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8 years ago
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Winner of Best Narrative Feature at the Queens World Film Festival last month, H.O.M.E. is a poignant, beautifully shot film about the importance of human connection. Its director and co-writer, Daniel Maldonado, a lifelong New Yorker, shows us aspects of the city we don’t always see via two interconnected stories: One features Jeremy Ray Valdez as Danny, a young runaway with Asperger’s Syndrome who is living in the subways. The other thread concerns a struggling Ecuadorian cab driver, Gabriel (acclaimed Mexican actor Jesús Ochoa), who helps a distraught Chinese mother (Angela Lin) get home to Chinatown.
Maldonado’s first feature, H.O.M.E. has both a dreamlike, impressionistic quality and realistic characters and scenes, a testament to his unique artistic vision and desire to create something human and relatable. The New York subway system is also a major character in the film; through Danny’s eyes, it is a repository of complex beauty and sometimes overwhelming stimuli.
The film will be screened at 10:45 pm on Friday, April 15, at Cinema Village, as part of the Manhattan Film Festival. Last week I spoke with Maldonado about the making and the meaning of H.O.M.E.:
You studied film at the School of Visual Arts?
I kind of went about it in a roundabout way; instead of trying to get into a 4-year program, I went to night school, because I was pretty much supporting myself. After two years of night classes, I completely fell in love, so I switched into the degree pro[...]
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8 years ago
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Kiev, Ukraine–based knitwear designer Anna Marinenko of Ohhio crafts the most massive and burly 100 percent Merino wool blankets, scarves, and more, that look ridiculously lush and comfortable, available on Etsy.
Photo Credit: Ohhio
And what's extraordinary about these oversized items is that Marinenko weaves them with her bare hands instead of using knitting needles, thereby creating a warm collection of comfort that features a hefty 3-inch-thick stitch.
Photo Credit: Ohhio
Image of Anna Marinenko with another designer, a photographer, a model, and a stylist
Photo Credit: Ohhio
According to Slate.com, Marinenko also sells colossal and peculiar-looking wooden knitting needles, along with huge spheres of super-thick yarn for consumers who wish "to make the chunky knits themselves."
However, as Ohhio's motto goes "we knit emotions," pointing to the brand's passion for creating "comfort, beauty and style using simple elements and honest materials." As stated on their Facebook page, "we believe, Ohhio blankets all designed to please the eye, the hand and the heart," later adding "all we knit is love."
A Model wearing chunky knits, holding humongous knitting needles, standing amid oversized balls of yarn
Photo Credit: Ohhio
A cozy cat bed Photo Credit: Ohhio
Image of large knitting needles Ohhio sells
Photo Credit: Ohhio
And her decadent designs are attracting high-profile RTW designers like Christian Siriano, who just featured Ohhio knits in his recen[...]
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8 years ago
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There was once a professor who consistently lamented people not spending time with a work of art. She felt that consuming art became speedy, mediums were not fully appreciated in their details, and therefore a lot of great artwork may never get proper recognition. It's safe to say this is true for many people, and even those like myself who studied art have definitely overlooked pieces due to the extreme saturation of available art to see, especially in a metropolis like New York City (though it is something I greatly try to avoid while in a space.)
I was stuck in front of Scott Williams' painting 50th Street Maspeth this past weekend, due to the intimate space at Art101 being packed with people, but I'm glad I was. His work first appears like an impressionistic modern landscape - a view of the street, cars parked, sunny day, fence to the side - but the more I stared at it the more odd I found it. I noticed his use of perspective is based on traditional one-point perspective yet it is shifted off to the side thereby disrupting the everyday banality of this type of setting. Furthermore, his use of oil paint appears both deliberate, in regards to shadowing and color, and accidental in regards to the application of paint itself. This imbues the scene with a sense of randomness and further complicates it. He writes of his "chance" paintings - "For on site, 'plein air painting', a map of Queens and Brooklyn was marked with gridded coordinates. Throwing numbered and lettered coi[...]
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8 years ago
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I came across Katy Grannan's photographs at Salon 94 after visiting the New Museum next door. While individually they remain striking portraits, albeit not vastly unique in the photographic spectrum, what makes her work important lies in her documentary approach to the sleepiness, strangeness, and pathos of Modesto, California.
Also the setting of her upcoming documentary, The Nine, the pieces ranged from large-scale individual portraits, to landscapes, and video clips. The portraits are blazing in their preciseness and their size allows for the individuals to tower over the viewers, commanding the most space and attention in the room they are in. The men are shirtless, and the women sport outfits that look like they're from the 80's. A look of disillusionment permeates through their faces, however, and in the case of the women, it betrays the vibrancy of their clothing.
