Kevin Ledo & 5800 Harold

Kevin Ledo is at it again.  This time with two massive pieces for 5800 Harold, apartment residences in Hollywood, California.  I checked out the in-progress canvases, one 7'x20' and the other 7'x30' (holy moly!) each featuring astral bodies rendered in paint and gold leaf.  See that shine in the image above?  That's not just any old photographic hot-spot-that's the shine of the leaf itself.

Ledo set up camp in Sid Lee's very cool multi-purpose space which had multiple rooms each thematically dedicated to some of my favourite film directors.

A quote from David Lynch, excerpted from a piece the director wrote for the Huffington Post on his obsession with coffee.

A quote from "A Clockwork Orange"

This is a quote from Jean-Luc Godard, but has been used often in describing the non-linear style of Michel Gondry.

A Sergio Leone quote from Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone.

 A Hitchcock quote from a 1960 BBC interview.

Loved the lighting in the Hitchcock room

Admittedly when I first saw the name, my mind first jumped to Roy Andersson, which wouldn't be that much of a stretch given both directors' absurdist tendencies.  But indeed this quote is from Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited.

Kevin and I found this gold box next to a red cord.  It was thematically appropriate with his painting.

This photo ensued:

BNLMTL2014

On a lovely fall evening hundreds of art goers packed themselves into the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal for the opening of the Biennale de Montréal.  In the rotunda, under the colourful works of Étienne Tremblay-Tardif (above), patrons enjoyed the opening remarks by the curators and some wine and snacks before heading upstairs to the galleries which housed a large majority of the Biennale's works.

While it was A LOT to take in, and the crowds did not help my ability to concentrate or sit and watch video, there were many works that stood out for me throughout the evening.  A repeat visit is on the menu...

Taxidermied creatures, such as the fox and the bird seen above, were laid to rest in several corners around the gallery.  The work of Abbas Akhavan chose not to represent these dead animals in their traditional and vivid trophy stance, but as they are: stripped of their life and "doubly-dead."

The Steubenville, Ohio, High School rape case that made my blood boil.  The 2012 case that converged many skin crawling tropes of modernity: victim blaming, slut shaming, social media trolling, rape culture, bias in the media, and on and on... Andrea Bowers' work (above) featured the exchanged text messages between the (Anonymous dubbed) "Rape Crew", providing a sobering moment in the exhibit. 

Other highlights:

Details from Nicolas Grenier's Promised Land Template (2014)

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the painstaking economics of Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens

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Eternity, the photo-op inducing work of Nicolas Baier

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Finally, Suzanne Treister's insane mind-boggling work Hexen 2.0 (2009-2011) composed of multiple works throughout the gallery, but what did it for me was Treister's re-working of the 78 cards of a Tarot deck.  I will quote the gallery text here:

"Since at least the second half of the twentieth century, the West has witnessed power and agency slip away from tangible, accountable structures of governance towards intangible, quasi-mystical forces whose goals and interests reply on programmatic techno-utilitarianism."

I had the pleasure of babbling like a child to try to convey to Treister why her work resonated so much with me.  She listened politely as I gesticulated while saying: "meticulous! Medium! Message!" 

It was all too much! 

Art overload!

But there's so much more:

-an artist talk with Shirin Neshat

-an artist talk with Ibghy and Lemmens

-and mysterious workshops!

   

Ai Weiwei

Surveillance Camera, 2010

Marble Helmet, 2010

from Ai Weiwei's According To What? exhibit, AGO, 2013

When I began this blog 200 posts ago I wanted to share images of aesthetic occurrences and everyday awesomeness that centred around film, fashion and art.  Toss in a little bit a of travel, food, and flowers and you've got a sampling of what I love.  Although my infatuation with aesthetics runs deep, more importantly it is what these passions can teach when we go beneath the surface that concerns me the most.  Learning and sharing discoveries has been the main drive behind this blog and I hope that these objectives have reached you.  Thanks to everyone who's been reading along and for those who want to get the posts in their inbox you can subscribe below!

For post number two hundred, a quote from Ai Weiwei, an artist who wields mighty socio-political criticisms with his art, taken from his According To What? exhibit:

"We cannot just learn from Western art, but also need to examine and criticize our daily experience and our own thought.  This is the nature of intellect as well as art, to question the basic foundation of being and our state of mind."

Dita Von Teese, NYTimes

Quote day!
I'm catching up on some reading and thought I'd share an excerpt from the New York Times article "Dita Von Teese, From Burlesque to a Brand" by Ruth La Ferla.

"She shared with her husband, a penchant for self-invention. Problems arose in part because, she says, "I liked being Heather Sweet from Michigan, but I don't think he liked being Brian Hugh Warner from Ohio." 

The husband in question is of course Marilyn Manson, to whom Dita was married to for just over a year.  What was great about this quote was the discovery that Dita's real name is a perfectly acceptable burlesque stage name; although limits one to very soft/cute/delicate numbers.  The whole kinky/fetish side to Miss Von Teese would have been ix-nayed had she stayed Sweet.

The couple during happier times: above left pic is from here and the koala is from this tumblr with no credit of origin.

Fellini and Mastroianni and Vanity Fair

I thought today would be a fine day to share a quote.

This is from the March issue of Vanity Fair, from the article "My Dinners with Federico and Michelangelo" by Charlotte Chandler

Fellini, who frequently visualized his characters in cartoons before casting actors, told me he had wanted Mastroianni for La Dolce Vita from the start. “But Marcello wanted a script. I gave him a thick manuscript, every page blank except the first. On it was a picture I had drawn, showing his character as I saw him. Mastroianni was alone in a little boat in the middle of the ocean with a prick that reached all the way down to the bottom of the ocean, and there were beautiful lady sea sirens swimming all around it. Marcello looked at the picture and said, ‘It’s an interesting part. I’ll do it.’ ”

I had no luck finding an image of above mentioned cartoon.  Instead I leave you with one of my favourite images of Fellini (which i found here), I believe from the set of 8 1/2.  There is a giant reproduction of this shot that hangs on the walls of Euro-Deli- so next time you're jonesing for some pasta take a peek.

