Tuesday 29 November 2011

Sad Paris Photo

So the other week I went to Paris Photo, the world's largest photo fair.

Here some unfortunate photos. I blame Jessops' mediocre chemicals for their funeral joy quality. Or are Parisians really that miserable at exhibitions?









 

Sunday 20 November 2011

A Very Bourgeois Orgy

A young man appears in  the villa of a Milanese industrialist family. One by one, he seduces the maid, the son, the daughter, the mother, and finally the father. After his departure the family implodes amidst psychosis and promiscuity.

Pasolini's Teorema (1968) had me positively gasping in bed this morning. And it works (or confuses) on many levels.











In full on YouTube (but only in Italian)

Thursday 17 November 2011

A Polish Education

Last night I went to a concert of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio as part of the London Jazz Festival. It was great, and the right pitch after a long day. My dad reminded me that the band collaborates a lot with Polish jazz titan Tomasz Stańko, who in turn worked extensively with the late Krzysztof Komeda, author of the soundtracks of Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski's first feature film) and Rosemary's Baby.


                                                                                                  Rosemary's Baby, Komeda + Anna Jopek


Rosemary's Baby - Lullaby (live recording)


Rosemary's Baby (1968) Trailer


The Knife in the Water (1962) Trailer


Knife in the Water - Cherry


Knife in the Water - Theme



Tomasz Stanko - Suspended Variations II (2004)



 Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Vignette (2008)

Saturday 12 November 2011

Mexicanas francas

Candid eyes, dug out from a pile of August shots.












1 - Smiley bag, Oaxaca
2 - Saturday breakfast
3 - Lady knitter, Mexico City

Thursday 10 November 2011

Andy's Factory

The other week I went to an incredible 20's Halloween bash organized by “Die Freche Muse” (German: The naughty muse). Now the London collective is organizing a night in hommage to Andy Warhol's Factory.

I'm expecting big things. 




26th November, Adam Street Vaults.

Sunday 6 November 2011

The (Un)Broken Worry

Ever since I came across Sophie Calle I have been intrigued by her quietly disarming work.

So the first thing I bought with the salary of a city pig was a limited edition of her glassplate Souci at the Whitechapel Gallery. Souci (English: worry) refers to the last words Calle's mother spoke before she died - "Ne vous faites pas de souci" (don't worry). Last year, different versions of the Souci glassplate figured in an exhibition in the Palais de Tokyo which focused on Calle's mother and included photos of her grave and a video of the last 15 minutes of her life. 

The other day my Souci fell from the wall and broke into a hundred shards. I was tempted to wail out in pain (OK, I did), but the irony did not escape me. I decided to see the fragile memento mori as a lesson. I took some photos of the remains and binned them along with my regrets.

When at the Frieze Art Fair a couple of weeks later (see article) I got talking to a lady from the Whitechapel Gallery. I mentioned the incident in passing and was stunned when she offered me a free replacement. She emailed me days later saying that my new edition would be number 140/150 (the only one she had left), when I realised my broken plate had been number 14/150.

I am not sure what, but I think Ms Calle is trying to tell me something. 





...

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Thursday 3 November 2011

VOGUE meets Mongolia

A great shoot in November's British Vogue - combining fantasy with steppe culture, fashion with National Geographic.

The story actually engages with Mongolian people and their dresses, rather than using them as ethnic backdrops. And the clothes are almost ironically literal: Feather-dress for the eagle, parachute coat for the yurt, flokati-explosion for the yak. 

The Guardian can mock this shoot as much as they want, this is all-round enchantment.

(Well, except maybe for the Edward Scissorhand hair)










Tuesday 1 November 2011

Cardboard Creativity (or Answers to an Economic Crisis)

Last year I went to Buenos Aires to visit my friend Gemma (unrepresentative photo below). Before my trip I'd seen an Arte documentary on the publishing house Eloisa Cartonera, and so a visit to their office-shop was high on my list.

Eloisa Cantonera was formed in reaction to the Argentine economic crisis in 2001, which included dramatic rises in consumer prices, unemployment and homelessness. The collective buys cardboard from cartoneros (people living off scrap collection), handpaints it and uses it as binding for the works of previously unpublihed writers and poets. Several of them, especially Washington Cucurto, have since become cult authors in Latin America, and last year Eloisa Cartonera was invited to the Frankfurt International Book Fair.

Astounding what one can achieve with some creativity and a bit of cardboard...





Who needs e-books.

If you're ever in B.A., go and pay them a visit. Excellent contemporary art museum Fundación Proa and best steak in town at El Obrero just next door.
  



Arte Documentary in German: http://www.arte.tv/de/suche/3046940.html