Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Failing My To-Do List Miserably


(...to see larger click here and here...)

Alright. Well. It is pretty obvious that I have totally zeroed all extracurricular projects these last six months (or is that 8??) aside from this blog and photo taking which I feel really guilty and yet still unmotivated about. No new Newsletter (and the last one was titled as bimonthly! and that was in November! Cripes. embarassing.), no Volume Twos of book projects, no website redesign, no unpacking of boxes since October move-in. What is up with this?? I am living in suspended animation. Must get life together and forward moving again. Sheesh.

Anyway - at least I have 2 new pictures from my Canonet that I really like. That thing is hard to work with! I find that things that look really great with the little 35mm disposable, odd and random snappy types of things, just don't jive with the Canonet. It only does justice to more considered compositions it seems - which is not really my strong suit. Taking time to fuss that is. Maybe too it is that the quality of the disposable (lo-fi tech) adds something of itself to make the photos charming - like the way a polaroid does.

For example: standard sunlit table with vase of tulips shot straight on - regular digital = boring (unless you are doing something really good which is totally possible), 35mm disposable = gritty and dark feeling plus kind of cheapish and grungy (ie:interesting), polaroid = subversive and flattened out, looks as though it was shot 30 years ago (ie: also interesting but be careful not to be too cute, unless you want cute). And then the Canonet is kind of this real deal thing where the photos are so lush that if I quickly snap something that seems interesting on the road home from work it is just a wasted exposure. It actually just looks like something on the side of the road for real. Hard to explain.

So that is how I figure it works. But maybe that is just me! In any case this Canonet is whipping me into shape because I really have to work at it - and be ruthless with my editing. (well - still got to get better with that one!)

OK - Thanks for tuning in.

L8R.

xob.

Friday, April 24, 2009

SNAP!


SNAP! is a great Montreal based free magazine, artspace, video and blog combo. This latest issue - themed Vagabonds - has a little interview I did, along with a few photos, and lots of fun things from other contributers (and a few friends!). So nice of them to let me contribute - thanks yous!

Montreal Props Yo!

xob.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Shadows in Paradise Aki Kaurismäki









Good Lord. I just rented this movie last Sunday and was going to post a clip of it and the whole thing was posted to youtube! Woah. The power of the internets. Never ceases to amaze me. So here you are.

Here is also a short interview with Aki from 1990. Funny. Of course.

(And here is an earlier post I did a couple months ago with a Jonathan Ross interview)

x

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Grace Jones: The Image































(...all images are from here, or here or here...)

...Parallel to her musical shift was an equally dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude, with whom she had a son. Jones adopted a severe, androgynous look, with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. The iconic cover photographs of Nightclubbing and, subsequently, Slave to the Rhythm (1985) exemplified this new identity. To this day, Jones is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music...

(source: wiki)

And here are a few choice qoutes from The World of Grace Jones...


*

IF YOU'RE OUT THERE YOU'RE VULNERABLE. PEOPLE PREFER TO DISAPPEAR IN LIFE, TO REPRESS THEIR PERSONALITY. THAT'S NOT LIVING. IT'S DYING. I SEE THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE, THE WALKING DEAD.

I WAS BORN TO BE A STAR. ONCE I DECIDED TO ACCEPT THAT RESPONSIBILITY I WOULD NOT BE PLACED IN ANY MOLD THAT WAS LIMITING AGAIN.

I WAS PAINFULLY SHY UNTIL I HAD ACID THERAPY, SWEETHEART, UNDER DOCTOR’S SUPERVISION. I WAS REBORN. IT WAS ENLIGHTENING. AT THE TIME THEY WERE EXPERIMENTING WITH STP, THE SUPER TRIP PILL - TALK TO TIMOTHY LEARY ABOUT THAT ONE! I TOOK IT WITH A DOCTOR AND I STAYED THERE FOR THREE DAYS UNTIL I THOUGHT 'OK, I SEE. NOW I CAN COME DOWN'. AFTER THAT I DIDN’T NEED ANY MORE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

AFTER I LEFT HOME I REALISED THAT I WAS NOT MYSELF. WHEN DOES ONE DECIDE TO BE ONESELF? I THINK THAT'S WHAT IT ALL COMES DOWN TO. I DECIDED FIRST TO DISCOVER LIFE AND THEN DECIDE WHAT I WANTED FROM LIFE, WHAT MADE ME HAPPY, WHAT WAS EASY FOR ME. BECAUSE WHATEVER ONE IS, ONE MUST FIRST KOW THE TRUTH ABOUT ONESELF.

