14 posts tagged “art”

It's a beautiful thing when one thing leads to another.

Although Chico had sent me a mix he was working on of Santogold's L.E.S. Artistes (xxxchange remix) with LCD Soundsystem a few days ago, it wasn't until Danny's discovery of Badical Music that I encountered the L.E.S. Artistes music video. As if Santogold couldn't stand on her own two feet alone with her music, the video directed by Nima Nourizadeh visually compliments the strength and power of her song through a playfully visceral assemblage of images and actions.

After being completely blown away I naturally moved along from link to link until I discovered Nourizadeh's other work on this website, videos which were equally as exciting and compelling as the first. Mark Ronson and Lily Allen's song Oh My God is undeniably catchy, but the video adds a remarkable level of coy charm through a modern interpretation of the Jessica Rabbit scene from Who's Framed Roger Rabbit. Awesome, right?

Francz V remarked that the Hot Chip video for Ready For The Floor is 'very Devo'. Coming to terms with my generation and truly, honestly, not really knowing what 'very Devo' means, I'm just going to assume it translates to 'wickedly radsauce modern performance piece to wacky electro music'. Enjoy!

Show us a photo that makes you cringe.

Utilizing the gentle dichotomy between the nostalgic and the carnivorous, Nicolas Lampert makes viewers look twice in his collection of collages he's classified as 'Meatscapes'. A fan of over-sized meat in public spaces (see his 'Attention Chicken!' installations), Lampert creates visual mash-ups of landscapes and what seems to be large portions of meat sampled from vintage food ads. The result is an almost seamless composition that may cause you to cringe, but in a meaty sort of way.

What's the best gift you received this year?

To finalize our careers as art majors at my college, the handful of art majors rented a space downtown to display all of our work.  The space is somewhat haphazard, an entire floor with various open spaces and tiny rooms with windows in which the majors distrubted and hung their art.  Since my project could only be viewed in the tiny sketchbooks I rendered my drawings in, I only needed a single room with a very simple display.  A few of the collages I did last minute are taped to the wall, and a tiny pedastle holds two of my sketchbooks.

The opening was this afternoon starting at 2pm, but since I've become out of the loop I didn't know until I headed over at 3:30 with my two friends Sarah and Meggie.  When I got there, it felt like a real opening.  There were some refreshments at the front, but the entire space was filled with students who excitedly went from room to room to look at the various art being displayed.  Most of the other majors had ambitious paintings and sculptures to enjoy and I felt that my work was somewhat meek and overlooked in comparison.  Thankfully, I began to notice people heading into my room, crowding around the books and looking on collectively.  I got a lot of compliments, but I'm awkward about compliments, so I tried to be anti-social and sort of fluttered around the viewers.

All in all it was a fun experience.  I'm very proud of the other majors, and it was nice to sort of celebrate our coming together in this final display.  After we hung around for a while, Sarah, Meggie, and I went to Soul Dog for a mid afternoon treat.  Organic chicken-dog with vegetarian chili and some chilled gazpacho.  Yum.

a few things to mention!

1.  At the start of my final crit with the art deparment earlier this week, one of my professors proclaimed that he had a conversation with his wife about me earlier that morning, and that he had finally figured out that I was a 'conceptual artist'.  I didn't even know that, but it made me somewhat gleeful to have something to tell hip people at all those swanky artist bars I'll go to after I graduate.

2. When straightening my hair last week, I touched the straightening iron to the edge of my ear and burned it a little bit.  For a few days it looked like my ear was turning into a zombie.  Thankfully, it healed.

3. Speaking of zombies, I found out a great way to pretend like I got some sleep!  Fix up a fancy outfit, apply a little eyeliner.  Wear a gem on my ring that'll keep people's eyes away from the dark circles.  And a large cup of joe.  Cheers!

Yesterday artist Philip Taaffe gave a lecture at his school about the overarching history of his work.  It was one of the longer artist lectures I have attended, but his images were relatively engaging so I don't think I paid too much attention to the time passing by.  Instead of going through his paintings chronologically, he grouped them side by side to demonstrate the visual parallels between his years of work.  He was well spoken and an intriguing character, but his overall coverage of his life's work was a little disjointed in my opinion. 

Either way, I thought some of his paintings were truly fantastic.  I've included my favorites that I collected from his website here.  Just thought I'd share!

On a side note:

I have officially determined that I do not write on my Vox as much as I used to, and it pains me in turn.  I think that its always given me a certain degree of relief to set my activities aside for a few minutes and decorate my personal blog with posts about things and events that interest me.  I used to blog every day. I don't know if I can do that anymore (still working on two theses) but I'm aiming for at least 2-3 times a week instead.

Sadly, someone stole my digital camera at a club when I was in Miami over Spring Break, so I may have to be a little creative with the image integration.  This post doesn't really count, considering its about a painter who makes paintings.  Say it ain't so!

While your local mall rats are busy pawing their greasy fingers over Emo 1-UP Mushroom sweatbands and run-of-the-mill "retro gaming" T-shirts, feel free to turn your nose up and stroll on over to the I am 8-bit exhibit as a cultured alternative. I am 8-bit, originally displayed in 2005, serves up the more refined examples of gaming culture through a collaborative display of paintings, sculptures,and interactive art inspired by the classic games that have deeply impacted gaming pop culture over the past few decades.

A recent Game Informer interview with curator Jon Gibson reveals what to look forward to at I am 8-bit’s exhibit in its third year, with mention of a work that’ll match the awe of the giant 8-foot NES controller from the premiere show.  Gibson also yields some interesting views on gaming as an art form, as informed by concept art developed for games that is never seen by the larger public:

Well, anyone who knows me in the industry is well aware that I love concept art from games — especially looking at modern stuff. Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Psychonauts — all these games have amazing concept art that stands separate for the awesomeness of the games themselves. It’s ironic that a handful of the artists in the show actually conceive all that art…There is consistently great art out there in the game industry, and paying tribute to that is an important step, I think, to other industries like film and music taking gaming seriously as an art form. Most people just think games make themselves.

Plug that information into your brain sockets folks -- games are art! So if you’re in the So-Cal area, be sure to check out the exhibit at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight in Los Angeles, opening April 17 through May 12, 2007. Can’t round up enough clams to get a ticket out there? Then take a sneak peak at last year’s exhibit in episode 6 of The G-Hole.

For more on gaming and gaming culture, check out MTV's Gamedrop!