Edson Chagas is altering reality with discarded objects
Edson Chagas is altering our perceptions of consumable objects. The photographer recodifies reality by reframing items that have grown weary with age in new backgrounds, exploring the issues of consumerism, capitalism, and tradition. In pop art fashion, Chagas forces audiences to reevaluate the found object.
Chagas was born in Luanda, Angola in 1977. Chagas completed a degree in photojournalism at the London College of Communication in the UK and studied documentary photography at the University of Wales in Newport. He now lives and works in Luanda. In Chagas’ adolescence, everything was reused. Today, however, consumption habits do not adhere to the same values. It is these changes Chagas documents.
For the artist’s series Found Not Taken, he gathered discarded objects from the streets of Luanda, London, and Wales. He reframed these objects and took photos of them. The overlooked objects were thus reappropriated into emblems of overconsumption and waste of which our society is rampant. By manufacturing the image, Chagas makes us question social construction and reality. A selection from the series represented Angola at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
In Chagas’ series Tipo Passe he also toyed with the idea of social construction; he composed images of models wearing traditional African masks while wearing contemporary clothing bought in street markets. He makes us consider the role of traditional values in today’s society as well as identity.
City Under One Sun feat Autumn Casey, Farley Aguilar and Bhakti Baxter
After this year’s Art Basel – Miami Beach has just ended, ROOMS Magazine muses the creative processes and emotional influences of three Miami-based artists in the December print magazine. Autumn Casey, Farley Aguilar and Bhakti Baxter reflect on how their relationship with Miami has changed the way in which they think about art. Particularly in focus is the impact of light on their work and the way in which its influence on the imagination generates an artistic vision. Cogitating the origin of all things, familiar objects become unexpected sources of inspiration for artists, who are ever challenging and questioning their own subjectivity. And, while the works of contemporary artists often exist by an illusion of lighting and composition, the illusion is accepted as an ancient and indispensable artistic extrication. Yet, popular picture sharing sites such as Instagram, which allow for artistic expression and reflection from some, who do not necessarily think of themselves artists, adds a new dimension. The article considers, in dialog with Casey, Aguilar and Baxter, what this means for professional artists, who continue to find unique modes of creative manifestation in surroundings where art is becoming increasingly “common place”.
Read the interviews with Autumn Casey, Farley Aguilar and Bhakti Baxter by Heike Dempster in our new issue ROOMS 16 Superluminal
One of my favourites: PAUL MCCARTHY
The artist that has made rounds in the news has been, to my reading pleasure, one of my favourites – the eccentric Paul McCarthy. The irony and deprecation of the green “butt plug” that he recently erected on the Place Vendome did not invoke libido but quite a considerable amount of serotonin which led to the artwork and artist being savagely assaulted. No one has been coerced into giving it try on the “Tree”, the preferred euphemism, but the anger might not have been an impetuous spur to take a swing at the artist. In fact, Paul McCarthy has long been a provocative clown, who painted with food, ketchup, mayonnaise, and his own feces. Compared to his grotesque book of works, Parisians were lucky to get a stream-lined, simple in geometric shapes, a green butt plug because it really could have been worse.
Take the “Santa Claus” statue for example, for which McCarthy received a permanent spot in 2008 to display a Gnome holding up a 3 leveled butt plug with suction base in the Dutch town of Eendrachtsplein. It was never met with malicious attacks like “Tree” but polite invitations for it to relocate. How the butt plugs were received revealed more about its audience and their capacity to tolerate than how the artist was assertive. The Parisians appeared to be a bit more anal on what constitute contemporary art it seems.
The Brits however as one would expect love McCarthy. The Phallic Pinocchio, aka, Blockhead was a subversive interpretation of a Disney Character that stood outside Tate Modern for a solid 5 months. As a Guardian journalist has noted that “Britain is muffled by a middle-class, bland consensus of approval” for modern art, we have lost our rights to be offended. The over exposure of manipulations of iconographies and the tiresome gimmicks of blending the sacred and the profane have made us into products of lethargy.
Coming back to the artist himself, I’ve always appreciated the eccentric behaviours of them regardless of what critics think of their art as from formal aspects or maybe I’ve just given up on resolving the problem of not knowing what my own taste is. But for a guy like McCarthy who once threw himself around a ketchup spattered classroom until dazed and injured to eventually throw up and shove a Barbie doll into his rectum, just like how Damien Hirst put out a cigarette on his penis during an interview, that makes me like them.
Introducing Fashion-Photography Femme Fatale: JULIE RIEMERSMA
25-year-old Toronto-based Julie Riemersma lives to become a full time fashion photographer. Julie talks about her love for fashion, photography and the culmination of her two passions in ‘Pollock’.
So Julie, tell me - how did it all start?
I started using my first film camera when I was six or seven. I took pictures of ‘Sailor Moon’ on TV and of my grandmother drawing. I've always loved taking photos, but after a particularly stressful last year of high school I turned away from my expected path of a medical career to pursue being a fashion photographer. It practically happened on a whim. I decided not to live with any regrets and here I am!
And how have your pictures changed since you started studying photography?
