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This mouth-watering Instagram is dedicated to real-life re-creations of food from Miyazaki movies
11.14.2017
08:55 am
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It’s been noted that all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies, in addition to being a feast for the eyes, are positively obsessed with food. There’s always a section in every movie where the characters enjoy a bite to eat, and in every case the food is meticulously observed and rendered. The food can be grand or simple, doesn’t matter, the same careful attention to detail, whether it’s the feast of the king in The Cat Returns or Umi’s cooking in Up on Poppy Hill or the candies in Grave of the Fireflies.

Some dedicated Instagrammer going by the name 01ghibli23 has decided to recreate the meals of Miyazaki’s movies in real life, right down to the careful positioning of the egg on the bread or the pieces of carrot on the plate. In addition to these re-creations, there are also pix of Miyazaki’s posters and Totoro-shaped cookies and stuff like that.

Great, now I want to watch all of Miyazaki’s movies and I’m hungry….. Actually that’s not a bad place to be at all!
 

Breakfast from Howl’s Moving Castle
 

Ramen from Ponyo
 

Breakfast from Kiki’s Delivery Service
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.14.2017
08:55 am
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Strange juxtapositions: The funny and unsettling photographs of Ambera Wellmann
08.07.2017
02:41 pm
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It all started out as a bit of fun when artist Ambera Wellmannplunked” an egg into a watermelon. The strangely irrational satisfaction Wellmann felt when combining these two foods started her visual investigation into juxtaposing unlikely objects together. The end results have been described as funny, creepy, and even “gross.” Take, for example, the toilet with a wig which looks like Donald Trump. Or, noodles sprouting from a bikini line making us think about pubic hair. Or what about the close-up of seemingly wrinkled hand with a bra sketched which becomes some grand dame by a pool in Miami?

The best artists make the viewer see the world anew. Ambera Wellmann certainly does this. She takes her photographs quickly using whatever objects she has to hand. This usually means food, clothes, and her own body:

“I enjoy manipulating context and composition to defamiliarize these things and illuminate the conventions that structure our understanding of, or attraction to them. I try to make materials behave like something other than themselves.”

Ambera Wellmann is primarily a painter who also works in porcelain and sculpture. Originally from Nova Scotia, Wellmann won the Joseph Plaskett Award for “her virtuosic painting abilities and her confidence in engaging the grotesque and the uncanny” in 2016. The award allowed the artist to travel to Europe where she based herself in Germany.

Since posting that first egg in a watermelon picture in 2015, Wellmann has been producing and posting an impressive array of her improvised photos which you can see on her Instagram account.
 
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See more of Ambera Wellmann’s fab photos, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.07.2017
02:41 pm
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Cindy Sherman’s newly public Instagram feed is full of amazingly creepy new work
08.03.2017
11:08 am
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Photographer Cindy Sherman has undertaken a sustained and acclaimed critique/exploration of the nature and construction of identity, Western self-representation, the male gaze, and the presumed documentary nature of photography that’s still ongoing after forty years, by using as her subject only herself, in various disguises. In 1977 she became prominent with a series called “Untitled Film Stills,” in which she cast herself in scenes that strongly resembled classic Hollywood tropes, but which were derived from no specific films in particular. The strength of that series and her early ‘80s work made her one of that decade’s art stars, making her a key figure not just in the so-called “Pictures Generation,” but in postmodern photography overall, and she became a MacArthur Fellow in the mid ‘90s.

Sherman’s generation of artists took a lot of heat for their appropriation-happy ethos. The artists themselves saw the tactic as a means to critique the increasingly image-saturated culture of the ‘80s, but some drew accusations of merely copying work and using conceptual art as a smoke screen. In some cases that seemed justified, as in the yeah-we-get-it-already oeuvre of accomplished forger Mike Bidlo, and Richard Prince has recently been savaged for selling other people’s online photos for six figures, without seeking permission or compensating the original photographers.

But since Sherman’s appropriations were of tropes rather than of specific works, she was never really a part of that fray, and because American culture has only become MORE image-saturated, the work of her generation of artists has only become more relevant, and seems more like prophecy than theft (hell, “PROPHECY IS THEFT” sounds a lot like a slogan Barbara Kruger would proffer), and fittingly, Sherman’s new work is a series of garishly saturated and disturbingly manipulated self portraits, published to that great asylum for performative selfies, Instagram.

