Sunday 4 October 2009
Yvonne Jacquette
Daily Reminders
For 15 years on every school day Robert Guest would wake up early to write a note for each of his two children. Daily Reminders, Letters by Robert Guest is a sampling of the thousands of notes his wife collected and saved from laundry piles and lunch boxes. The notes are incredibly moving. They are funny, smart, wise and very loving. The amazing collection was featured in Esopus magazine. The cover showed a huge pile of the notes neatly folded into small triangles, how he would give them to his children, and inside there are 19 to read.
Friday 2 October 2009
Harewood House
I recently revisited Harewood House located just outside leeds. The national trust House was build for Edwin Lascelles in the 18th century. Each room is filled with beautiful furniture, paintings and china. The furniture is mostly designed by Thomas Chippendale as he lived in Otley.
It is a really amazing and historic house, as you wander through each room you learn more about the Lascelles family, who still live there today. I discovered how Edwin Lascelles earns his fortune that pays for Harewood House to be built. Each room also has such an impressive individuality the decoration varies greatly, each room incredibly impressive in a completely different way.
Thursday 1 October 2009
Tracy Emin
Ghada Amer
Egyptian born american artist Ghada Amer's work depicts erotic images of women that you would not expect to be created by a women.
She creates feminist images that revolt against the masculin ideal of femini beauty, she is clever in that shows explicit sexual acts by using typical delicate feminin handycrafts such as embroidery. Her whole idea is that she wants the female body to be reclaimed from men by women.
"I believe that all women should like their bodies and use them as tools of seduction," Amer stated
Living in a blue house
I read an interesting fact that blue houses are selling for more than any other coloured house. And that the average person living in a blue house is in a long term relationship and has two children and four close friends. This is very random but i thought it was of some interest. I couldn't think of any explanation for this, perhaps it is just coincidental.
Drawing by Delta
American artist James Marshall (aka Dalek) and Amsterdam-based former graffiti maestro Boris Tellegen or Delta have this month come together in London for Dalek & Delta. Each artists work is interesting in its own right but the combination of the two, in my opinion, adds so much more to the exhibition. Although both artists create completely different pieces their work has some similarities. There is an architectural sturcture in both of the men's work.
By Dalek
A bathroom in Reykjavik
Korda
Chevolution is a new documentary/film that tells the story of most iconic and reproduced photos of Che Guevara by Alberto 'Korda' Diaz. The photo was not actually taken for the purpose of use on propanagnda or as the semi official portrait it later became. It was actually a snapshot that Korda took of Guevara at a memorial service in 1960. Nothing was thought of the image it was not even used in newspapers at the time. It was not until 1965 that the picture began to appear and subsequently took many different forms.
Broken Dolls Campaign
"You can lose more than your patience" is the message that photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten is trying to get across, by using such powerful images of porcelain children. She has created this campaign for polish charity Nobody's Children Foundation which provides assistance to abused children, their parents, and carers.
The White Tiger
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, winner of the man book prize. The novel is set in India, Balram, a chauffeur murders his employer justifying his crime as an act of a social entrepreneur. Balram then recounts his transformation from an honest hardworking boy growing up in rurl india where education and electricity are scarce to a determined killer.
It is the tale of one mans hellish experience in modern India.
Adiga's message in the book is very clear his obvious disagreements with social order in India and his observation that many are sacrificed to the whims of a few. These views are impressively depicted through the voice of his main character, Balram.
The Time Travelers Wife
The Time Travelers wife originally a book by Audrey Niffenegger was recently made into a film with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams directed by Robert Schwentke. The book is meant to be really amazing and brilliantly written. The film however was so confusing. In some cases this can be a positive and can keep the audience interested and waiting for an explanation. Though in Schwentke's film the explanation never really came and this i don't was a purposeful aim of the director.
Pop magazine this month has 13 year old Tavi Gevinson on the cover. Tavi writes a fashion blog that already has half a million hits a month and has been reported on by many leading magazines. She not only writes about fashion but also about the political situation in Darfur, for which she has designed a line of T-shirts where profits will go towards helping the cause. For a 13 year old she has made a amazing impression among those much older and at the top of their industries. Leading designers follow her blog and subsequently she was in the front row at many of the fashion week shows in New York.
Deep Cut
The play Deep Cut will be arriving at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in November. It is a verbatum piece, which means the text comes from primary sources, made up of testimonies from people experiences. The play details the events leading up to and following the deaths of four soldiers at the Deepcut barraks between 1995 and 2002.
Cheryl James, above, one of the four soldiers is very central to the play as her family instigate the investigation into the supposed 'suisides' of the four soldiers. your left at the end feeling a great injustice has been done as the evidence supporting the 'murders' has been twisted to favour the army.
(above) image from a scene of the play
Wednesday 30 September 2009
Ray-Ban
Le Grand Meaulness
Alain-Fournier writes about the mysterious world between childhood and adulthood. Interestingly the heroine of the book Yvonne was based on the real life love of the young author. Sadly this was his only book as he was killed in the first world war.
This is, in my opinion, such a beautifully written book and although was written in 1912 still has relevance to today's society.
William Tempest
In relation to my last post about Hampton Court's tudor exhibition, William Tempest launched his new collection in a show at Somerset House. He took inspiration from the courts of Tudor England, taking historical costume details such as exaggerated collars, shoulders and hips, and making them utterly modern with razor-sharp tailoring and the use of hyper-real digital photographic prints of photos taken at Hampton Court Palace presented on georgette silks, Duchess satins and silk moires.
I came across this painting when at the Henry the 8th exhibition at Hampton Court. The portrait depicts Henry the 8th, his son Edward and his third wife, Jane Seymour. What is so intriguing about the image is that in reality these individuals could never had been seen together. Jane Seymour died in child birth with Edward and yet we see them sitting side by side Henry in the picture. This is evident of Henry's desire to create this image of a happy family, that in real life he never had.
Tom Craig
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