Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Witchcraft Through the Ages: The Story of Häxan, the World's Strangest Film, and the Man Who Made It

FAB Press... Witchcraft Through the Ages: The Story of Häxan, the World's Strangest Film, and the Man Who Made It by Jack Stevenson. "...Benjamin Christensen's macabre masterpiece from 1922, Häxan (The Witch), is the first true 'film maudit' (literally a 'cursed film') and can justifiably be considered the world's first cult movie. This taboo-shattering work occupies an exclusive niche in the annals of horror cinema. Greeted by angry protests upon release, it was censored, banned and condemned everywhere."

Big Girls Don't Cry

Big Girls Don't Cry Edith 'The Egg Lady' Massey... Big Girls Don't Cry (.mp3 audio 02:40).

Pooch Island

The Amazing Pooch... Corazon Coaster (2006, Acrylic on masonite). From Pooch Island - works by The Amazing Pooch. "...Raised on a diet of Ray Harryhausen films, H. P. Lovecraft novels, comics, Walt Disney World and other Florida tourist traps, Pooch paints images that seem to exist in a bizarre afterlife. His art is a visual cocktail of these influences—with a shot of lowbrow culture—shaken and stirred, then served up in a souvenir tiki skull on the Day of the Dead. A self-taught artist, he owes much of his painting skills to over ten years of daily tattooing and drawing."

Phyllis Bramson: The so-called progress of love (even after)

Phyllis Bramson: The so-called progress of love (even after) - A collaboration between Phyllis Bramson and Lady Ying-Ying, the retired perfumed companion at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...Narratives that negotiate between private subjective values, social concerns and self subscribed metaphors; for it is the philosophical as well as visual aspects of making art that enlightens me. Provoking and inviting speculation, the pieces promote notions about 'complicity' and 'good' behavior, while projecting a capricious irritability. The visual concoctions and interjections become phantasmagoric shifts about desire, success, failure, faith and willful seduction. The work presented at the Carl Hammer Gallery allows for a new direction: figurines acting as props that hold or support large mixed media scrolled drawings. The motives for this work are not entirely clear, but certainly relate to obsessions, a craving for beauty and a certain love of theatrical eclecticism where art and décor are interchangeable."

Monday, October 30, 2006

Memphis, TN

Tiny Tim... Memphis, TN. (.mp3 audio 01:58).

Bestiaire des arthropodes

NeckFace: The Night After Halloween

NeckFace: The Night After Halloween NeckFace: The Night After Halloween at New Image Art Gallery in West Hollywood, CA. "...Neckface makes New Image Art his latest victim with a new solo show entitled 'The Night after Halloween' - featuring an installation of life-sized sculptures and watercolors. The ghoulish themes and iconography Neckface is known for, such as witches, death metal, blood, dead babies, bats, monsters, will be abundant in this multimedia exhibition. 'The Night after Halloween' differs from Neckface's past shows in that it relies heavily on three-dimensional work rather than solely on his paintings. Guests can interact with Neckface's characters, presented as life-sized beings through the use of paper-mache and sculptural constructions, in a haunted house installation. A film created by Ty Evans will be shown as well; it features Neckface caught in the act of painting and a brief look at the street art of New York City in 2006. Enlarged pages of Weirdo Dave's zine 'Fuck This Life' are also used by Neckface in a collaborative installation."

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Cutie Honey Theme

GO!GO!7188... Cutie Honey Theme (.mp3 audio 03:54).

Americans in Paris, 1860–1900

Americans in Paris, 1860–1900, October 24, 2006 – January 28, 2007 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY. "...In the late 19th century, American artists by the hundreds—including such luminaries as James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer—were irresistibly drawn to Paris, the world’s new art capital. By studying with leading masters and showing their work in Paris, these artists aimed to attract patronage from American collectors who had begun to buy contemporary French art in earnest soon after the end of the American Civil War. Paris inspired decisive changes in American painters’ styles and subjects, and stimulated the creation of more sophisticated art schools and higher professional standards back in the United States."

Jonas Mekas

Hans Richter... Rythmus 21 (1921, QuickTime Video) and Jonas Mekas... Zefiro Torna (1992, QuickTime Video). From Jonas Mekas.

Olaf Martens

Olaf Martens at Galerie für Fotografie - f5,6 - München. "...The theme of the outside and the outsider has been a recurring theme in Martens work from the very beginning. His images are most often taken in broken factories, the outskirts of cities, in cities like Russia, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and East Germany. The outsider roles recurring in Martens' world, in a sense similar to David Lynch's imagery, are cleaning women, dwarfs, seamstresses, overly fat women, strippers, dancers, transvestites etc. They inhabit and take the opposite end of the spectrum, as Martens ironically combines them with, at first glance, seemingly flawless models. Yet, the model appears in latex, gas masks, workers' outfits and high heels, adding another hybrid layer to his work."

Friday, October 27, 2006

Koo-Koo

The Fendermen... Koo-Koo (.mp3 audio 01:30). In our top-ten of songs under 2 minutes.

