Quote of the day, yay!

"[Art] has to be affirming even if it's negative."

- David Elliott, curator of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, 2010.

For the sake of clarity, I will paraphrase and contextualise this as 'art has to be life-affirming even if its subject is negative, i.e. angry, pessimistic, ugly.' For me, 'life-affirming' must be read (here and everywhere!) very broadly. I intend it in the sense (and I will venture Elliot did, too) that it reminds us we are alive, that we have blood pumping in our veins; therefore, in the case of art, that it makes us feel.

The above quote was from a lecture Elliott gave this evening titled In Praise of Impurity: Universal Values versus Geo-Aesthetics in Contemporary Art, which I was lucky enough to attend. I know little about Elliott aside from having read his essay 'Art and Trousers' recently, but I was utterly impressed and encouraged by his outlook on contemporary art and the world at large.

Some other (abridged) Elliott-gems include: "only bad art can be bought", "Marxism and Capitalism are religions", "art is experiential" and "the capacity for art is universal".

It is so refreshing to hear someone speak in these terms! I have a feeling next year's Biennale of Sydney will be worth keeping an eye on.

For more information on David Elliott and the BoS, visit: biennaleofsydney.com.au


Bharti Kher's The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own (2006), which was raised in the lecture.

Miuccia Prada does le crunch

New layers, new colours, new shapes, new exposure. Crunch-times according to Miuccia are ones of austere sensuality, organic palettes and what I like to call neanderthalic luxe.

Prada has been pushing this palette for a while now; perhaps suggesting, more than all the black on the runways ever could, the direction of austerity which is so pertinent right now. Certainly, if anyone, it must be Prada who hits the proverbial nail on the head in terms of capturing the (correct) zeitgeist. Looking at her work for Prada and Miu Miu this season as well as her SS09 collections and even her work for AW08, one can see this direction really manifesting itself.

I love the precarious balance between sexiness and marmsiness in the AW09 collections. The low-cut fronts, revealing just the right amount of chest (unfortunately virtually unwearable, I imagine, for the well-endowed sisters); the hotter-than-hot hot-pants, made of heavy, dark fabrics (wool?) to juxtapose their lack of length, into which almost-frumpy cardigans are tucked and poke out beneath the leg-holes; the thigh-high wading-boots; the sheer vests; and, my favourite, the ostentatious fur stoles, which seem the epitome of cover-up dressing until we learn to team them with an oh-so-sexy Miu Miu brassier (anyone who wants to send one of those my way is more than welcome - black, 32A).

It is this balance which makes Prada's work for both collections so special - there is always just the right element of everything. The new coat-shape of raised shoulders, large lapels and excess fabric in the waist gives the Prada woman a powerful stance, achieved without using the usual ploys of direct sexuality or mimicry of male silhouettes. A device all the better understood in terms of the Miu Miu collection, whose perspiring, bra-revealing, fur-wearing femme is more than ready to deal with the male species.

Prada is certainly showing us who's boss of this cave du crunch!

PRADA AI09
Auguste Anna D. Freja Hanne Mina Kinga
MIU MIU AH09
Tao Myf Sasha Dorothea Anna G. Daiane All pics: Style.com

A perspective unattainable to us

If you can (it's very hard, I think), imagine a world in present time and space where photography (still and moving) had never been invented.

What would the world look like? Different to ours?

What would aesthetically and visually satisfy us in this world? What would art be like?

Would other forms of image take the role of photos in a non-photographic 2009? How would we advertise? Would we advertise?

How would we express ourselves in a world where the concept of photographic image was non-existant?

Would perceptions of 'self' and 'other' be different if there were no photos?

Would we aspire to the same things in this non-photographic world as we do in our current one? How would we know what we wanted?

Would our desire to travel be the same? Would we say, "I wish I went to New York before the Twin Towers fell, just to see them" (which I have said)?

Would our memory work in a different way?

Could we see the world for ourselves?

§

Here are some images created before photography was invented. Does their world look different?

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin c.1770


Philippe de Champaigne c.1655 & c.1646


Jean-Baptiste Greuze c.1757


Jean-Antoine Watteau c.1716

RIGHT NOW four

Artist and academic Johanna Linsley's contribution to RIGHT NOW is a perfect example of the breadth of this project. I really wanted people to feel they could present me with whatever they liked and Johanna's gift of what I like to call Moving. Wanting. Watching. depicts wonderfully the diversity of work I received.