Via Artnet News:

Before the age of social media and its painstakingly sculpted personae, Pictures Generation artist Cindy Sherman had already established herself as the art world’s reigning queen of self-reinvention, using the camera to morph into one character after another. Though her works are technically not self-portraits, Sherman’s method of turning the lens onto herself is uncannily appropriate to our times, in which the stage-managed selfie has become so ubiquitous that it’s now fodder for exhibitions and often cited as an art form in itself.

What we see here is somewhat of a departure from the artist’s traditional model: the frame is tighter and closer to her face, in what is clear use of a phone’s front-facing camera. Plus, the subject matter is decidedly intimate in comparison to her usual work—the latest posts document a stay in the hospital. She may even be having fun with filters.

The last hospital image was posted only three days ago, so DM wishes Ms. Sherman a speedy and comfortable recovery.
 

Back from the gym!

A post shared by cindy sherman (@_cindysherman_) on

 

Oops!

A post shared by cindy sherman (@_cindysherman_) on

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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08.03.2017
11:08 am
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Moon shots: Showing your butt in public is the latest craze, apparently…

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No ifs or buts, the end is nigh, quite literally it seems for bright young things from across England (and now the world) who are taking pictures of themselves baring their buttocks in public places and uploading the resulting image to Instagram.

This kind of exhibitionism or mooning it we used to call it, is not new. It has been a well-used way of showing disrespect to an enemy or scorn to nobility for centuries. Now, showing your butt in some beautiful landscape is the latest jolly wheeze for firm-buttocked young people to entertain themselves. This was what the Internet was made for…..apparently

Well, three cheers for that.

It all started with the Instagram page Cheeky Exploits which has been encouraging people from across the globe to upload snaps of their bare butts in suitable lush or unusual envirnoments. And people have been sending in moonshots from Australia, Brazil, America and alike—and you can check them out here.
 
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More butts from around the world, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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04.27.2017
09:43 am
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Bread Face: All this Instagram feed shows is just a woman smushing her face into bread
12.07.2015
10:25 am
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The mission statement of the person or persons behind Bread Face is “giving the people something they didn’t ask for.” So they started an Instagram in which a woman smushes her face into various types of bread. Mission accomplished!

That’s right, there are 15 posts, and every one is a little video of this one woman smushing her face into cornbread, King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, naan bread, and so on. While she does it, a recent R&B hit plays in the background.

Kaiser roll:
 

A video posted by Bread Face (@breadfaceblog) on

 
Wonder Bread:
 

A video posted by Bread Face (@breadfaceblog) on

 
Challah bread:
 

A video posted by Bread Face (@breadfaceblog) on

 
via Death & Taxes
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Japanese ‘vagina bread’ is a real thing
Wonder Woman Sculpted From Wonder Bread

Posted by Martin Schneider
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12.07.2015
10:25 am
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Weird shit found inside record covers
06.04.2015
08:11 am
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Drawings of stage configurations for a band called “Sweat” and a drawing of Darth Vader found inside a copy of KISS’ ‘Rock And Roll Over.’
 
The Instagram account, thingsifoundinrecords, run by Jeff Ogiba—co-owner of Brooklyn’s Black Gold record shop— has only been at it for a few months, but it’s already one of the best things on the Internet (if you’re a complete record nerd). The account is a repository for—as the title would suggest—weird things that people have found inside of record sleeves.

Jeff tells Dangerous Minds that he first got into collecting the ephemera found in old records when he found a clipping in a copy of Electric Warrior outlining the death of Marc Bolan.
 

 
He goes on to detail the craziest thing he ever found—a cache of handwritten letters between two married men who fell in love in 1975, Los Angeles. One man was an airline pilot and the other an actor. “I wouldn’t want to upset your family either. Let this memory be ours to keep.” These were found inside a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Jeff views crates of used vinyl as conduits for making connections to the past—both with the recorded music, and with the prior owners of the physical product itself: “finding stuff in records just enhances your connection with the previous owner. Buying collections is, in a sense, a modern archeology of sorts concerning the person you got the records from.”

“And it’s fun,” he adds.

If you have your own weird shit found inside record sleeves, you can post it to Instagram and tag @thingsifoundinrecords—they’ll add your treasures to the collection. Personally, I’ve got piles of things I’ll eventually get around to submitting, but I’ll share this one here first as a Dangerous Minds “exclusive”:

A copy of Raven’s 1986 album The Pack Is Back that contained a sealed envelope addressed to “Parents of Paul West.” Inside the envelope was a failing pre-algebra test with Paul’s pencil-drawings of the Batman logo and some rocker dude who I’m going to go out on a limb and guess is Motley Crue’s mascot: Allister Fiend.
 

