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Desirée ODesirée Ossandon / D. Cole Ossandon • Professional Bohemian |
I was out for a walk and came across some more street art. Figures, flowers, and a snail with a rocket-pack! Be sure to take a look (click on the gallery thumbnails to see the full pic).
* Note: The pics are mine. The street art is not. If you know who the artist is, be sure to let me know.
I was at the park yesterday and took a few pictures of the sky (as I often do). When I pointed the camera at the sun, the rays appeared brilliantly blue.
Check out this great video with FAILE artists Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, which takes a look at their past work (see pics above) as well as their current project…
“VICE and 42Below recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Brooklyn-based artists FAILE on their permanent installation, The 104 North 7th Project. The piece consists of thousands of handmade tiles designed by the artists, each individually pressed and painted, and then fired in a wood-burning kiln and shipped to the installation site. The tiles were then applied to the surface of the building by the artists and a team of helpers over several days.
Well known for their explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage, as well as their use of unique materials, FAILE have created a beautiful tapestry of color, giving life and personality to a very plain structure.” Vice.com – Art Talk
Find FAILE at www.faile.net.
And check out more at Vice.com’s Art Talk.
big long now .com by Rafaël Rozendaal
If there are two things that are obvious about me from my choice of career, it’s that I love art and I love online culture (websites, blogging, social media, etc.). So I’m utterly and completely intrigued by Rafaël Rozendaal’s work.
“Artist Rafaël Rozendaal, who makes websites as artworks and sells the domain names to guarantee exclusivity to the piece, believes domains are the only scarce things on the internet.
His websites vary in scope; some, like From the Dark Past, have moving patterns affected by the mouse’s positioning, while others seem to unfold in front of you regardless of your clicking and hovering, like Love Game Set.” Vice.com – Art Talk
Check out more at Vice.com’s Art Talk.
I was incredibly excited to find out that the Art Gallery of Ontario had joined Google Art Project to allow direct online access to its collection.
“The Toronto-based Art Gallery of Ontario is the first Canadian museum to join the Google Art Project, which allows access to its collections over the internet.
Last year, Google partnered with 17 of the world’s most acclaimed art museums, including the Tate in London and the Palace of Versailles, to launch the Google Art Project.
On Tuesday, it announced another 100 museums in 35 countries would be joining the project…” (CBC)
I had barely made it through the first few pieces when suddenly I came across a familiar name. Actually, a relative!
James Watt, my great(+) grandfather.
You can check out the portrait on Art Project here.
I wasn’t aware the AGO had a portrait of him in their collection. I’ll definitely have to go see it next time I’m at the gallery!
Find out more about Google Art Project and the AGO’s involvement here on the CBC or in the clip below.
Check out the AGO on Google Art Project here.
You can also find out more about James Watt, inventor “described as one of the most influential figures in human history”, here.
“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon.
In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.”
– Patti Smith
I came across these on the lookout by the river:
Mary Wollstonecraft has always been a figure of interest. An eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights, she stirred up controversy through her beliefs and choices during her lifetime and beyond. Unconventional relationships, radical views on marriage and the status of women, as well as published works that challenged the society in which she existed, were some of the ways she riled the minds of those around her.
During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. [Wikipedia]
Now there is an effort to recognize Wollstonecraft by erecting a statue of her, and last week, in order to raise awareness (and funds), her image was projected onto the side of the British Houses of Parliament.
She has been called the mother of British feminism, so it is perhaps fitting that her image was blasted onto the building known in some parts as the mother of all parliaments. Mary Wollstonecraft‘s image was projected onto the Palace of Westminster during Wednesday’s rush hour to raise money for another image – the first ever statue of the author of the Vindication of the Rights of Women.
Campaigners are aiming to raise £240,000 to pay for the statuary on Newington Green, in north London, near the site of Wollstonecraft’s former home and the school where the radical 18th-century campaigner taught. They also spent two hours handing out leaflets and promoting the fact that 77 supportive MPs have already signed a petition, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, who masterminded the turning out of the lights overlooking the Thames. [The Guardian]
Check out the full article at The Guardian.
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- the White Queen, Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Down the Rabbit Hole
I posted the line above on Monday. It always reminds me to keep my eyes open for the wonderful impossibilities we get to witness and rumble with on a daily basis.
It seems to suit that yesterday I stumbled across another Alice in Wonderland treasure in the form of Salvador Dalí illustrations.
“Published by New York’s Maecenas Press-Random House in 1969 and distributed as their book of the month, the volume went on to become one of the most sought-after Dalí suites of all time. It contains 12 heliogravures, one for each chapter of the book, and one original signed etching in 4 colors as the frontpiece, all of which the fine folks at the William Bennett Gallery have kindly digitized for your gasping pleasure…
As you might expect, the book isn’t exactly easy to acquire — Amazon currently spots just a single copy, handsomely priced at $12,900…” [Brain Pickings]
When a surrealist artist meets a surreal story, incredibly surreal (and beautiful) art can be created. This is one of those times.
Check out all of the illustrations at Brain Pickings.
Mad Tea Party
Advice From a Caterpillar
Getting your privates pierced is nothing new. Having them tattooed may be a little more unique. Having your vagina tattooed under the direction of a world-famous artist is…well, what is it? Is it art?
