Modern Art

Thought this is funny and so true.

Never put a blanket over an owl

Mr Ross Noble - Randomist

Mr Noble bases his comic routine on improvisation, randomisation and surrealism with a stream of consciousness delivery. Watch it to understand it.

Most endearing accent ever!

Urban existentialism.

Have you ever had the sudden feeling of surreality when you're in the midst of a city? When you're standing on the street, sitting at a cafe, or just looking out of a window, do you suddenly feel as though everything seems to be somewhat alien, or perhaps existentially remote? That all the concrete buildings around you seem to be odd forms that uniquely define the worldly space which you inhabit? That the word "city" seems to hold much more to it in terms of an inexplicable understanding or feeling that transcends description in language?












I recently begun exploring film photography - Lomography, specifically - and I find that film photos seem to be able to capture that feeling of urban surreality. The photos above that I posted were taken on my first ever roll of film, and they aren't exactly the best photos, but hopefully, they will be able to convey what I mean. Of course, as T.S. Eliot says in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock,

It is impossible to say just what I mean!

Lacroix, La Coeur de la Couture.

I went to the Christian Lacroix: The Couturier exhibition today. It's hard to explain how excited I was, and I really did love the exhibition - went through it twice! And I don't suppose that was enough. Thankfully, the exhibition lasts until mid-June.

In any case, I took a handful of photos, but I won't show them all here because it wouldn't be fair to those who haven't seen the exhibition. What I can show is one of what I feel is the best photo out of the many I took:



The real reason why I am writing this post, however, can be found in what Lacroix said in a 1998 interview with L'Journal d'ESMOD about his work with costumes in theatre:

"On stage, everything is symbol, effect, illusion; the costume must speak from the moment the actors, dancers or singers set foot on stage, assisting them physically by being comfortable, but also spiritually by underlining their acting and their role's character."

In a contemporary world where art has long stepped beyond the threshold of postmodernism, one wonders if the elaborate costumes of Lacroix still hold any more relevance to art. What has the avant-garde movement taught us? What can it still teach us? Does avant-garde still have anything to teach us?

Today, the stages of theatre are all minimalist - they are all barren theatrical deserts in a stark, clinical white, with perhaps the occasional block to perhaps represent a chair, a table, or even a rock. Even period pieces are rife with anachronisms; a recent production of Pride & Prejudice that I watched featured spot-on period costumes, but a suspended series of empty, black photo frames; during the interval, characters in their Victorian garb swirled onto stage, and then proceeded to dance in a contemporary, Broadway fashion.

It seems almost impossible for us to understand history without reinterpreting it into our own terms. We don't even understand the eighteenth century any more - not without pretending that Darcy and Elizabeth lived in the twentieth century. The world that has broken itself free from tradition is now hopping along at a supersonic pace, seemingly fixed on an irreversible path towards the eternalisation of history in fanciful photowork, plastic replicas, and scripted tours.

The real irony of modern museums is this: in our quest to resurrect history, we have injected our own plastics into its veins and vested it in our own synthetic fabrics, but history ultimately remains a dead, lifeless corpse.

oh sheeeeet.

i never knew my previous post was that long. oops =)

hi. this is jun.

hi. this is jun.

i usually dont blog here cause i have a blog.

but ill like to talk about two arty farty events i did this week. (wait digress a bit. the boys in st andrews have never heard of the term arty farty. and im talking about the ART boys how weird)

i went to watch Les Contes d'Hoffmann on tue.
an opera in french.
i liked it.
you know all those posters around with this girls face that looks kinda creepy?
thats the opera.
i love stage costumes. always forever so pretty!
and the singers had such GORGEOUS voices. totally enchanting!

erm. but it was a rather dark tale.
all the main characters died.
about this hoffmann person and the three loves of his life.

anyway.

second arty farty event.
shu, yilin and i went for - Christian Lacroix the costumier.
HE IS SIMPLY AMAZING!
everybody please please please do go for this exhibition!

erm by the way hes a fashion designer and this exhibition are his costume designs.
they literally take your breath away and made the three of us go, "WOW."

its on till 7 june and for us poor students admission is free!!!
so all you lazy people if you have never step foot in the national museum before in your entire life this is ONE exhibition worth going for.

and while im on this thread i forgot i actually went for a third arty farty event i went to 8Q (yes again). the exhibition thats on right now is quite cool actually. the works are works of local artists who went overseas to make a name of themselves. now their works are back in sing for this one special exhibition so yeaa do go =) the exhibition is called @ home abroad. its on till july as well. with works from people like jason lim and erm... jason lim. and more =)

"This is not a Print!" is also still on till july i think. all the famous pop artists works, basically jasper johns, david hockney, claes oldenberg, john newman, roy lichtenstein that gang. worth taking a look too. because these are internationally reknown artists and it issnt every day that their works come over.

singapore needs more of such exhibitions!

and if you dont know where 8Q is, or what it is, you really truly suck.

anyway back to Christian Lacroix.

take a look at his spring collection.

http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/2009/spring/main/europe/womenrunway/christianlacroix/#slide2&ss1

just imagine his costume design. A LOT MORE DRAMATIC.
and his sketches are simply stunning! his water colour technique is soooooooooo good! now i want to go and learn water colour too. like seriously im gonna search for a course and go learn haha.

his bio.