 

Uh-oh, Paul.
 

“Thought you might like to be aware of Paul’s 1st grade of the 4th six weeks and his artwork again. Any suggestions?” Paul scored a “50” on the test.
 
More of our favorite posts from thingsifoundinrecords after the jump…
 

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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06.04.2015
08:11 am
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Rich kids and poor kids of Tehran duke it out on Instagram
10.09.2014
11:42 am
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One of the enduring lessons of the Internet, if not life itself, is that if you’re rich you have to take care about how you present yourself. Most people like and admire the wealthy—or at least aspire to their status—but when rich people get together to show off what they have, in virtually no time it can lead to a nexus of pride, envy, and schadenfreude that can turn into a potent brew of ressentiment. In short, rich people got to watch out, it’s super easy to come off looking like an arrogant, clueless asshole, no matter what the original intent was.

Some affluent folks in Iran recently learned this lesson. In mid-September someone started an Instagram account called Rich Kids in Tehran showing wealthy young people posing in luxurious hotels, next to expensive cars, and dolled up in designer duds. In just three weeks, the account caught a little positive attention and blew up to 50,000 followers (it currently has more than 95,000 followers).

As The Daily Beast reported, the site quickly sparked a backlash, despite the purportedly innocent intentions of the Instagram’s creators. As one of the managers of the account wrote, “We are trying to show the good side of Tehran/Iran to the whole world. Iran is always in the news regarding negative things and we are not interested in that. We are just trying to show what they don’t show in the news channels.” There was no shortage of tut-tutting, for instance from Iranian-American author Firoozeh Dumas (Funny in Farsi) who objected to the sensationalization of “a slice of materialistic, shallow and downright embarrassing Iranian culture. I just want to shout, ‘We are not all like that!’”

Some clever person in Iran decided that the best way to fight back was through satire. On October 5 a new Instagram account called Poor Kids in Tehran materialized, showing the bitter reality behind the facade of all of the luxurious escapades the rich kids were enjoying. The account takes a deadpan approach; most of the images are more about squalor than actual want.

Rich Kids of Tehran may shrug off any accusations of ill intent, but they must be feeling more than a little defensive. The following message appeared on the Rich Kids’ Instagram yesterday:
 

We Love our city of Tehran. We are in no way trying to put a difference between rich and poor. We are trying to show the world how beautiful Tehran and people from Tehran are. The Middle East is always on TV receiving negative attention and we just wanted to show that Tehran is not like that. This page is in no way political and we never had any bad intentions. We never thought the page would make headlines all over the world. Some of the people featured in this Instagram account don’t live in Iran.

 
I’ve curated a little gallery of images from the two Instagram accounts. See if you can tell which ones came from which account—they’re all from the most recent images, so you can easily check your work.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
via Vocativ

Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.09.2014
11:42 am
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Fire up Photoshop—I found the worst couple on Instagram
06.09.2014
11:03 am
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Usually, I’m pretty forgiving of social media gaucherie. I’m off Facebook, which certainly helps, but when it comes to Twitter or Instagram, I figure it’s your account, post whatever you want—no one’s forcing me to look at it. People take such personal offense to someone taking a million pictures of their cats/children/food/selves, but they’re going through their own lives—what right have we to demand entertainment or intellectual stimulation from them? We could so easily unfollow if we don’t like what they post.

But I have recently found my breaking point.

You may remember a post I wrote a little while ago on Kara Walker’s giant sculpture of a sugary sphinx. The piece is a gargantuan sphinx coated in sugar, invoking racist “Mammy” imagery of a black woman, and Walker (who yes, is black) is well-known for her use of uncomfortable racial and sexual iconography.

I get that we live in incredibly vulgar times, but Jesus Christ on a Goddamn Pony, you don’t have the presence of mind not to suck face in front of obviously slavery-themed art?

Their Instagram, called “kissmeeverywhere,” is nothing but 642 pictures of them kissing—a monument to performative affections. The description of their profile reads, “Why should we stop kissing? if it’s the best way to remember why we are together.” I’ll give them this, I think that’s probably an accurate statement, since both these people probably require constant reminding that other people exist, including their significant other.
 

 
So let’s get some Photoshops going! I picture the lamprey-lovebirds at the base of of the “The Sculpture of Love and Anguish.” Or maybe locking lips in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial? There’s a lovely arch along The Trail of Tears, and I hear there are some truly scenic ex-gulags in the former USSR. Let’s get creative!
 

 

Posted by Amber Frost
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06.09.2014
11:03 am
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