What's really at the heart of Grannan's work is a commentary on the American class system - ripe in the media these days thanks to shows like Making a Murderer - and "the other side of the American Dream." Modesto was the location in The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange's photograph Migrant Mother, both gripping portrayals of The Great Depression's physical and emotional effects on the psyche and physicality. And essentially, Grannan's work from Modesto serves as the setting of our contemporary depression. And the photographs speak for themselves in this regard - the subjects are present but not f[...]
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8 years ago
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David Bowie was an incredible genius that has been a massive influence on the fashion world from ready-to-wear to high couture, trailblazing trends for both men and women alike.
Since news of David Bowie's tragic death on Sunday, January 10 hit the internet the following Monday, a deluge of mournful tributes on sites like Twitter and Facebook have brought back to attention many of his gender-fluid, enigmatic looks throughout the music legend's career, which span six decades.
His constant sartorial evolutions have left indelible mark on fashion, as evident in the multitude of status updates, images, and video, paying homage to Bowie.
Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. Photo Credit: Ilpo Musto / Rex Features
From Jean-Paul Gaultier's 2013 "Rock Stars" collection to Haider Ackermann's latest Spring 2016 line, it's no doubt that Bowie's influence still impacts fashion these days.
On Monday, Gaultier told The Associated Press, "personally, he inspired me by his creativity, his extravagance, his sense of fashion that he was constantly reinventing, by his allure, his elegance and his androgyny."
Below: 1) Jean-Paul Gaultier spring 2013, 2) Haider Ackermann spring 2016, and 3) Dries Van Noten men’s fall 2011 collections.
Photo Credit Jacques Brinon/Associated Press, Valerio Mezzanotti/Nowfashion, Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
To Karl Lagerfeld, Bowie was "a great artist, and a timeless icon...who will remain a reference."
And on Tue[...]
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8 years ago
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"Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task." Henry James' words are apt in describing the art-making process, and how it can explore uncertainness through introspection. In the process, the artist and viewer enter into an intangible, unpractical, and highly emotional place that is ultimately the most passionate because it allows them to explore the more ambiguous realms of the self.
This is exactly the intent and effect of "I DREAMT," New York performance artist Nicholas' Gorham's recent production. In it, he lip syncs sound bites by Delia Derbyshire, a leading British electronic musician from the 1960s. He was utterly fascinated by their evocative beauty, and knew he would eventually incorporate them into a performance. The sound recordings are different voices describing a nightmare of being chased, and Nicholas switches from one character to another in a matter of seconds. This is achieved by having light projections of different outfits cast onto his body, which is the sole illuminated presence in a darkened room. Coupled with the haunting repetition of phrases, such as "I'm running away...running, and running, and running" in each of the different voices, the result is dark, painful, but incredibly engrossing especially if you have ever had nightmares.
He plans to take this the exploration of the subconscious further in his upcoming Christmas theater production, also focusing on time, space, identity, and superficiality but with a stronger social co[...]
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8 years ago
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I once read that people who see faces in inanimate, non-portrait objects, are neurotic, and the article did not mean that endearingly. If that's true, then children who make animal and human shapes out of clouds (so many) are neurotic. And truthfully, most artists are too. So with that, I will use this post to talk about an artists who plays with this idea in a rather beautiful way, and to tip my hat to those individuals who choose to and are able to view the world in a more fascinating way.
Jane Lafarge Hamill's paintings combine traditional portraiture with modern abstraction. Her works first appear as a slather of saturated, vibrant colors, enhanced by her thick application of paint. However, though appearing haphazard, the way she has manipulated the paint allows for a vague, albeit familiar, image of a human's face to come through. Depending on how she has arranged the lines sometimes the face is in profile, sometimes face front.
What really allows for the portraits to be visualized is not in the revelation of facial features, as they are pretty blurry, but in the way the lines make up the shape of the head - the forehead, jawline, and neck specifically. While this alone makes her painting style unique, what makes her work beautiful is her use of color. Her pieces are not exceptionally large, rather they are on the smaller side, yet they instantly pop out due to the layers of applied color and the vibrancy of the palette.
What is especially contemporary [...]
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9 years ago
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To celebrate the release of their first release on Fueled by Ramen Records, The Front Bottoms played Brooklyn’s Rough Trade. Entry to the show was granted with purchase of the album, Back On Top, and came with a signing after the show. The formula is one Rough Trade is a) known for and b) built for. The combined record store/concert space has the stage in the back and the floor space within the shop itself to accommodate both events.