I consider details much more now as I take a shot, especially the light. There is a lot more precision involved, but sometimes you still have to work with what’s available. When I get to a location and the light is difficult or low I still get to use my problem solving skills!
What is the most difficult part of being a photographer?
Probably the fact that you are your own boss. You have to be motivated, every day. You never have any real deadlines other than the ones you set yourself, so you have to be quite disciplined. In the long haul, it gets exhausting to continually try to get yourself out of bed, caffeinated and at the desk by 9am.
And the best part?
Shooting! All the pre- and postproduction nitty-gritties fade away when I have my camera in my hand. It’s a kind of high and it’s what I try to stay focused on. I also love collaging in Photoshop, and creating abstract and different art and fashion. Ideas for shoots tend to pop into my head randomly and are most of the time inspired by details in the everyday.
Tell me a bit about your portfolio. Is there a message in your pictures?
I try to capture beauty and, if I possibly can, also to capture a piece of my subject’s soul. I have a lot of images and concepts in my head and much of my upcoming work will be about getting what I imagine out of my head and on to film.
I’ve always loved fashion, since I first got my hands on my mother’s Vogue magazines. As someone who aspired to become a professional photographer, fashion seemed like the best way to combine commercial opportunity with the artistic expression I was seeking. When fine art and fashion meet, they create enduring and stunning images. That’s the vision.
I believe your fashion series ‘Pollock’ is a great expression of this vision! Can you tell me a little bit about it?
The name of the series is ‘Pollock’ since it was inspired by the American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. I was brought in by Lydia Chan who thought up the concept. She has an incredibly creative mind and is perfectionistic in the execution of her ideas. She did all of the styling and created much of the clothes and all of the headpieces – by hand! It was shot on a very stormy day in the driveway of a suburban home. We kept having to interrupt the shoot to bring all the equipment inside to avoid the intermittent showers. In terms of the artistic outcome, the postproduction work is really experimenting with the shots. I wanted to see how we could play around with blending modes on the shots I took of the plain driveway and background. My favourite part is the way in which unexpected details came across. For example, the way in which the greys contrasted with some of the fabric creates a quirky effect, which I really like. All shots can create unexpected originality and I like to capture as much of that as possible and that’s what I hope comes through in ‘Pollock’.
Sure! And finally, what would you say has the largest impact on your work?
Current events have a big impact on my work. To me, modern women are pushing back on a patriarchy that uses sexuality to sell. I think women are, and always have been, beautiful subjects for art and “sexy” should not be the main selling point. Women can be intelligent, eccentric, cute, badass or whatever they like and I try to incorporate that into my shots. I try to make it more about the specific subject and her unique style, and less about what is generally considered to be the unobtainable “perfect woman”. In the future I want to be able to incorporate even more abstract concepts and ideas. To me, photography is an important mode of expression and I will continue to highlight social issues in my works, creating awareness about the issues that are important to me to get across. That’s what matters most to me and what makes me love what I do.
Model: Saki Wani
Stylist: Lydia Chan
Photographer: Julie Riemersma
Makeup and hair: Christina Nguyen
Stylist Assistant: Jacqueline Chow
Victoria Miro welcomes NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY in her artist portfolio
Victoria Miro announced late last month that she is “delighted” to be representing Njideka Akunyili Crosby - this year’s winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize.
As a succession to the $25,000 award, the 32-year-old Nigerian born artist, is now to be represented by one of the “grandes dames of the Britart scene”- the internationally acclaimed art dealer with dual London gallery spaces, Victoria Miro.
“Informed by art historical and literary sources, Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s complex, multi-layered works reflect contemporary transcultural identity…Akunyili Crosby’s large-scale figurative compositions are drawn from the artist’s memories and experiences,” it is noted on Victoria Miro’s website.
As she pushes a melange of acrylic, paste, colour pencils, charcoal, marble dust, collage and transfers, the LA based artist populates her work with images of family and friends, in scenarios with details derived from everyday domestic experiences in Nigeria and America.
Combining collage and photo-transfer to provide texture and complexity, Crosby’s bold yet intimate paintings are described as “among the most visually, conceptually, and technically exciting work being made today.”
Her painterly compositions feature images with a thematic resonance to each particular work, which derived from personal archives, Nigerian lifestyle magazines and sourced from the internet.
When concluding the decision for Crosby’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, the jurors wrote: “Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s nuanced work reflects the increasingly transnational nature of the contemporary art world…She has created a sophisticated visual language that pays homage to the history of Western painting while also referencing African cultural traditions. Akunyili has a striking ability to depict deeply personal imagery that transcends the specificity of individual experience and engages in a global dialogue about trenchant social and political issues.”
Crosby has participated in numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including most recently “Draped Down”(2014) at The Studio Museum, “Sound Vision” (2014) at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and “Bronx Calling: The Second Bronx Biennial” (2013) at the Bronx Museum. She will see her work featured in the New Museum Triennial in 2015.
ERIK NYSTRÖM / LEE FRASER
Block 336 presents Morphogenèse, a sound installation and performance event collaboration between Erik Nyström and Lee Fraser, marking the release of Nyström’s album of the same name.
