Hyper-Reality

Brooklyn's Serum Vs. Venom attempts to turn the business of fashion on its head, "Hyperreality is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies. Self Imposed Reality Check. Our previous attempts to inject new thinking and practices into an existing, institutionalized fashion system have failed. We have come to the conclusion that our philosophy, methodologies and products are sound and it has been our desire to engage a flawed system, which has lead us astray. We have proudly decided to disengage this broken system in an attempt to interact with our consumers directly and unfiltered. We follow no season and no calendar, only our instincts and what we feel is appropriate and relevant." SVSV's new Hyper-Reality collection is an engaging sartorial exploration of post-modernism and men's dress.

Eggleston's Southern Gothic Travelogue at Prospect 2

Whilst Los Angeles is in the heavy throes of the city wide art invasion known as Pacific Standard Time, New Orleans is hosting its own city wide site specific exhibitions and artists’ projects happenings called Prospect 2 on view through January 2012.  Now on view at the Old U.S. Mint, which is now the Louisiana State Museum, William Eggleston's 77 minute long groundbreaking, surreal Southern Gothic  travelogue Stranded in Canton, "a film that consistently teeters on the edge of dream and nightmare states. Its nocturnal visions of bar denizens, musicians (including Furry Lewis), transvestites and a variety of semi-crazies comes off like a Cassavetes all-nighter filmed by David Lynch at his most unsettling: faces loom out of darkness, shot in infrared, displaying pale glowing skin and deep black eyes." On view at the The Louisiana State Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, 400 Esplanade Ave. 

[Outlaw Cinema] Black Biscuit

"Bewildering, vague, self-indulgent, plot-less, risky, egotistical, limpid, raw, ugly, and imperfect are perfect," declares an edict in the manifesto of Pink 8, a burgeoning "gutter filmmaking" cineast movement founded by Nottingham based Fabrizio Federico.  "We're trying to give British film an adrenaline shot, and to make a film equivalent movement of punk and lo-fi music but with a mass inspiration appeal like Cool Britannia. We dont want no budgets, or actors. This is whats happened since UK Film Funding has been cut," says Federico. A new cult film, entitled Black Biscuits, which will premier on December 12 in London, is pure outlaw cinema made by a rebellious auteur: "I had to life model to come up with money to make my film Black Biscuit. The non-plot is about a guy who wants to be an artist but gets sucked up in the sex industry. I guess it's about not waving goodbye to your dreams."

Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century

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From December 11 to May 6 2012, the Groninger Museum will present the exhibition entitled Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century. This exhibition displays the most fantastic Alaïa fashion creations of the last ten years. Alaïa is one of the last major couturiers still active. The exhibition is a follow-on to the overview of his work shown in the Groninger Museum in 1998, which was subsequently displayed at the Brant Foundation in New York in 2002.

Patti Smith: Woolgathering

In this small, luminous memoir, the National Book Award–winner Patti Smith revisits the most sacred experiences of her early years, with truths so vivid they border on the surreal. The author entwines her childhood self—and its "clear, unspeakable joy"—with memories both real and envisioned from her twenties on New York's MacDougal Street, the street of cafés. Woolgathering was completed, in Michigan, on Patti Smith's 45th birthday and originally published in a slim volume from Raymond Foye's Hanuman Books. Twenty years later, New Directions is proud to present it in an augmented edition, featuring writing that was omitted from the book's first printing, along with new photographs and illustrations. [New Directions....]

Infra

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For centuries, the Congo has compelled and defied the Western imagination. Richard Mosse brings to this subject the use of a discontinued military surveillance technology, a type of color infrared film called Kodak Aerochrome. Originally developed for camouflage detection, this aerial reconnaissance film registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, rendering the green landscape in vivid hues of lavender, crimson, and hot pink.On his journeys in eastern Congo, Mosse photographed rebel groups of constantly switching allegiances, fighting nomadically in a jungle war zone plagued by frequent ambushes, massacres, and systematic sexual violence. These tragic narratives urgently need telling but cannot be easily described. Like Joseph Conrad a century before him, Mosse discovered a disorienting and ineffable conflict situation, so trenchantly real that it verges on the abstract, at the limits of description. Richard Mosse: Infra is on view at the Jack Shainman Gallery until December 22 - 513 West 20th Street, New York, NY

Le regard de personae

Malou Swinnen (b. 1944, Neerpelt) lives and works in Hasselt. As an artist she enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad and her pictures are regularly exhibited. They are also part of several collections, such as Photography Museums (Antwerp and Charleroi), the Ministry of the Flemish Community, the National Library in Paris, and various private collections. The fascination for the face, skin, the pose, the look and attributes are constants in her work. In 2010 she was invited by the Kunstbank (Art Bank) for artistic research. While studying their exclusive collection of textiles and accessories she re-portrayed the looks and the genre and in that way gets the series "Personae" (1995) a new follow-up. Malou Swinnen exhibits the new series "Le regard de personae" at the Fashion Museum Hasselt in Belgium until January 8.

STEVEN KLEIN: TIME CAPSULE

Garage Center for Contemporary Culture presents Time Capsule, a video installation by influential American fashion photographer Steven Klein, on view until December 4 2011. Time Capsule (2011) celebrates Klein as an artist whose work is equally suited to the pages of international fashion magazines as it is presented on the walls of some of the world’s most respected art galleries and museums. The installation continues Klein’s experimentation with moving image through the depiction of the stages of one woman’s life, played by model / actress Amber Valetta, until she reaches the age of 110.  Garage Center for Contemporary Culture – 19A Ulitsa Obraztsova, Moscow.

A SHADED VIEW ON FASHION FILM Festival at ART BASEL MIAMI

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Just over one month since its Centre Pompidou Paris launch, ASVOFF (A Shaded View on Fashion Film) 4 has already made its way across the globe to Tokyo, and will now travel West making its American debut at the 10th Edition of Art Basel/Miami Beach December 1st-4th, the most prestigious art show in the Americas. The ASVOFF 4 Miami screenings, in collaboration with the Morgan Hotel Group and ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America), will take place at the Delano Hotel in an Art Basel/Miami endorsed event, ‘ART BASEL/MIAMI LOVES FASHION FILM’. Delano Hotel – 1685 Collins Avenue  Miami Beach, FL