aspire to enquire

Fortunately we all have WiFi

I was loaned a copy of Apartamento last week - it's an interesting read; it juxtaposes people's fascinating living spaces alongside in-depth interviews about significant parts of their lives. It's all done with a kind of art/fashion/new-bourgeoisie lens and on lovely uncoated paper stock.

I got the distinct impression that it wasn't written for me, but I enjoyed reading it none the less.

Up front are a few short essays - this one seemed to resonate a bit:

Manabu Hangai

I was up in the Manchester area over Christmas, which offered the opportunity to check out The First Cut, an exhibition of art works crafted in paper at The Manchester Gallery.

There's a lot of beautiful stuff shown in the exhibition, from a host of international and more local artists. One that really struck me was The Wonder Forest, by Manabu Hangai. I hope no one minds but I felt compelled to make a short video:

It was like each tree would respond to the draft created by the movement of another, forming this kind of perpetual motion in the leaves of the forest - I loved the unpredictability of the rotations and the rich colour and textures of the leaves of the trees, which are made from recycled materials.

A bit of a happy accident happened when I set this to music - I've used 'How do birds hear music' by Basquiat Strings & Seb Rochford. It gives it this kind of industrial natural world vibe that actually works quite well.

The call of the wild

This looks interesting for the end of the month - a group of illustrators and designers responding to nature in the context of the London environment. And it's a beautiful poster.

There's more information about the show and the contributors over on their website.

Russ Mills Byroglyphics

What a weird pleasure to discover the work of Russ Mills through Booooooom. He's called it Byroglyphics, which is lucky as I don't think there's any other single genre his work would fit into. 

New York Love Story

I didn't think that the magical New York portrayed in Karsten Staiger's New York Love Story existed before I spent time there in 2008. The steamy manhole covers, the breeze up from the subway grates, the water towers; I thought it was all film sets.

The New York Love Story series captures my fascination with the odd tranquility of the industrial landscape. The buildings are like old and tired giants resting while New Yorkers busy themselves around them. For me it's a combination of the viewpoints, the haunting skies and the light of the city carrying on below.

It must be quite boring watching films as an American. Think for us Brits how different a film set in the contemporary UK feels to a more conventional hollywood film. Switch it around and wouldn't people in the US get that for nearly every film they ever watch?

To that end I wonder how much Hollywood's scripted witticisms and passionate dialogues have influenced national mannerisms. If  'regular Joe' in the film behaves in that style, I should too, right? When it's one film it's probably hard to draw a line, but when it's every film...

Anyway. These images are beautiful. Extra bonus that lots of them are taken around my temporary stomping ground at 23rd Street and 8th Ave. There are a lot more in higher quality and size over on the project website: New York Love Story.

Thanks to Feature Shoot for the tip.

Jamie Beck

Animated .gif images seem to be undergoing some sort of renaissance amongst the tumblr set, but it's still refreshing to see a new creative application - I love these almost-stills by Jamie Beck. There's something quite reflective in the stillness that's completely brought to life by the small, magical movement.

As Laura says on her See Hear Say blog, there's a whole load of other great photography and fun over on Jamie Beck's website, including great coverage of the Governor's Island Jazz festival, which I hope I'm able to get to one year.

Vicky Newman

Vicky Newman is an awesome illustrator working in London and the South East. If you're a fan of skateboard art, you may know of her as co-founder of the decked project. I've been along to a few of those shows and I've always been struck by Vicky's combinations of line and colour so I thought it was about time to do a little post featuring some of her work.

Ross Racine

Ross Racine - who you may remember from my post about his Fictional Suburbia series a few weeks ago - has been in touch to say he's released a new print through the Fuse Works Online Gallery:

There is also work on display at the Fuse Works gallery, which by coincidence is right round the corner from where I lived in Williamsburg.

It seems like architects in Japan have been taking note as well, there's an interesting set of photos on the Inhabitat blog, a proposed eco development.

I'm not seeing much talk about this kind of scale of new environmentally friendly housing in the UK right now, which is a shame.

 

Like this you keep them alive

The quote above caught my eye whilst looking at the post about Robert Montgomery on Lost at E Minor. It's been a funny month. 

I like this one too. for me there's something quite timeless and disconnected about the work, probably arising out of the situation but also the minimal punctuation. It's almost a more adult intervention than some of the adbusters stuff, I don't know.

I like it.

Jim Darling's Window series

On a similar note to my previous post about Ross Racine, Lost at E Minor has tipped me off about Jim Darling and this series of landscapes painted through the eyes of an airplane window.

 

I love the contrast between the near-realism of the fuselage frame and the abstract shapes in the landscape below.