Morphogenèse, meaning ‘the beginning of shape’, offers the listener an immersive experience created by multi channel synthesis. Block’s underground gallery space will be transformed for the event adding atmospheric elements to an interactive sonic world of Nyström and Fraser’s making. Nyström and Fraser both hold PhDs in electroacoustic composition and have both studied under composer Denis Smalley.
Nystrom met international recognition in the Metamorphoses International Composition Competition in 2010. His work ranges from regular participation in live electronic music projects for the London Contemporary Orchestra’s innovative performances to featuring Boiler Room events. His album, ‘Morphogenèse’, is released under Canadian electroacoustic label Empreintes DIGITALes.
Fraser’s work includes critically acclaimed album, Dark Camber, on the Entr’acte imprint earlier this year and he has received the prestigious Luigi Russolo Grand Prize for his work ‘The Visions of Ezekiel’.
Together the London-based duo engages in a new improvisational computer music project, creating an exceptional collision between different worlds of sound. The backdrop of the performance is created by introspective installation design by Tom Groves. Morphogenèse inhabits an ever-evolving visuospatial topography reflecting cycles of creation, crisis, and decay.
Morphogenèse will be exhibited at Block 336 on Friday 28 November and Saturday 29 November. For further information about the exhibition see.
Leutton Postle, Knitting a Labour of Love
Renowned for its colourful designs and eccentric patterns, luxury knitwear label Leutton Postle boasts distinctive collections in a characteristic aesthetic. Founded in 2011 as a “labour of love” between long-time friends and academic peers Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle, the brand has since garnered a celebrated position in the realm of contemporary fashion design.
Sam and Jenny met in 2005 while working toward their BA at Central Saint Martins. Similar tastes and like interests in knitwear brought them together, resulting in a collaborative union between the two young designers. “We always liked a lot of the same things and that just grew as we progressed through college,” Jenny explained during an interview with ROOMS. “That being said, we do also have very clear differences in taste.” However, even with apparent individual preferences, the two were undeniably cut from the same cloth. Thus, following the success of Jenny’s MA/ AW11 line – a collection of avant-garde garments adorned with thoughtfully mismatched patchwork – and upon Sam’s return from Shanghai, where she spent time exploring knitwear innovation, the pair set to begin their first joint undertaking: their SS12 Collection.
Featuring intricate, polychromatic patterns, a playful plethora of textures, and asymmetrical silhouettes, the SS12 Collection made its debut at London Fashion Week in September of 2011. While, once on the runway, the collection appeared effortlessly seamless and polished, preparation for the show was anything but. While Sam notes that, “in a very disorganised manner we manically knitted [the] collection” and Jenny recollects the process as “total mayhem,” their debut proved to be a huge success, with big names like Vogue and Grazia taking notice.
Although the label’s exciting debut put Leutton Postle on the map, the up-and-coming duo remained humble and determined. “Showing in London was the biggest extravagance really, and we also did Paris Fashion Week and worked with PR, but we didn’t do anything dramatically different or off the wall to get attention – just knitted!”
And knit they did.
In the three years since its premiere, Leutton Postle has presented five additional collections, each incorporating a unique twist on the label’s characteristic approach: a focus on pattern, texture, and colour. In fact, to Sam, the presence of vivid, saturated colour is just as important to the design process as it is to the finished garments. “While I just love colour, I think I work with colour more that I actually wear it. If you’re looking at colours all day, it’s certain to have a positive effect on you.” Undoubtedly, this colour-centric outlook explains the inexhaustible prevalence of bright hues and vivid tones characteristic of the Leutton Postle label.
In addition to this emphasis on aesthetics, there remains an inherent commitment to quality and extensive attention to detail in their designs. While the label has undoubtedly seen massive success on the glitzy catwalk, Jenny and Sam also pride their garments on their everyday, ready-to-wear possibilities. “We love to cater to all sorts of men and women with different styles. Knitwear is so versatile so people can tweak it to match their own styles.” That is why, in addition to its seasonal collections, Leutton Postle has recently opted to collaborate with accessible brands outside of the fashion realm – the most recent being Kopparberg, a celebrated cider company.
Given Leutton Postle’s quirky aesthetic and Kopparberg’s Scandanavian roots, the two brands teamed up to create a festive, cosy knit jumper. “Kopparberg wanted to collaborate with a knitwear label for their cosy Spiced Apple Cider. It seemed like the perfect fit. The jumper is typically Leutton Postle in that it is patterned and very colourful but with a little twist, as we took inspiration from Kopparberg’s heritage, the town itself, and traditional Swedish knitwear patterns.” Like all of Leutton Postle’s designs, this knit conveys an innovative, re-imagined approach to fashion. Jenny notes that, “it was really fun to work on the deconstruction of the Swedish knit, as it's such a recognisable textile pattern in its original form.”
