“People of all ages are living with many conflictions and emotions which easily change from moment to moment; they are reflected on the complex ind as though they were carefully braided into it. We live from day to day with contradictions that do not yield any answers and conflicting emotions and pretend to be unaware of them.“
Kanemaki using camphor wood as his medium.
-Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, ‘memento mori’, 2014
Dust is the remainder of life, a surplus substance we ignore whereever possible, satisfied to give ot consideration only when dealing with its removal. Collecting in corners and underfoot, its contents nevetheless reveal must about the life that goes on in the rooms where it is found.
Klaus Pichler takes an unfomfortably close look at the dust bunnies of various establishments, drawing our attention to the evidence, ot thought invisible, that we leave in our wake.
It isn’t a study of life as we would present it to be, but rather, life in its more grounded form, before we’ve swept away the unwanted.
“..The thing is, we are controlled by a compulsion to get rid of dust. Dust, we believe, does not agree with us, because it conceals everything we create. Dust is the devil’s trap, revealed only once it has caught its prey. Haven’t we been forever treading all evil into the dust? Was the snake not cursed to grovel in the dust? Klaus Pichler’s photographs have shaken off the demons. They urge us to look more closely next time we sweep dust and grime onto a pan. We always used to call it dirt, blind to this whole universe. Only now do we realize how privileged dust mites actually are. They live in palaces of amazing beauty and it has never once crossed their minds to vanish into a cloud of dust.“ Josef Haslinger, 2014
Mosse, when learning that Kodak’s Aerochrome film he’d been experimenting with was to be discontinued, traveled to the Congo with the remaining rolls he had, and shot what he saw. Mosse’s brand of ominous documentary reporting turning into conceptual art - aligning the two disparate elements.
“We don’t see in pink, but we don’t see in black and white either.” - Richard Mosse
“Who cares what people think of the colour? I use pink because it feels inately powerful to me.” - Lynda Benglis
‘Whiskey Helps’ - Amanda Manitach - 2015. Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle.
“Shut up I wear heels bigger than your dick”
“Fuck you and your Instagram”
“Her protagonists take the place of the 19th Century “Hysterical” figure to present a tongue-in-cheek commentary on everything from the Freudian cliche of “penis envy” to waxing, to Beyonce: all while seductively posing her figures in tight shirts, no pants, and inscriptions brazenly written across the breast.
She was selling the coolest t-shirts; but I could never pull them off.
Julia Borissova -
“I reflect on how with the lapse of time some details are erased from our memory and every time we recall something from the past, we construct another image replacing some parts by new ones. I’m trying to do the same with the pictures. This way I’m also trying to achieve the connection between modern dimension and telling a story.”
Winnie Troung - Select Works - 2013
“I am still very interested in creating work that straddles that subliminal space between hair as beautiful and hair as something abject and grotesque.”
This Thursday, the Seattle Art Museum will be playing the Federico Fellini film, 8 ½. I admit, the first time I heard about Fellini wasn’t in any of my art history classes, but from the cartoon ‘Daria’. I believe they briefly mentioned him twice - which was enough to pique my curiosity as to who he was and what he filmed.
Jane: How about Screecher II? I heard those blood-sucking eyeballs look really cool when they burst.
Tom: Actually, I’m kind of in the mood for a movie with a plot. Hey…Daria left me a message about a Fellini film festival.
Jane: Oh, yeah? You gave Daria your number?
Tom: You did. So we could go rescue her from “mother/daughter bonding day”?
Jane: Right, right, right.
Tom: I guess she remembered the debate we got into on Fellini’s symbolism.
Jane: I do, too–one of the best naps I ever had.
Tom: Hey, the cinema can be more than bursting eyeballs.
Jane: “The cinema?”
Tom: Look, do you want to see La Dolce Vita?
Jane: I think I’ll pass.
Tom: Fine.
and
Jane - Be my guest. Oh… by the way, uh, thanks for leaving that message on Tom’s machine about La Dolce Vita.
Daria - Hey, watching a dead fish wash up on shore always puts me in a good mood.
Things I learned at the LA Art show:
1) Stendhal Syndrome is a real thing.
2) Asian art galleries have a real presence. In Seattle, I rarely hear about them, but in Portland/Vancouver/LA, they had a major presence there.
3) Mr. Brainwash (Whom I thought was ‘fake’ from 'Exit through the Gift Shop’) Had a couple of works shown: and apparently he signs half a 2 dollar bill, rips it in half, then keeps the other half, in order to prove authenthicity
4) I asked a dealer if he had any Kandinksy works: he asked if I was interested in buying - when I said no, I was just curious, he just gave me the cold shoulder then walked away. Damn salesmen.
5) Seattle’s art scene < art scene everywhere else.
6) The red carpet is literally red.
Amazing Face-Paintings Transform Models Into The 2D Works Of Famous Artists
by Valeriya Kutsan
“A Matter of Life and Death” - Movie - 1946
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Shot of the movie where a bomber pilot, who went to Heaven, is trying to argue for more time on Earth.
“Three out of six surfaces of the cube are made of flexible membrane (foil mirror) with air tank and a compressor connected to it and the other three mirrors are semi transparent spy-glass. By inflating or deflating the air tank, the membrane turns convex or concave, deforming the reflections.”
Numen - N-Light Membrane - 2009
Aakash Nihalani - Optical Illusions
“People need to understand that how it is isn’t how it has to be”
