dream farmer // il coltivatore di sogni.

greedy hen: art collective + rocking kittens.

in my last post, i shared the clip for 'blood' by the middle east. the clip was directed by greedy hen, a sydney based multi-disciplinary studio, run by katherine brickman and kate mitchell. the studio functions partly as an art collective and partly as a design studio. their work is heavy with beautiful imagery and vintagesque graphics, which falls between playful black humour and sunny delight.

their interest in music has not only provided talented australian musicians with magnificent clips [josh pyke, cloud conrol, the panics] and spectacular album covers [andrew morris, the waifs, washington, leroy lee, richard in your mind, cloud control] but also seen them design an album cover for their own fictitious debut album, and create a miniature paper stage and tiny paper instruments [set complete with little bottles of catnip] for a rowdy kitten band [the strays] to trash... rock star style. the detail in the set up is exquisite. the project was for debit mastercard's 'priceless music' series, with greedy hen collaborating with one six six productions, directed by brenrick [patrick chambers and brendan willenberg], and produced by josh jenkins.

extended, director's cut here.

art crush: onuma honey packaging.

i love honey. i recently had, what i consider to be, the most amazing, multi-layered honey, from the hamer people, in southern ethiopia.

this afternoon, i came across the most beautiful packaging for onuma honey [2009, yamagata]. i feel like a spoonful of honey right now.

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art crush: jum nakao’s paper dresses.

i am an avid appreciator of fashion. in particular, i just love dresses with structure and folding. in a sense, the dress can become an extension of our self. delueze proposed the notion that fashion is the corporeal occupation of the body within the fold. it is wearable architecture.

architecture as body ornamentation. body ornamentation as architecture. materiality. folding. origami. paper. amsterdam-based fashion designers viktor horsting and rolf snoeren have gained notoriety for the their concept-based catwalk shows. their curious creations, while unlikely to be worn on the street, spark the imagination. unusual forms, crazy construction, medieval warriors [denoted by the red face paint and fabric colours] and origami folds commanded a recent show. i wonder whether these pieces could be recreated in paper?

[all images via]

brazilian fashion designer, jum nakao [of japanese decent], integrates art and fashion, costume design and animation. using paper. intricate detail and defined structure reveals a master of paper couture, where paper is draped and manipulated as though it were fabric. the delicacy and diaphanous quality of the pieces, though, would not have been possible had fabric been used.

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the dress collection made its debut at sao paulo's fashion week in 2004, in a show titled 'sewing the invisible'. "as a reminder that fashion is a medium and not an ends to itself" [paper perfect], the models were told to tear up the pieces at the conclusion of the show. while this is upsetting - i would love to see the collection in an exhibition - it only serves to strengthen the understanding that we live in a disposable society. it's just a pity that such beautiful objects fell victim to modern consumerism.

let me jot that down.

a couple of weekends ago, i bought the weekend australian - the first time since returning home from overseas. i always trawl through the magazine first. i rather enjoy seeing what controversial subject phillip adams has addressed in his weekly column [religion and violence, in 'killers for christ', 06.08.11, which i agreed with]. and susan maushart never fails to provide a source of great amusement.

[side note: after texting a friend to say that the australian had to keep masuhart for as long as possible, i got a reply asking whether i had seen page 2. and there it was: ashleigh wilson had finally been promoted to editor of the arts for the newspaper. "congratulations", i texted back. i added, "now you need to publish articles on clever + intelligent architecture." "i know someone who could do that", he responded. i guess i had better get my arse into gear.]

on the weekend in mention, maushart delved into the world of lists, in 'let me jot that down'. writing lists, losing lists, finding lists, iphone lists, grocery and personal development lists [and how she tends to confuse the two]. isn't there a saying along the lines of how we write lists to forget things. i have tried this. sadly, i forget i have written the list, or where i wrote it, thus forgetting everything in the forgotten process.

not everyone, though, is as forgetful as i am. in fact, some have hand written or illustrated or typed or collaged fabulous lists. one such collection of lists is the morgan library's current exhibition, lists: to-dos, illustrated inventories, collected thoughts, and other artists' enumerations from the smithsonian's archives of american art. there are around eighty lists exhibited, which delve into the lives of some of the most celebrated artists of the last two centuries, including pablo picasso, vito acconci, eero saarinen, alexander calder and h.l. mencken. from to-dos, appointments, places to see, important things to friends in case of death by flying, packing lists, illustrated lists in journals [see adolf konrad, packing list, december 16, 1963,below], and inspirational quotes, the lists provide insight into its author's personal habits and decision-making processes.

[konrad, via]

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[janice lowrey, via]

[acconci, via]

i would love to see this exhibition. it would make me dance with delight. more lists here.

move. learn. eat.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage ... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ... into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films...