So, what’s next for the designing duo? In addition to collaborations and, of course, new collections, both Sam and Jenny have been experimenting with fashion film – a feat that Jenny calls “a huge step for us that has really shaped our last 2 years.” Still, not all of Leutton Postle’s planned projects are as fashion-forward or even as obvious. When asked what is next on the agenda, it became clear that the pair is eager and excited to try on different hats. “I’d like to make my own alcohol,” Sam proclaimed. “I have a really good idea, but it’s a secret for now.”
Clearly, Leutton Postle has a thing or two up their sleeves.
NIXON opens shop in London
In the late 1990s, Nixon emerged in California, specialising in customised watches, accessories, and audio. After proving successful in America, Nixon opened locations all over the world. Boasting stores in over 70 countries and, seeking prominence in Europe, the company has since set up shop in two key locations: in Paris’ le Marais district, and, more recently, on Newburgh Street in London.
Near Carnaby Street’s trademark independent fashion houses and flagship stores, Newburgh Street provides the perfect setting for Nixon’s newest retail location. While, with the addition of a new storefront, the shop boasts an impressive external façade that blends seamlessly into the stylish shops and boutiques of Carnaby Street, it is what is inside the shop that stands out. With its workshop-inspired customization bar opening on November 1, it’s only a matter of time until customers are able to pick and choose bits and pieces to create their own unique watches. With its coveted products, innovative customisation bar, and its newest trendy location, Nixon’s new home in London will, as noted by Nixon co-founder Chad DiNenna, enable the brand “to be an active participant in contributing to the field of world-class design through our perspective, our brand and products”.
Be sure to make time to check out Nixon’s newest location at 6 Newburgh Street in London, open now!
DUFFY London : An Abyss Full of Ideas
“When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” Nietzsche famously said. In this case, the abyss also looks into your wallet for at least £9800 if you are as stunned as the rest of the world by this example of elite furniture designs,The Abyss Table. Created by Chris Duffy, owner of the leading luxury furniture design house, Duffy has been previously featured for our readers to dream in the impossible. ROOMS has since been privileged to interview the genius mind behind these fantastical and imaginative creatures, Chris Duffy who turns out to be as fantastical as his creations. Here you get to go into the abyss with a tour guide where Duffy talks humour, designs and people.
It has been over a decade since your physics-defying designs emerged into the luxury goods market. They are nothing short of stream-lined, sleek and coherent spectacles that inspires curiosity if not gasps. How has your market evolved and where is the brand’s current position now?
We have evolved into a high-end design company, as the luxury product market was conducive to us being able to see our concepts through to their logical conclusions, which sometimes requires them to be quite grand affairs that are expensive to develop and produce. Also, when it comes to it we could not compete on price with the large furniture companies and big brands, unless we sacrificed the values our company stood for. However, when it comes to competing on quality, originality and sustainability we cannot only hold our own in the global market but also come out on top.
The illusive aspects of the designs are playful and quite tongue-in-cheek, is that something that’s born out of your personality or the team’s dynamics? In our ROOMS 15 Issue there is a lovely double-truck photo of the talents behind the designs including yourself. I was surprised to see how young everyone looked. Could you tell me how the team was put together and how it’s like to be working in that environment?
It is born from my personality and the need to be as original as possible. There is more room for originality at the playful end of the scale than at the sensible end, which is overcrowded.
Playful, and maybe slightly silly briefs give a little more room and breathing space in which to approach designs and furniture in a new and more interesting way, and sometimes even provide quite novel and practical solutions to old problems.
My team has slowly evolved over the years and is still constantly evolving. I am lucky enough to have great many talented people apply to me for internships. From these I pick the very best. My team have all applied to me for internships to begin with and the ones who are exceptional get the choice to stay on as full time employees. The environment of the studio is a mix of a quiet science laboratory mixed with the occasional havoc, stress and shouting of a Gordon Ramsey kitchen.
The humour seems to come through in the mismatch of functionalities, such as the balloons or the swings. Taking objects and contouring them in the way that they aren’t commonly intended for could be argued as subversive and I particularly like how your designing process has been called performances of wizardry. Would you mind giving me a bit of insight into your life and personality or some experiences that might have shaped the way you approach a new idea?
Being a little nuts helps, as well as being a bit of an anarchist who hits back when they are told that they can't do something, or that what they are thinking of designing is impossible.
With the pieces you are talking about, I approached each of them in very different ways. For example, the Shadow Chaircame about because I had misinterpreted something I had seen in my mind's eye, and held that misinterpretation and its effect, and then used this on the piece of furniture I felt would have the greatest impact.
With the Balloon Table, I simply wanted to make a piece of glass appear to float; a balloon is the perfect visual for something that is buoyant in the air; the hard part is getting the structure perfect while maintaining the visual effect. If the structure is weak, the table fails. If the effect doesn't work, then the whole exercise becomes pointless. The Balloon Table only works when both are perfectly balanced and executed.
The swing table was just a simple exercise in designing something that gave no thought to practicality. The only thing it had to succeed at was fun, originality, structure and creating a wow factor. But after the years of development it is, ironically, one of our most practical pieces and extremely comfortable.