WHEN I WAS ASKED TO DO A RECORD I MADE THE COMMITMENT TO FOLLOW MY DESTINY.

IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES WE ALL HAD OUR FUN, AND NOW AND THEN WE WENT REALLY TOO FAR. BUT ULTIMATELY, IT REQUIRED A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF CLEAR THINKING, A LOT OF HARD WORK AND GOOD MAKE-UP TO BE ACCEPTED AS A FREAK.

ARTISTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE INSECURE BUT I’M NOT. I FEEL THAT IF I’M ENJOYING WHAT I’M DOING IT DOESN’T MATTER IF I MAKE A FEW MISTAKES. I’M VERY OPEN TO EXPERIMENTATION. I LOVE TO TRY THINGS, COLLABORATING WITH MY ARTIST FRIENDS, EXPERIMENTING WITH IDEAS. THAT'S WHAT PUT ME ON THE CUTTING EDGE. THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN A MAGNET THAT PULLS ME TOGETHER WITH CRAZY ARTISTS, UNUSUAL PEOPLE, EVEN WHEN I’M NOT LOOKING FOR IT. IT IS PREDESTINED THAT WE CROSS EACH OTHERS PATHS.

I PERFORMED A LOT, AND STILL DO, IN GAY CLUBS. I THINK THEY ARE MY BEST AUDIENCE REALLY. YOU CAN GO AS FAR AS YOU WANT TO GO. THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN'T BE. I THINK WE RECOGNISE EACH OTHER. MOST OF THE REAL ROOTSY SCENE IN NEW YORK STARTED IN GAY PRIVATE CLUBS WITH GREAT MUSIC AND THE BEST, MOST FANATICAL DJS. THOUGH WHAT'S HAPPENED TO IT NOW IS JUST TYPICAL OF THE WAY OF LIFE IN NEW YORK - THAT'S CAPITALISM - IT JUST DESTROYS THINGS.

I DON’T BELIEVE IN MARRIAGE BECAUSE I DON’T BELIEVE IN DIVORCE. I THINK THE CONVENTIONAL WAY IS SO UNROMANTIC. IF THERE’S ANYTHING TO END A MARRIAGE, MARRIAGE WILL. YOU CAN STILL LOVE SOMEBODY AND NOT WANT TO MARRY THEM. BESIDES, MARRIAGE DOESN’T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT YOUR OTHER MOODS - LIKE WHEN WHEN YOU'RE FEELING MEAN AND UNLOVING.

I COMMUNICATE WITH MY SOUL RATHER THAN MY COLOUR SO I DON’T CARRY ANY CHIP ON MY SHOULDER ABOUT RACE. I COULD EASILY PLAY A WHITE GIRL. WHY SHOULDN'T I? I DON'T FEEL ESPECIALLY 'BLACK'. I AM BEYOND RACE. I CAN DO THEM ALL.

I HATE STRUCTURE. WHENEVER I FIND THINGS BECOMING STRUCTURED I THROW IT ALL AWAY. I'M ONE FOR CHANGE. I CAN FEEL IT COMING AND I JUST LET IT HAPPEN NATURALLY. I GO THROUGH THREE YEAR CYCLES AT THE END OF WHICH I SWEEP EVERYTHING OUT OF MY LIFE AND START OVER.

I ONCE SAID THAT THERE WASN’T A MAN ALIVE I COULDN’T HAVE IF I REALLY WANTED HIM. BUT IT TAKES SO MUCH ENERGY TO HYPNOTISE SOMEBODY THAT NOW I PREFER THEM TO DO THAT TO ME. IN THE PAST I'VE GONE FOR SOME REALLY HOT GUYS THAT HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETE PSYCHOS, AND EITHER I WANT TO KILL THEM OR THEY WANT TO KILL ME. YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT TWICE, BELIEVE ME. IVE DONE IT THRICE!

SOCIETY CHANGES. WE STILL SAY 'SEX DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL' AND YET I GO TO A PRIVATE PARTY AND FEEL I HAVE TO ASK PERMISSION TO SMOKE A CIGARETTE. I DON’T, OF COURSE. I’M NOT GOING TO PUT THAT PRESSURE ON MYSELF. IF SOMEONE HAS A PROBLEM THEY CAN COME AND TELL ME.

