Some wise words for the beginning of the week from the marvellous J.K Rowling: “Don't let the muggles get you down.” (@_nitch)
dream delivery service
Image: Mathias Svalina preparing for the day’s delivery, 2017
Poet/writer Mathias Svalina spends his days writing surreal stories—dreams (and sometimes nightmares), and then, at 2am he gets on his bicycle and delivers these handwritten tales on pink cards, in pink envelopes (he likes the colour), to the recipients' homes. He can make up to 40 deliveries depending on the town and city he finds himself in.
Originally from Denver, Svalina ditched his adjunct poetry professor gig at the University of Colorado to combine two things he loved—writing strange fiction and riding his bike (and travelling). After 4 years, Svalina's Dream Delivery Service is self sustaining, and what he doesn't deliver by hand, he does through the mail.
So, if you'd love to have a dream delivered to you (he delivers overseas as well), find out more about this fabulous project at the Dream Delivery Service website (here).
Here's just one of them:
Day 26: February 9, 2018.
You are walking around the city at night & see a small cocktail bar that looks inviting. You step inside & the entire place is full of people you don’t want to see, disliked co-workers, exes, that weird dude who used to follow you around. They are all there. And as you walk in, they all look up & see you. You can’t leave—that would be weird. But you don’t want them to recognize you. The host says Hello! Welcome! And then, to disguise yourself, you respond in a heavy Cockney accent Oi! ‘Ello! Ahm jus popped in from ‘cross the pond! Immediately, none of the people you don’t want to see can recognize you. The host guides you to the bar, where you order & cocktail. The cocktail, when it arrives, has a living plant in it, the roots dangling over the ice. And with each sip of the cocktail the flower grows, until, with your final sip, the plant blooms into a wide, beautiful sky-blue flower. Then later you are at Home Depot looking for a new set of windows to install into a house you just bought on an island somewhere. All the windows are too much, too ornate, too delicate, too dark. And finally you realize that on this island windows are superfluous, a waste even. Then you are in your house on the island, the ocean breeze washing over you like a calming caress. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the world that is permanently bad, you realize.
don't lose your aim
Artwork: wall mural by millo, Don’t lose your aim, Mexico
Wonderful wall by Millo (@_millo_) in Conalep, a National College of Technical Professional Education in Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato, Mexico. The piece is titled:
No pierdas el tino,
Mide la distancia
Que hay en el camino
It's a sentence from “Cantos para romper la piñata” and translates as: Don't lose your aim, Measure the distance, That's on the way.”
The wall is part of a bigger social project in Guanajuato and Millo states: “The goal of the project is to bring art where there isn't and closer to young people in order to let them feel inspired by another point of view.”
director's reel
I stumbled upon Samantha Casolari's 2018 Director's Reel, which is basically a mash-up of highlights from her recent video work. Casolari is a photographer and video artist based in New York who works across portraiture, fashion, music, film, contemporary culture and dance. What hooked me in was the melding of mood, movement, colour and a killer song by American electronic duo, Boy Harsher, Suitor. Check it out, and you can listen to the track on SoundCloud here. You can also check out Casolari's work at her website www.samanthacasolari.com.
the world is a song
Photo: Chalkie Davies
Musician/artist David Byrne's point-of-view of how the world “works—
"I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe...I wouldn't be surprised if poetry...in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes and designs...is how the world works. The world isn't logical, it's a song."
apollo and daphne
Artwork: wall mural by Bosoletti & Jarus, Apollo and Daphne, Berlin, 2018 (photo by @nikakramer)
Incredible mural by Argentinean artist Francisco Bosoletti (@bosoletti) and Canadian artist Young Jarus (@youngjarus) in Berlin, 2018—the myth of Apollo and Daphne inspired by Ovid's version in Metamorphosis.
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Beh!, 2003
Beh! (or Blah!) Yep, today felt like this.
beauty is on the street
Artwork: stencil by L.E.T. (@l.e.t._les.enfants.terribles)
Another great stencil work from L.E.T. (@l.e.t._les.enfants.terribles).
Seth in Shanghai
Artwork by Seth, Shanghai construction game, Shanghai 2018
French artist Seth (Julian Malland) has an exhibition currently at MoCA in Shanghai, Like Child's Play. As part of the exhibition, Seth has created 17 street art works featuring children playing iconic Chinese games from the 70s and 80s. The works feature in neighbourhoods virtually emptied of the population as the areas are due to be destroyed, and as Seth comments, this raises questions about the transformation of the city. Check out some of the work from the exhibition @seth_globepainter, and more of his work at his website, www.seth.fr.
totality
Image by @dso.m42
Such an incredible image of the moon shadowing the sun.
breathe
Image: Breathe by Yoko Ono
Some wisdom about life from Yoko Ono: “When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: Just breathe.”
hangin' with the hippo
Artwork: From exhibition Allora & Calzadilla, Fundació Antoni Tàpies museum, Barcelona, 2018
Just hangin' with the hippo...
Hippo featured in the exhibition Allora & Calzadilla at Fundació Antoni Tàpies museum, Barcelona, on until 20 May 2018.
amnesiac
Gearing up to write. Trying to reset my brain/mood with some music. First song that came on—Radiohead's Amazing Sounds of Orgy from their album, Amnesiac (Deluxe version). Check it out.
i see you, you see me
Artwork: Wall mural by @cyrcle, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2017
Great mural created by cyrcle (The Dougs, @cyrcle) in Los Angeles, California, USA, (2017):
“I See You I Am You We Are One”
“You See Me You Are Me We Are Free”
black balloons
When two becomes one...
Lithuanian artist, Tadao Cern's (Tadas Cerniauskas) Black Balloons in a glass tank (2016).
cool angel
This popped out at me while I was walking around Melbourne's CBD yesterday: @kambeeno's paste-up of a very cool, happy and zoned-out angel.
your dinosaur
Image: photo by @kambeeno
Some great advice: NEVER LOSE YOUR DINOSAUR!
DO
Image: From the Lewitt Collection via www.brainpickings.org
Seems that American artist, Sol Lewitt, was way ahead of Nike and their slogan “Just do it”. In this fabulous letter written in 1965 to artist, Eva Hesse, who was obviously going through tremendous doubt about her work, and possibly life, he tells her to cut through the crap and “DO”!
Here's an excerpt:
“Try and tickle something inside you, your ‘weird humor.’ You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you—draw & paint your fear & anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as ‘to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistant [sic] approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end.’ You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to
DO
I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work—the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell—you are not responsible for the world—you are only responsible for your work—so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be. But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working—then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to
DO”
what matters
Every day I'm reminded of what matters. I wear my Lise Vanrycke “Love” bracelet 24/7. It's a bit battered, but it's always there on my wrist so I never forget what's important.
The cuff I also wear most days, and for ages I thought the matrixy-glyphs were just a pattern until my friend, Hanna, pointed out they were Chinese characters! She made out “truth”, “love” and “know”, and I was so intrigued, I contacted the jeweller, Camilla Gough, and asked for the full text. She replied that she'd lifted the text from a Chinese newspaper and was simply relieved to know she hadn't inscribed the recipe for two-minute noodles on my bracelet!
little fang
Occasionally great oddball stuff crops up on IG, like French band, Dionysos' album cover, Vampire En Pyjama. I went in search of the album and sadly, the music did nothing for me, but the visual of a lone vamp brooding in his abode and wearing his jammies definitely made up for it.
But it did bring to mind a song by Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks—Little Fang. This wonderfully wonky song is about the journeys of a cat vampire called, Little Fang. It’s kind of nuts (the video is bonkers). Enjoy!