Justin Oglivie: Radiance

Justin Oglivie... Envelop III (2006, coloured pencil, pastel and oil on canvas). From the exhibition Justin Oglivie: Radiance, November 2 - 25, 2006 at the Diane Farris Gallery. "...Justin Ogilvie’s eagerly-awaited new work continues to explore what he describes as the 'boundaries of self' – those physical margins where our bodies meet infinite space and begin their engagement with the social sphere.
Radiance examines the phenomenology of experience, particularly the relationship of the physical body to mind and consciousness. Ogilvie is engrossed in the writings of philosophers like Edmund Husserl, who theorized about human perception, time consciousness and our memory for imagery."

Coming Attractions: Cinema Teasers from the Silent Era

Coming Attractions: Cinema Teasers from the Silent Era. "...The W. Ward Marsh Lantern Slide Collection offers a glimpse of the American cinema from 1915 to 1928. Access to this legacy of film history is available to patrons in the Main Library, as well as to remote viewers via this Internet exhibit.
The Lantern Slides, which were used as advertisements for coming attractions in silent movie theatres, are part of the Cleveland Public Library`s W. Ward Marsh Cinema Archives. Mr. Marsh was movie critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for over 50 years, beginning in 1919. The slides came to the Library in the early 1970s, but were not accessible to the public until now.
The lantern slides were made by printing a photographic negative onto a square of glass, typically three inches by four inches. Black and white photographs could be enhanced by tinting, toning, dyeing, or by hand painting areas of transparent color over the image. A second piece of clear glass, known as the "cover glass" or protecting glass was laid down on top, and the edges of the two pieces were bound with strips of black binding paper."

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Pomologia Batava

Oranje-Appel Oranje-Appel. "...Deze schoone appel is van eene citroen-gele kleur met eenige kleine geel-groene stipjes. Aan de zonzijde vereenigt zich het geel met eene karmozijn-roode kleur, waarop vele, meer rood gekleurde, ronde, afgezonderde en onder elkander staande vlekjes geplaatst zijn." From Pomologia Batava by M. van Noort (Leyden : C.C. van der Hoek, 1830) - part of a nice collection of Old Fruit Books at the Wageningen UR Library. "...The Special Collections of the Wageningen UR Library has a substantial collection of historic fruit literature, books on fruit growing, fruit crops and nursery catalogues with fruit varieties from the end of the 15th century till the end of the 20th century." (nl)

Miss.Tic: Parisienne

Miss.Tic: Parisienne at Galerie Lélia Mordoch. "...Dire en donnant à penser, être poète et plasticienne, faire parler les murs en n’ayant que les mots pour seule armure, c’est Miss.Tic. Depuis 1985, elle égaye de ses pochoirs les murs de Paris,
silhouettes de femmes élégantes, parisiennes et délurées qui clament à la face de la ville leurs espoirs et leurs désespoirs moulés dans leurs paroles comme dans leurs habits noirs érotiques et ironiques, libres et prisonnières de leurs fantasmes et de leurs rêves, une et multiples." (fr) Also... Exposition Parisienne at Miss.Tic in Paris. (fr)

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Teacher, Teacher

Rockpile... Teacher, Teacher (.mp3 audio 02:35).

Embedded in the Russian Army, 1915

Embedded in the Russian Army, 1915 - Photos from the collection of war correspondent Louis Grondijs. "...The Dutch journalist Louis Grondijs (1878-1961) was embedded in the army of the Russian czar in 1915. As soon as the First World War started, Grondijs, a schoolteacher in the provincial town of Dordrecht at the time, seized the opportunity to seek adventure. He made his way to the front in Belgium, France, and Russia, and his arrogance and boasting enabled him to penetrate to the high ranks of the military. Grondijs worked for the Daily Telegraph, the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and several French newspapers. As a witness to the 1917 February Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Grondijs' dislike of the Bolsheviks grew. Later, he joined the counterrevolutionary White Army. Military life suited him, and he preferred to take part in the actual struggle. In 1932 he was in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation, where he met Pu Yi, 'the Last Emperor' of China in exile. Back in Europe, Grondijs lectured on Byzantine art history at Utrecht University (1935) The following year the traveled to Spain to report on the Civil War from the nationalist point of view."

Kyle

Happy Birthday to my son Kyle - 9 years old today.

Young Blood

Sarah Awad... The Tricycle, the Wrestler, the Whale and the Zanja Madre (Oil on Canvas). From the exhibition Young Blood at Billy Shire Fine Arts. Works by Kiley Amesklein, Sarah Awad, Drew Beckmeyer, Feric, Frieda Gossett, Katherine Guillen, Julienne Hsu, Young Suk James Kim, Zachary Rossman, Gretchen Ryan, Corey Sandelius, Sarah Sohn, Yoko Tanaka, and Sunny Taylor.

Isabel Samaras: Ex Animo

Isabel Samaras: Ex Animo at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York, NY. "...Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Ex Animo, Isabel Samaras’ first solo exhibition in New York. In her series of narrative paintings, Samaras focuses on a new direction in her work, presenting a world where dark, elusive desires become reality. Samaras examines alternate realities, re-imagining gothic romances with happy endings. Ill-fated journeys turn into enchanting honeymoons and surprising love connections.
For Ex Animo, Samaras replaces her recognizable TV characters with new personal models of expression. A hand, an abandoned and forgotten part of humanity, takes on a life of its own, or gets into mischief. Love and attraction, a reoccurring theme in Samaras’ work, are illuminated through symbols and storytelling. 'I’m still presenting idyllic images since I still believe in the power of love to conquer all,' explains Samaras, 'but it's tinged with a bit more darkness.' For Samaras these alternate endings are pleasant antidotes to fictitious stories. She invites the viewer to be part of her humorous and heartfelt storytelling process."

