我的BLOG

選擇標簽 translation Music Film The Me Stuff GackDuck Migratory SnowDuck Art 選擇分類 標準BLOG 視頻 資料 發表 BLOG新聞 新聞

• From behind the lens...

  2013-03-05 3:36AM / 標準BLOG / Art

  
  

  
  

  
  

  ... Joey Lawrence steps in front of his camera to join the protagonist of the National Geographic doku-drama  Killing Lincoln, Billy Campbell. Interview with Joey L by Michael Zhang, here.

  
  

  I'm really as much in love with his crowdfunding project People of the Delta as I am looking forward to the workshop in London. I don't expect to pick up much, I'm not good enough to even start, but I do hope to gain insights that will allow me to better appreciate good photography.  

  
  

   I like his commercial portraits...

  
  

  
  Portrait of Robert De Niro, Actor

  
  

  ...and the pictures he takes when he travels ...

  

  

  Lal Baba (from the series Holy Men, above), Chief Mangau, Yakel, Tanna Island, Vanuatu (below)

  
  

  
  

  I, sometimes, feel the sudden temptation to lick the pictures,
   just to see if they taste as good as they look. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Rest assured, no pictures were licked in the making of this post. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  我來說兩句

• Remember the "Twilight" poster? Or "Killing Lincoln"? Photographer Joey L to hold workshop in London

  2013-03-04 1:36AM / 標準BLOG / Film

  
  

  

  
  

  In order to raise funds for his fantastic looking first feature film People of the Delta, Joey Lawrence, the photographer of iconic Hollywood art work such as "Twilight" or more recently "Killing Lincoln", is offering photography workshops. They're exclusive rewards for backers of this crowdfunding project. He started out offering locations in New York and Toronto. I was drooling ... and I was peeved. Across the big pond for a two-day-workshop? Growl. Not in this life time, I thought. Then, he added London...

  
  

  

  
  

  The workshop will be held at Complete (Picture), April 6th and 7th. The number of participants is limited to 20. 

  
  

  Me and my puny little point-and-shoot are going to London, followed by a summer eating instant noodles.

  
  

  
  

  
  Video: http://vimeo.com/57699273
  

  
  

  
  

  This is Joey talking about his project....

  
  

  
  

  
  

  1個評論–  我來說兩句

• 3.11 Surviving Fukushima - Go see the documentary

  2013-02-28 3:22AM / 標準BLOG

  
  

  In the afternoon of March 11, 2011, I sat in a room in central Kyūshū. Along with less than a handful of classmates, I was trying to master the complex choreography of polite Japanese introductions. We were concentrating on stumbling over our tongues; all we ever noticed of the earthquake that would take more than 17,500 lives was a soft shiver running through walls and tables. The true extent of the tragedy only hit us when we walked into the safety of our Okazaki home and turned on the television set.   

  
  

  While we were tucked away behind the Japanese Alps, Christopher Noland, a young American in his tiny Tokyo apartment, was much more affected by what was later termed the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. He began to record short video messages. Initially, these vids were made for his friends and family at home. A fact that should soon change. As the devastating extent of the destruction along the Northeastern coastline and the sheer number of lives lost became clearer and left the country reeling, media attention was drawn to the situation unfolding in Fukushima.

  
  

  Noland wanted to help. He joined the volunteers and relief workers in the clean-up. Soon, the short videos messages turned into interviews and recorded meetings with victims, volunteers, and officials. He collected TV footage of IHK news. After six months, he had enough material for an entire documentary. And that's what he decided to produce. In 3:11, Surviving Japan, Noland (who speaks Japanese) shares his insights, tells stories untold by the media, and gives an inside perspective on how people struggled and persevered in the aftermath of the natural disaster. We get a look at flaundering government officials, the restrictive TEPCO information policy in the nuclear crisis in Fukushima and see people's sudden realisation that nuclear power may not be as perfectly safe as they were led to believe.

  
  

  

  
  

  Noland and his co-volunteers and associates had enough footage for a documentary. What they did not have was the money for post-production and a first batch of DVDs. The aspiring filmmaker launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter  and the project succeeded.

  
  

  I don't entirely agree with Noland's conclusions. Maybe because I remember the aftermath of Tschernobyl, maybe because I'm more fatalistic. Afterall, I am sitting in energy-policy-rattled Germany with a very undaunted and nuclear-power-happy France right next to it. Being aware of the risks of nuclear power is a facet of growing up in Germany as is the continued discussion of the matter. This may be the reason that to my ear some discussions revolving around Fukushima sound off. They tend to overlook the fact that the destruction in Northeastern Japan was not wrought  by the Fukushima radiation spill but by the tsunami. In Minami-Soma, people were hit doubly hard. There are the families who had to leave their perfectly intact homes because of radiation, and there is the large second group of victims - the tsunami destroyed their homes and the radiation spill robbed them of the choice to return and rebuild. My "splitting hairs" here does not make their fates less of a tragedy. Still, I believe we need to be very clear about the actual consequences of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. 

  
  

  As I've said, my conclusions are not Noland's conclusions, but I will readily admit my view may be skewed. The truth very likely is somewhere in the middle. That's why I backed the project when I saw it on Kickstarter. I received my DVD, saw it, and knew it was the right thing to do. I strongly suggest you take a look at this very sincere, at times endearingly innocent, no-frills-documentary.