Christian Lacroix designs clothes that are glamorous, expensive-looking, and unapologetically dramatic. Such an aesthetic implored fame on the French label, which eventually came to epitomize the eighties through the designer's use of sumptuous fabrics (velvet, satin, taffeta) and overlapping patterns (patchwork, stripes), all of which left buyers clamoring for more. However, for such a momentous name in fashion, Lacroix fell into the industry by chance, as he spent his childhood in Arles, France and enjoyed attending bullfighting events, and then went on to study art history with dreams of becoming a museum curator or costume designer. Yet, he was destined for high fashion.

after going to this exhibition, I WANT TO DO FASHION DESIGN TOO!!!
haha.
maybe i was destined for high fashion too.
just that i havent discovered it.
yet.
hahaha.

sighh. you dont know how many times we sighed while looking at his works. partly because they were so good and also partly because they were so beyond us. (we would take forever to reach his standard)

anyway, his shows curator was fantastic too =)


if theres anyone who wants to go visit any of these arty farty places, i can go with you!!
yayy.
okay. end of my first post.

The Cinematic Orchestra

i just came back from jazz-electronic outfit The Cinematic Orchestra's gig at Esplanade Concert Hall

the moment the sound hit me on their first piece...i was this close to crying. My eyes sort of scrunched up and my lips trembled and i had to put my hands to my cheeks to get a hold of myself. Seeing one of your most respected bands live...drives the happiest pain through your chest.



(I wonder what will happen to me if radiohead do come down to singapore. Probably would drown in my own tears.)

Burn out - the song that drove me to tears.



Evolution - they didn't play this song today, I wish they had. The jam is so sick.



i have to commend the drummer tonight...Luke Flowers. He was absolutely amazing. If I ever become a famous performer, I want to be like him when I play live. The drumset is his playground; and he plays like the happiest person in the world.


All Things to All Men - another song i wished they had played. Absolutely haunting, I can't even begin to describe.


What a night.

Untitled

The topic of titles (that sounds almost oxymoronic) in art is so intriguing that I'd like to write more about it. I think it's extremely thought-provoking that one can exhibit something simple like a snow shovel as a work of art, and title it 'In Advance of the Broken Arm', which is what Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp did. In this case, the juxtaposition of the title with the object reveals new insight into the form of an otherwise mundane household object. In fact, one could extend this line of thinking to claim that the work exists solely because of the title conferred on it. Without the title, it would cease to exist and would be returned to its original status as a readymade.

You call this an arm?

From this, we can see that the function of titles is by no means limited to mere description of a work, as it traditionally has been. Titles can be mentally challenging, asserting a relationship between two obviously different subjects. Even leaving a work untitled, or for that matter calling it 'Untitled', can take on a meaning or significance. With the title as a tool in addition to the paintbrush, artists have even greater creative liberty with their works today.

Titles.

( source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21365978@N04/3191034200/in/pool-filmdatabase )

This post is an informal continuation of my fellow writer's earlier post on long titles for artpieces. The title of the photo above was given as The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself (W. Blake). One wonders: do particular quotes seem to encapsulate certain ideas that are reflected in the pieces of art that they are attached to? Could we perhaps take a quote that seems to say nothing at all about a piece of art, juxtapose the two, and then uncover some possible correlation or meaning that links the two?

Perhaps you could try that with your next work of art, be it a photo, a painting, a sketch, a design, a poem, a piece of prose, or even a novel. New lesson of the day: incongruity is the source of ingenuity.

Art in one's immediate environment

A telephone booth is transformed into an aquarium in this work of art by Benedetto. What a brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that before? In art terms, such works could be called 'interventions', presumably because the artist does not create a work from scratch but 'intervenes' in the appearance of his or her surroundings.

Another interesting work by the artist- shelters in the form of colourful, oversized hats. Why not? They certainly bring cheer and colour to the muted palette of this town, as well as being kitschy and fun to sit under.

Other works of his- a completely-whitewashed hotel room and a forest with a 'floating' formation of leaves. I wonder what purpose the numbers serve- as a landmark, perhaps?

ear dope

little warning: could keep you awake at night
although i actually love this video

Bjork - It's in our hands




additionally...some dope for your ears
that's what i like to call it

Nujabes (feat. Five Deez) - Latitude



i think these 2 videos reflect 25% of what yilin mentioned in her older post, where stealing is advocated. That loopy mindtrip sample was originally ripped off another song, German rock outfit To Rococo Rot's Die Dinge Des Lebens.