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

She'll See Me Again

Hasil Adkins... She'll See Me Again (.mp3 audio 02:28).

Heather Cantrell: Century's End

The Bound Mediums Heather Cantrell... The Bound Mediums (2006, Ink-jet print on silver rag paper, 12 x 12 in. / Edition of 3). From the exhibition Heather Cantrell: Century's End at SixSpace. "...Throughout her photographic work, in series such as The Extended Family, Corpus Battaglia, Head Hunters, and Zombies, Heather Cantrell has continuously explored issues of family, tribes, cults, subcultures, and the historical (both worldly and personal) as a way to parallel metaphors with states of realism and folklore. Influenced by the portraits, photography, and painting at the end of the 19th century, she continues her exploration in Century's End by utilizing staged scenes of her "community" (mainly artist friends, mentors, and musicians) to create a body of work that deals with the polarities of fact and fable."

Melanie Pullen: High Fashion Crime Scenes

Melanie Pullen: High Fashion Crime Scenes, October 3 - November 4, 2006 at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. "...Using the Los Angeles Police Department and County Corner’s office database as primary study for her reenacted crime scenes, Los Angeles based photographer Melanie Pullen presents high saturated chromogenic prints for her series aptly titled High Fashion Crime Scenes. Pullen’s High Fashion Crime Scenes takes aim at the public’s fascination with forensic investigations, crime scenes and bodies of evidence, while confusing the solemn feel of such scenes by the inclusion of haute couture."

25 Years Zeno X Gallery

Miroslav Tichý... Untitled (inv. nr. 4-6-121, undated, 16,8 x 12,4 cm., B/W photo). From the exhibition 25 Years Zeno X Gallery, October 18 - December 2, 2006 and Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp. Also... 25 Years at Zeno X Storage in Borgerhout.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Phantom of the Highway

Los Twang! Marvels... Phantom of the Highway (.mp3 audio 02:35). From Los Twang! Marvels. We heart Yolanda!

The Holsinger Studio Collection

Carrie Coles Rufus W. Holsinger... Carrie Coles (Saturday, July 20, 1912). From The Holsinger Studio Collection at the University of Virginia Library. "...The Holsinger Studio Collection constitutes a unique photographic record of life in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, from before the turn of the century through World War I. The collection consists of approximately 9,000 dry-plate glass negatives and 500 celluloid negatives from the commercial studio of Rufus W. Holsinger. Approximately two-thirds of the collection are studio portraits, and among these are nearly 500 portraits of African-American citizens of Charlottesville and the surrounding area. Many of the portraits are unidentified, but some are of visiting celebrities and dignitaries. In 1915 while teaching art at the University of Virginia, Georgia O'Keeffe sat for a portrait with Mr. Holsinger."

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving... The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The spectre bridegroom. From the "Sketch book", by Washington Irving. Illustrated with original designs by eminent artists. Illustrator Richardson, Illustrator J. Duthie, 78 p. fronts., illus. 22 cm. J.B. Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia, London 1886).

Norbert Schwontkowski

Works by Norbert Schwontkowski from his personal site and... Norbert Schwontkowski: Zip Code, works by Norbert Schwontkowski at Kerlin Gallery in Dublin, Ireland. "...Schwontkowski pictures operate very discreetly on the naivety of children's drawings, on the cleverness of caricatures and the power of a magical image. It is mostly simple figures and objects, man, woman, moon, lamp script, boats that dominate his works. They stand or drift in front of transitory colourful rooms, prepared to dissipate at any moment. A stream of emerging images, some melancholy, some ironic, which in silence bear witness to human existence. The artistic treatment of the matter - a mixture of substances consisting of litres of linseed oil, pulverised pigments, metal oxide, water, binding colours and bone glue, accentuate the scantiness and simplicity of the seized moments."

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Booker T

The Velvet Underground... Booker T (.mp3 audio 06:35).

Ellen Kooi: Recent Photography

Ellen Kooi: Recent Photography at P·P·O·W. "...Ellen Kooi produces photographs that are a curious blend of documentation and psychology of the Dutch landscape. These panoramas are carefully staged. Kooi works in the manner of a film director, making preliminary sketches, designing the location and lighting, and positioning her human subjects. Through elaborate lighting and the help of double and triple light exposures, Kooi conveys moods of romanticism, melancholy and spirituality in the landscape that surrounds her characters. Despite the size and the involved production method behind these photoworks, she manages to preserve in each piece the surprise and spontaneity of a snapshot." More at Ellen Kooi Photography.

Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama at Galerie Piece Unique. "...Yayoi Kusama established herself in New York from 1957 to 1973, where she frequented Donald Judd and Frank Stella. Rapidly assmilated to the New York avant-garde, the artist appeared as one of the precursors of pop art and of environmental art. At the end of the 1960’s in Europe she joined the group Zero of Piero Manzoni and Yves Klein.
Having returned to Japan in 1973, she resides in a psychiatric hopsital at her own request since 1977, monitored by doctor friends. Psychiatric treatment gave Kusama what her parents had always refused, - noted Shiho Nishimura, eminent psychiatrist- namely, the legitimacy to express herself, and the liberty to be insane.
She gained recognition during the 1980’s, and international acclaim during the 1990’s (Venice biennale in 1993 – where she represented Japan – retrospective of her work at MoMA in New York in 1998). This gave her an eminent place in the history of the avant-garde, as well as in the actuality of our time, where she exerts a considerable influence on the younger generation who regularly pays her regular homage."

