 Olympics, London 2012 Tower, mandeville, mascot, Olympics, wenlock
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Wenlock and Mandeville - complete with London cab lights on their heads
What costs a paltry £400,000 and resembles Lisa Simpson performing a sex act? The London 2012 logo. The graffiti-inspired design received considerable criticism in 2007, further exacerbated by a promotional web animation which triggered seizures. Organisers defended the controversial graphic, citing the inherent flexibility afforded to sponsors by the various colour options. Although initially sceptical, having seen the logo applied to marketing campaigns of the official partners (Lloyds et al) I’d be inclined to agree.
Stage 2 of the marketing roll-out is no less important. The official mascot(s). London 2012 is expecting to raise ~£70m from lunchboxes, fridge magnets and other crap merchandise emblazoned with the character(s). Given the logo fiasco, a safe cuddly animal approach would be understandable. Nope. Continuing the risky, avant-garde design policy of the logo and Anish Kapoor’s £19m rollercoaster tower, the organisers have instead opted for Wenlock and Mandeville, two drops of steel from the construction of Stratford’s Olympic Stadium. An admirable gamble although I think Dodgee the Olympic Hoodie (below) would be a more fitting representative for modern-day Landan.
Dodgee the Olympic Hoodie by Aaron Robinson
Deception and Slaughter … BUY NOW April 29, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Thoughts, Web.Tags: A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, Art, auction, auction websites, Buy Now, Caleb Larsen, Deception, drunk eBay, eBay, online auction, perpetuity, Slaughter, Thoughts, Web
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We’ve all done it. Retired home after last orders and decided life was incomplete without an ornate cuckoo clock, hotel-spec trouser press or second-hand wedding dress. Checking your Inbox the next afternoon, you’re apparently the highest bidder for all three in eBay auctions. Prayers to the god of drunken decisions unanswered, you subsequently ‘win’ said items. Once delivered you decide to keep the clock and re-auction the trouser press (smells like burnt ass) and wedding dress (too small).
Maybe your online auction adventures differ slightly (deciding instead to keep the wedding dress “for a rainy day”) but after such an expensive e-commerce episode I had a couple of thoughts. Firstly, Firefox should be initiated via breathalyser and secondly, certain unwanted items must exist on eBay in perpetuity – purchased and then resold ad infinitum. Artist Caleb Larsen has intentionally embodied the latter theory in his most recent piece, A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter.
The dumbed down Rubix cube for the Playstation generation
Like a part-time prostitute, Larsen’s 8″x8″x8″ black acrylic cube sells itself every 7 days. The black box features a micro controller and Ethernet connection which, according to the artist’s conditions of sale, must be perpetually online with the exception of in transit. Once delivered to a ‘temporary collector’, the technology reconnects to the Internet and posts a new eBay auction ending in 7 days, effectively rendering itself an artistic timebomb primed to disappear within a week.
Assuming purchasers agree to the 18 detailed conditions of sale, a return on the transaction is still realisable. The artwork has no RRP – each new collector can designate a fresh starting price for the artwork intended to be reflective of current market expectations. The collector pays any resultant eBay fees and 15% of the increased value to the artist. The initial auction by the artist ended 28 January 2010 at $6,350, not bad for an Internet-ready paperweight. At the time of writing, the value of the cube had increased to $6,858 with 8 hours left and zero bids. If unsold, the collector simply keeps the piece in perpetuity until one of the weekly auctions is successful. The coding is even “platform agnostic” to allow it to outlive eBay should the site self-destruct in the next dot.com bubble. The art could potentially live forever… the raison d’etre and holy grail for the majority of artists.
Movie Review – Exit Through the Gift Shop (a Banksy film) – 9 / 10 March 16, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Movies.Tags: banksy, exit through the gift shop, grafitti, mister brainwash, Movies, satire, street art, thierry guetta
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A documentary / mockumentary about street art starring the country’s most prolific and notorious artist. Although slightly self-serving and unsubtle in inferring Banksy’s genius the other notable street artists featured, Space Invader and Shepard Fairey, appear two dimensional (literally) in comparison to Banksy’s three or even four axes. Assuming you count satire as a dimension (more believable than ‘time’ if you ask me). Blowing up monochrome screenprints at Kinkos and repeating them across cityscapes pales in comparison to painting an elephant to blend with patterned wallpaper or forging £10s to feature Princess Di’s face.
But street art is merely the backdrop to the documentary rather than the subject. The focus is a French shopkeeper and filmmaker, Thierry Guetta, obsessed with documenting everything because of a traumatic childhood experience. Initially Guetta worships Banksy before re-inventing himself as a self-professed artist. Except he’s not an artist. He re-mortgaged his family’s home and business to establish a creative sweatshop, a veritable production line of LA’s starving artists churning out contrived pop-art. Humble, passionate family man to arrogant fraud overnight.
Through Guetta, regardless of whether he’s real or an elaborate hoax, Banksy highlights how fake, superficial and propaganda-driven the art world is and how gullible art lovers can be. The sardonic and tongue-in-cheek sense of humour evident in Banksy’s art runs throughout his narratory contributions, such as when he realises his French friend “may not be a filmmaker after all, but just a mentally ill person with a camera.” Irrespective of whether or not you admire Banksy’s work this film is definitely worth watching.
Dumbo regretted falling asleep first at the party....
Objectophilia February 25, 2010
Posted by jasoncondie in Art, Thoughts.Tags: cuckoo clock, cucu, diamantini & domeniconi, living room, objectophilia
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Definition: falling in love with objects.
Cucú clock from Diamantini & Domeniconi: A traditional cuckoo transforms from 3D into a 2D graphical representation, giving the wall a shadow of the past.
Living room