On a side note, i like reading the posts of others, mulling over it and following up upon it in my own way and with my own observations. Call it stealing if you will, but that's largely encouraged here. ;)

Are you a movie buff?

If so, you'll like these paintings by Justin Reed. They are renditions of famous movies including Pulp Fiction, Jaws and American Psycho. I love how accurately he has captured the way the characters look and the setting. My favourites are these two (The Dark Knight and Kill Bill Vol. 1 respectively) :



I'm starting to feel the creeps just by looking at these. They'd make great posters for a screening room (if I ever have one in my future house). Check out his website for more.

Zero 7 "Destiny"

Turn up your volume by a lot



the best thing about interpolated rotoscoping (which is basically this technique you see here: filming a video digitally and then tracing over every still manually)
is that you expect the animation to be...well, as you normally expect animation to be. The surprise thus, when you see how real those human movements are, hits hard. Every detail counts, eyes flitting down, heads turning, bodies shuffling...its just as leung said, only in video form.
I think this video resonates with the human core when we follow these everyday 'snapshots' (thanks leung) of people on the train. You're suddenly moved by the vividness of their lives.
The video also does make single people slide a little further down into depression.


keep your volume up

Just what is it that makes Artists give such long titles to their Works?

Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

Richard Hamilton's Just What Is It That Makes Today's Home So Different, So Appealing?

Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

Do long titles make works seem more witty? Poetic? Impactful? Or are artists simply too darn bored? I wonder.

Snapshot poetry.

no it's ok, she said
with a cigarette
hanging
on the edge of her mouth
through the curls of smoke
i thought i saw her eyes turn downwards,
thinking of nothing

Our memories play like a series of snapshots - scene after scene after scene. When we remember something, we remember the little snippets of conversation, the occasional swear-word, isolated actions that we can't seem to erase from our minds, and the seemingly trivial visual details that stand out at a particularly difficult moment. They say that literature is about life, and certainly must writing also be about life. Poetry is a particularly effective method of captivating these little snapshots of life: with poetry, we can deconstruct a scene and break it down into the parts that really do matter at that point in time. It's much like a jigsaw puzzle: though some of the pieces may seem to feature nothing interesting, or look almost exactly like any other piece, without them, we can't finish the picture.

The next time you write a poem, think about this: which piece of the puzzle, no matter how uninteresting, has been forgotten by your poem?

one man's poisson is another man's poison

I cannot see her tonight.

I have to give her up

So I will eat fugu.

Yosa Buson, 1716–1783

I advocate stealing (not in the conventional sense)

It's my first post on this blog, and I'm wondering what to write. So I thought I'd start with showing this interesting manifesto by independent film director Jim Jarmusch.

From Today and Tomorrow

In the art world particularly, new works may be provocative but hardly shocking or groundbreaking as almost everything has been tried and done before. This does not mean that works with an art-historical basis are less worthy of admiration. Picasso brashly churned out his own versions of Manet's paintings; Francis Bacon took everything from a film still of Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin to a Rembrandt painting to stop-motion photography as his inspiration. In fact, there's an exhibition in Paris now displaying Picasso's paintings and the Manet originals that inspired them together.

Importantly, these artists did not blindly mimic but used the existing material as springboards for the development of their own work. Anyone who has seen Picasso's work will know that his style is vastly different from Manet's. It is the formal harmony of Manet's paintings that he learned from and adapted, developing a new style of his own comprising disjointed forms in compositional tension and excitement. As quoted, "It's not where you take things from- it's where you take them to."

I wonder what will capture my imagination today?

an archipelago of stars

i love impressionism in literature.

I bathed in the Poem of the Sea

impressionism - to me - is the 'impression' that a couple of words strung together can 'impress' upon you.

Sweeter than the flesh of sour apples to children

(To the lit student, a more consciously stylised subset of imagery)


It's the fuzzy visual your mind sort of wraps around when you see

Dawn rising up like a flock of doves

It's the lingering emotion that your soul nudges at whenever you

Ferment the bitter rednesses of love!

It's the secret world you try to mould together with the scene of

Glaciers, suns of silver, waves of pearl, skies of red-hot coals!



Some people don't like literature because it's not 'tied-down', it's not real, it's not practical.

That's the exact reason why I love it so much. When put together, the words don't have to follow the strict rules of English syntax or grammar. Their only role is to evoke the harshest, most vivid and most intense feelings in the reader

star-infused and churned into milk...

Foam of flowers rocked my driftings


entranced in pallid flotsam



Drowned men sank backwards into sleep!




A boat as fragile as a butterfly in May.