Tobenai Tsubasa and Glide

Tobenai Tsubasa Cut and paste the urls to hear...
Salyu... Tobenai Tsubasa (Wings That Can't Fly, .mp3 audio 04:47)
http://www.freewebs.com/lilichouchou01/Track07.mp3
and... Glide (.mp3 audio 03:40)
http://www.freewebs.com/lilichouchou01/Track09.mp3

From the film All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001, directed by Shunji Iwai).

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Trailer for Thundercrack

Trailer for Thundercrack (.wmv video 03:32). "...Celebrating the 1975 film that has become a counterculture classic and a midnight favorite in art houses across the U.S. and Europe this web site is dedicated to the ever-growing legions of Thundercrack fanatics. From the unique genius team of director Curt McDowell and screenwriter George Kuchar Thundercrack! has garnered only the most extreme praise or vile hatred from critics." From Thundercrack, the Film.

Shake That Thing

Hasil Adkins... Shake That Thing (.mp3 audio 02:19). "...Let's take a picture of that thing."

être au monde

Lens Culture... être au monde (to be in the world) - photographs by Isabelle Rozenbaum. "...The specter of the Holocaust of the mid-20th century continues to haunt generations of people throughout the world. The confusion, anger, horror and emotions are perhaps strongest for the survivors of the camps and for the families of those who did not survive.
For several years now, Paris-based photographer, Isabelle Rozenbaum, has been exploring her family’s personal history in connection with the death camps. She lost many of her ancestors, and has been grappling with that horrible fact, and trying to come to terms with it through photography."

Title Credits for Mudhoney

Title Credits for Mudhoney (.wmv video 03:30) 1965, directed by Russ Meyer and starring Hal Hopper, Lorna Maitland and Stuart Lancaster.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Works by Yuji Kobayashi

Works by Yuji Kobayashi of Saitama, Japan. Paintings, drawings, prints, and more. (jp)

Works by Pamela Callahan

Works by Pamela Callahan Works by Pamela Callahan of Highland, Wisconsin. From Woman Made Gallery of Chicago, Il.

All About Lily Chou-Chou

All About Lily Chou-Chou. "...This opus by the writer and director Shunji Iwai is an epic about junior high alienation and the wanton cruelty of early teenagers: "I Vitelloni," Fellini's realist masterpiece about alienated youth, with an even more self-absorbed and dangerous crowd. Their misbehavior is all the more awful because it doesn't stem from rage or volatility; these kids are just caught up in the hormonal surges that often lead to casual brutality. The movie follows several roving bands of boys and girls as they intermingle, often physically and in emotionally violent ways, and it chronicles the resultant power plays. The mounting insensitivity leads to a climax that's an adolescent version of a Hitchcock crime scene." — Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times. Also... Yen Town Report - produced by Shunji Iwai.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Heimat und Exil

Heimat und Exil - Home and Exile: Jewish Emigration from Germany since 1933 at the Jewish Museum Berlin. "...The exhibition centers on the assimilation of the individual Jewish refugees and emigrés against the backdrop of the particular social, economic and political conditions in the receiving countries.
The focus of the first part is the expulsion of the Jewish citizens from the 'community of the German nation' and the seizing of their property, manifestations of the coercion to emigrate in the early years of the National Socialist regime. After the beginning of the war this coercion condensed into a new form calling for the annihilation of the entire Jewish population in Europe."

Posters of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922

Het' Pana z Ukrainy! Artist Unknown... Het' Pana z Ukrainy! (Get the Pan out of Ukraine! 1920, Poster). From Posters of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922 at the NYPL Digital Gallery. "...213 posters, placards, and broadsides comprising one of the largest assemblages of such posters outside of Russia."

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Burroughs Corporation Image Database

Electric Adding Machine Paper Carriage (circa 1916, photographic positive print, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). From the Burroughs Corporation Image Database.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Mexico as Muse: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston

Mexico as Muse: Tina Modotti and Edward Weston, September 02, 2006 - Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at SFMOMA. "...For a few exhilarating years in the 1920s, two of the major figures in 20th-century photography, Tina Modotti and Edward Weston, shared a passionate partnership with each other. They also shared an intense romance with photography and with Mexico, where they lived together from 1923 to 1926. At that time, Mexico was experiencing a period of political and social reinvigoration, and the vibrant cultural climate was both inspiration for and subject of their art. This exhibition includes some of the most significant photographs they made during their time in Mexico, pictures that count among the most memorable from each artist's career."

Francisco Mata Rosas: Mexico Tenochtitlan

Francisco Mata Rosas: Mexico Tenochtitlan at ZoneZero (56 black & white photographs). "...One of the greatest pleasures my craft has given me is, without a doubt, the experience of the streets, our popular culture fed by a sense of belonging, tradition, imposition, history, resistance, violence, love of the land, solidarity, malice, music, sensuality, hopes and fears; to experience the street is to observe, listen, feel, smell and share… in order, finally, to photograph." Fantastic!

God Is At Work Within You

Little Marcy... God Is At Work Within You (.mp3 audio 02:05).

