Human Resources™

Arcade Fire in a town near you

Kurt — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:17:38 +0000

Chris Milk + HTML5 + Google Earth = Arcade Fire’s new interactive video The Wilderness Downtown. A must see

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Studio Lin

Kurt — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:06:00 +0000

Studio Lin is the New York based graphic design practice of Alex Lin

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Fabio Ongarato

Kurt — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:30:32 +0000

Beautiful work from Australian based Fabio Ongarato Design.

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Young Northern British Artists

Ross — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:04:17 +0000

Axolotl Gallery (Venue 209) is soon to present its debut Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, ‘Young Northern British Artists’.

The event is sure to be a vibrant exhibition of figurative and narrative art from emerging graduates from the four Scottish Art Schools and featuring new work by international artists and jewellers.

The gallery is bringing together the very best of the 2010 Graduate Degree Shows emerging from the four major Scottish Art Schools; Edinburgh, Glasgow, Grays School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone. Many of the artists are as yet unknown but have already been chosen for the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy’s New Contemporaries Scotland Exhibition in Spring 2011.

Also featured is a collection of unique jewellery by Jared Sanders exploring themes of love, loss and memory. Taking inspiration from traditional talismanic imagery using eclectic symbolism to illustrate the duality of love.

The exhibition runs 6 – 30 August daily 10-6pm Sunday 12-5pm / Free (non ticketed).

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Burn

Ross — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:17:36 +0000

Steve Berra (The Berrics) joins Mexican skaters Jesus Gonzalez, Eder Martinez, Mario Saenz, Angel Santiago and American Luis Tolentino for this Burn Ignite film, shot on location in Mexico City and directed by Garth Davis.

This film was created alongside two short-form documentaries, one featuring Jess Kimura and the all girl hardcore snowboarding film collective Peep Show, the other is a portrait that celebrates the electric lyrics and gritty beat artistry of rapper/poet Julius Wright, aka Lyrical God.

Directed by Garth Davis
DOP: Greig Fraser
Camera: Canon 5D(!)
Music written produced & performed by Django Django

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Fabrice Lig

Ross — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:46:50 +0000

Sawdust have recently produced the design for ‘Genesis of a deep sound’ the latest album from ‘Fabrice Lig’ on label Fine Art recordings — It’s available on CD and 12” vinyl.

The album ‘Genesis of a Deep Sound’ is heavily focused on the ‘Genesis’ meaning the beginning, birth or creation. As Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan. Many different styles now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built. The venues for this movement were predominantly held in old abandoned warehouses — Sawdust felt by capturing those run-down, yet beautiful open spaces, they could visualise the essence of the title ‘Genesis of a Deep Sound’.

They also produced a custom typeface to reflect the nature of electronic based music, one of beautiful compositions of sound and layering. The result is an interesting composition of form and colour, and by making the circular shapes key lines, it added an ‘imaginary’ third colour tone although still set in black.

The front of the Record has graphic indicators overlaid onto the image that when matched to the back spell the word ‘Genesis’.

Design and art direction by Sawdust
Creative production by Edit
Photography by Andrew Moore

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TRIANGLE

Ross — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:37:02 +0000

TRIANGLE is a motion work which was created for the book ‘Black Material’ which showcases Robert Knoke’s artwork. Curator Jens Karlson asked Onur Senturk to make a short animation and to use Robert Knoke’s black and white artwork as basis for work. The video creates a tense harmony between geometrical forms and organic movements.

Senturk studied traditional painting and figure drawing followed by a traditional animation degree as his BFA. He took part in several international and national collaborative exhibitions with works in both print and time-based media. And recently, he designed and animated “Nokta.” which won him an Honorary Mention award from Prix Ars Electronica in Computer Animation/Film/VFX category.

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The Mast Brothers

Ross — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:03:16 +0000

This is a wonderful short film from The Scout about Rick and Michael Mast, who create beautifully hand crafted and homemade chocolate.

“They began their voyage in their apartment, using a homemade machine to process cacao beans. Over time they cultivated their creation, sourcing beans from family farms in Madagascar, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. Each bar is handmade with incredible reverence for the process and history of chocolate. They are bound in ornamental papers and golden foil (sometimes letter-pressed) like a collection of rare books. Each bar offers its own story of flavors, and no two are exactly alike.

The Mast Brothers are now planning to navigate the mighty Atlantic, sailing to the Dominican Republic in search of beans and a deeper connection with the folks who grow them. Before they begin the next chapter, The Scout spent time with Rick and Michael documenting their story.”

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Sonic Landscapes

Ross — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:13:15 +0000

Whoah! Since we last featured the work of our friend Alex McLeod, he has taken his sonic landscapes to a whole new level. The Toronto based artist creates 3D landscapes using a number of software programs, three or four in total for each artwork. Some programs are good for sculpting, some for fluid simulation others for rendering.

For any locals, he has two solo shows opening soon on August 26th at Angell Gallery (Toronto) and September 3rd at Anno Domini (San Jose).

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Dancing Pigeons

Ross — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:25:20 +0000

This is the latest music video from the Dancing Pigeons, directed by Tomas Mankovsky. Born in Poland in 1979, he moved to Sweden at the age of one and grew up drawing crazy inventions and dreaming up wildcat schemes. When he got older he started working at Ogilvy in Stockholm before attending Beckmans College of Advertising.