My editor has picked up on the Nietzsche and Voltaire reference in her introduction of the feature on Duffy. I had been tremendously excited to see those names especially Nietzsche mentioned. A lot of intertextual-cultural studies seem to play a big part in the design world but only fragments of it get to be brought over to the foreground. How do you stay true to your designs and philosophy and how important do you think that is?
It is very easy to veer off course and lose your way in design. To stay true to what I find interesting or what I find exciting, I have to regularly, and very deliberately, stand back, take stock of everything, and think all the way back to the very beginning when I first started making things in my childhood. Then I look at what I'm presently doing and re-position the company direction to what I believe is the true direction. Without that excitement and obsession, this job would be impossible. It can be an immensely taxing, stressful and time consuming occupation, as well as being all consuming mentally and physically. Without that constant passion, and the occasional small victory and piece of success, you could not do this job for very long.
The Nietzsche quote was just something that was buzzing around in my head while I was designing the Abyss Table. It's not that I use him for inspiration, although I do find some of his work very helpful in validating and confirming the reasons why it is I do what I do.
The Voltaire quote just sounded apt, although in truth it isn't, he is speaking about quite a different subject than the one I'm using it for, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I'd like to thank my team and all my amazing customers that have purchased pieces from me over the many years we have been in business. I started this business with £50 and never took a single loan from anywhere. Without my customers and my dedicated and long suffering team, there would be no Duffy London, and these objects that we are creating today would never have existed.
A Beach Getaway Miami Art Week ‘14
It was time again for the art world and throngs of celebrities to descend upon Miami for the 13th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach as well as various satellite fairs, parties, events and concerts. This year yet another of Miami Art Week’s art fairs, Pulse, followed UNTITLED. and SCOPE to the sands of South Beach, Midtown remained the home of Art Miami, CONTEXT, Miami Project and Red Dot art fairs, while Midtown’s neighboring Design District hosted individual shows like Michael Vasquez’s One Deep and Spinello Projects’ Gucci sponsored Kris Knight solo show, as well as a number of high-end private events. Wynwood was the hotspot for both local and international street artists again, downtown Miami saw thousands of additional visitors who came to attend events or see exhibitions at Pérez Art Museum Miami and Little Haiti emerged as one of the most talked about Miami neighborhoods with a lively, creative, young art scene.
Art Basel Miami Beach
The 13th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach at the Convention Center featured a strong selection of 267 leading international galleries from 31 countries. For 2014, the fair debuted a new sector: Survey. The new sector, dedicated to precise art-historical projects, featured 13 galleries presenting solo exhibitions by Ralston Crawford, Paul Feeley, Poul Gernes, Tetsuya Ishida, Alison Knowles, Lotty Rosenfeld, Niki de Saint Phalle, Michelle Stuart and Alfredo Volpi. The ever exciting Nova section again presented some stand out talent and some of the most thought-provoking and inspiring works to be seen in the Convention Center, such as the performance installation by Brazilian artists Cibelle Cavalli Bastos and Patricia Leite. Another stand out aspect of Art Basel Miami Beach is the opportunity to attend talks and panel discussions with world renowned artists, curators and art critics. For 2014 visitors were treated to intimate, engaging and insightful dialogues between the likes of Marina Abramovic, Julian Schnabel, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Mario Garcia Torres and Ryan Gander.
THE SATELLITE FAIRS
ART MIAMI
The original Miami art fair celebrated its 25th year in 2014 by adding even more exhibition space. On 250,000 square feet, Art Miami and its adjacent sister fair CONTEXT presented an array of dynamic projects, exhibitions and art works by more than 200 galleries, showcasing 1,875 artists from 60 countries. Special projects included Art from Berlin, a collection of unique Banksy works presented by Keszler Gallery, the Miami Light Project and the 1AN Symposium. A stand out was an Art Miami foundation gallery, Galerie Bender from Munich, Germany, a participant since the inception of Art Miami and instrumental in decisions such as the fair’s move to Midtown years ago. Owner Renate Bender reported a successful year showcasing and selling works by Inge Dick, Peter Weber and Robert Sagerman. Another noteworthy exhibitor was the Japanese gallery Yufuku, showcasing some outstanding works by artists like Masaaki Yonemoto, Harumi Nakashima and Shigeki Hayashi.
SCOPE
Celebrating its 14th year of introducing galleries to the contemporary market, SCOPE returned to its location on the sands of Miami Beach with 126 international exhibitors from 27 countries. SCOPE offered works with a strong focus on young contemporary work and gallery works by street artists like Swoon and The London Police. Works that stood out above the rest were “ARCADIA: Into the Blue” by British New York-based artist Lina Viktor presented by Wallplay. The series of hand gilded works featuring seven layers of 24-karat gold on each canvas. Young Los Angeles artist Alberto Cuadros presented by Natology also left a lasting impression. The Heineken House stood over 35 feet tall and featured live painting by 12 artists like Miami-based Tatiana Suarez and Sharktoof. Patrons could immerse themselves in the street art experience and witness the transformation of the installation while enjoying cold Heineken on the beach. In collaboration with the Galleries Association of Korea and sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, SCOPE Miami Beach 2014 presented FEATURE Korea, a curated section featuring fifteen galleries that offered a glimpse at the current art trends in Korea and shone new light on the country's contemporary cultural practice. Another special section at SCOPE 2014 was The Dean Collection curated by Grammy Award-winning music artist and producer, Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, an avid contemporary collector with a special interest in discovering and supporting young artists around the globe.
