My Aesthetica: October 2010

William Kentridge (b. 1955, South Africa), a remarkably versatile artist whose work combines the political with the poetic. Dealing with subjects as sobering as apartheid, colonialism, and totalitarianism, his work is often imbued with dreamy, lyrical undertones or comedic bits of self-deprecation that render his powerful messages both alluring and ambivalent.
~MoMA

"One of the fascinating things about William Kentridge's films is how they let the process show. Because he draws, shoots, erases and shoots again to create his imagery - rather than painting animation cells or digitally developing scenes - I am conscious of his means, even his touch. It was Kentridge's genius to show how the directness of drawing could survive the indirectness of a camera-based art."
- from "William Kentridge" by Janet Koplos, Art in America, December, 2002

I have never tried to make illustrations of apartheid, but the drawings and films are certainly spawned by and feed off the brutalized society left in its wake. I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures, and certain endings; an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check and nihilism at bay. - William Kentridge

William Kentridge - Johannesburg (1989)
Johannesburg the Second Greatest City after Paris is the first in this series, and was made from twenty-five drawings. The sound-track includes music by Duke Ellington. It introduces the viewer to the characters central to most of Kentridge's subsequent films in the series.
-Tate Modern's online description

http://www.gregkucera.com/kentridge.htm
You can check out several of Kenridge's films on YouTube via ead1529's Channel

You may also like: william-kentridge-on-his-process.

Roland Mouret

The philosophy of Roland Mouret in a nutshell:

Live for today, love what tomorrow might bring and be grateful for yesterday.

From the independent.co.uk & elle.com

Spring 2011 RTW

Zac Posen

Last night on ANTM Zac Posen says to Ann:

"I think you had a little of a panic moment before you went out. However, you're rare. Rarity is the definition of luxury; thats a very powerful thing to have. You have to work on it and the confidence."

Z Spoke - Spring 2011

I just wanted to acknowledge what I beautiful thing that is to say to someone.

You're rare. Rarity is the definition of luxury. 

Wow.

Nice.

Levis Made & Crafted

Footprint Photography UK

Shrewsbury Station

Ten-Twenty Six-Ten

Every day is creating new history

Things I love: Bamboo

I've had people laugh at me when I tell them I think bamboo is a romantic plant.

However, taking this definition (from dictionary.com)...

(usually initial capital letter) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a style of literature and art that subordinates form to content, encourages freedom of treatment, emphasizes imagination, emotion, and introspection, and often celebrates nature, the ordinary person, and freedom of the spirit (contrasted with classical).

... then I think it makes sense to say bamboo is absolutely a Romantic plant. The spirit of Romanticism most certainly resides in bamboo forests.

pic from Ntnl Geo

Clark Little Photography

Mahalo Nui Loa to Clark Little for his INSPIRATIONAL work.
You ROCK bra!
Even made it all the way to the White House - represent.

ARTIST RETAINS ALL COPYRIGHTS

clarklittlephotography.com

Chiharu Shiota

From nyartsmagazine.com:

"Chiharu Shiota is a spider-woman – one who clambers around in the skeins of our unconscious. In her best-known installations she weaves black yarn into hectic webs that take over entire galleries and in which personal objects are found cocooned. The Japanese Berlin-based artist has ensnared everything from the wedding dresses seen in last year's Walking in My Mind exhibition at the Hayward gallery, to a grand piano and childhood toys. In one of her sleeping performances, you might even find Shiota herself ensconced beneath layers of mesh.

Born in Osaka, the artist moved from Japan to Germany in 1997, to study under the performance art maven Marina Abramović. For one of her early works, Try and Go Home of 1998, Shiota fasted for four days and then smeared her naked body with earth before taking to a muddy hole. With its suggestions of both womb and grave, the work hinged on feelings of loss and oblivion that have underscored much of her work since. A later installation first shown in 2000, Memory of Skin, featured similarly dirt-stained dresses, suggesting knowledge that won't wash off."

ARTIST RETAINS ALL COPYRIGHTS

Room of Memory

Breath of the Spirit

During Sleep (2005)

Oedipus Rex

Lebensspuren - Traces of Life

ARTIST RETAINS ALL COPYRIGHTS

chiharu-shiota.com

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