Posts from the “Crave” Category

London’s Burning: “PUNK” Returns to King’s Road

Posted on August 1, 2016

Photo: Steve Havoc, Siouxsie Sioux, ‘Debbie’, 1970s. © Ray Stevenson. Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery.

Picture it: King’s Road, London. 1971. Malcolm McLaren starts a shop called Let It Rock, featuring clothes designed by his then-girlfriend, Vivienne Westwood. It was a period piece. The pink signage and “Odeon” wallpaper was designed to put you in the mood to purchase drape jackets, tight pants, and creepers. Needless to say it was here today, gone by 1973, when the show as renamed Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die, as the dynamic duo updated the look to early ‘60s rocker styles that came and went, until they found their truth living in the present tense: SEX.

It got your attention. Loud and clear. The word “SEX” was written in pink foam letters that ran four feet high above the door, the walls covered in graffiti from SCUM Manifesto and chickenwire. Inside was another world, all red carpeting and rubber curtains, fetish and bondage gear. It was just the sort of affront that McLaren enjoyed, while also being a proper honey trap. The shop became the spot for London’s Blight Young Things.

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Categories: 1970s, Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography

On the Verge of Insanity: Van Gogh and His Illness

Posted on July 29, 2016

Artwork: Emile Schuffenecker, Man with a Pipe (after Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait), ca. 1892-1900, chalk on paper, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Stichting)

“Art is to console those who are broken by life,” Vincent van Gogh observed—but in the end it wasn’t enough to keep the great artist alive. Van Gogh died at the age of 37 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He did a poor job of it, as a rib protected his internal organs from injury. The bullet is thought to have lodged near his spine, without hitting it. The day was July 27, 1990.

After shooting himself, Van Gogh walked back to the Auberge Ravoux, in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, a popular destination for artists of the time, where he had been staying since May 1890. He moved there to be closer to his doctor, trying to find his way back into the world after experiencing an acute psychotic episode while living in Arles.

The story of Van Gogh’s ear continues to this very day, as the story of the woman he gave it to has finally been revealed. Eighteen-year old Gabrielle Berlatier was a farmer’s daughter living in a nearby village who was attacked by a rabid dog on January 8, 1888. The attack was so devastating, the wound had to be cauterized by a red-hot iron, leaving a vicious scar. Despite her condition, Berlatier continued to work as a maid at the Café de la Gare, a brothel in Arles.

Two days shy of Christmas that same year, van Gogh severed his left ear, leaving only the lobe attached to his head. Then he taped up his wound and wrapped his ear in plastic, making a special delivery to Berlatier, bookending what was already a tragic year.

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Categories: Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Painting

David Orr: Perfect Vessels

Posted on July 28, 2016

Milan Joanovits, m, 30 (robber + murderer; executed in Belgrade), 2016 | Archival dye-infused aluminum disc | 30-inch diameter. © David Orr, courtesy The Mütter Museum.

Viennese anatomist Josef Hyrtl (1810–1894) had the touch, such was his ability to work with human bodies after death. As a student, his dissections and injections were widely admired; as chair at the University of Prague, he authored Handbook of Topographic Anatomy, the first textbook of applied anatomy. A man free of mind, if you will, Hyrtl sought to discredit phrenology, an old fad that had come back into vogue, which supposed the shape and size of the cranium indicated the character and mental abilities of the brain within.

Hyrtl collected the skull of Caucasians across Europe, looking for diversity in size and structure to deconstruct pseudoscience with fact. How the skulls came into his possession was a mixed bag: some were criminals, some were poor, and others may have been dug out of their graves. Some are identified by name, profession, and age while others remain unknown, their conditions varying in terms of quality of preservation.

The Mütter Museum, Philadelphia, acquired 139 skulls from Hyrtl’s collection in 1874. Flash forward 130 years: photographer David Orr received access to the lot, creating portraits of a distinct and revealing nature. Each skull has been photographed head-on, then mirrored on one side, to create a vision of perfect symmetry. Orr photographed all the skulls, then made a selection of 22 for Perfect Vessels, at the Mütter now through January 5, 2017.