I'VE NEVER BEEN AFRAID TO LIVE THIS WAY. NEVER. NEVER WILL. I DON'T CARE. I DO NOT CA-RRRE, HAHA. I'D RATHER BE LIKE THIS THAN BE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S TRIP. I HAVE TO LIVE MY LIFE. I HAVE TO BE MYSELF. IF I WERE TO REPRESS MY NATURE IT WOULD BE KILLING MYSELF.

I MOVE AROUND A LOT. SITTING STILL IS LIKE BEING NARROW MINDED - THERE’S A WHOLE WORLD OUT THERE. ALLTHE TRAVELLING I’VE DONE MEANS I SWITCH FROM ACCENT TO ACCENT AND LANGUAGE TO LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE CAN’T WORK OUT WHERE I AM FROM. WHEN THEY ASK I SAY, 'I’M FROM THE UNIVERSE'. WE’VE ALL BEEN ALIENS AND WE’LL BECOME ALIENS AGAIN.

IF I'M DEPRESSED, IF I'M FEELING ILL, ONCE I GET SOME OYSTERS MY TOES START TO TWINKLE AND I'M A MERMAID IN THE SEA. YOU NAME IT, ANYTHING FROM THE SEA I JUST LOVE. THAT’S MY FAVOURITE FOOD. I HAD A DOZEN OYSTERS LAST NIGHT. I FLY TO PARIS JUST TO EAT OYSTERS.

I DON'T CARE ABOUT GETTING OLD. I DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. I'M NOT GOING TO LOOK OLD FOR A VERY LONG TIME. ACTUALLY I FEEL LIKE I'M GETTING YOUNGER. AT THIRTEEN PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS THIRTY FIVE. NOW THEY SAY I'M MORE LIKE SEVENTEEN. TIME IS TIMELESS. I NEVER COUNT.

MY BIGGEST SPIRITUAL PROBLEM WAS THAT I WANTED TO BE UNDERSTOOD. WHY DOES SHE BEHAVE LIKE THAT? WHY DOES SHE CUT HER HAIR LIKE THAT? WHY DOES SHE SHAVE HER EYEBROWS? BUT WITH PATIENCE I REALISED THAT IT’S NOT ABOUT EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDING ME, AND WITH THAT REALISATION I FOUND A CERTAIN FREEDOM. I AM GROSSLY MISUNDERSTOOD BUT IT’S FUNNY THAT MY WORST PHOBIA IS NOW MY MYSTERY AND I LIKE IT.


*

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Grace Jones: The Interviews





I saw some Grace Jones album covers on the always amazing UUIUU! tumblr the other day and those really got me going - she is such a fascinating character! Of course she has been lodged somewhere in the back of my conciousness for a long time now, but I have never really thought about just what it is that is so cool about her (besides her impeccable sense of style). I think along the same lines as Iggy Pop she is a total one-off - someone just full of charisma and life and who truly could care less what people think. A real artist. I wish I could be her or just be friends with her. Although I doubt I could keep up.

There is also this really great interview with Joan Rivers from 1984 - it didn't have the embed link so have go the youtube page to view it but make sure you check it out!

Maybe I will do some more images of her next post - there are a million to sift through but I think it would be worth it.

xxx

Sunday, April 12, 2009

African Batik Fabric: Veritable Wax Hollandais











(...all images from VLISCO...)

I have always had a great interest in African textile prints. I have a couple of dresses scooped up from the Salvation Army stored safely away in the back of a closet in Montreal and I have bought another one and some meters of fabric since being here in New York. The patterns are so bright and alive - I love seeing them poke out from the bags and boxes I have stuffed them in for now. I would really like to make a skirt or a bag, or just something out of them, it has been on my list of things to do for years now. Someday.

I was reminded of these fabrics when I opened an email the other day from MaryAnne Mathias (of Hastings + Main fame), about her new project Osei-Duro, a collection of socially responsible and sustainable clothing that encourages international/intercultural cooperation. Their blog is full of great examples of beautiful batiks.

This week I also came across this very interesting article which I poached off of the fantastic tumble blog 2THEWALLS - so thanks to both of these individuals very much for the inspiration (and fodder) to do this post.