Docu-Bonanza!

Dear friends,
It has been a couple of days since my last post, as I have locked myself in with a pile of documentaries that I will share with you.

First up: L'amour fou (2010), a documentary centered around the relationship of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his life and business partner, and the auction of their art collection after Saint-Laurent's death.  Told mostly from a series of interviews with the poetic Bergé, the film is revealing and at times touching, but unfortunately failed to engage me, keeping the viewer at arms length.  The final scene of the auction itself should feel like some kind of crescendo but comes across as selling a whole lot of stuff, without knowing the history behind certain pieces with their owners.  Although, I must add that watching art being moved is fascinating for real!

A quote from Bergé:
"C'était une très belle époque, Marrakech. Une époque que je ne me souviens pas avec nostalgie-parce que je n'ai pas de tout de la nostalgie-mais avec beaucoup de joie, c'était une histoire de jeunesse."

 Up next: Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child (2010), an awesome documentary on the late artist (who died at 27!!) told with many modern day interviews as well as director Tamra Davis' interview with Basquiat from the 1980s in its VHS glory.  While I have never really been attached to Basquiat's work, I had some familiarity with it, as I had seen Julian Schnabel's biopic years ago when I was going through an Andy Warhol obsession.  While still not more enamored with Basquiat's work itself, I have a giant pile of respect for the man himself and have too, too many good words about this film!  If anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE, learning about someone's artistic practice/process/methods to madness.  Whew! Good stuff!

Would you like a quote?:
"He never copied. He always improvised a total revision, Jean Michel was demanding that, "if you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence.  It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind."

Last film: Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) is a documentary about the development of battery operated electric vehicles that first appear on California roads in the late 1990s.  While there is enthusiasm for the cars, corporate bullying ensues (from car and petroleum industries) and eventually all electric cars are crushed.to.death.
Sigh.
Oh the irony, given that in the present day we now have steady popularity of hybrid vehicles.  I suppose that the hybrid might be a happy medium?  Ok, I'd already seen this film before but I felt the need for a refresher, given that the film Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) is on my list of films to see.

Fave quote: "America is addicted to oil." George W. Bush

Bill Cunningham New York

Today we have another documentary that centers around the New York Times.  This film follows Bill Cunningham, an 80ish year-old bicycle riding photographer for the New York Times' street fashion oriented "On the Street" column (and video version with Cunningham's awesome commentary!) and the society event oriented "Evening Hours" column.
Throughout the film I was wowed by Cunningham's staunch moral and work ethics, his passion, positive energy, and endless knowledge of references.

Here's a couple of gems in Cunningham's words:

"Damn you New Yorkers-so extravagant and wasteful."
"To be honest and straight in New York is like Don Quixote fighting windmills."

But despite his moments of expression of disdain, what he clearly embraces is the beauty, the imagery and the self-expression that can be transmitted through fashion-often exclaiming with unfiltered enthusiasm when something catches his eye.

While I don't want to give away too much-you'll have to see the film for yourself-I'll leave you with this insightful interview with the director Richard Press.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Above is a still inside the offices of the New York Times from the documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times.  The film follows several editors and journalists during a period of the fallout and bankruptcy of many municipal papers throughout the US, questioning the survival of print journalism as the founding pillars of reliable hard news.

The film took place over a period when the WikiLeaks released the Iraq war logs, when Comcast took over NBC/Universal and the release of the iPad.  There is no shortage of material to weave an interesting tale. While there are several members of staff that carry the story, the journalist David Carr provided the film with a character we can attach ourselves to, with his wit and sometimes scathing commentary.
In a segment where Carr interviews the founders of Vice Magazine/VBS.tv*  on their collaboration with CNN, one of the founders claims that they are covering Liberian cannibalism while the Times is covering surfing. To which Carr replies:

"Just a second, time out...Before you ever went there, we've had reporters there reporting on genocide after genocide and just because you put on a fucking safari helmet and looked at some poop, doesn't give you the right to insult what we do-so continue, continue."

There are many more of these colourful commentaries, I'd love to write them all down, but...

*note* vbs.tv doesn't seem to exist anymore and is redirected to the video section of the main site.

Helmut Newton

I was fortunate to see one retrospective of Helmut Newton's work at the Barbican in 2001, which grouped many of his iconic images including a roomful of his "Big Nude" series, which are in fact "big" at heights of around 8 feet tall!

After a long while I was pleased to finally see the 1989 documentary Helmut Newton: Frames From the Edge. Above is a still where Newton is instructing the model to pose with a roasted pig.  Audacious, funny and definitely frank are words to describe Newton as he reveals himself in an intimate portrait.

Here are little gems of a quote in the section that discusses the photographing of wealthy women:

June Newton: "...he loves the idea of these idle ladies, as he calls them, that have nothing to do, but just waiting to have something to do."

An unidentified woman on being photographed by Newton: "...he put me in a black velvet evening cap- uh cape-leaning on a telephone pole and behind me was an oil well pumping-ah it wasn't even my oil well!"

A little trivia here: Newton's "Sumo" book was the biggest and most expensive book production of the 20th century-so claims the publisher.  I saw one well preserved copy in someone's home perched on it's Phillippe Starck book stand. As there was a pair of white gloves placed on top of the book, I decided to leave the book alone.