Speaking with Crave Online, Orr discusses the ways in which the skull meets the ideal conditions for a vessel, being a container, a craft in which to travel, a conduit for powerful energy, and a beautiful form that was once utilitarian but is now regarded as art. There is an elegant eeriness to this, something rather Gothic and Romantic about the idea of discovering a hidden level of beauty in the remains of strangers. We may never know this side of ourselves, never be able to see the face beneath the face and the home of the mind. This is where Orr’s photographs bridge the divide.

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Categories: Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography

Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition

Posted on July 26, 2016

Photo: Lolita, directed by Stanley Kubrick (GB/United States; 1960-62). Sue Lyon as Dolores “Lolita” Haze. © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

In one of those random moments that made up so much of 1999, R.A. The Rugged Man dropped a track called “Stanley Kubrick” on Soundbombing II. And, like everything that is Kubrick, it was an exquisite fit, though the song had nothing to do with him. It was about life out in Suffolk County where, “Cops frisk us, their handcuffs never fit us. Our wrists turn purple, that’s why we act vicious. Plus if we die tomorrow, won’t nobody miss us.” But the Capital the Crimelord track, the murky yet alluring baseline to the beat that R.A. rode with those lyrics, had a pure “Stanley Kubrick” feel.

And perhaps that is because the master understood. As Kubrick observed, “A film is—or should be—more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.”

Kubrick understood the power of impact, of heightening the senses with the precision of the conductor of an orchestra, soaring to operatic crescendos and crashing from precarious heights, taking us along for the ride. The layers of experience, insight, and understanding in a Kubrick film require multiple viewings, or should you be so inclined, additional materials by which to consider his work from multiple points of view.

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The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick (GB/United States; 1978-1980). Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) at the hotel bar. © Warner Bros. Ent.

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Art, Crave, Exhibitions

“WE:AMEricans” at Station Independent Projects, New York

Posted on July 23, 2016

Photo: Ruben Natal-San Miguel, TransAMErican (Jesse) 2015, Orchard Beach Bronx, NYC, 24x36 inches, unique C-Print.

Photo: Ruben Natal-San Miguel, TransAMErican (Jesse) 2015, Orchard Beach Bronx, NYC, 24×36 inches, unique C-Print.

Sigmund Freud famously remarked, “America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen.” The very idea that the twin engines of genocide and slavery upon which the nation was built are conducive to the conditions for an “experiment” suggests a quixotic cocktail of cold-blooded aggression and self-righteous entitlement. Such presumptuousness is difficult to top, although not in light of the Republican National Convention’s antics this week. Here we see the second part of Freud’s quote, the part where he acknowledged, “but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.”

It’s been rather grim, this 2016, like a terrible season of Game of Thrones where you hate everybody. Except, you don’t. You totally dig it. Your America. Not “our.” That’s a lovely illusion we like to tell ourselves, but have you ever noticed the flag has a whole lot of action going on? Three colors. Thirteen stripes. Fifty stars. You could Bedazzle it and folks would love it all the more.

Because…we love our little corner of this world, a place most of us are not originally from. Many Americans come from immigrants in some shape and form—and then there are Americans who were brought here in chains, against their will. But what we all share, in some shape or form, is the desire to be here, and to be Americans. (SN: Expatriates don’t talk about it; they are just up and gone).

In the twenty-first century, the United States is a curious place, one that is heavily polarized on countless levels: race, religion, gender, sexuality, class. It’s like the 1960s all over again, if it were happening in the 1930s. Dizzifying, if that’s a word. But it’s where we’ve come, so here we are.

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Photo: Ruben Natal-San Miguel, AMEricano (Star Spangled Immigrant), 2016, Washington Heights, NYC. Copyright of the artist. WE:AMERicans @ Station Independent Projects, NYC.

Categories: Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography

Jason DeMarte: Second Nature

Posted on July 22, 2016

Photo: Blue Mourning, 2016, archival inkjet print, sizes and editions vary, ©Jason DeMarte, Courtesy of RULE Gallery.