What I love most about this contribution is its complexity. Frankly, it is hard work. We can't glance at it and immediately assign it a thought-process-category - "poem", "photograph", "document", - rather we must (if we want to commence comprehension) take some time to read and look. Once we do this, it is possible to see Moving. Wanting. Watching. as a wonderful play between serious mathematical logic (I think this is what makes it hard work!) and neo-dadaist absurdism (please excuse the tacky -isms, I am but a mere writer).

The crux of it is in the realisation that these two players (logic and absurdism) are by no means mutually exclusive. In fact, Johanna shows us, it makes perfect sense (!) they be coupled.

And for those who decide logic (or absurdism, for that matter) is too much work for them, Johanna ensures you will be visually content: her composition of an A4 Helvetica-covered page is second-to-none.

Nomenus Quarterly

Erik Madigan Heck's Nomenus Quarterly is one of the best online magazines I've seen. Though, crucially, it's not just an online magazine; there is also a hard copy produced, yet few have seen it, let alone own it.

This is the beauty of Nomenus Quarterly. In its physical manifestation it is an art-object, a collector's item, expensive, and limited edition, whilst simultaneously remaining accessible to all (for free, at the click of a button) via the world wide web.

Nomenus Quarterly combines a killer line-up of creative contributors, beautiful art direction, innovative fashion photography (much of which is done by Heck himself), and unconventionally-curated fine art (the likes of Elizabeth Peyton, Alec Soth and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin appear in the same issue) with a mind for showing us just what we need to see before we know we need to see it.

Elizabeth Peyton's Keith (Gimme Shelter)


The current issue (issue 6) contains the aforementioned artists as well as features on the Metropolitan Opera, an interview with Sally Singer, fashion editorials featuring the clothes of Jean Paul Gaultier, The Row and Costello Tagliapietra, and poetry by Arnold Klein: Heck certainly has a knack for pulling together an eclectic mix of amazing people.

And if hints are anything to go by, issue 7 is going to be filled even further to the brim with some of fashion, music and art's most important figures, which we can all look forward to seeing online around May. Plus, just to ensure Nomenus Quarterly is ever-more exclusive, the physical version of issue 7 will be bigger and more ornate than ever before and thus limited to an edition of ten with the price being upped significantly. Only the most devoted collectors of fine-art-publications can get their hands on this one.

Alec Soth's Salt Lake, Utah from The Last Days of W series


It is this wonderful balance of exclusivity and accessibility which makes Nomenus Quarterly so unique, so clever and, indeed, so desirable. Heck has somehow combined all these elements, all these seemingly disparate artists, and still managed to create something concise.

It gives us a distinct impression that it is Heck's ability to bring other amazing people's work together with his own work - subsequently creating a platform which is new, exciting, diverse, unexpected, and accessible to all - that makes this magazine so brilliant. This is well and truly Heck's publication, Heck's art, Heck's vision. And we're all very welcome to see it, maybe some slightly more than others, but that's okay because in the end we all get Nomenus Quarterly.

From Erik Madigan Heck's The Row series


See Nomenus Quarterly at nomenusquarterly.com

Quote of the day, yay!

I was in a bookshop looking at Andrew Zuckerman's Wisdom today, when I came across this:

"Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there."

- Willie Nelson

It really struck me. I felt like it came to me at the right time. Willie Nelson is a country singer/songwriter, I've heard of him but am unfamiliar with his work. I've made a mental note to get hold of a recording and listen to it.

Willie Nelson by Andrew Zuckerman:

Image: www.sl.nsw.gov.au

Kris Van Assche AH09

I'm usually not such a huge van Assche fan, but he has really excelled this season. Somehow he's managed to mix grunge, goth, tribal and tailoring to create something new. Sophisticated, cool, edgy and a little bit unusual: the van Assche girl is one to keep an eye on. Plus props to Kris for doing this now-common 'dark and draping' aesthetic in a totally refreshing way.

P.S. Would you check out Nika's shoes?

Shelby Lovani Bojana Nika Pics: Style.com