Listening to Arlo Parks lately. She’s a poet/storyteller with a great voice. Here’s her song Cola from her EP Super Sad Generation (2019).
Separate Reality/Shared Reality
Artwork: by Addam Yekutieli, Separate Reality/Shared Reality, Jerusalem, 2020 (photo: @kid_aroke)
Isreali artist Adam Yekutieli (aka @thisislimbo; Know Hope; www.thisislimbo.com/signsofhope), has created a series of “textual collage” paste-ups situated around Jerusalem addressing the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a snapshot of people’s responses to the crisis that hopefully allows viewers to connect with each other despite the isolating and potentially devastating experience. Here’s the text featured on the two paste-ups pictured here:
Artwork: by Addam Yekutieli, Separate Reality/Shared Reality, Jerusalem, 2020 (photo: @kid_aroke)
“They weren’t able to see my difficulty with this (21).
I was disappointed to see how many people don’t understand that we’re all (14) meaningful (38).
At first there was hope (28), but in order to allow everyone (36) to fill the space that loneliness took (28), I made sure to lower expectations (34).
I’ve been trying to let go (20) the fact that I still hold a grudge against them for that (21).
It seems that the success of this (16) is the ability to be an anchor for others (23).”
“Those who make the decisions still think that they have control (34).
The transition wasn’t easy (29), but the boundaries (28) and worry were replaced with hope (28).
After all, hope (23) is a furious, large and shared prayer (23).
We will remember this year (5).”
And here’s Yekutieli’s explanation of the project:
“The happening of Covid-19 is immensely collective, but our experiences are immaculately personal.
I recently collected testimonials written by Jerusalem residents regarding the first quarantine period, requesting them to share their experiences, reflections and lessons learned from these times.
I later created a ‘textual collage’ by extracting fragments of sentences from their texts and rearranging and connecting them to fragments from other participant’s words, to create new stories.
These stories, composed of individual and personal descriptions of experiences, now depict a ‘collective experience’, creating newfound notions and highlighting similarities and broader issues.
Posters with these texts were installed around Jerusalem’s city center for people to recognise slivers of their experience, see it in a new light and understand their part in the larger, shared reality.”
VELA
Something beautiful and meditative. Surfer John John Florence and Parallel Sea produced a series of short films called VELA, and here’s a short piece featuring the musician/composer Ron Artis II from North Shore, Oahu, creating original music for the series that ended up not being used, paired with footage of a surf session of Nathan Florence in Line Islands, Pacific Ocean.
Life/Love
Image: Poem by @r.cliftpoetry
This says a lot…
Art Love Life
Artwork: Paste-up by @adidafallenangel, Montreal, 2018
Massive wheatpaste 3 piece by @adidafallenangel, created in 2018 for the Underpressure international graffiti festival in Montreal.
A great reminder: Make Art. Live Free. Love Life.
face mask required...
Artwork: SETH, ‘Face covering required/Port du heaume obligatoire’ Part 1 , Paris, la Butte-aux-Cailles, 2020
A new street art series by SETH Face covering required, where he “took advantage of an empty Paris to paint my feelings about our new world.” (@seth_globepainter')
Black Sea: Data Sculpture
Like Studio Drift, Refik Anadol’s art centres on the intersections of art, technology and nature. Anadol’s mesmerising and immersive Black Sea: Data Sculpture explores the relationship between simulation and reality, and the human desire to create stories that mediate our perceptions of how we make sense of the world.
From Anadol’s website: “‘Black Sea’ is a kinetic data sculpture that explores the organic interaction between representation and reflection. Using high frequency radar collections provided by Turkish State Meteorological Service of the Black Sea, this piece aims to highlight the symbiotic interplay of technology, art, and nature in relation to humanity’s quest to push the limits of possibility. Our modes of representation and inquiry become a part of our natural world, reflecting and augmenting our perceptions of reality. In our quest for resolution, stories offer us a simulated environment that are in fact just as real as nature itself. The transformation of this sea surface data collection becomes then not just a means of visualizing information, but rather a transmutation of our desire for understanding into a poetic experience.”
bind
I came across musician RY X (Australian singer-songwriter Ry Cuming) via his band The Acid and their album Liminal before I discovered his music with Frank Wiedemann as the duo Howling. RY X’s vocals are distinctive in both bands, which feature minimal electronic sounds: ghostly, meditative, intimate and a touch melancholic. Just last week Howling released their album Colure, and prior to the drop I’d been listening to the gorgeous track Bind on repeat. Check it out.
small stories: a pink paper bird
Artwork: by @ami_imaginaire_streetart, Paris
a pink paper bird
in a tree
unlikely
unseemly
but beautiful
© Angela Jooste
beyond the sea
Artwork: mural by Millo, Beyond the Sea, Monopoli, Italy, 2020
Wonderful new mural from Millo (@millo) Beyond the Sea in Monopoli (Italy) for @_phest_ festival.
