Alongside my Dangerous Minds colleagues, I had the pleasure of attending last spring’s Kenneth Anger lecture at L.A.‘s Hammer museum. Although he was reluctant to take questions from the audience, the night certainly found Ken in good spirits and receptive company. Subjects touched upon? Well, everything from Aleister Crowley, to, why not, Agnes. B. KA was there per the request of artist Francesca Gabbiani, who, at the time, was curating her sorcery-themed Hammer exhibit, Houseguest.
Ian Johnson designed this jaw-dropping series of skateboards for Western Edition. The skateboards depict the 1959 lineup of the Miles Davis Quintet, the group who played on the classic album “Kind of Blue.”
Update: Dangerous Minds reader Greg says, “Hi, just thought I’d let you know that this product and description are a bit wrong: The group that played with Miles Davis on the 1959 album ‘Kind of Blue’ was a sextet. You have missed out Cannonball Adderley. Also, on one of the tracks (Freddie Freeloader) Wynton Kelly played piano not Bill Evans. Just thought you’d like to know, Greg”
“Powers of Ten” is a 1977 film made by the Charles and Ray Eames about scale in the universe. “A Film Dealing With the Relative Size of Things in the Universe… And the Effect of Adding Another Zero” is how they described it. The music was composed by Elmer Bernstein and the narration is by Philip Morrison. It was made for IBM and has been parodied on “The Simpsons” several times.
Dutch artist Desiree Palman has done some interesting work with various camouflage painting techniques that see her blend into her environment in the finished product.
Her work reminds me of the distinctive artform of iconic supermodel Veruschka:
Highsnobiety wrote a fascinating article on Viktor and Rolf’s enormous dollhouse exhibit dedicated to the spectacular designs of Paris catwalk shows. Highsnobiety says:
To write about this has been on my agenda too long. Just saw the images on my machine again and had to post this now. Beginning of this year we went to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht to visit the biggest overview exhibition of Viktor and Rolf ever shown in Holland. In retrospective the highlights of 15 years of their work was presented. The influence of this duo has been huge and we?
Meet Marit Fujiwara, a textile design graduate of the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Marit’s work is simply stunning. In the past few years - especially with the economy tanking - I haven’t given fashion much thought (I’m a former Los Angeles based stylist). But her work is so inspired and creative that I really wanted to share it with you. Marit says:
To create a sculptural fabric, I am experimenting with the printing technique of marbling,in combination with embroidery,bonding and pleating. Applying these fabrics into fashion creates unusual and intricate fashion garments.
I adore the website COLOURlovers.com and their magnificent color blog. I often discover artists, find color insipration, new color trends and yummy patterns. I was recently turned on to Robert Buelteman’s beautiful work of cameraless, lensless, and computer-free photographs, there. COLOURlovers says:
Feeling the need to “explore the tools of (his) medium beyound both their traditional and innovative uses,” and channeling a bit of a mad scientist mentality, Robert Buelteman developed a technique resembling that of Kirlian photography. His tools: jumper cables, fiber optics, and 80,000 volts of electricity. He places flowers and leaves on a color transparency film, on top of that he lays plexiglas with a sheet of metal in between, floating in a liquid silicone. Then he hits everything with an electric pulse which causes the coronas and outlines to appear on the film. The last step he needs to do, is hand-painting it with a white light coming from an optical fiber. It can take up to 150 attempts to get this right. The outcome of all this, images that capture the colors of these plants like we’ve never seen or could ever imagine before. You can find out more about Robert’s series based on this technique in the book, Signs of Life.
Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Jon Saemundur Audarson: in Reykjavik, Iceland (after the economy collapsed, but before the government did). Jon runs a clothing line called DEAD out of his storefront and studio tucked just off Laugavegur, Reykjavik’s main drag. His clothing line is great stuff, often featuring his logo?a skull surrounded by the mantra “He who fears death cannot fully enjoy life” in one of several languages. I bought one in Sanskrit. He just opened a storefront in New York, as well, and his clothing has popped up in the least likely of places on Quentin Tarantino, for instance, who is a fan. Check out this Dazed Digital profile of him, and his MySpace, which is loaded down with his music as well he has recorded with the likes of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and performed at the Glastonbury Festival.
Diagnosed with HIV in 1994, Audarson has become furiously prolific. His studio, which he graciously gave me a tour of, is something like a Tibetan lama’s temple crossed with the coolest punk you know’s jam space. It’s littered with skulls, ravens and copious reproductions of Jon’s logo, which he considers a “thought virus” which he wants to seed the world with, even going so far as to consider worldwide hot-air balloon trips flashing the logo.
Check him out in the above video performing “Golden - Frost” with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which he contributed to their recent My Bloody Underground album. His screed against hypocrisy and greed is in Icelandic, but the message comes across clear in any language.
