Alex McQuilkin

Untitled (Will Fuck for Validation), 2004, C-Print, edition of 9

Desperados, 2006, DVD-R Video, 4:17 min, Edition of 8

Test Run, 2004, DVD-R Video , 2:42 min, edition of 10
(click pics to enlarge)

Alex McQuilkin leaves it to psychologists to research possible reasons for her protagonists’ behaviour, gives no explanations but offers experiences, insights: She guides the viewer deep into an excessive, flashy and pubertal world that fascinates as well as it revolts, maybe because it fits right in with those secret fantasies one still remembers, slightly ashamed, from the own adolescent years.
Katharina Klara Jung, 2006

more here

katz



From a public service campaign for the protection of animals. The headline reads 'They need you. More than 200,000 handicapped animals in Thailand left living a hard life.' The campaign was made at Euro RSCG, Thailand.
via

Motohiko Odani

Erecto (clara),2004

Phantom Limb, 1999

Fingerspanner, 2000
Motohiko Odani utilises the imagery and subject matters of Japan’s various subcultures in his art. Interest in the world of cinematic special effects and scale models has affected his works. some more here, here and here

Reagan Louie Sex in Asia

Masseuse, Hong Kong

Chit Rangoon

Macau

Reagan Louie, a Chinese American photographer spent six years exploring the Asian sex trade. Traveling throughout Asia, Louie visited nearly a dozen countries, photographing the day-to-day lives of hundreds of women and girls, who—either by choice or necessity—prostitute themselves. Ranging from Thai sex emporiums and Japanese image clubs to Philippine dance halls and Taiwanese betel nut stands, his pictures explore this thriving industry and the fantasy that it nourishes. His obsessive photographic journey into this underground business depicts a world where the line between myth and reality is often deliberately blurred. Louie records the often gaudy, functional architecture on the periphery, but focuses his full attention on the women who inhabit this world. He examines the stereotypes of Asian female sexuality that give these places their particular character, but Louie is not interested in sociological study. He prefers to see these women as individuals, worthy of thoughtful yet frank portraits. read more

more pictures here, here and here
an interview with Reagan Louie here
via

BIG BANG - restarting the natural world

Lorenzo Oggiano, Quasi-Objects / Cinematic n.04 - DVD, 2005, 3:43 min, color, sound

BIG BANG - restarting the natural world, a videoprogram curated by Valentina Tanni, will be screened on interference 2006.
interference, an international festival of sounds, new visual arts and media, is seated in the mountains of the Partenio/Valle Caudina, which it will fill with live performances, installations, projections, seminars, free camping, artists and the public. Thus the international artistic vanguard will be fused with the splendid mountain scenes of Campania.
Although interference is tied to the land, electronic and multimedia arts are its driving force: performances, installations, events, workshops and conferences complete the event.
Among the artists are two familiar names for regular readers of this blog.
Lorenzo Oggiano with his Quasi-Objects and Tanja Puustelli with Milking the cow. Both videos are online visible on Directors Lounge television.
Tanja Puustelli FI Milking The Cow
Lorenzo Oggiano I Quasi-Objects / Cinematic n.04

Interferenze, festival di arte e musica digitale a San Martino Valle Caudina (3-5 agosto)

related entries: Lorenzo Oggiano here, here and here
Tanja Puustelli The Nature of a-Muse

txtual healing in Beijing





Paul Notzold, already mentioned here, has just been able to place his interactive installation on the Millennium Museum in Beijing.
Some more pics here

related: Txtual healing Paul Notzold

A peek into the near near future

Nicolas Nova of pasta&vinegar conducted an interview with Régine Debatty, "the queen of new media art" (Bruce Sterling), that shed some light on to the mind of the enchanting force behind we make money not art.

about new media art:
Q After X years of blogging, what underlying picture do you now see in the scene? Phenomenons that amazed you?

A That it remains such a niche phenomenon. The traditional art scene seems to believe that the so-called “new media artists” are just playing some kind of geeky games. I wasn’t expecting my blog to sparkle so many interest from the technology world and be ignored by the “traditional” art sphere. I think it’s slowly changing. It took decades to accept photography as an art discipline so let’s be patient.

about humor:
Q To me, humor plays an important role in what you’re posting in WMMNA. How do you think this dimension can bring critical elements about technology usages?