The mural is about shelter and the the “tropicalization” of the Mediterranean sea. Millo’s description of the project : “It's typical of marine environments to change in relation to climatic fluctuations, but the combination of this change with other ecological stressors such as pollution, eutrophication, anoxia, fishing pressure, the acidification of the oceans let us think that the new species arriving in the seas are not the main problem but that there won't be any species left at all in the future if we continue to ignore how strong is our impact on the ecosystem. The tropicalization of the Mediterranean should not be regarded as something apocalyptic or irreversible we can make a huge difference by acting consciously towards our environment.”
trailblazer
Artwork: Trailblazer’ by pipsqueak was here (@pipsqueakwashere)
Just a girl and her friend creating a new path in the wild…Great work titled Traliblazer from duo @pipsqueakwashere.
Morning Mist
I’ve been listening to this a lot. Vaal’s awesome remix of Elison 404 & 404 Guild’s track Morning Mist (2020). Vaal got my attention when I heard her original mix (2018) on DHA FM (Deep House Amsterdam) Mix #347 (listen on SoundCloud here). Check it out!
WHATEVER
Image: charcoal sketch by @emelimartensson_illustration
I’ve posted before about my love of the fashion brand 5PREVIEW, headed by Creative Director Emeli Martensson. The first top I bought from them was an oversized dark grey, silk-jersey t-shirt with “WHATEVER” printed in black. I wore it ragged and today, i’ve got a simple white t-shirt version that’s become an iconic part of their collection. For me, it encapsulates letting anything happen; letting go of control and just seeing what comes; that anything is possible, and confronted with the world and all it can throw at you, it’s like a shrug and a release and a giving into the moment—WHATEVER.
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Trying to stay true…
Solstice 58.58°
The winter solstice this year was a doozy: a solar eclipse, new moon, solstice trifecta. It’s wonderful to know the days will be getting longer as the sun’s light becomes more prominent.
Flipping to the northern hemisphere, here’s a short film by director/photographer Lewis Arnold Solstice 58.58° documenting a trip made on the Summer Solstice exploring pertinent issues of sustainability, creativity, revolutionary surfboard designs and travel during these challenging times.
Set in northernmost Scotland the film features Easkey Britton, Sandy Kerr and Chris Noble musing on alternative ways to approach taking a journey “in search of pristine Atlantic waves and the liminal Solstice light.”
Lasco Project, Palais de Tokyo
Artwork: installation by JR and OSGEMEOS, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2016
Artist JR (@jr) posted this yesterday on IG, a timely reminder of a project he worked on with the Sao Paulo twins OSGEMEOS (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) in the tunnels under the Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2016:
“4 years ago, with my brothers @osgemeos we did a very special project in the basement of the @palaisdetokyo #LascoProject@hugovitrani.
During Occupation (1940-1944), the basement of the Palais de Tokyo was requisitioned to store the 1200 pianos stolen by the Nazis to the Jews. Working on the walls and on memory, we used archive images, paintings, and drew candles on the ceilings. The pianos and the pianists came back. For security reasons, these pieces are not accessible to the public. They will stay forever on these walls and our memory.
Racism and antisemitism kill. We must refuse them.”
the planet needs...
Truth.
Image: Words by David W Orr, mural by @creativaty
soft & lovely
Artwork: Jenny Holzer from Survival series, San Francisco, 1987
“Turn soft & lovely anytime you have a chance”
Jenny Holzer’s truism from her Survival series (1987, San Francisco) seems an appropriate reminder for navigating life with grace, even during difficult times. However, there’s always a dark undercurrent to Holzer’s work that layers the truism’s message, in this case the message has been interpreted as referring to women through time being encouraged to be deferential and obliging in their behaviour, often simply to survive, instead of being vocal and strident. The double edge meaning can also be a sign for balance—that both softness and stridency is equally effective when the situation calls for it.
Today, I see it as a sign for kindness, to oneself and others. Any chance you get.
vivus
“Vivus”— Latin for “alive” or “living”
The wonderful designers Vivienne Westwood and her partner Andreas Kronthaler recently celebrated Earth Day with a collaboration involving their fashion house with Canopy, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting old growth forests and wild life by drawing attention to the link between the clothing industry and the destruction of forests. The result is a poem “vivus” by artist and activist Aidan Zamiri celebrating the world’s forests while highlighting the connection of how they’re endangered by the fashion we consume. So, if you’ve ever wondered about the true cost of that humble basic T-shirt you’re wearing, check out Zamiri’s poignant spoken poem/performance.
a velocity of being
Reading, writing, words, language, books, stories…they’re so much a part of my life it’s like breathing. Air. Oxygen. Necessary. Life-giving.
A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader is the labor of love of Maria Popova who compiled 121 original illustrations and letters for children from people from all walks of life about why we read and how books transform and shape our lives.
Here’s one letter from American writer Anne Lamott (whose book on writing Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is fantastic):
“Hi You,
I really want you to hear what I am going to say, because I think it is the truth. Okay? I’ll make it fast.
If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.
Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.
Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise.
Okay? Deal?
Love you,
Anne Lamott”