FILM AND ANDY WARHOL

I'm reading a biography on Andy Warhol as I write this and as such have been sort of voraciously researching and needing to see all the things I never knew I needed to see. I've always been sort of indifferent to a lot of his work, understanding that at the time he WAS doing something completely revolutionary with painting. It's just a personal thing, I guess- I'm not big on his colours and the obsession with celebrity- although the idea of consumerism as a subject matter is something I am (clearly?) drawn to.


He is known as being one of the worst filmmakers in history. I agree and disagree. Watch for yourself. 


The above 'Screen Tests' were filmed from early '64 through late '66 and were originally conceived as film portraits (I love this and have seen more contemporary takes on it in modern art museums in the recent past)- portraits done on film rather than on canvas.  Bob Dylan's piece was highlighted in 'Factory Girl' a few years back, and it has been said that Dylan got up within minutes and left the factory because he was disgusted by Andy's allegedly talentless leaching and worship of consumerism.


It's wild how differently each subject 'handles' their time in front of the camera. Nico seems a bit distracted, perhaps sort of self-conscious, while Lou Reed is the fucking epitome of cool indifference. Sedgwick is such a damaged, beautiful muse. Apparently Warhol also did screen tests with Allen Ginsberg and Donovan, but I can't find them!


I've also got some slices of 'Vinyl' (which you might also recognize from 'Factory Girl') and 'Blow Job Movie' with Gerard Malanga. 


An interesting way to watch?  Turn all the screen tests on at once.  Maybe a little Brady Bunch-y, but way cooler.


xo.s

S'MORE

Copyright Sara Nickleson 2010

This collage stuff is fun. Can't wait to paint these.

xo.s

SOME NEW WORK BY YOURS TRULY

Copyright Sara Nickleson, 2010.

I'm currently working on some digital collage that will likely become a series of paintings. Super excited.

xo.s

ROLAND TIANGCO'S DIRT POSTER

Parsons student Roland Tiangco's message to the 'information generation' is a clear one; that is, if you're willing to get it dirty. We're full of potential and there's much to be done. Go ahead, get on it.

I should talk.

Point is, this design is clever on so many levels. 

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xo.s

BARBARA KRUGER AT THE AGO

I would normally declare that I saw this on designboom first, but I can proudly say that my initial contact with this piece was in PERSON. I love living in Toronto.

From the boom:

"....a site-specific work by american artist barbara kruger is currently on display along the façade of the art gallery of ontario (AGO) in toronto. the public installation is located on the north facade of the frank gehry designed gallery as part of the contact photography festival. the piece was created by kruger in response to the festival’s theme ‘pervasive influence’. the work consists of a series of found images and statements that includes ‘shove it’, ‘love it’, ‘kiss it’, believe it’ and ‘shame it’. the project aims to explore ‘how photography informs and transforms human behavior, especially via the medium’s connections to mass media, advertising, consumerism, and propaganda.’ the installation will be on show until august 30, 2010"

These photos don't do it justice. I'd include some of mine, but they would do it even less. The lady's aim has always been impact, and impact she has. Kruger is an American Conceptual Artist known for the found black and white imagery she pairs with aggressive/generalized/short'n'sweet accusations on consumer culture, feminism and classicism. Her work leaves the viewer with the feeling of being in a power struggle with the artist, and it never ceases to amaze that Kruger is able to make us want to defend ourselves when we know she's right..... defend ourselves when we feel compelled to rebut that she doesn't 'know' us.... that the work of a single woman can accurately point fingers at SO many. However, let it be known that her work is not to put down, but to educate. To make us look more honestly at ourselves, one another, and the media we quietly consume. Tough love.

I'd like to write more but i'm off to work. check back?

xo.s

BRUCE MAU STUDIO: THE INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO

"Now that we can do anything, what will we do?"

"Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations.

1. Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.

3. Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. Go deep.
The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. Capture accidents.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

7. Study.
A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8. Drift.
Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

9. Begin anywhere.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

10. Everyone is a leader.
Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

11. Harvest ideas.
Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas
to applications.

12. Keep moving.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13. Slow down.
Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14. Don’t be cool.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

15. Ask stupid questions.
Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16. Collaborate.
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17. ____________________.
Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas
of others.

18. Stay up late.
Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

19. Work the metaphor.
Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20. Be careful to take risks.
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. Repeat yourself.
If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

22. Make your own tools.
Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

24. Avoid software.
The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. Don’t clean your desk.
You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26. Don’t enter awards competitions.
Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27. Read only left-hand pages.
Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

28. Make new words.
Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. Think with your mind.
Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

30. Organization = Liberty.
Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'

31. Don’t borrow money.
Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33. Take field trips.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

34. Make mistakes faster.
This isn’t my idea – I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. Imitate.
Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

36. Scat.
When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

38. Explore the other edge.
Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces – what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference – the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals – but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. Avoid fields.
Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

41. Laugh.
People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

42. Remember.
Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

43. Power to the people.
Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free"

Bruce Mau is a visionary.

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xo.s

ps- shoutout to sam sam!

pps- why is blogger being whack? I hate borders on my images. Grrr.

VANESSA BRUNO SS2010

vanessabruno-Le Bel Eté-SS2010 from presse vanessabruno on Vimeo.

I saw stills of this video on Scout Holiday - one of my favourite blogs ever- last week and I can't take my eyes off of it..... or Lou, of course. How can you??

Spring/Summer! (It's snowing where I am)

I shared it on facebook and the boys thought it was boring. This one's for the girls.....

click click Vanessa Bruno

xo.s

SANTIAGO YDANEZ

David Delfin and Gorka Postigo; collectors of Ydanez' work, in their home

I stumbled across the work of Santiago Ydanez very recently and haven't stopped staring. I have always been especially fond of portraiture for the obvious reasons: its ability to convey an acute and wide variety of human emotions; conveyance of striking realism or shocking mutation as seen in expressionist work; and always the intense reading of the EYES.

Ydanez works on 200cm canvases with minimalist colouring. Many of his pieces are done with more variation in hue, but I've chosen the above to showcase because I LOVE the strong contrast in his use of black and white.

What's most intriguing is his brushstroke; his work leans toward expressionism in its wild application of paint, however, it is evident that there is extreme calculation in his gestures. His portraits are not born of improvisation or of loose emotional abandon, but of painting used as an instrument and not an aim unto itself. It is an extremely successful pairing of opposite schools of thought.

While researching Ydanez I came across one of the reference images he had shot himself for one of his many 'untitled' works (top). He covers his subjects' faces in everything from (what looks to be) food colouring to whipped cream before photographing their screaming, twisted visages.

It's brilliant. So powerful. Be sure to have a look at the gallery video!

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xo.s

THAT'S NICE

Back in April I did an iPhoto mashup-type post that I'm feeling again today. Enjoy.

xo.s

INFOGRAPHIC MONEY CONCEPT

I just saw this on designboom and think it's brilliant.

"Tokyo-based designer Mac Funamizu wondered what would happen if we rethought how coins were designed with an infographic perspective. He remarks on the merits and drawbacks of round coins, and while he acknowledges their benefits, he wanted to see if they could be redesigned in a way that was more universally understood. This would benefit travelers and people not accustomed to a specific currency...... each coin (has) an infographic form that corresponds to a pie chart"

Absolutely, there are drawbacks. But Funamizu is sure to point out that he designs concepts on his blog simply to explore new ideas that he knows might not translate perfectly into a real-life market. He invites readers to leave their feedback and even take his idea further- perhaps even into production- if they contact him. He is a working industrial and graphic designer and he designs and posts concepts on his blog for his own enjoyment.

I love that there is someone willing to share their ideas without the expectation of monetary benefit. Some of the projects are copyrighted, but for the most part he invites people to make them happen if they feel inclined. Most people hoard their ideas in fear that someone else will make a profit; why not share them if you have no intention of producing and allow someone else to bring your thoughts to fruition?

And the coins are great. Helvetica, you're a paradigm.

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xo.s