UNTITLED
UNTITLED. is an international art fair and nonprofit art space simultaneously with a different, inclusive approach to curation. The fair clearly emphasizes curatorial vision as the entire fair is curated as one space. For 2014 founder Jeff Lawson and Artistic Director Omar López-Chahoud enlisted Christophe Boutin and Melanie Scarciglia to join their curatorial team. In the new pink tent, designed by K/R under the direction of John Keenen, UNTITLED. housed the third edition of the fair on the beach presenting a variety of works by emerging and midcareer contemporary artists, a series of conversations, performances and special events. In stark contrast to neighboring SCOPE, the works on view at UNTITLED. were predominantly abstract, geometric pieces with an edgy yet sophisticated sensibility. The openness of the exhibition space, using natural light, made for a special and specific presentation of works by the likes of Jen Stark, Nicole Cherubini, Adrian Esparza and Anastasia Ax, to mention some highlights.
THE GALLERY EXHIBITS
Kris Knight, Smell the Magic
With the support of Gucci, Miami-based gallerist and curator Anthony Spinello presented a solo exhibition by Toronto-based painter Kris Knight in a pop-up exhibition space in the Miami Design District. The series of delicate, whimsical, secretive and sexually-charged paintings features portraits of seemingly fragile young men whom the viewer observes without making direct contact. We are invited to take a glimpse and have an emotional reaction and connection, yet they remain shrouded in mystery, always slightly out of reach. Knight draws both technical and contextual elements from the Late Baroque and Rococo movements embodied by artists such as Poussin, Fragonard, and especially portraitists like Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Vigée-Le Brun. He addresses the future by proposing new models of masculinity and gender identity: boys can be dreamers, they can be cast under gentle lights and colors, they can wear makeup and be considered both male and beautiful simultaneously.
Daniel Arsham, Welcome to the Future
Daniel Arsham’s solo project Welcome to the Future at Locust Projects in the Miami Design District is a site-specific installation featuring thousands of calcified artifacts. Arsham transformed the gallery space into an archeological excavation site, digging a trench in the gallery floor filled with 20th century media devices such as boom boxes, electric guitars, headphones, Blackberries, Nintendo controllers, VHS tapes, Walkmans, film projectors and portable televisions. Rendered in crystal and volcanic ash, the “ancient relics” present the recent past as archeology, a world of technological objects whose obsolescence was built into their design, preserved like petrified wood or the figures of Pompeii. Arsham presents these devices as a mass below our feet, in a grand gesture that rewrites narratives of production, history, and discovery. Arsham is known for his sculptural and architectural works, which warp or destabilize recognizable structures and forms with playfulness and wit. As a child, the artist survived Hurricane Andrew huddled in a closet of his family’s Miami home. The wreckage he encountered in the storm’s aftermath had a profound impact on his perception of architectural spaces and contemporary objects, which melt and crumble in his installations, leaving the viewer with the impression that a millennium has passed in an instant.
The International Friendship Exhibition
In its 3,000 square foot space downtown Miami, Primary Projects presented the group show “The International Friendship Exhibition,” a homage to the nature of contradiction, featuring works by 19 artists including Autumn Casey, Andrew Nigon, Magnus Sodamin, Karen Starosta-Gilinski, Afi Farooq, Kenton Parker, Cole Sternberg and Michael Vasquez. Among the group is Cole Sternberg, whose piece features twelve 18x18"paintings of overlapping texts, accompanied by an installation containing more than 100 charred American flags-a simultaneously political and apolitical sentiment. Best known for his cardboard-sculpted guns, Asif Farooq steps outside this genre with neon installation Desaparecidos. Translated as "missing," this work was created-along with a powder-coated, candied pink riot barricade-as an allusion to the persons who have disappeared in geopolitical conflicts throughout history and today. Perhaps due to their frequency, these happenings are almost accepted and normalized. A multifaceted concept, contradiction is explored both playfully and thoughtfully in this exhibit: Autumn Casey's centerpiece work, a metaphysical and metaphorical self-portrait, features a turn-of-the-century Ferris wheel seat and invites viewers to get inside and interact.
Auto Body
The most critically acclaimed exhibition of Miami Art Week 2014 was housed in a defunct 7,500 square-foot auto body and paint shop. The video and performance project presented by Anthony Spinello and curated by a committee of female curators featured works by 33 female artists including, among others, Jen DeNikw, Naomi Fisher, Dana Levy, Cristina Lucas, Kembra Pfahler, Christina Pettersson, Agustina Woodgate, Naama Tsabar and Nontsikelelo Mutiti. The dynamic installation of 25 videos and a daily performance program examined the political and economic inequalities of the art world through a variety of female experiences and artistic voices. Miami-based Agustina Woodgate set up shop with Radio Espacio Estacion, a bilingual, nomadic, online, event-based radio transmission. Via this cultural platform Woodgate invited female voices to represent the city of Miami with sound, music, conversation and language experiments addressing topics of movement, migration and economy. Naama Tsabar commanded the stage in her performance piece “Untitled (Babies).” With an all female band, Tsabar began by performing a rock song but the performance eventually turns into a scene of assault as the artist, imitating an archetypically male rock’n’roll gesture, starts smashing her guitar against the stage in an act of physical endurance and demonstration of strength., ostensibly to destroy the instrument but as she continues it becomes clear that it is actually the stage itself that is being destroyed.