= a trip of a lifetime.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

art crush: alexandre farto.

alexandre farto [aka vhils] is a young portuguese street artist who transforms walls into large-scale portraits by breaking [and blasting] away pieces of plaster [which he calls 'scratching the surface']. the slow motion video below about this process is quite breathtaking.

Orelha Negra - M.I.R.I.A.M. X Vhils aka Alexandre Farto from Vhils on Vimeo.

library of dust.

“in 1913 an oregon state psychiatric institution began to cremate the remains of its unclaimed patients. their ashes were then stored inside individual copper canisters and moved into a small room, where they were stacked onto pine shelves.

“after doing some research into the story, maisel got in touch with the hospital administrators – the same hospital, it turns out, where they once filmed one flew over the cuckoo’s nest – and he was granted access to the room in which the canisters were stored.

“over time, however, the canisters have begun to react chemically with the human ashes held inside them; this has thus created mold-like mineral outgrowths on the exterior surfaces of these otherwise gleaming cylinders.

“in order to deal with the fragility of the objects, and to respect their funerary origins, maisel set up a temporary photography studio inside the hospital itself. there, he began photographing the canisters one by one.

“he soon realized that they looked almost earthlike, terrestrial: green and blue coastal forms and island landscapes outlined against a black background. but it was all mineralogy: terrains of rare elements self-reacting in the dark.”

an incredible story, as documented in library of dust, by david maisel and geoff manaugh.

a new addiction.

friday's music treat is gotye's latest offering. after the release, late last year, of the amazing first single 'eyes wide open', from his forthcoming record 'making mirrors', it was going to be a tough ask to follow up with something equally as potent. this second single, though, is an absolute aural + visual treat. while the lyrics are full of memory + pain, gotye once again delivers a beautiful [and sexy] clip. the concept is a quirky delight. i love it.

i can't stop listening to it. i'm addicted.

'making mirrors' will be an incredible addition to australian music in 2011. hurry up 19th august!

the insubordinate.

a friend posted a fabulous link to facebook yesterday. i have been scrolling down for ages. its deliciousness just keeps going. so check it out here.

art crush: robin rhode

my brother introduced me to robin rhode in london a couple of years ago. rhode is a south african street artist, now based in berlin, who addresses social concerns in a productive + playful approach. he works predominantly with chalk, charcoal and paint, and engages in an interdisciplinary approach which encompasses performance, drawing, film and photography. and happening.

initially, his performances were based largely on his drawings and the objects within his environment. more recently, rhode has engaged in creating sequences + digital animations which are photographically documented.

so i bought a book of his work. and fell in love. this is a nice little retrospective of his work. very cute tune to go with it, too.

the girl who levitates.

natsumi hayashi one day decided to take self-portraits. of herself levitating. she can be spotted in + around tokyo, equipped with her slr + self-timer. when she feels the moment strike, she presses the shutter button down and then, quite literally, 'jumps' into place.

you get the strange sense that natsumi just naturally levitates through her life.

art crush: josh blackwell's plastic baskets.

the plastic baskets of new york-based artist josh blackwell are quite cool and a great way to utilise the constant stream of plastic bags in out lives. he re-creates basket patterns on found and collected plastic bags. some of them are quite beautiful. but they also remind us of our wasteful habits and patterns.

art crush: aneta grzeszykowska + jan smaga.

in 2003, polish photographic duo aneta grzeszykowska + jan smaga created a microscopic investigation of domestic space. their plan series [process explained here] is a bird's eye view, in plan, of the everyday spaces we inhabit, and reveals the subtle relationships between objects, humans and the spaces in which interaction and dwelling occurs. at its core, it is a simple story about life, which consists of infinite collection of details and elements. then, of course, there is the sheer pleasure of immersing yourself within them.

it's a little like a doll's house for adults. with a hint of voyeurism. [click on image for more detail.]

also, i really love this photo, titled avant-garde in the bloc, warsaw, taken from another series by the duo. the eastern european urban landscape is fascinating.

art crush: paul andrew rhodes.

just yesterday, i came across the work of paul andrew rhodes, in the film clip for montpelier's 'last boat'. the clip is essentially a short film made using the old-fashioned paper stop-motion technique. is was quirky + beautiful. so i looked up his work and discovered a very talented young animator + art director from sydney, with very lovely work - illustrations, montages + a handful of short films. here are some of my favourites.


vintage wallpaper love.


more of his stuff can be found here + here.

art crush: julie morstad.

these are some of my favourite drawings from julie morstad. her collection of whimsical illustrations + diaphanous collages are simply delightful. yes yes: pencil stilts!

i love her stuff. so very very much.