*

Lomé, Togo-- The crowd on the Rue du Grand Marché is packed solid. You have to dodge and weave to make any progress, threading your way past stalls piled high with dried fish, cassette tapes, butchered goats, toothpaste, and cheap steel frying pans. Your field of vision is confused: too many different objects, patterns, colors. You're surrounded by women in traditional dresses of fantastically complicated fabric--intricate, vivid designs layered in folds you can't quite decipher the workings of. This is the Africa you came to see, the real Africa, just like it looks in those documentaries on the Discovery Channel. You penetrate deeper into the market, duck into a cavernous concrete building full of vegetable and fruit vendors, climb the stairs. You are in the hall of fabric merchants. You move through stacks of shimmering cloth and blazing colors leap out at you from all sides. This is the authentic stuff--not the cheap imitation junk sold at the hotel tourist traps, but the real thing, the fabric African women prize most highly for traditional dress, recognizable by the legend printed along the border: Veritable Wax Hollandais.

"Hollandais"?

It seems the batik, or wax-print, fabrics that are so indispensable to West African traditional dress are not, by and large, actually from Africa. The most coveted, the ones that set the trends, are designed and manufactured in the Netherlands, in the nondescript factory town of Helmond, by the Vlisco corporation. And this is nothing new. The Dutch, and Vlisco in particular, have dominated the African print-fabric market since the end of the nineteenth century.

"Vlisco was founded in 1846 by a famous Dutch merchant family called the van Vlissingens," explains Joop van der Meij, the company's CEO. "One of the van Vlissingen sons had been in Indonesia, where he discovered the batik method of dying cloth. He had the idea that maybe this method could be industrialized in Europe." By the late 1800s Dutch factories were supplying the bulk of the Indonesian batik market, and as Dutch freighters stopped at various African ports on their way over, the fabrics began to gain an African clientele. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when measures were taken to protect domestic Indonesian batik production, the market for imports there slumped. Africa gradually became the exclusive market for Dutch batik, and by the 1960s Vlisco, having merged with all its rivals, had become the exclusive supplier.

In an industry where the reverse is more common, Vlisco is an anomaly: a European-based textile company whose market is in the third world. Almost none of Vlisco's product is bought in Europe or North America. "Anything we could design for the European market, the Asians can produce for a fraction of the price," van der Meij explains. It's only in Africa, where Real Dutch Wax carries the authority of a brand like Rolls-Royce or Rolex, that consumers care about the difference between Vlisco quality and cheap Asian imitations.

And Vlisco guards its qualitative edge jealously. Industrial batik is a complex process. Patterns are printed in wax on long strips of cloth, which are then immersed in vats of dye, usually indigo. The parts of the cloth not covered in wax absorb the dye, laying down a basic pattern. The wax-printed fabric can be sent through machines that partially break off the wax; since the wax breaks arbitrarily, no two lengths of the cloth are quite alike, which is what gives wax-print fabric its characteristic organic richness. Then the fabric is pattern-printed with other colors, anywhere from one to three times.

The trickiest part comes in trying to align patterns in different colors. For example, wax printing makes it very difficult to lay down the outline of a rose in indigo, and then fill it in with red. Usually the colors don't line up properly, and it comes out looking like bad offset printing. On Vlisco fabrics, however, the colors line up right. The company keeps its alignment process top secret; the building in the Helmond plant where it takes place is off-limits to outsiders. It is this process, along with nonbleeding dyes and high-quality cotton, that justifies the tremendous difference in price between Real Dutch Wax and its competition.

Out on the street in Lomé, that competition is pressing hard, as Madame Rose Creppy can attest. Madame Creppy is the president of Lomé's association of market women, and for 40 years, she's been selling nothing but Real Dutch Wax at her stall in the grand marché. Top-level market women like Madame Creppy are known in West Africa as "Nana-Benzes," after their penchant for driving Mercedes, and Creppy certainly fits the bill. A substantial woman in gold-framed eyeglasses, gold necklace, and gold wristwatch--swathed in indigo Dutch Wax from head to toe--she's clearly used to turning a profit. But lately business has been bad. "No one can afford to buy the real thing," she sighs. "Instead they buy Sosso brand, made in Pakistan. The colors fade the first time you wash it."