Collection of the Bolt Gallery CHP

Untitled Melinda Kovács... Untitled (1993, 1/1 - Photogram II. 27 X 30 cm). From the Collection of the Bolt Gallery CHP - The Outside Series No 1. (hu)

Monday, October 16, 2006

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

The opening of Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965, .wmv video 03:30) - the greatest American movie ever filmed. FPKK is on TCM this coming Friday. "...Wail!"

Rock'n'Roll High School

Richard Hell... Rock'n'Roll High School (New York Times, October 14, 2006). "...CBGB’s was like a big playhouse, site of conspiracies, orgies, delirium, refuge, boredom, meanness, jealousy, kindness, but most of all youth. Things felt and done the first time are more vivid. CBGB’s is where many things were felt with that vividness. That feeling is the real identity of the club, to me. And it’s horrible, or at least seriously sad, to lose it. But then, apparently, we aren’t really going to lose it."

USA Today

Aleksandra Mir... Beauty Free (2005, Felt tip pen on paper) "...Retro text and motifs evoking idealist 1960s Americana such as the draft, the baby boom, Civil War, road trips, the space race, the Bicentennial, love and God were sketched by Mir overnight and filled in by her helpers working in shifts each day and evening using black Sharpie felt tips pens. The process of collaboration, and the use of atypical materials – in this case a humble household marker pen – are similarly integral to the artist's working practice." From Selected Works by Aleksandra Mir, part of the exhibition USA Today at the Saatchi Gallery.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Rescuing Henry Darger

Interesting Ideas... Rescuing Henry Darger. A review of Michael Bonesteel's Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings. "...Darger is a major figure in 20th Century American art, and Bonesteel's disciplined introductory essay adds significantly to the well-known scraps of his story while avoiding the overreaching analysis so common to writing on outsiders. His description of Darger's creative methods serves to give him more coherence as an artist, while the account of Darger's one known adult friendship, references to the real life people whose names Darger used in his fiction and similar biographic items add social texture to a life that has seemed obscured in surreal isolation."

Fly Away

Lopez Walker... Fly Away (.mp3 audio 06:10). A Phase One extended release produced by the great Roy Francis. From the album Children Of Jah: The Chantells & Friends, 1977 -1979 (Blood and Fire BAFCD028). Thank you, DMc.

Friday, October 13, 2006

The Bad

The Crystalites... The Bad (1969, wma. audio 03:51). Instrumental version of The Kingstonians' "Winey, Winey" - produced by Derrick Harriott and featuring some hot licks by guitarist Lynn Taitt. My favourite rock steady instrumental.

Polixeni Papapetrou: Haunted Country

Polixeni Papapetrou: Haunted Country, September 7 - October 28, 2006 at Foley Gallery in New York, NY. "...Inspired by real and fictional accounts of children who have gone missing in the Australian bush, Papapetrou revisits the sites of the most notorious disappearances and stages scenes proposing what the physical and psychological circumstances may have been like for these lost and wandering children. These include sites in Victoria such as Wimmera, Daylesford and Hanging Rock where most cases of the 19th and 20th century have been reported.
The figure of this bush-lost child is one of the poignant themes in Australia's cultural remembering. Papapetrou's desire was to create photographs that embody the harrowing psychological aspects of these stories. She wants to draw the viewer into this emotional space, experience the undercurrent of the psychological drama unfolding and make connections between past and present consciousness about land and country." Also... additional Works by Polixeni Papapetrou at his personal site.

Yosuke Ueno

Yosuke Ueno... Beginning The Great Adventure (2006, acrylic on canvas). From Works by Yosuke Ueno. Also... Yosuke Ueno: Elephantasia, works by Yosuke Ueno currently on display at Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Rome. "...Yosuke Ueno is a young Japanese artist. He paints in a style very close to the pop surrealist artists from America. His first exhibition was held in Tokyo in 1994. More successful shows followed in Japan, in New York and in Los Angeles. Mondo Bizzarro Gallery is proud to present his work in Europe, for the first time."

Thursday, October 12, 2006

The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America

El Lissitzky... Victory Over The Sun - The Machinery (1923, color lithograph, estate of Katherine S. Dreier). From The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America. "...This stunning array of approximately 130 rarely seen works by major 20th-century avant-garde artists, including Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Man Ray, were crucial to the emergence of modern art in America. The works, from Katherine Dreier’s Société Anonyme Collection of Yale University Art Gallery and those Dreier bequeathed to The Phillips Collection, include key modernist masterpieces such as Joseph Stella’s Brooklyn Bridge and Franz Marc’s Deer in the Forest I." Also... Man Ray... Manikins (1924, Rayograph). From The Société Anonyme at the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Heri Dono: Civilization Oddness

Heri Dono: Civilization Oddness Heri Dono: Civilization Oddness at Walsh Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...Heri Dono's art, no matter what form it takes, reflects an internalization of the study of the illogical. One of his strengths is in creating complicit laughter to realize art as a vehicle of social critique. As the curator points out 'cartoon characters, although crushed to smithereens, never die.' In the 80s, Heri Dono's art explored the world of cartoons, while the rest of the Indonesian art world was caught up in a social commentary of a more gory sort. After studying with an eccentric puppet maker in Java, Heri Dono began to reinvent 'wayang,' or 'shadow puppets,' which is the traditional Javanese form of puppet-making. Javanese leather puppetry is an ancient art form that is still practiced on the island of Java and dates back to the 1st century. The actual forms and symbols used in this practice are filled with mystical meanings and some forms are even seen as sacred."