American artist Jason DeMarte (b. 1973) skillfully embraces, then subverts, the passion for artifice that is ever-present in his native land, calling into question the national obsession with recasting the natural world as a dystopian fantasy of perfection achieved through plasticity and alteration. His work explores fixation with making things prettier than they actually are, of erasing “flaws” and character almost violently in a quest for a flawlessness that becomes grotesquely surreal. And yet, ever so enticing in its corn syrup sweetness, so much so that its appeal is that you know that there’s something sick about it, yet you long to throw caution to the wind.

DeMarte’s work is alluring, like a siren’s call, igniting a powerful tension between reality and illusion, reminding us how much we want to believe in our fantasies above all. The artist explains, “I am interested in the American modes of representing the natural world through events and objects that have been fabricated or taken out of context. This unnatural experience of the so-called ‘natural’ world is reflected in the way we, as modern consumers, ingest products. What becomes clear is that the closer we come to mimicking the natural world, the further away we separate ourselves from it.”

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Categories: Books, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography

Raphael Albert: Miss Black and Beautiful

Posted on July 19, 2016

Raphael Albert (1935-2009) archive 1960 -1980, including beauty pageants such as Miss Black and Beautiful and Miss West Indies in Great Britain; as well as documentary photographs and family portraits of the local community in West London.

Photo: (unidentified) Miss Black & Beautiful with fellow contestants, London, Hammersmith Palais, 1970s. From the portfolio “Black Beauty Pageants”. Courtesy of © Raphael Albert/Autograph ABP.

Hailing from the Caribbean island of Grenada, photographer Raphael Albert (1935–2009) moved to London in 1953 where he became a freelance photographer working for black British newspapers. One of his earliest assignments changed the shape of his destiny, as he covered the Miss Jamaica beauty pageant for West Indian World.

Inspired by the spirit of the times Raphael began hosting local beauty pageants for black women before packed crowds at the legendary Hammersmith Palais in West London, a tradition that continued for more than three decades, into the 1980s. With titles like Miss Black and Beautiful, Miss West Indies in Great Britain, and Miss Grenada, Albert cast aside the European standards of beauty in order to shine a spotlight on the inherent beauty of the African race, showcasing women of all skin tones, hair types, and facial features in the mix.

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Photo: Holley posing at Blythe Road, Hammersmith, London, early 1970s. From the portfolio “Black Beauty Pageants”. Courtesy of © Raphael Albert/Autograph ABP.

Photo: (unidentifed) Miss Black & Beautiful escorted by two men, Hammersmith Palais, London, 1970s. From the portfolio “Black Beauty Pageants”. Courtesy of © Raphael Albert/Autograph ABP.

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography, Women

Sean Maung: G-Body

Posted on July 18, 2016

All photos © Sean Maung.

Photographer Sean Maung walks the streets of his native Los Angeles, camera in hand, eye on the scene, capturing a captivating collection of personalities that populate the city’s streets. Since 2010 he has been putting out a series of zines that are equal parts gritty and lush, with titles including Put That on Something, Fascinations, and Peep Show. Maung reveals, “I have always thought of zines like mixtapes. I have complete control of what I produce and show, and that’s empowering.” Maung has just released G-Body, his tenth zine. He speaks with Crave about his work.

When did you begin taking photos, and what inspired you to become a photographer?

Sean Maung: I started taking photos in 2005. I have always been inspired by people and places. I have spent a lot of time working for community based organizations and that has connected to me many different walks of life. Photography is another way to connect with people from all types of backgrounds.

Are all the photos in G-Body taken in Los Angeles? If so I’d love to get your thoughts on the city. What is your LA?

The majority of the photos are from LA. There are like five photos from other places, but the rest are LA. As for LA, and what the city is to me: I grew up in an area that some identify as mid city and others say is the Westside. The city to me is about the cross pollination of race/ethnicity/sub-cultures/class that has created and inspired how I take photos and make art. So when I shoot in LA, it’s a product of my upbringing and experiences, and a product of being aware of the overall pulse of the city and the cultural dynamics of the city.

