Fools Gold 'Wild Window'
Video directed by Andrew Gura.
No Thoughts Zine
Thanks to Portland, Oregon's MICHAEL DEMEO & ALYSSA NOCHES for sending over their current issue of the NO THOUGHTS ZINE which I received in the mail. With a clean, 'fuck-you-do-it-yourself' attitude, their sixth issue of No Thoughts actually gives me lots of thoughts – none of them pure. Limited to 250 copies, Demeo and Noches curates a "series on sensuality and nudity, presenting an elegant yet unpretentious collection that celebrates the human form" with photographers all over the globe. www.nothoughtszine.com
[ON VIEW] The photography of CORNEL LUCAS
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One of the pioneers of film portraiture Lucas began his career in the late 1930s with the help of his first sitter Marlene Dietrich. After a nervous start to the photo-shoot it ended well when Marlene famously said to him 'Join the club Mr Lucas.' He was not sure what she meant at the time but soon after the commissions started flooding in and Lucas became the photographer of choice for the British Film Industry. In the early 1950s he went on to set up the Pool Studio at Pinewood Studios in London England's equivalent of Hollywood's well run establishment at MGM studios. During his sixty-year career Lucas has photographed some of our greatest film stars both at the Pool Studio and on film locations all over the world. Marlene Dietrich was just the first of many famous faces he photographed. Brigitte Bardot, Joan Collins, Katharine Hepburn, Jean Simmons, Claudia Cardinale, David Niven, Dirk Bogarde, Alec Guinness and Diana Dors were all captured in his lens along with a long list of others. Stylish, glamorous and perfectly composed the photographs are a testament to both the photographer and the sitter. Lucas was quick to learn that his photographs were a key part to the actor's success, as Marlene Dietrich once told him: 'Mr Lucas I'm telling you now that a photograph to me is more important than film.' He was the master of the 12 x 10 large format plate camera, but also of light and shade. It is prevalent throughout his work, creating stunning, rich portraits, which are full of life and luminosity. As Lucas once said 'Light and shade made the image in its beauty.' Lucas has held numerous international and national exhibitions and was the first stills photographer ever to receive a Bafta in honour of his services to the film industry. Chris Beetles Fine Photographs in London is currently presenting a retrospective retrospective of Cornel Lucas' photography - on view until August 27.
New Photography by Smutographer Elvis DiFazio
Cris Cleen Works
Short documentary on tattoo artist Cris Cleen by Andreas Tagger from Brothers By Choice.
[LONDON] Power of Making
Left: Blond Lips, Charlie Le Mindu using Hairdreams. Image by Manu Valcarce - Right: Sandra Backlund knitted dress, © John Scarisbrick
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Crafts Council celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time. On view September 6 to January 2, 2012.
MIU MIU F/W 2011 Campaign by Bruce Weber
On the Rise: Lia Ices
Lia Ices premiers a new music video for her song Love is Won on her current album Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar). New york based singer/songwriter Lia Ices veers close to that edge of 'sappy love pop,' but careens away at the last moment proving to be an artist with an enormous potential and a beautiful vocal style that recalls that of Sinéad O'Connor's.
[books] MAXIM'S, MIRROR OF PARISIAN LIFE
"The mythic Parisian restaurant Maxim's—owned and operated for the past twenty-five years by iconic designer Pierre Cardin — has hosted patrons from royalty and celebrities to courtesans and starving artists since opening its doors more than a century ago. The history of this legendary restaurant is captured through stunning photographs, and also features a selection of Maxim's most successful recipes." A new book out now by Assouline....
[FILM STILL] MY HUSTLER by Andy Warhol
Directed by Andy Warhol & Chuck Wein. With Paul America, Ed Hood, Joseph Campbell, Genevieve Charbon. In this early Warhol narrative, several men and women on Fire Island vie for the attention of a hustler. Featuring catty dialogue, a few long takes, and limited camera movement, the film appears artless at first but ultimately proves canny, casual, and affecting. On view tonight and Wednesday night the MoMA in New York as part of the Hot and Humid: Summer Films from the Archives series.