The Lafayette Negative Archive

Ras Mäkonnen (Wäldä-Mika'él) (The Lafayette Studio, 179 New Bond Street, London, August 1902). Ethiopian General & Governor of Harar, cr. Ras 1890; father of Emperor Haile Sellasie I. Photographed on his visit to England for the Coronation of King Edward VII, 12 August 1902. From The Lafayette Negative Archive - a catalogue to the Lafayette Negative Collection, held by the V&A Museum.

One Point English Lessons

One Point English Lessons from Vermilion Pleasure Night (QuickTime Video). "...Come on! Come on, Toshi! Come on!" From Milk and Cookies.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Run For Your Life

Lara & The Trailers... Run For Your Life (.mp3 audio 02:11). Smoke!

The Mouse that Roared: Ron Mann on Tales of the Rat Fink

Cinema Scope... The Mouse that Roared: Ron Mann on Tales of the Rat Fink by Adam Nayman. "...Excluding pro wrestlers and mob bosses, there aren’t many men who could live up to a nickname like 'Big Daddy.' It's an alpha-male moniker if there ever was one, at once outsized and self-deprecating, knowingly cocky and warmly paternal. Happily, the guy it was attached to was built to shoulder such a burden. Burly and beet-faced behind a tousle of dark hair, with a satyr's easy leer and a goatee to match, Ed Roth—the Beverly-Hills born hot-rod innovator and proto-kitsch impresario who emerged as one of the key figures of the '50s American counterculture—didn't just live up to the 'Big Daddy' gimmick: he lived it out." Also... the Trailer for Tales of the Rat Fink (QuickTime Video) from Tales of the Rat Fink at Sphinx Productions.

Mr. Monkey

The Spiders... Mr. Monkey (.mp3 audio 02:23). Vintage GS from Japan. The Spiders' ode to a guy who just can't stop doing the monkey dance. Love the whigged out guitar break.

Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis

Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. "...This exhibition honors the 95th birthday and life's work of architectural photographer Julius Shulman. For 70 years, Shulman steadily created one of the most comprehensive visual chronologies of modern architecture and the development of the Los Angeles region. The prints in the exhibition are selected from a portfolio of more than 70,000 images. Julius Shulman is renowned for some of the most iconic photographs in architectural history. His images seem to reveal the essence of an architect's vision and capture the spirit of the eras in which they were produced." Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis is currently on view at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Native Visions: Tribal Influence in German Expressionist Prints

Familie Emil Nolde... Familie (1917, woodcut, Signed in pencil lower right. Titled in the lower left corner by Ada Nolde. According to Noldes notes one of 16 impressions. On firm sturdy paper. Reference: Schiefler/Mosel 128 II). From the exhibition Native Visions: Tribal Influence in German Expressionist Prints at Pace Master Prints and Pace Primitive in New York, NY.

Yves Klein

Yves Klein... Anthropométries de l'époque bleue (1960, Flash Video 02:27) and Yves Klein réalisant des peintures de feu (1961, Flash Video 09:04). From the Yves Klein Archives, 21, avenue du Maine 75015 Paris.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Crying In A Storm

Rita Chao... Crying In A Storm (.mp3 audio 02:29). From Mod-ified Music. Get some! Also... an Instrumental version of Crying In A Storm by The Spotnicks off their album Spotnicks in Tokyo (1966, mp3 audio 02:28).

Nevermore: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection of Susan Jaffe Tane

Artist Unknown... Pen-and-ink silhouette of Edgar Allan Poe, signed with initials E.A.P. "...This is the only extant Poe silhouette from life, and one of only twelve known portraits of Poe executed in the author’s short lifetime." From the exhibition Nevermore: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection of Susan Jaffe Tane at the Hirshland Exhibition Gallery of Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University. "...With Nevermore, Cornell University Library celebrates one of America’s greatest writers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the achievements of a superb collector, Susan Jaffe Tane. Susan Tane’s extraordinary collection documents Poe’s remarkable life and work through the artifacts of his own hand in his own time. The exhibition features many of Poe’s unique manuscripts and letters, scarce copies of his first editions, rare examples of the original newspaper and magazine issues in which much of his work first appeared, and editions of his most famous poem, 'The Raven.'"

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Remembering Hungary '56: The Voice Of Freedom

Barbican Film... Remembering Hungary '56: The Voice Of Freedom. "...October sees the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was eventually crushed by Soviet troops, but was later hailed by Richard Nixon as 'the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.'
To mark this anniversary of one of the key events of the Twentieth Century, Barbican Film is screening a season of films in association with the Hungarian Cultural Centre."

The Lurch

Ted Cassidy with Gary Paxton... The Lurch (.mp3 audio 02:07). 1965, Capitol Records, producted by Bill Miller & Gary Paxton.

Contemporary Sculpture (From a private collection)

Panda Takashi Murakami... Panda ( 2003, Fiberglass with antique Louis Vuitton trunk). From the exhibition Contemporary Sculpture (From a private collection) at Zwirner & Wirth Gallery in New York, NY. "...The works here are culled from a private collection that has been assembled over the last three decades. As the selection here demonstrates, this is a collection which has both depth and breadth, and which expresses simultaneously a personal vision and an acknowledgement of the multidirectional quality of the contemporary art world. Though it is only a small subset of a much larger assembly, this grouping traces several significant threads that make up the current fabric of contemporary art.
Several of the works here reveal the way that artists today reflect upon the history of abstraction, updating it for a world in which distinctions between form and matter, idea and realization, and “non-objectivity” and representation are all but moot."