THE PARTIES!
Chrome Hearts party with Zoe Kravitz and Lolawolf
Chrome Hearts opened its first Miami location with an event and exhibition coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. Established in 1988, Chrome Hearts, a study in artistic freedom and persistence of vision,
has evolved into an obsession- inspiring label and a cultural phenomenon. For its Miami location, Chrome Hearts introduced a space where retail experience, art and design meet. Fueled by the passion of co- owner Laurie Lynn Stark, a fine art photographer for over a decade, along with her daughter, Jesse Jo – the space will be home to both emerging and established artists & designers handpicked to create pieces exclusively for the space. For the opening, works from featured young LA-based artist Matt DiGiacomo were found throughout the entry of the store and the café inside. In looking to make the space a true showplace for artists, Laurie Lynn invited gallerist David Fahey to inhabit the 2nd floor of the space where she worked side by side with him on the inaugural exhibition. Fahey / Klein Gallery Miami exhibited a broad overview of classic and iconic photographs in a variety of genres. The 20th century photographic works on show included Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, William Klein, Herb Ritts and Horst P. Horst as well as photographs by contemporary artists like Ellen von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchelier and Ruven Afanador. The highlight of the expertly executed event for the grand opening of the store and gallery space, attended by a predominantly LA and New York crowd, was a performance by Lolawolf. The band consisting of lead singer Zoe Kravitz, keyboardist James Levy and electronics percussionist Jimmy Giannopoulos performed an intimate set in the Chrome Hearts courtyard featuring songs from their debut album “Calm Down,” which was released in October.
PAMM Presents Future Brown Featuring Kelela
Over 6,000 guests attended a spectacular event at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in celebration of the museum’s first anniversary as PAMM in the new landmark building designed by Herzog and DeMeuron. Overlooking Biscayne Bay and underneath the famous Hanging Gardens designed by botanist Patrick Blanc, patrons enjoyed cocktails and a special performance by DJ collective Future Brown featuring vocalist Kelela as well as guest appearances by Maluca and Ian Isaiah. Future Brown and Maluca also premiered a special new video for “Vernaculo,“ commissioned by the museum. A major highlight was a choreographed fly boarding performance in the ocean. Inside the museum, exhibitions on view included “Beatriz Milhazes: Jardim Botânico,” “Adler Guerrier: Formulating a Plot” and “Geoffrey Farmer: Let’s Make the Water Turn Black” as well as project gallery installations by Gary Simmons and Leonor Antunes.
The Sagamore Brunch
Always a delight and a Miami Art Week highlight is the Annual Art Basel Miami Beach Brunch at The Sagamore hotel. Guests are treated to champagne, pastries, fruit and specialty crepe poolside. Gallerists, curators, artists and collectors mingle in the gorgeous Miami winter weather and wander around the hotel and outdoor grounds to experience a part of Cricket Taplin’s collection on view throughout the property. In collaboration with Electronic Arts Intermix, The Sagamore presented “Screen Play: Moving Image Art” guest curated by Lori Zippay for 2014. The works reveal the innovative strategies and creative visions of artists who employ the moving image in vibrant interactions with contemporary art, media and culture.
The Elegant Simplicity of Amelie Bahlsen’s Liquid Boxes
Born in Germany and based in New York, fashion designer Amelie Bahlsen uses experimental patterns to produce unique and chic garments.
With exquisite yet understated materials and obscure, striking silhouettes,Bahlsen seeks to “translate abstract and conceptual ideas about space, perspective and three-dimensionality” in her work.
Bahlsen’s interest in fashion materialized after high school. Excited by her newfound passion, she enrolled in Berlin’s Mediadesign University, where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Design. Following a subsequent internship with Ame Souer in Paris, Bahlsen migrated to New York to study at Parsons School of Design, where she received her Master’s Degree in Fashion Design and Society. For her thesis project, she designed and created her Liquid BOXES collection – an array of dresses featuring bold accents of color and overlaid in distinctive white sheaths.
Bahlsen discusses the conceptual nature of BOXES with ROOMS:
My thesis collection Liquid BOXES is about the idea of three-dimensionality and perspective translated into garments. What happens when you sew a perspectively-drawn box in fabric? How do those shapes collapse on the body? I aimed to answer these questions with the dresses whose pattern construction was in fact based on cubes and boxes.