The quality may be lower, but the price argument is persuasive in a country like Togo, where per-capita annual income hovers around $350 per year. Real Dutch Wax goes for as much as 70,000 CFA francs (or about $90) for a length of six meters; the Asian imitations, which bear amusingly deceptive logos like "Real Wax--Printed as Holland," sell for 6,000 to 7,000 CFA francs. With the worsening economic situation in much of West Africa--stagnation in postcoup Ivory Coast, Ghana's unstable currency, the catastrophic implosion of Congo during the past two years--Vlisco has seen its profits shrink. It reported net turnover of $167 million in 1999, down from $203 million in 1998.

The patterns on the imitation fabrics, meanwhile, are often nearly identical to those on Real Dutch Wax, because the competitors steal them. Van der Meij claims that 80 percent of the designs one sees on wax-print fabrics in Africa started out on Vlisco drawing boards. The company has fought several successful legal actions, but the Asians are not to be deterred. Lately Nigerian textile makers have also been getting in on the act. "We can put the new fabrics out on the market as soon as the containers arrive from Holland," says Agbobli Médémé, service representative of Vlisco's Togolese partner company, V.A.C.-Togo. "The Nigerian copies start showing up eight days later."

So the authentic traditional West African fabrics are the ones produced in Holland, and the stuff made in West Africa is fake? Can this be right?

Not entirely. Vlisco's parent company, Gamma Holdings, does have West African subsidiaries--GTP in Ghana, Uniwax in Ivory Coast--that manufacture high-quality, original-print fabrics. But those companies are not privy to Vlisco's secret wax technologies, so they don't produce the jealously guarded Veritable Wax Hollandais. More important, nearly all of the new designs are created at Vlisco's headquarters in Helmond, and most of the designers there are Dutch--not one of them is African.

Can a bunch of Dutch designers really stay ahead of the curve of West African fashion? Vlisco thinks so. Van der Meij points to the success of the Gamma companies' joint launch of their 2000 line of fabrics at a fashion show last fall in Abidjan. And both he and Médémé stress the importance of the feedback the company gets from important buyers like Madame Creppy, who can let them know what's selling and what isn't. Creppy confirms that she helped quash a line of fabrics depicting people dancing and musicians playing. "Nobody wanted to buy those things," she says. Why not? "They weren't any good," she explains, convincingly, if a bit opaquely.

And what's hip right now? What are the youth of Lomé wearing this season--the ones who can afford it, anyway? Madame Creppy sighs. Nothing is in fashion, she says. No one is buying.

But if you drop by Madame Creppy's stall while she's out and talk to her 20-year-old daughter Sivomey, you'll hear a somewhat more optimistic story. Sivomey has been working her mother's stall for the last two years. She loves it; there's nothing she'd rather do for a living. Asked what the kids are into these days, Sivomey quickly pulls down a pair of matrixlike, high-tech fabrics in almost fluorescent hues. They don't look entirely different from what's hot in Amsterdam. "This green is chic," says Sivomey. "And this yellow. Bright, sharp colors. Tout ce qui eflash.' Whatever flashes."

Like Sivomey, van der Meij keeps the bright spots in mind when contemplating Vlisco's future. He is circumspect about the company's strategies for handling the volatile market, saying only, "We are not pessimistic about the future. We believe that West Africa has to settle and accept the new tax regime, and to wait for the elections in Ivory Coast." Other signs of hope are emerging: Senegal and Nigeria have recently accomplished peaceful democratic transitions of power, and the latter is starting to reap the benefits of higher oil prices. This is already giving Vlisco a boost in its popular red-and-yellow Yoruba tribal patterns. The key to success seems to be taking the long view: a company that's been around as long as Vlisco has certainly seen the bad times come and go. As V. S. Naipaul put it, "Business never dies in Africa; it is only interrupted."


*


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Guy Bourdin Films










I am sure some of you have seen these Guy Bourdin (wiki) short films already - comissioned by The Victoria & Albert Museum for his 2003 retrospective - but just in case here they are. So beautiful. I really love # 7/10 with the red and the rolling chairs...

...They are also on the SHOWstudio website in better quality and I think there may be the two that were missing on youtube...

;)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Elli et Jacno






This seems to be turning into more of a video blog these last few weeks but I guess I am just going to go with it.

My superbud coworker forwarded me one of these videos the other day and I nearly fell out of my chair with a combination of laughter, admiration and jealousy. Can I do this? Grab a man with a synth, throw on a leather mini, and come up with some fancy footwork? Perhaps. And pull it off as well as Elli et Janco? Non.

xxBisousxx