  
  

  My most vivid memory of this time in Japan? The deep respect I felt (and feel) for the restraint and the responsible and civilized way people acted under extreme duress. They were the personification of the British wartime motto "Keep calm and carry on". Companies quietly collected supplies and food and used company transports to deliver relief items to collection points further east. Wherever you went, people were organizing fundraisers or signing up to volunteer.

  
  

  
  

  Noland is now selling pre-order tickets on tugg.com for screening locations in 

  
  

  New York

  Los Angeles

  San Diego

  San Francisco

  Seattle

  Laguna Niguel

  Portland

  Chicago

  Honolulu

  
  

  Tugg is a movie house platform that will only screen a particular offering at theaters near you if pre-sales for that location are strong enough. If Noland can sell enough pre-order tickets by March 4th, 2013 screenings will take place on March 11th.

  
  

  
  

  Even if you're not going...spread the word!

  
  

  
  

  You're in good company: Yoko Ono tweeted about the screenings...

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  ---

  Edited to add Linkage...

  
  

  Website 3.11. Surviving Japan

  
  

  The documentary's Wikipedia entry

  
  

  Chris Noland's Facebook Page

  
  

  
  

  
  

  1個評論–  我來說兩句

• In a Pinch

  2011-09-28 4:34AM / 標準BLOG

  
  

  A sculpture by  Mehmet Ali Uysal. It was the Turkish artist's contribution for the Festival of the Five Seasons  in Liege, Belgium. 

  

  Gacked from Pierre Mâché, Blogger at The Imaginary Foundation

  2個評論–  我來說兩句

• Urban Art at the Munich Contempo

  2011-08-21 9:11PM / 標準BLOG / GackDuck

  Got my first real taste for street art in Berlin, more than a decade ago. Had to spend two weeks out in the streets of Berlin researching a book project. I was all alone (insert wide-eyed pout) and some parts of Berlin had a decidedly neglected, sometimes even hostile vibe to them. Walking for miles and miles, checking locations, I stumbled across stencils, walls and art in unsuspected places.  I started to recognize styles or rather handwritings and Berlin's street art became my silent companion in a playful game of hide and seek in a rough cityscape. It never ceased to surprise and amaze. 

  Looking for street art, for me,  has become another way of becoming acquainted with an unfamiliar city  - like tracing the markings on the underbelly of an unknown beast. I guess, others enjoy these explorations just as much as I do. That's why, for a while now, I've been wanting to share this blog link about contemporary street art in Germany -   BLOG für zeitgenössische Straßenkunst. Their Facebook page is here.

  

  It's a lively - and totally sanitary - peepshow if you get your kicks out of street art AND don't mind getting them in German streets. For me, another good way to keep tabs has been STROKE.

  
  

  

  STROKE  is an Urban Art fair. It usually is divided into two events a year, a Munich show in April and one in Berlin in October. The exhibits are - even if in some cases technique struggles to keep up with the idea of a work - generally funny and interesting, occasionally inspiring and captivating. Performances outdoors have been known to be so absorbing, you keep looking on  and on and on ... in the rain ... with a beer that grows warmer ... and more watery ... till the artists yield to the downpour.  

  Below, the 2010 key visual of the STROKE 02 ...   by Sainer.

  

  The original is now the key visual of ... my kitchen. I call it "The magician", my guests call it "creepy".

  There's a rough imbalance in Sainer's bodies I like - an obsession with eyes, hands, and faces combined with a loony-cartoony disregard for the rest of anatomy. Bodies reduced to hints of poses, postures, stances, nothing more than is needed to connect the vital stuff ... eyes, ... yeah, not repeating this. Sainer has pics of a number of walls, illustrations, and canvas works up. Such as this one ...

  

  Go check' em out. I, for my part, like the illustration Alice, and methinks one of his Untitled walls (hands/red thread) would make a great companion piece for the canvas work called Ariadne. Except the only ones who could position them in a ... companionable way would be people living in the building facing the Untitled wall. So ... scratch that. 

  Sainer is represented by INTOXICATED DEMONS.
  They represent a group of artists and organize art events. They are also the driving force behind the STROKE urban art fairs in Munich and Berlin, where they have their branch offices. Clever bridge - Berlin is a gritty city with hungry and driven minds that produce fresh art, Munich is a fat bored lady with a big purse who buys art just to get her hands on some fresh flesh that makes her forget she's way past picking.

  
  

  Sepe is another one of their artists.

  

  
  

  Sample works of other artists represented ...

  
  

  
  This is by Daria Kudla, photography credited to Luis Wenceslao Marina Navarro via Facebook
  (seen at STROKE.03 at the INTOXICATED DEMONS stall).

  
  

  
  

  

   Picture of INTOXICATED DEMONS Allstar wall in Szczecin, Poland called Jazz in the free-time
  (To be found among the Wall Photos of  STROKE - Urban Art Fair on Facebook)  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  The second edition of the Munich Contempo – International Contemporary Art Fair from 20. to 23. October, 2011 coincides with the first three days of the 56. Art Fair Munich that runs till 30. October. This year, Contempo is into horizon tweaking by cooperating with Marco Schwalbe of   INTOXICATED DEMONS. You could also squint and see, they're trying to infuse their thinnish gallery breed blood by jumping the lively street runts. Any way you look at it, be my guest, I'm looking forward ... to the show.

  1個評論–  我來說兩句

22

1/5

1

2

3

4

5

>