What Does Jesus Think of Lapdancing?
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If you can believe it, she has read the bible a total of six times. Canadian born artist Charmaine Wheatley is as prolific as she exhibits her work, but lately its sex thats been on her mind. Her new series of erotic illustrations are a testament to her own path of discovery of sex outside the confines of her religious upbringing. Having been living in New York for a little over a decade, Charmaine Wheatley – with ample freedom and wells of creativity – has certainly found her artistic identity, but as for her sexual identity, its exploration is all there on the canvas, per se. Charmaine Wheatley's artwork is extremely multi-dimensional. Mediums integrate into mediums: from illustration, to performance art, to sculpture and back again. In her collaboration with DJ and sound artist Taketo Shimada, inspired by her namesake – her name comes from the widely recorded song and 1920s standard "Chaarmaine" – they are trying build and demonstrate the personality of CHARMAINE. And if this collaboration is an example, it is proof unto itself how multifaceted and adroit the sum of Charmaine Wheatley's artistic ambitions are. A description of this collaboration then makes total sense: "....a direct reference to fantasy, gift giving, sound art, contemporary feminist dialogue and pop culture while investigating issues of intimacy and sexual tension that dissolve any boundaries between sexual preference, cultural or class backgrounds, age or gender types." Pas Un Autre was lucky enough to ask Charmaine Wheatley a few pertinent questions, after the jump.
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Why did you decide to move to New York City from Canada? When Halifax (Nova Scotia) started to feel too small. There was no where I could go without bumping into someone I knew. I liked the anonymity of NYC. If I want to bump into people I know, I go to Chelsea, the Lower Eastside/ West Village, Williamsburg, Dumbo, etc. If I want to make sure I don’t I just go uptown or the Financial District. Also I was trying to get away I realize now from an f’d up relationship and social situation. I didn’t feel much loyalty in my circle the way things were up there. Also I was dazzled by the possibilities of NYC. I didn’t want to see anymore rocks, trees, lakes, ocean... Of course the last part has changed. I need nature in my life.
How has living in the city impacted your work/direction?I can get whatever materials I want. I don’t have to just look in books to see an artwork I like. I just go see the piece in the museum or gallery. I’m visually stimulated on a daily basis. No one ever calls what I do, “strange” or “weird”. If I need to dress up like a tooth fairy in the middle of the day and walk down 5th Ave. people barely bat an eyelash. I mean, I haven’t had the need to explore that particular identity but I am aware of the freedom to if I need to....However walking around naked isn’t tolerated...even the naked cowboy and cowgirl aren’t naked. But that conservatism is something to challenge.
Can you remember the first thing you drew?Hmmm the very first thing? Really I can’t. I’m sure I did all the same kind of little kid drawings....I guess I remember the 1st drawing contest I won 1st prize in. Like in Grade 1 or 2. It was a 2-frame comic, color, on bristol board with crayons and markers. The Royal Bank sponsored the competition. The 1st frame was a boy on the bank of a lake, throwing a rock into the water. The second frame was a close up of the rock hitting the water and ripples emanating. My text was like: ‘Putting your money in the bank is like throwing a rock in the water. Your money gets bigger and bigger’ or something like that...Making reference to savings account and accruing interest on deposits. I don’t even think I was trying to suck up to the bank. I don’t think I understood that the bank chose the winners or whatever. I really honestly thought banks were great. I was a nerdy, earnest kid with a piggy bank and was really into saving money. There was a picture of me in the paper accepting the prize of my first bank account. They put a little money in it and gave me some pen. I was so very honored!
What are your inspirations?Basically I’m inspired by everything and everyone.
Can you tell us a little bit about the erotic series?My keen interest in all things sexual is pretty textbook actually. I’ll now admit I was raised in a strict and cloistered religion. I’ve read the bible 6 times. Premarital sex was a sin. I had to figure out how to sin on my own, without any clues from my parents and I wasn’t allowed to take Health class in school plus I was so busy with studying the bible and such that I had no time for making friends. Besides friends that weren’t part of our religion weren’t really to be trusted... “Bad associations spoil useful habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33). So of course I became acutely curious and wanted to learn first hand all about that which I knew nada. That interest only grows...