With their geometric focus and inherent exploratory nature, her BOXES garments are clearly conceptually striking. They also, however, boast a stunning aesthetic:
To emphasize the depth and the different shades of white there are two layers of dresses: a printed undergarment and a white overlay. The prints are made by ink and food coloring dropped in water and contrast the straight and graphic elements of the white ‘box’-dresses nicely.
By juxtaposing the flowing, abstract nature of the colorful patterns with the pieces’ stark, clean contours, Bahlsen’s work conveys an undeniable interest in experimenting with fashion. With her innovative focus, refreshing aesthetic, and distinctive style, Amelie Bahlsen definitely thinks outside the box.
amelie-bahlsen
Towards Biology
Towards Biology is a piece created in collaboration with Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura for the exhibition "Time, Space, Existence" held at Palazzo Bembo within the framework of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.
In Towards Biology we consider abstractly, from the exhibition's perspective, the values of La Fábrica, creative epicenter and space of the Taller de Arquitectura from the mid-1970s to the present day. A space that moreover lays the foundations and the methodology for the development of the workshop's creative approach, which is based on innovation and focuses on ecology as well as on social and technological aspects.
House of Vans London
Presents: Julian Casablancas + The Voidz
With his new band The Voidz, the former Strokes frontman is celebrating the release of album 'Tyranny', by playing the House of Vans London on Friday, Dec. 5th
Before kicking off their seven date European tour which begins this weekend, this intimate venue will offer fans an unrivalled experience of hearing the band perform tracks from their debut album live, in an up-close and personal style. Tickets were available for free to fans, and is unsurprisingly a sold out show for the band.
The album was released by Casablancas’ label Cult Records back in September and is a truly compelling listen of punk fuelled aggression.
Seeing Casablancas back on top form will undoubtedly be a night to remember for everyone in attendance.
ELEMENT present: The Road to Wolfeboro
When Element invited fine arts photographer Brian Gaberman to join them on a journey from New York to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the result became a collision of two worlds in a mutual appreciation of simple life, skateboarding and the permanency of nature.
Johnny Schillereff founded his inclusive skateboard brand, Element, with one vision: bringing progress to skateboarding in the most honest and ethical way possible. The result is an environmentally aware brand, which focuses on bettering the sport and the associated community.
To Brian Gaberman, the youngest photographer ever featured in B&W Magazine, it is the elements on the sideline, which make the difference; photography is about capturing subtleties. Gaberman’s work is dominated by the ethereal picture quality, which is characteristic of wet plate collodion negatives. Capable of showing microscopically fine detail, the negatives create a unique photographic liquidity, which allows him to harness the mystery in every frame. To Gaberman the flaws and imperfections, which produce the dreamlike images, portray the world with astounding precision.
The Road to Wolfeboro is a coming of age story of an artist, who spent his youth in the concrete jungle of New York. Now an established photographer, Gaberman returns to rediscover the city. The freedom of his youth is offered anew by absolute creative autonomy, yet as Gaberman acknowledges, unlimited freedom is daunting. Uncertainty, however, makes way for spontaneity and re-evaluation. Thus, upon reaching Wolfeboro, the end goal has changed: for Gaberman the journey has become the destination, “moving through the world responding to instincts”.
The ghostly images appear antiquated, yet they tell an important story. This is a story about development, nature and the place of mystery and individuality. It captures the importance of uniqueness in even the most (seemingly) insignificant aspects of life.
The Road to Wolfeboro exhibitions:
November 21st, Barcelona
November 28th, Lisbon
December 4th, London
Klara Kristalove’s Ceramics Come from Your Childhood’s Anxieties
Klara Kristalova creates beings that would appear to come from the dark enchanted forest in Holden Caulfield’s (The Catcher in The Rye) dreams. Kristalova is known for her ceramic sculptures, which portray narratives of change that are doomed with brooding undertones. Alongside the sculptures, her repertoire includes installations, drawings, textile works, paintings, and sketches. Kristalove finds inspiration in nearly everything: traditional myths, fairytales, Hans Christian, Oscar Wilde, TV, music, and even overheard conversations. Reflecting on these various mediums, Kristalova explores themes of trauma, the loss of childhood, changes, memory and decision-making in her work.
Born in Prague (1967), Kristalove and her family fled to Sweden when she was a child. Her mother passed away when she was only six years old and she was left to grow up with her father and brother. She studied painting at the Royal Institute of art in Stockholm. Eventually, she found the medium to be limiting and wanted to explore three-dimensional works. She began experimenting with bronze and gypsum, but being a broke student (many of us familiar with the struggle of the ramen noodle diet) led her to using clay. She was also fond of the fact that most of her peers saw ceramics as passé at the time.
It is evident that clean lines are not a daunting concern to Klara Kristalove; her creations rarely follow real life proportions and their paint bleeds like a crying drunk girl’s makeup. Their size range from smaller delicate works to almost child-like proportions. The artist primarily portrays fauns, young girls, flora, the deep woods, animal human hybrids, masks, and doubles. The roughness and muted colors of her sculptures gives them a tone of shame and isolation. These motifs remind us of the difficulties we ourselves felt (possibly still are) when growing up. The inner anxieties we all feel when shedding our childish individuality in order to fit in as adults.