A I think humour is very important. it helps getting the attention of the audience. humour puts the piece into a non-threatening, non-intimidating light. which helps a lot to get the message out.

Full interview here
related: Who make money not art ?

still-life worldwide world premiere tonight







tonight´s the night for the world premiere of Marina Foxley´s latest work still-life. Join us in meatspace at the Rote Loge Berlin 10 pm.
Or visit Directors Lounge television to join in from every part of the world.
still-life, a silent 12-minute movie examines the textures and landscapes of the nude body. Based on motives from tarot, still-life transform the picture of the hanging body, usually associated with the aesthetics of bondaged, japanese women, into the baroque realm of Caravaggio. The impressive photography of Laurent Couedel is bewitching, while, on another layer, still-life can be as well seen as a videoperformance in the succession of Carolee Schneeman.


still-life on Directors Lounge television (low)
still-life on Directors Lounge television (high)


Rote Loge Berlin Simon-Dachstrasse 22, (next to Revalerstrasse)
S- and U Warschauer Brücke

related: Marina Foxley at Rote Loge Carolee Schneeman Fuses

Zhang Huan

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain,1995

To Raise The Water Level In A Fish Pond -1997.perform.Beijing


It was not until the 1990s that performance art as a specialized form appeared in China.
Zhang Huan has widely been considered the earliest and most influential full-time performance artist of the 1990's. Zhang Huan and a handful of other artists living in an area called “Da Shan Zi” created a number of artworks, performance in particular, and subsequently came to be widely known as the “Beijing East Village” avant-garde art movement. read more

The homepage of Zhang Huan contains lots of information about his work (thanks Joerg)
There is an additional interview with Zhang Huan (if you can stand the popups and ads)
via

RE:MARK by Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman

The presence of a separate world of information remains hidden from us without the help of technical aids. RE:MARK and The Hidden Worlds of Noise and Voice are two aesthetic and sensory observatories for the perception of this parallel reality, wherein the idea of virtuality as a sort of "world of the spirits" is completely intentional.

In RE:MARK sounds spoken into a pair of microphones are analyzed and classified by a phoneme recognition system. When a phoneme is recognized, the written name of the phoneme (for example, oh, ee, ah, etc.) is projected on the installation's display. If the user's sound is not recognized by the system's classifier, then an abstract shape is generated instead, based on the timbral characteristics of the vocalization.
As the visitor speaks, the phonemes and forms appear to emerge from the shadow of the speaker's head. A computer-vision system permits the visitors to interact with the sound fourms by using the shadow of their own body.
read more here
and at we make money not art (inluding future projects by Zachary Lieberman)

Spookspeak enjoy surveillance


Spookspeak by Katherin McInnis is a 4-minute movie solely based on keywords which may trigger surveillance of communications.

Spookspeak will be screened thursday, 27th of july, 9pm 30, as part of at RESOLUTION / DISSOLUTION III – De-Limitation at NGBK RealismusStudio, Berlin. Among other videos is the already mentioned Flood by Silke Witzsch.

Both videos are online at Directors Lounge television
Katherin McInnis US Spookspeak 4 min, DV, 2006
Silke Witzsch D Flood 9 min , DV, 2005

more about RESOLUTION / DISSOLUTION III – De-Limitation

Necklace



by Ana Mir of emiliana design studio
via

Aural delights



This one flies out to japanese forms who is addicted to girls with headphones. For sure a charming fetish.
This lady digged here.
related: Acoustic locators

Pussy Loves You


This just a sincere welcomeKatz to all fresh souls coming in via pussycalor

katz by DOU

Julia Fullerton-Batten





Julia Fullerton-Batten is a professional photographer who uses artificial light in outdoor shots in a very impressive way. See more of her work at monaco reps and on her own page
encore via Foire à tout

Jock Sturges





Jock Sturges has been recognized for his luscious black and white photographs of people. His controversial photographs on naturist beaches in the south of France, in the communes of northern California, and the summer resort of Black Island, has captured national attention. Using an 8x10 camera, he reveals the relationship of the people in his life with their inner self. The images are a collaboration of trust and admiration between artist and subject.source
more here,here and here
via