Signed to Blink in 2009 Tomas has created a stunningly visual short “Sorry I’m Late” to follow up his heart-wrenching self-produced short “Little Big Love”. Still pushing brain-boundaries at all times Tomas spends his spare time writing film scripts, launching a range of Tetris-shaped bathroom tiles and inventing things, most recently a domino that generates sound.

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Square Beard: Alex Allan

Ross — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:01:04 +0000

This is the first in a series of artist features about members of the Square Beard collective. In the interest of fairness, each artist will be presented in alphabetical order with the first being the Scottish sculptor, Alex Allan.

Alex graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009 and currently in 2nd year of a 2 year Masters at the college. His work often flirts with themes of death, man-power, industry, architecture and the associations of social class related to these. Interestingly, many of the works involve a lot of repeated tasks and require a certain degree of man-power to get them off the ground. This similarity between his areas of research and the physical making of the work seems to be extremely important to him. ‘Kiln, Driftwood 1′ (see image above) is a great example of his method; this creation is a kiln made from abandoned bricks and a formation of driftwood made to look like a flowing cascade of water, which have been re-assembled to form a gigantic, single work.

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Joie De Vivre

Kurt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:06:06 +0000

Stunning little piece called ‘Joie De Vivre’, by Ruth Hogben and via Showstudio, detailing Gareth Pugh‘s A/W 2010 collection, encapsulated in a super stylized ‘Art Deco fantasy projected at breakneck speed into the twenty-first century’, featuring music by Lukid via one of my favorite labels, Werkdiscs. Watch the film here (NSFW)

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Review: The Doors ‘When You’re Strange’

Ross — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:52:42 +0000

To coincide with this week’s documentary release ‘The Doors’, Idea Generation’s dramatic photographic exhibition follows the equally dramatic life of this revolutionary and controversial band, through the lenses of four photographers: Henry Diltz, Joel Brodsky, Bobby Klein and Ken Regan.

The Doors were created in 1965 by lead singer Jim Morrison and fellow band member Ray Manzerak. Their first LP ‘The Doors’ shot to the top of the charts, yet concern over their ‘corruption of youth’ made promoters nervous and soon their reputation as bad boys overshadowed their chart success. In fact the Los Angeles quartet continued to relentlessly challenge, confront yet inspire their fans, leaping headfirst into the heart of darkness as opposed to what were the more current popular topics of peace and love.

We’re introduced to Brodsky’s photos first, in which The Doors stand united, huddled symmetrically together like a close knit family. His neat portraits capture them in reflections, or from above where they stare obediently up to the camera. Any hint of violence or rebelliousness is hard to decipher.

Brodsky’s most famous portraits of lead heart throb Jim Morrison are arguably his most successful and are positioned on a far wall across from a barrier which creates a stage-like space between him and the viewer. As I stare into Jim’s eyes, I become yet another fan trapped behind the railings desperate to get that little bit closer. Funnily enough, Brodsky claims that Morrison was “plastered” during this shoot, where he ironically seems so controlled; spreading his arms in a Christ-like pose further reasserting his iconic reputation.

From the look of his photographs, Henry Diltz seems to have submerged himself fully into the world of The Doors. His portraits are less posed than Brodsky’s and we often see them on the move, hanging out at their favourite ‘Ray’s Bar’ or playfully posed in laughter. He’s also included some contact-sheets where we spy The Doors driving in their car, and eating. Simple things yet somehow captivating when done by this group.

Klein’s depcitions are more similar to Brodsky’s, yet he takes The Doors and places them like puppets into various landscapes including palm and redwood trees as well as rocky terrain. They seem so compliant and calm, their unruly reputations dissolved by the strength of their tranquil poses.

My favourite photographer out of the four has to be Ken Regan. As opposed to Diltz’s, Brodsky’s and Klein’s intimate portrayals, he steps away from the band becoming more the invisible voyeur than official photographer and we start seeing them more objectivley. In ‘Jim Morrison, NY, 1970 III’ for example, Jim lies on the floor still clutching his microphone. We cannot see his face through the distance created and thus he becomes less Jim and more like any other rock star in the midst of destroying his set.

To end with a quote from Jim: ” It’s like gambling somehow. You go out for a night of drinking and you don’t know where you’re going to end up the next day”. If do though, make sure it’s at this exhibition.

The Doors, When You’re Strange: 9th July-27th August, Idea Generation Gallery.

Words brought to you by Stephanie Wollenberg, our London Arts Reviewer. We will be formally introducing her to you shortly.

If you would like to become a reviewer for your city and join our ever growing team, drop us an e-mail with samples of creativity that you like and some examples of your written work.

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James Short

Ross — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:44:48 +0000

James Short a.k.a. Argyle Plaids is an artist/designer from Seattle who has spent the last decade developing a method of presenting Photoshop-based artwork in the form of tangible, mixed media art pieces that have the organic look and feel of more traditionally created work.

Derived from his photography, paintings and encaustic work. Finished pieces are constructed from acid-free watercolor paper, archival varnish, lacquer and acrylic on hand-built, finished wood box frames, lifting them out of their humble, pixel-based origins. All images are set as limited editions, yet all retain one-of-a-kind characteristics as they are custom made individually in varying sizes and dimensions.

His work found it’s way to us via our ever growing and popular pool of images found on Flickr.

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Check This!

Kurt — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:05:27 +0000

Been a while since I checked in with Check Morris. A real sense of fun throughout.

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