Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Post-Human Nightmares - The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema

Midnight Eye... Post-Human Nightmares - The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema. "...A man wakes up one morning to find himself slowly transforming into a living hybrid of meat and scrap metal; he dreams of being sodomised by a woman with a snakelike, strap-on phallus. Clandestine experiments of sensory depravation and mental torture unleash psychic powers in test subjects, prompting them to explode into showers of black pus or tear the flesh off each other's bodies in a sexual frenzy. Meanwhile, a hysterical cyborg sex-slave runs amok through busy streets whilst electrically charged demi-gods battle for supremacy on the rooftops above. This is cyberpunk, Japanese style: a brief filmmaking movement that erupted from the Japanese underground to garner international attention in the late 1980s."

Dr. Who Theme

Delia Derbyshire... Dr. Who Theme (1964, Decca F11837.mp3 audio 02:22).

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Doug Rickard: A New American Picture

Doug Rickard: A New American Picture Doug Rickard: A New American Picture at Stephen Wirtz Gallery. "...Rickard’s series consists of color photographs of American street scenes, located using the internet tool Google Street View. Rickard takes full advantage of the technology’s comprehensive image archive to virtually drive the unseen and overlooked roads of America, bleak places that are forgotten, economically devastated, and abandoned. Collectively, these images present a startling photographic portrait of the socially disenfranchised, providing deeply affecting evidence of the American Dream inverted." More... Works by Doug Rickard at his personal site.

Alfred Bish: Life and Lumbering in Chippewa Falls

Alfred Bish: Life and Lumbering in Chippewa Falls at the WHS. "...A remarkable collection of newly digitized historical photographs by Alfred A. Bish documents life in turn-of-the-20th-century Chippewa Falls, with particular attention to the area's lumbering industry and the landscape of the region. Additional photos in the collection depict the area's many mills and factories along with area residents posing for Bish's cameras in his studio.
Bish came to Chippewa Falls in 1887, probably from his home state of Indiana. The city, which had a population of about 12,000 in 1900, is located on the Chippewa River in heavily wooded northern Wisconsin. It owed its rapid growth and prosperity at this time to the then-thriving lumbering industry. Bish quickly established his reputation as a photographer with his striking images of lumbering activities, as well as other local businesses and the northern Wisconsin landscape.
In 1894 Bish expanded his photographic activities by opening his own photography studio on Central Street, developing a successful portrait business. He became respected as a prominent local citizen and the proprietor of what The Chippewa Times in 1900 called 'one of the best businesses of its kind in northern Wisconsin.'
The Historical Society's collection contains 335 photos by Bish, including glass plates and original prints, with 150 of them now online."

J. G. Ballard - The Atrocity Exhibition (JG Ballard and the Motorcar, 1970); The Unmade films of JG Ballard (1990)

J. G. Ballard - The Atrocity Exhibition (JG Ballard and the Motorcar, 1970); The Unmade films of JG Ballard (1990)
at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...James Graham Ballard (15 November 1930–19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction. His best-known books are Crash (1973), adapted into a film by David Cronenberg, and the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun (1984), made into a film by Steven Spielberg, based on Ballard's boyhood in the International Settlement and internment by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War.
The literary distinctiveness of his work has given rise to the adjective 'Ballardian', defined by the Collins English Dictionary as 'resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard’s novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.'"

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Gamera tai daiakuju Giron

Gamera tai daiakuju Giron (Gamera vs. Giron, aka. Attack Of The Monsters, 1969, Daiei Motion Picture Company, directed by Noriaki Yuasa). "...Aliens kidnap two children and take them to another planet in an attempt to lure Gamera into fighting the fierce monster, Guiron."

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Self-Portraits by Jen Davis

Self-Portraits by Jen Davis at Zone Zero. "...In this body of work, I deal with the insecurities associated with my body image and the direct correlation between self-perception and the way one is perceived by others. Photography is the medium that I use to tell my story through life, an outlet for revealing my struggles and thoughts in regards to the society in which we live. A society that dictates beauty based on ones physical appearance." More... Works by Jen Davis at her personal site.