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Categories: Art, Crave, Photography

Weegee’s Bowery

Posted on July 17, 2016

Photo: Weegee, [Shop window of tattoo parlor, New York], ca. 1943.

“Sure. I’d like to live regular. Go home to a good looking wife, a hot dinner, and a husky kid. But I guess I got film in my blood. I love this racket. It’s exciting. It’s dangerous. It’s funny. It’s tough. It’s heartbreaking,” the great photographer Weegee said. Born Usher Fellig in 1899, what is now the Ukraine, he was renamed Arthuer when the family immigrated to New York in 1909. He first took up photography at age 14. By 1935, he quit his day job—and how blessed we are for it.

As Weegee told Bomb Magazine in 1987, “In my particular case I didn’t wait ’til somebody gave me a job or something, I went and created a job for myself—freelance photographer. And what I did, anybody else can do. What I did simply was this: I went down to Manhattan Police Headquarters and for two years I worked without a police card or any kind of credentials. When a story came over a police teletype, I would go to it. The idea was I sold the pictures to the newspapers. And naturally, I picked a story that meant something.”

Weegee was the best kind of journalist: he was a man of the people, for the people, and he did it right. He understood the gritty glamour of his milieu and the power of the photograph to tell the story instantaneously. He bore witness with the eye of an artist and the speed of a professional, always he first on the scene. “News photography teaches you to think fast,” Weegee observed, and at a time when newsprint was the main mode of visual communication, he dominated.

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Categories: Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Manhattan, Poetry

Books | Thames & Hudson Presents “Daido Tokyo”

Posted on July 14, 2016

Photo: From Tokyo Color (2008-2015) featured in the book Daido Tokyo, Daido Moriyama, C-print, 111.5 x 149 cm. © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation.

“If you were to ask me to define a photograph in a few words, I would say it is a fossil of light and time,” observes Daido Moriyama. “When I take photographs my body inevitably enters a trancelike state. Briskly weaving my way through the avenues, every cell in my body becomes as sensitive as radar, responsive to the life of the streets… If I were to give it words, I would say: ‘I have no choice… I have to shoot this… I can’t leave this place for another’s eyes… I have to shoot it… I have no choice.’ An endless, murmuring refrain.”

Born in 1938 in Osaka, Japan, Daido Moriyama has risen to become one of the most pre-eminent fine-art photographers working today. He began his career as a freelance photographer in 1964, frequently shooting around the American military base in Yokosuka. He began publishing books and showing his work in 1968, and by 1974, his work was being show at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.

As witness to the changes that transformed Japan after World War II, Moriyama’s photographs expose a side of his native land that few outsiders know. With the development of cities and the cold, brutality of urban life, Moriyama’s work reveals the darker side of Japanese life. Occupying a space between reality and illusion, Moriyama’s grainy black-and-white photographs take on a surreal effect, showing us the intense, chaotic nature of the world in which we live.

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Categories: Art, Books, Crave, Japan, Photography

Mirror, Mirror .. Portraits of Frida Kahlo

Posted on July 11, 2016

Photo: Guillermo Kahlo (Mexican, born Germany, 1872-1941). Frida Kahlo at 18, Mexico, 1926. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. On loan from Throckmorton Fine Art.

“At the end of the day we can endure much more than we think we can,” observed the great artist Friday Kahlo (1907–1954). In her time on earth, Kahlo was a luminous soul, transforming tragedy into triumph with ever stroke of her brush, standing for truth, justice, and self determination in the face of pain and loss.

A child of the Mexican Revolution, Kahlo’s love for Mexico is seen in every aspect of her being. Through art, she revealed herself, creating a singular body of work in the history of world art. Perhaps there is no other artist whose face is so well known, who commands our attention with eyes that could pierce your soul. But unlike the preponderance of selfies today, her studies in portraiture were not about the beauty of the surface but rather something more profound. They are studies of a deeper state of being, one that requires continuous labor of he hand and eye to manifest a self that exists beyond words.

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Categories: Art, Crave, Exhibitions, Photography, Women