Archive for the ‘ Anti-aesthetic ’ Category
I have a love of all things miniature. As a young adult, I collected small Japanese toys from a company called Rement. During the summer after completing graduate school I had some down time and decided to use my commercial photography skills to shoot my miniature collection as though it were “real”. Also during that time, I also frequently watched shows like “Hoarders” and “How Clean Is Your House?” With that in mind, this past summer I began creating the images that are presented here, though I reflect their inspiration as a mirror and not a judgement. For me, this series is about creating a small, but perfect world where the viewer cannot distinguish between what is reality and what is fiction. All images taken with a Nikon D40. Re-purposed 1/6th scale doll accessories with other handmade items.
Images from Flickr.
It is not expected that as consumers we be concerned with the actual production of the items we purchase. In fact it makes us more effective consumers to maintain a perspective that is abstracted from that process. When we buy the basic goods we use on a daily basis, there is an assumption they are clean, untainted, absent of a history. Made in China asks us to reconsider that.
For this project, items made and packaged in China were purchased in US department stores and bodegas. They remained in their original packaging until they were dusted for fingerprints and then photographed under black lights. This process allowed for the evidence of another’s touch, quite possibly the person involved in constructing and packaging the item, to be revealed.
Made in China highlights the human factor and invisible history in each object’s production, and forces us to reconsider the relationship those who are leaving their fingerprints on each item may have with it.Made in China is not intended to comment on the scale or absurdity of our consumptive practices, but to remind us that we are only one factor in that equation.
Images taken from an online archive of the book Channel 4 at 25, an excellent book I discovered recently providing adverts, essays and interviews about major Channel 4 programs and films and the issues they explore, some illustrated by famous artists, photographers and illustrators.
200 posts! I love how this blog is getting on. To celebrate, here’s a special post about one of my favourite street artists, FAILE.
FAILE is a US art collective consisting of Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. Third founding member Aiko Nakagawa left the project in 2006 to create solo work under the name of Lady Aiko. Active since 2000, FAILE’s work consists of mixed-media wheatpasted artwork and stencil. Their work can now be found on a variety of media.
Prints:
More images from the Perry Rubenstein Gallery
For my 100th post, here’s a collection of work from my favourite illustrator: Jamie Hewlett.
Tank Girl: a character created during Hewlett’s university years with Alan Martin, eventually became a regular comic strip in Deadline Magazine. Adapted into a film in 1995 (with animated sequences) only to become a critical and commercial failure. The comic is still in publication under different artists.
Cover art for Shade: The Changing Man
The Senseless Things: ‘Got it at the Delmar’ EP
Comic of ‘Common People’ by Pulp
‘Hewligan’s Haircut‘, a comic for 2000 AD
Mindless Self Indulgence: ‘Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy’
‘Get the Freebies’: a comic strip from The Face magazine. Later adapted into the one-off programme Phoo Action by BBC Three.
The 16s: a canceled comic strip collaboration with Tank Girl co-creator Alan Martin.
Virgin Cola TV advert, 1999
Gorillaz during Phase 1 of the project. Hewlett created the band with Damon Albarn.
Gorillaz during Phase 2. (Notice the significant change of drawing style)
Character designs for Jimmy Jane adult toys
Monkey: Journey to the West, an opera featuring English and Chinese-influenced music, martial arts, acrobats and animation. Another collaboration with Damon Albarn. Also used to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the UK.
Part of a series of watercolours sold in aid of the River Basin Programme, an Oxfam campaign working in Bangladesh and Nepal.
‘Stylo’: from Gorillaz’ Phase 3. The first Gorillaz video to have the band entirely in 3D animation.
(Update 25/3/12): Illustrations for Absolut Vodka.
Buy Jamie Hewlett Prints from Pictures on Walls and Artdroids
Watch Gorillaz videos on YouTube
Cyriak Harris is a master of animated surrealism.
Cyriak Harris Official Site
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