Before the show fans, most of whom were hugging a recently purchased vinyl of Back On Top, lined up along the wall of the store, chattering excitedly about the record. It was a fairly young crowd, some members bragging about how they had cut class to line up early. The guy handing out 21+ wristbands didn’t have much to do. Despite the age difference, one thing was clear. Everyone was there for the band.
Not that only die hards are capable of showing up to an early show on a weekday evening. Everyone is and was welcome. It wasn’t the show that collected passersby or casual listeners. Partially because Rough Trade is tucked somewhat away from the rest of Williamsburg and partially because the nature of the show attracted the more “serious” fans. The majority of the crowd accumulating in Rough Trade really, really liked the band. That’s why they showed to the concert/signing, not just the band’s gig later in the month at Irving Plaza. In fact, many talked about going to both shows. Some even buzzed about seeing the band earlier in the summ[...]
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9 years ago
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I once had a friend ask me, "What exactly is graphic design?" The answer seemed pretty easy, as the name appears self-explanatory: design using graphics. But, truthfully, it was harder for me to get into the details of what exactly it is, even though it has been one of the most prolific and widely-used art forms in the modern era. And not unlike some other forms of modern art, there is the hackneyed response, "I could totally do that" while viewing graphic design that has been elevated to a higher status. In fact, I even heard it at the Cooper Hewitt's long-running installation How Posters Work.
Amazing to hear that response, given the museum's breadth of information presented about not only about the history of the medium but also contemporary approaches to it. Furthermore, the beginning of the exhibit, before really immersing the viewer in the posters themselves, contains a section attempting to relay just how graphic designers see, and how it subsequently affects how we decipher messages from images, be they subversive or overt. For example, how designers use black space, how they visualize colors to lay over each other and blend, and the ways in which they see text aligned on a poster to result in certain reading patterns. That was particularly interesting as areas of posters are darkened except one swirl-type shape, and it notes that eyes begin at the thicker portion of the illuminated swirl, and move down to the thinner part across the page. Images are placed alo[...]
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9 years ago
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Zeitgeist-identifier and design icon Marc Jacobs perfectly captures the spirit of New York City as the hub of the fashion world in an ultra-specific, ALL CAPS party invitation. Promoting the release of the book Gloss, Marc's glitter-soaked party will happen sometime during New York Fashion Week, (between September 10 and September 17) at fabled 1980-90s nightclub Tunnel.
This glamorous fête is separate from the September 10 book signing event at Bookmarc that looks to be open to the public.
The fabulousity of the strict "dress to kill" party guideline, expertly delineated in the invitation, seems to be even more exciting than the party itself. So much so that it's been getting lots of attention online thanks to Yahoo! Style, who first posted the colorful dress code.
As we await hungrily for images from the event, you won't believe what sort of look requirements Marc lays out for select guests after the jump!
Set for a September 1 launch, the book "Gloss" pays tribute to the glamorous photographer Chris Von Wangenheim, who's life was cut short in 1981. Known for juxtaposing the evil and grotesque with the beauty and glitz of the disco era, the Fashion Week release party dress code looks to be staying true to the overall energy of that time period.
Photo Credit: Instagram/Mao PR
The insanely "strict" and specific AF look requirement is as follows:
STRICT DRESS TO KILL CODE WILL BE ENFORCED: FUR COATS OVER LINGERIE, LIP GLOSS, JERRY HALL SIDE-SWEPT HAI[...]
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9 years ago
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NURTUREArt's group show Sextant looks to our sense of reality and place as constructed from memory, history, and objects. While a serious subject, some works are able to retain playfulness, an example being Igor Ruf's video work The Cave (2015). The artist as actor recites the same lines over and over as he moves and dances around a cave space. Subtitles indicate that he is saying he has bananas and a guitar, among other basic necessities, and he doesn't need much else. We see Ruf repeating names and asserting his identity, and it's unbelievable in its goofiness. He touches on the ability objects have in shaping our memories and how those moments cumulatively form the perception we wish to have for ourselves, and for others to have of us, and he maintains a lightheartedness throughout.
Calum Craik has two pieces in the show that also examine, as he writes in an artist's statement, "a hazy memory, actual events, and experience." He is more interested in pop culture, however, as he feels that "everyday objects act as vehicles to question and imagine...documents, photographs, and raw materials act as a mechanism to reconsider truths, events, or invent new possibilities." This certainly rings true in Lesiure (2013). A space blanket, shiny and geological-looking, is situated across a small image of a California pool that lays flat on the floor. Above this image hangs a small bowling ball resembling the earth. This creates a shadow on the lower left corner of the p[...]
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