Garage magazine has decided to debut with multiple covers of “living canvases.” Former POP editor Dasha Zhukova’s new fashion-meets-art magazine approached several artists – Jeff Koons, Jake and Dinos Chapman, John Baldessari, Paul McCarthy, and Damien Hirst - with the brief to design a tattoo, which would then be inked onto willing participants.
You can check out all of the covers here, but it’s Hirst’s that is unsurprisingly causing the most discussion.
Shauna Taylor, with sticker to hide her vagina tattoo, for Garage magazine
Hirst persuaded 23-year-old London-based illustrator Shauna Taylor to have her vagina tattooed with an iconic Damien Hirst butterfly, which was then photographed, along with all the ‘INKED’ participants, by ex Dior Homme creative director, Hedi Slimane. The result is displayed in all its glory beneath a strategically placed peel-away sticker à la Andy Warhol’s iconic Velvet Underground album cover.
Tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta was handpicked by Hirst to ink the green-and-black tattoo which took two sessions to complete.
“I was hoping it might feel kind of nice, but it was probably the worst pain I have felt. I thought I was going to pass out” Taylor told the New York Post , before managing to put a positive spin on the whole experience:
“I love it. I would have been stupid not to be part of this project. I have a piece of art on my vagina. Not one single person can ever say they gave birth through a Damien Hirst piece of art. I can [if I ever give birth].” [Telegraph]
“The official title of Hirst’s work is “Butterfly Divided” as the image fits on the two symmetrical halves of this part of the body, with Shauna’s tampon string dangling down in between.” [Bitch Magazine]
Is it art? Is it objectification? Is it both?
It seems to me that this is a case where it might be both. The participants are obviously being used as objects for the purpose of creating art.
But why is there controversy?
Individuals get tattooed all the time. Their motivations behind getting their body-art is none of our business, so you could argue that the same applies here. The fact that these tattoos have been called art and placed in a public context changes things. We are now allowed to consider it and even judge it.
But where does the consideration and judgment start and end?
The fact that they are being used as artistic objects becomes tricky to deem wrong if they themselves wanted to do it and are happy with the experience/result.
Are we to consider the aesthetic value? The possible meaning?
What could Hirst be saying by wanting his “iconic butterfly” tattooed on a woman’s vagina? I could read a lot into it, but I merely come back to the thought that this is a piece that is meant to make people talk. Period. Whatever they want to say about it is up to them.
Would we be talking about this if Hirst had directed her to have a butterfly tattooed on her shoulder?
Nope.
I don’t have a formal list of things I’d like to do before I die. But if I did, I like the idea of creating one that looks like Candy Chang’s. An artist “who makes cities more comfortable for people,” she has created a interactive public piece that asks what is important to you in the time that you may have left.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you. With help from old and new friends, Candy turned the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans into a giant chalkboard where residents can write on the wall and remember what is important to them. Stenciled with the sentence “Before I die I want to _______”, the wall became a space where we could learn the hopes and dreams of the people around us.”
“From the funny and creative to the thoughtful and heartbreaking, the reaction to the wall was more than Candy could have ever imagined. Before I die I want… to sing for millions, to see my daughter graduate, to eat a salad with an alien, to straddle the International Date Line, to cook a souffle, to love and be loved, to abandon all insecurities, to be completely myself…”
The images – of the building, the neighbours, and of the endless messages – are incredibly touching. Each makes me wonder what thoughts went into them. What lives are being lived behind these goals, wishes, and dreams?
But it doesn’t end in just one neighbourhood. “After receiving many requests from people around the world, she and her Civic Center colleagues created a Before I Die Toolkit to help you create a wall with your community.”
Too cool! I’d love to see one of these in my area. In fact, I can think of the perfect wall for it. I wonder… :)
“Thanks to your passion, this participatory public art project is currently expanding to cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Portsmouth, Querétaro, Almaty, San Diego, Lisbon, Brooklyn, and beyond – see other walls on the project site! You can also take a piece of the dream home with you with a limited edition painting and submit your dreams on the project site.”
Find out more about Candy’s project here.
This pic is from MajoRey, a lingerie designer on Etsy.
“Ice Angel” (2012) is an interactive artwork providing the participants a glimpse of themselves depicted in angelic form. Inspired by the way children create snow angels in fresh snow, Ice Angels introduces the digital twist of being a performance portrait device that pairs the participant to their angel identity.
Ice Angel combines human performance and emotion within the surreal construct of an interactive artwork. It is experienced through the participation of the viewer who adopts the role of performer. Through this role reversal a curious thing happens in which the viewer is now the subject of a living portrait, with their hidden “angel” revealed for all to see.
As the user moves their arms a new wing shape appears, unfurling from the shoulders, creating the angel traces within virtual snow. The wings are created dynamically and are linked to the participant, creating a performance proportional to the user’s physical extents. The artwork has a ‘memory’, capturing a hidden view of the participant and their angel wings, and this specific angel identity remains linked to that participant in any future encounters with the artwork.Artwork by Dominic Harris;
Designed and produced by Cinimod Studio.
I’ve never seen this photo of Bettie Page before. It’s a pretty good one.
Canada Arts Connect Canada Arts Connect MagazineCopyright © Desirée O. 
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