What are you working on now?I’ll mention these 3 things: 1. The above drawings are more recent and the propaganda tract is the first of a series I’m working on producing. The next one will be excellent! “What Is The Role Of Women?” I’ll paint a dazzling portrait of Babylon a.k.a. Mother of the Harlots for the front. There is some related performance activity that accompanies the tract. 2. Also I did a collaborative piece with a fellow artist who draws, Joan Linder for the publication “FUKT” that comes out of Berlin. It’ll be available at the upcoming NY Art Book Fair. 3. sex
www.charmainewheatley.com
Text by Abbey Meaker and Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre
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Blow Up
Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles: A beautiful blow up doll, a prop from a secret movie project shot in Los Angeles.
Love Forever
Getting to know Yayoi.....
WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT
A boy sits amid the ruins of a London bookshop following an air raid on October 8, 1940, reading a book titled "The History of London." (AP Photo) From Alan Taylor's photo retrospective entitled World War II in Photos presented in 20 parts on the Atlantic's web platform. "World War II is the story of the 20th Century. The war officially lasted from 1939 until 1945, but the causes of the conflict and its horrible aftermath reverberated for decades in either direction. While feats of bravery and technological breakthroughs still inspire awe today, the majority of the war was dominated by unimaginable misery and destruction. In the late 1930s, the world's population was approximately 2 billion. In less than a decade, the war between the nations of the Axis Powers and the Allies resulted in some 80 million deaths -- killing off about 4 percent of the whole world." [site]
Anarchy in the UK
A hooded youth walks past a burning vehicle in Hackney on August 8, 2011. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Mime at Sacre Coeur – Paris
Photography by Adarsha Benjamin
SMOKIN HOT: AUTRE QUARTERLY
AUTRE QUARTERLY, issue one, cover shot of JAMES FRANCO by ADARSHA BENJAMIN – fashion editorials with CAVERN COLLECTION – interviews with KAWS and ARIEL PINK – art by ALIA PENNER, MINKA SICKLINGER, and JAMES GEORGOPOLOUS. Now available at COLETTE (Paris) VIOLA (London) STANDARD BOOKSTORE (Osaka) THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT SPACE (New York) INCU (Sydney) PARK LIFE (San Francisco). More to come....
[IN THEATERS] The Man Who Fell To Earth
David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976). Courtesy BFI.
David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976). Courtesy BFI.
“Are you Lithuanian?” After a space craft seemingly crashes to Earth, David Bowie walks off to sell a ring for twenty bucks in a dusty Southwestern town, then almost immediately hires high-priced, thick-spectacled patent attorney (Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry) to register ten world-changing patents. Orange-haired, pale-faced, minimally expressioned Bowie (the pop legend obviously well-cast as an alien in his first starring role) desperately yearns to return himself and water to his parched planet — but will the authorities let him? — with coed-shtupping professor Rip Torn providing technical help, and chambermaid Candy Clark providing distractions via overdoses of very terrestrial booze, church, sex, and television (“Get out of my mind, all of you!”). Roeg’s science fiction cult classic/cautionary moral tale is an assault of fragmented, non-linear narrative style, typically striking visuals, echt 70s soundtrack by John Phillips of The Mamas and Papas (along with period “needle drops”), with a pathbreaking no-comment depiction of a gay couple and multiple eye-brow-raising sexual romps — including one punctuated by gunshots. All too often seen in washed-out copies, this new 35mm print of the uncut director’s version allows Roeg’s dazzling visuals (Pauline Kael called him “the most visually seductive of directors”) to be seen as they were meant to be. [site]
A Return To The Garage: Bare Wires 'Cheap Perfume'
Hailing from Oakland, Bare Wires, a legitimate throwback through and through are set to release their own infectious brand of garage fuzz this September with their album Cheap Perfume.