Plus9 (-15) Plus18 - 12 neat links from 2008

Weegee... Summer, The Lower East Side, 1937. From the Weegee Collection at Amber Online. "...Classic documentary photographs of New York taken between the 1930s and the 1960s. The work was given to Amber by Weegee's widow Wilma Wilcox following Side Gallery's organisation of the first tour of his work in the UK in the early 1980s." (January)

Ediciones Eloísa Cartonera Book Covers. "...Following Argentina's economic collapse in late 2001, the Eloisa Cartonera company arose from the ruins in Almagro, a lower middle-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires. In a broken-down shop on Guardia Street, young writers and artists have established an art gallery and bookshop that serves as the public face of Eloisa Cartonera, a publishing house that makes original books from recycled cardboard and cheap prints and sells them for less than 5 pesos ($1.60) each, about a third the price of a conventional paperback. The book covers are printed with rough stencils and poster paints." (February)

Miroslav Tichý at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York. "...Using self-made cameras, constructed from tin cans, bottle caps and plastic, Tichý captured the poetry of everyday life in photographic images. Making only one print from each negative, Tichý created compositions featuring mainly anonymous female characters who lent themselves unwittingly to his practice. Taking mothers, students, waitresses and others as his live models, situated on park benches, sunbathing, or even on TV screens, these intimately scaled black and white prints often feature hand-drawn details and a washy, mottled print quality. Some of the works feature elaborate ink or watercolor, cardboard framing elements. The resulting works fall dynamically between painting and photography, between image and object, embracing chance, and time in a unique process of presentation and production." (March)

La Lupe... Fever (1961, .mp3 audio 02:45) (April)

Scott Teplin: Alphaville at Adam Baumgold Gallery. "...The visitor to this exhibition becomes a present-day undercover detective Lemmy Caution, the protagonist of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 film, ALPHAVILLE, for which the show is titled after. Teplin has filtered the city of Alphaville through his own imagination and drawn a world devoid of people - only evidence of their domestic and work environments remain for exploration." (May)

Kai-Ray... I Want Some Of That (1961, Brite Star 2267 .mp3 audio 03:10). (June)

GUTAI - 5 Videos, 1956-1962. "...Japanese avant-garde group. Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai (Gutai Art Association) was formed in 1954 in Osaka by Yoshihara Jiro, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, Shiraga Kazuo, and Shimamoto Shozo. The word has been translated into English as 'embodiment' or 'concrete'. Yoshihara was an older artist around whom the group coalesced and who financed it. In their early public exhibitions in 1955 and 1956 Gutai artists created a series of striking works anticipating later Happenings and Performance and Conceptual art. Shiraga's Challenge to the Mud 1955, in which the artist rolled half naked in a pile of mud, remains the most celebrated event associated with the group." (July)

Charlie Feathers... Cold Dark Night (.mp3 audio 02:18). Recorded in 1968 at Select-O-Hit Studios in Memphis, TN. Found on the album That Rock-A-Billy Cat (1979, Barrelhouse BH-014). (August)

Esther Pearl Watson... Clothes from the Future (acrylic on panel, 8" X 10"). From Works by Esther Pearl Watson. Angels and UFOs. (September)

Making It Real: Photomontage Before Photoshop at Keith de Lellis Gallery in New York. "...a group exhibition of photographic-montage produced in the 19th and 20th centuries using low-tech, pre-computer age ingenuity. These hand-wrought and darkroom created images have been painstakingly produced by innovative photographers who developed the technical know-how and craftsmanship, to forsake reality for the 'constructed image.'" (October)

Rosnah & The Siglap Five... Gembira Ria (.mp3 audio 02:36). An exceptionally cool track from 1966 Malaysia. (November)

Ros Sereysothea.... Chnam oun Dop-Pram Muy "I'm 16" (.mp3 audio 03:59). More information at Khumer Music and A voice from the killing fields, Nik Cohn's May 2007 piece from The Observer Music Monthly. (December)