Friday, October 06, 2006

Literatų portretai

Ramunė Pigagaitė... Literatų portretai. (lt) Portraits of authors by Lithuanian photographer Ramunė Pigagaitė.

Kogoro Kurata - The Iron Artist

Kogoro Kurata... Heavy Metal Mac. From Monkey Farm - I'll make anything. Works by Kogoro Kurata. (jp) Also... With a warm spirit, I'll make anything. An interview with Kogoro Kurata, The Iron Artist (Stella #2). "...Measuring roughly 4m in length and weighing in at 2t, this overwhelming presence of force astounded fans of the legendary animation, 'Votoms.' Plastic models and small scale figures are understandable. But what kind of person would think of recreating 'Scope Dog,' one of the character robots, at full scale? And not because someone requested it. 'To create is to put your shoulder to the wheel and fulfill something.' 'It had been a while since I made something big, so I decided to show some manly guts.' (Excerpted from the blog, 'I'll make anything') With that show of enthusiasm, Kogoro Kurata single-handedly created an iron robot."

Buena

Morphine... Buena (.mp3 audio 03:19).

A Deaf Artist In Early America: The Worlds Of John Brewster Jr.

A Deaf Artist In Early America: The Worlds Of John Brewster Jr. A Deaf Artist In Early America: The Worlds Of John Brewster Jr., October 4, 2006 – January 7, 2007 at the American Folk Art Museum in New York, NY. "...John Brewster Jr. (1766–1854) was a deaf portrait painter who created beautiful and ethereal images of American people during the formative period of the nation. This is the first major exhibition in more than forty years to highlight Brewster’s extraordinary life and work. Born in Hampton, Connecticut, Brewster helped create a style of American portraiture that came to dominate rural New England. Brewster was influenced by the paintings of Connecticut artist Ralph Earl but simplified the settings and introduced broad flat areas of color, and soft, expressive facial features. He was especially sensitive to the sitter’s face, emphasizing his or her direct gaze—as a deaf artist, eye contact became a moment of engagement and communication." Also... Intense Visions by a Painter Who Couldn’t Hear by Holland Cotter (New York Times, October 6, 2006).

Mad Scientwist

Los Straitjackets with Kaiser George and The World Famous Pontani Sisters... Mad Scientwist (.wmv video 02:03). From the album Twist Party at Yep Roc Records.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Let The Mystery Be

10,000 Maniacs featuring David Byrne... Let The Mystery Be (.mp3 audio 03:10).

RIP: Dr. Leo Navratil

RIP: Dr. Leo Navratil. "...Dr Navratil was the founder of the Haus der Kunstler (artists' house) at Gugging. He initially gave his patients cards on which to draw human figures, using the results as an aid to his diagnosis of their condition. Not only did he observe how the depictions varied according to differing mental sates but he also became aware of the power and quality of works produced by some of his patients. He realised that among them there were some who were remarkably talented and they eventually became the nucleus of the little community he was able to establish at the hospital in Gugging. He became a hugely influential figure in the field of Art Brut and psychiatry was the author of a considerable body of authoritative works."

Dr Navratil encouraged his patients to write poetry as well. One such poem...

Die Hoffnung

Die Anmut der Frau.
Der Wille zur Schönheit
Die Schlauheit die Hoffnung.
Die Hoffnung das Glück.
Der Schuh drückt sehr.
Die Hoffnung drückt das Herz.
Das Herz tut weh.
Dauernd ist es der Tod.
Die Schönheit zur Hoffnung.

Hope

Female the grace.
Iron the will for beauty
Sly wisdom and hope.
That hope that happiness.
Painful small shoes.
Hurt with hope that painful small heart.
How painful that heart.
Lasting that one continual death.
That beauty for hope.

- Alexander

New Signs From Around the Loop

William Swislow... Harold's Chicken Shack #62 - on Wabash near Balbo, featuring a murderous king of chickens. From New Signs From Around the Loop at Interesting Ideas.

Hitting the Ground

Gordon Gano and PJ Harvey... Hitting the Ground (.mp3 audio 02:59).

Joe and Hasil

Joe and Hasil (Flash Video 06:10). Artist Joe Coleman visits musician Hasil Adkins. Excerpt from the film Rest In Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Viktor Schreckengost and 20th Century Design

Viktor Schreckengost and 20th Century Design Viktor Schreckengost and 20th Century Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art. "...In the 1940s, Schreckengost's designs for children's pedal cars (as well as bicycles and toys), helped Murray, Ohio become the world's largest manufacturer of pedal cars. His design and ceramic work was interrupted by World War II, when he was recruited by the Navy to develop a system for radar recognition that won him the Secretary of Navy's commendation. After the war, Schreckengost resumed his industrial design career creating products for Murray, Sears, General Electric, Salem China Company, and Harris Printing, among others. Approximately 100 million of his bicycles were manufactured by Murray, making it the largest bicycle-maker in the world. He retired from industrial design in 1972, but continues teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art." Also... The Viktor Schreckengost Foundation.