Stephan Crasneanski - Landscapes and Memories

Stephan Crasneanski - Landscapes and Memories at Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne, Germany. "...Stephan Crasneanscki gained international recognition since 2000 with his 'Soundwalks' in cities around the world (among others with Paul Auster at Ground Zero, New York and with Gong Lin in Beijing). Echoing the impulse of his Soundwalks the artist concentrates in his photographic works on places and landscapes of remembrance. While in his previous 'Ulysses' Series it were the ancient places of Greek mythology in the current exhibition 'Landscapes and Memories' are places of inspiration and remembrance of modern and contemporary artists. Exhibited are works that are dedicated to Leo Tolstoy, Akira Kurosawa and Kasimir Malevich.
"

The Rabbit Gallery

The Rabbit Gallery - a new "pop-up" art gallery opens in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin today. "...A pop-up gallery is an art gallery which utilizes for-sale spaces in urban areas to fill the empty store fronts that are detrimental to small communities, while also giving artists a professional space to display their work and marketingand potentially selling the property." Good luck to all involved.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Works by Hideaki Kawashima

Cloudy Sky Hideaki Kawashima... Cloudy Sky (2010, Acrylic on Canvas). From Works by Hideaki Kawashima at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.

Me and Mao

Me and Mao - photographs by Louise Chin and Ig Aronovich of Lost Art. "...Tiananmen, or the 'Gate of Heavenly Peace' is a famous monument in Beijing and a national symbol in China. The gate was built in 1420 and is the front entrance to the Forbidden City.
Since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 the central gate has an image of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) suspended over it.
Tiananmen is one of the top tourist attractions in Beijing and with the increase of internal tourism in China on any given day it is possible to see Chinese tourists from several regions posing for photos in front of Mao's portrait.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Jane Hilton: Dead Eagle Trail

Jane Hilton: Dead Eagle Trail at Nailya Alexander Gallery in New York, NY. More... Works by Jane Hilton at her personal site.

Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo

Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo (Flash Video 09:50). Yes! The entire film is online. This is part one of eleven (1973, directed by Miguel M. Delgado).

La Pistola Y El Corazón

Los Lobos... La Pistola Y El Corazón (1988, Slash 9 25790-1 .mp3 audio 03:25).

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Dalí - Television Advertisements, Spots, & Appearances (1960s-70s)

Salvador Dalí... Television Advertisements, Spots, & Appearances (1960s-70s) at UbuWeb Film & Video.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Night Vision: Photography After Dark

Night Vision Night Vision: Photography After Dark at the Met. "...In the 1930s, inspired by the pioneering work of Brassaï in Paris and Bill Brandt in London, photographers began to turn their attention to the social life of the city at night, from the convivial hubbub of Little Italy's Feast of San Gennaro to the top-hatted elegance of opening night at the opera. Others were drawn to the gritty underworld of nocturnal outlaws or to lone figures on the margins, picturing the night as a shadowy realm of pleasure, danger, and transgression. More recently, artists have delved even deeper, adapting techniques of police and military surveillance (hidden cameras, searchlights, infrared film) to pry into hidden corners of the night, driven by an ageless desire to make darkness visible."

The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection

The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection at the Library Of Congress. "...This exhibition, drawn from a recent gift, features Civil War-era ambrotype and tintype photographs of Union and Confederate soldiers. The collection’s detailed portraits document the soldier uniforms, weapons, musical instruments and other possessions and include significant representation of African American troops and the families of soldiers. The exhibition marks the beginning of the Library’s sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War and brings new attention to the war as a seminal event in American history."

Charles Swedlund: Circa 1955

Charles Swedlund: Circa 1955 at Stephen Daiter Gallery in Chicago, IL. "...Until now, Swedlund has remained largely unknown to the collecting public, despite his inclusion in countless exhibitions and museum collections, and a thirty-year teaching career that included authorship of one of the standard texts in the field, Photography: A Handbook of History, Materials,and Processes."