Directors Lounge presents: a summer evening with Marina Foxley at Rote Loge

july 27th 10pm In attendance of Marina Foxley

Visite Guidée de Nantes (Bruno Duquenne, 2005, 23 min)

Still Life (Marina Foxley/Laurent Couedel, 2006, 12 min)

fuyu (aE3, 2006, 5 minutes)

This night consist of two seperated screenings, reflecting her role as a curator for chinese cinema as well as her work as a director and performer.
First Marina Foxley presents an "avant goût" of our forth-coming special on independent Chinese films.
The second part serves us three video-performances, each with different perspectives and choreographies of the nude body. Her own work, Still Life will be screened in world premiere
read more

Rote Loge Berlin Simon-Dachstrasse 22, (next to Revalerstrasse)
S- and U Warschauer Brücke

Gamers II Alter Ego

Chalmaine and her avatar Jova Song that represents her in “Second Life”

Following the portraits of gamers by Todd Deutsch mentioned here comes the "Alter Ego" series by Robbie Cooper. The "Alter Ego" pictures show human players along with their avatar, the virtual characters they choose to be in online games and 3D worlds.
slideshow Alter Ego Interview with Robbie Cooper (german)
via we make money not art

La Cripta dei Cappuccini



This comes as a follow up to the recently mentioned Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo.
Valentina Tanni kindly pointed me to a similiar space in Rome, La Cripta dei Cappuccini. An amazing place where all the decorations on the walls are made with bones.

Here the Capuchins would come to pray and reflect each evening before retiring for the night. Over the years, until 1870, further alterations transformed this burial place into the work of art we see today. Its message is clear: death closes the gates of time, and opens those of eternity.








The Crypt of the Skulls
In the tympanum of the central niche an hour-glass stands out, with wings made of shoulder-blades. The side walls contain two Capuchins resting in curved niches. In the center of the vault are three striking decorative motifs in which circles of flowers predominate. In the corridor vault, a lantern hangs from an eight-pointed star.
The vault in the passageway is enhanced by a new element: a winged skull, its wings fashioned from shoulder-blades.





The Crypt of the three skeletons
The two small skeletons against the rear wall are holding in one hand a skull with wings made from shoulder-blades. Impressed into the center of the vault there is a delicate skeleton enclosed within an aureole, the symbol of life coming to birth. In its right hand it holds a scythe, symbol of death which cuts down everyone, like grass in a field, while its left hand holds the scales, symbolizing the good and evil deeds weighed by God when he judges the human soul.
The corridor vault is very rich and varied: four small five-pointed stars surround the other eight-pointed star from which the lamp hangs. On the wall opposite the door you see the striking design of the clock, its single face indicating the continuity of life, in time and in eternity.

Rinaldo Cordovani
Translated by Charles Sérignat

more here and here
mille grazie Valentina

The Square America First Anniversary Special





Square America, a gallery of vintage snapshots & vernacular photography, is celebrating its first year with a neat First Anniversary Special Exhibition. Lots of gems to dig.
via

Katerina Belkina





more here

Andrea Giacobbe




fine fashion foto
via

Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo




The Capuchins' Catacombs are located in Palermo, Italy, where there are thousands of corpses lined on the walls like paintings.
The catacombs date back to the 1599 when the local priests mummified a holy monk for all to see. They wanted to pray to him after death.
In time the locals wanted their relatives remembered in this same way. Soon there were hundreds of corpses. Some of the deceased wrote wills, expressing the clothes in which to bury them in. Some asked to have their clothes changed over a period of time. Children are sometimes posed. Two are seated together in a small rocking chair.
All are dressed in clothes from the period in which they lived. One such example is of Colonel Enea DiGiuliano. He is still wearing his 1800's French Bourbon uniform.
The halls are divided into catagories: Men, Women, Virgins, Children, Priests, Monks, and Professionals. The Professionals Hall includes at least one American, writers, lawyers, priests, and others.
Digged at the Lesser Known Museum Week at the Kircher Society