Little People

Slinkachu... Random Violence 01 | 02 | 03. From Little People - Little hand-painted people, left in London to fend for themselves.

Works by Laurie Simmons

Laurie Simmons... Walking Gun - The Music of Regret (2006, Gelatin silver print, edition of 5). From Works by Laurie Simmons at Sperone Westwater in New York, NY. "...Laurie Simmons's small tableaux, which she reproduces in photographs, generally take their cues from fashion advertising and interior design magazines, parodying them to excess. Chicly dressed dolls pose in fabricated environments in ways that suggest soap-operatic narratives revolving around alienation and loneliness brought on by consumerism and conventional gender stereotypes. Her latest show includes photographs of three new lightboxes tricked out as a ballroom, an art gallery and a library, as well as several early pieces that inspired her first, recently released film/musical, 'The Music of Regret.'"

Works by Ben Vautier

Ben Vautier... Je Suis noir et beau (I am black and beautiful, 1959, oil on canvas). From Works by Ben Vautier. (fr)

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Interview with Noriyoshi Ikeya

Midnight Eye... Interview with Noriyoshi Ikeya. "...Much like any of the other art forms that make up what we know as filmmaking, the world of set design has its own pantheon of great names. It will come as no surprise that the men responsible for shaping the visual audacity of Seijun Suzuki's films are among those considered at the very top. Noriyoshi Ikeya, who worked with unclassifiable master on his Taisho Trilogy, is one of those leaders. Midnight Eye meets up with an artist whose career spans everything from Ultraman to Rampo Noir."

Works by Rinko Kawauchi

Untitled Rinko Kawauchi... Untitled (2001, from the series 'Utatane', c-print on Forex). From Works by Rinko Kawauchi at Galerie Priska Pasquer. "...In her native Japan the 34-year-old Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi has become one of the most celebrated photographers of her generation. After appearing in several museum exhibitions and festivals in Europe (among others 'Rencontres de la Photographie,' Arles; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam: Photographers' Gallery, London) this exhibition will be the first extensive presentation of the photographer in Germany.
Works from the series 'Aila' (2004) as well as from the series 'the eyes, the ears' (2005) and 'Utatane' (2001) will be shown."

Rock 'N' Roll Boy

Justin... Rock 'N' Roll Boy (.mp3 audio 01:22). From the album Party Fun With Recorders, Volume 1 at Comfort Stand Recordings. "...Home Recordings. Children singing, screaming and storytelling. All recordings are sourced from cassette tapes found in thrift stores and junk shops, tapes dubbed for us and one tape was even found in a gutter! The only exception being the last track on this recording, by Grandpa Norm, singing to his grandson and we thought it fit quite nice on this compilation of home cassette recordings."

Monday, October 02, 2006

The Goblin Spider

The Goblin Spider - Rendered into English by Lafcadio Hearn (Macrae-Smith-Company, Philadelphia, Printed in color by hand from Japanese wood blocks).

Gyula Zaránd: High Step

High Step Gyula Zaránd: High Step at Origo Galéria. "...Gyula Zaránd is a significant and outstanding photographer. Personally he is not an ordinary phenomenon. He excels from the society of photographers with his erudition and intelligence, manners and sensitivity. He differed while living in Budapest, and has been doing so living in Paris. He is characterised by the same set of mind, the same interpretation of things. Paris was especially far away when he left Hungary but unlike the Hungarian photographers becoming famous in France in the 1930s he got to Paris as a mature artist cherishing a fruitful and inspiring relationship with his homeland. Although he has been living abroad for a quarter of a century I still consider him a Hungarian photographer. He is open to anything. He always finds opportunities to seize, pictures to take, things to say. He is the paragon of a photographer, using his third eye all the time, grown together with his camera. Everything is interesting for him, everything can be analysed." Also... Gyula Zaránd: Mongolia.

Capitão Romance

Gordon Gano with Ornatos Violeta... Capitão Romance (.mp3 audio 03:51). Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes has a go at singing in Portugese. Also... the Video for Capitão Romance (.mpg video 03:51).

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Fantasy Island

Radar Magazine... Fantasy Island - Inside Japan's surreal fetish clubs, perversions of every persuasion are indulged for the right price. "...Joan Sinclair, a 22-year-old photographer, was working as an English teacher in Tokyo when a friend dragged her to the city's infamous Kabukicho red-light district, a neon-drenched enclave packed with 5,000 sex shops that cater to an impressively specific array of sexual fantasies and fetishes. She was hooked. Eight years later, she returned with a camera and set out to document Japan's $20 billion sex-services industry, befriending hundreds of budding sex workers and their businessman clients. The results of her project are collected in a lush, vinyl-wrapped new book, Pink Box, published this month by Abrams. It provides a vivid glimpse into a subculture rarely seen by Westerners."

Romanian Stencil Graffiti Archive

Romanian Stencil Graffiti Archive. "...RSA is an archive of stencils from the walls of various towns in Romania. The authors of www.2020.ro are not the authors of the stencils, we are only documenting it. We at 2020 are based in Bucharest so most of the pictures of the stencils in Bucharest are taken by us. We would love to be able to travel around the country to document street art but unfortunately we can't do it all the time. The way we manage to document so many towns is thanks to people who kindly support RSA and are constantly sending us images from their towns." Via El Burlador. Bravo!