kintsukuroi

jellyfish girl 2

illustration by Kat Menschik for Haruki Murakami's short story "Sleep".

jellyfish girl

beautiful artwork by Katsumi Asano

iron

I absolutely love the black and white, slow motion video of "Iron" by Yoann Lemoine aka Woodkid. Lemoine is French, 27 years old and amazingly talented in a number of fields (photography, film, illustration, music). The clip was directed by him and the amazing cinematography is by Mathieu Plainfosse. I just love the characters, their motion and the overall fierceness conveyed, as well as the way how it all visually complements the song! Enjoy:

Woodkid - Iron from WOODKID on Vimeo.

via artschoolvets

thought of you

It's saturday, it's cartoon day!

Today's cartoon is an old-school 2D style one, by Ryan Woodward, titled "Thought of You". Enjoy:

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

The song is "World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies. Here's a behind the scenes, documenting the collaboration with modern dancers and choreographers.

via @fALk_g

point and shoot

illustration by Luz de Luciernaga

sinnvoll-berlin.de

At the Xmas market in Berlin I have recently bought one of many beautiful notebooks. Each one is hand made and one of a kind. Mine looks like this (both sides shown):

I love the texture of the notebook which was made from old newspaper and thread and the colors that emerge more or less randomly from various old newspaper pictures. The notebook comes from Sinnvoll in Berlin. Do check out their website for more interesting products, all made from recycled products like bicycle tubes, old paper, packages, cans, records etc. Moreover each product comes from a social service project with fair wages. Well done!

compliments

I was so happy to discover this type of street art (?) in my city! It was a piece of paper at the stop lights. It looked like an ordinary announcement, but it was written by hand, in colorful glitter and said: "for free: compliments". Anyone was free to take a compliment with them. And for the ones who didn't, it still made them smile! Great initiative!

nosaj thing

...and some really cool visuals:

Nosaj Thing - MIS, Brasil 2010 (leg. português) from Cauê Ito on Vimeo.

moonassi

Daehyun Kim, aka moonassi was born in 1980, has studied traditional Korean painting at the College of Fine Arts, Hong-Ik University and lives and works in Seoul, Korea. He is working at "Lomography Korea" as a designer and likes to write poems, as well. I have been instantly mesmerized by his illustration artwork, I somehow feel they are simple, yet elegant, extremely clever and also relevant to myself. I am sharing a couple of them below, although I strongly advise you to visit his website for more:

Moonassi's black and white illustrations usually depict two identical characters engaged in what at first glance appear to be strange interactions. Some times one of the two characters is layered, broken into pieces or has tiny replicas of himself emerging from his body. It really takes a closer look at all the ingenious details to be able to understand the relationship between the characters and decide on its significance.

"I'm anyone or anything anywhere", says moonassi and by this he points out at the universal character of his theme. The artist's statement also underlines the anonymity of the individuals in his illustrations, which potentially mirror the viewer's own thoughts and emotions.

I am not sure whether this was the intention of the artist, but to me, moonassi's consistently identical figures represent an individual and his alter egoes. I think one of the major themes in his work is the duality (and multi-layer-character) of a person's self-concept.

dust kid

It's saturday morning, it's cartoon morning!

Today I want to share a Korean animation by Yumi Jung: "Munjiai" aka "Dust Kid" (2009). It tells the story of a young woman who wakes up in the middle of the night and starts tidying up her apartment. In this small nocturnal universe, her only co-inhabitants are small versions of herself that she finds hidden in every dusty corner of her room, always naked, sad, maybe frightened, ashamed. These dust kids, appear consistently and suddenly and are in some way reminders of her own true self, that she tries so hard to hide in the comfort and predictability of routine. But are not welcome, they are uncomfortable intruders and the young woman tries to crush them, flush them away, drown them, throw them away.

Highlights of this animation are the incredibly minimalistic pencil drawings, the wonderful use of sounds (the slippers, the moving of objects on the table, the buzzing of the fridge), that enhance the feeling of loneliness and the fact that it opens up for reflection.

Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 [2]
Hochgeladen von lever-de-soleil. - Entdecke mehr kreative Videos.

via Ma Kuangpei on Facebook

Note: A kind commenter has pointed out that the animation actually says Seoul International Animation Festival not Tokyo International Anime Fair, as suggested by the video description. I don't speak either Japanese or Korean, so I can't verify that. I do know however that the animation was present at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010, as well as a number of other international festivals. I also realize that at the beginning of the video it says that it is supported by the Seoul Animation Center /Seoul Business Agency. If anyone can clarify this, please leave a comment.

burnout

Note: Sorry, it's one of those finds, the author of which remains a mystery to me. If you know him/her, drop me a line and I will credit.

two

French dancer Sylvie Guillem in one of the four parts of the fascinating "Push" ("Two", "Solo", "Shift", "Push").

outside

I have recently watched a wonderful 15-minute documentary about Beijing and aspects of the life of its people, titled "Outside". The director, Sérgio Cruz, explains:

"In China, culture and the arts are very closely linked to people and their lives. The street life in Beijing is a 24-hour live show full of music, dance and sports. Over a period of month residence time (September 2007), I was observing Chinese life, collecting 'road images', documenting quotidian performances (...)"

But this beautiful piece of film, that portrays the fast-paced and busy life in the noisy and continually changing city, paradoxically manages to achieve a wonderful, tranquil effect by avoiding speech, creating beautiful transitions and using an overall slow pacing.

In my view, the film doesn not necessarily focus on the city itself or people's actions (be they dancing, performing or excercising) but rather on the context of these. And he manages to give the Western eye a glimpse of the interdependency and -connectedness of people in a collectivistic cultural frame.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

we are postrock

Via We like that I came across a wonderful website, titled We are postrock, the purpose of which is explained in the following:

"Our purpose in this is to subjectify ourselves in the music and visualize imagery for the postrock community. We genuinely believe that perhaps the really provocative area for future musical development lies in postrock.

We record and produce these HD concerts because we want to capture the closest thing to what it’s like being at a live postrock/instrumental show - doing it all for the love and passion we have for postrock music and all its bands."

Here I want to share two videos.

The first one is "Black Dunes" by This Will Destroy You, where the beautiful music is matched by the stunning visuals of the video.

"This Will Destroy You are an instrumental quartet from the great state of Texas who play a cascading brand of cinematic rock music. Often compared and linked to purveyors of the “post-rock” sub-genre, the band has managed to transcend the tag and carve its own niche via a delicate and balancing infusion of electronics, strings, and an array of unconventional “rock” instrumentation over bombastic and receding harmony."

I was happy to see that they also feature Mono, one of my favourite bands. "Battle to Heaven" is like an epic tale, so powerful that it's almost kinetic:

"The band’s style of instrumental rock music is influenced by the genres of experimental rock and shoegazing, as well as by both the classical and contemporary classical periods of classical music, and also by noise and minimalism. We found that their musical structure reflect classical compositions & movements intertwined in a meditative narrative progression."

PRIVATE issue 50

PRIVATE International Review of Photographs has released its 50th issue, titled: "China, True or Real?" I have already received a copy and have to say that it is now one of my favourite photobooks. It features the likes of Muge, Zhang Xiao and my favourite, Yanming.

"In contemporary China, uncertainty about what is “true” and what is “false”, “reality” and “appearance”, extends from the realm of photography to that of existence itself. We often feel that we are confronted with such an illusory, ambiguous, unexpected “reality” as to lead us to doubt not just our perceptions, but our very capacity for interpretation.

[...] Perhaps the act of capturing and confining – if by means of a fictitious, illusory medium such as photography – some aspect of their surrounding environment constitutes a starting point from which Chinese photographers may consider it afresh, in more subjective, less commonplace terms, thus inventing it anew."

hana

Wonderful hipnotic experimental music piece by Asa Chang and Junray. It's like a mix of oriental and cyber sounds. This really has the power to transfer one temporarily to a dream world. Enjoy!

via David Valentim on Facebook

dream of pink and a bit of blue

I fell in love with this shot by Chinese photographer Seatory: the pose, the pink of the room, the dress and the curtain, and even the blue of the mask has a correspondent in the tiny hair tie. My favourite however are the blueish and pinkish color reflections in the hair...superb!

between bears

It's saturday morning, it's cartoon morning!

This week's cartoon has a somewhat difficult to grasp, abstract concept but is technically and visually stunning. It is Eran Hilleli's graduation film at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and was created using a mix of 2d and 3d (Maya and After Effects). The music was composed especially for the animation short by Ori Avni and performed by Ori Avni and Daniela Spector.

I especially like the paper-art feeling and the sounds in the video, I have to admit however that I was left puzzled with respect to its meaning and I think that grasping the idea behind the animation would increase its effect on the viewer. The only hint the author gives is equally puzzling: "...a debt to my childhood and other lives I hope I lived. Inspired by words of songs I admire". Nevertheless, it's a great piece and I am sharing it below.

moderat - rusty nails

Moderat are an indie electronic band based in Berlin. I discovered their music via the newest "Pictoplasma - Characters in Motion" trailer. But what actually really left me in awe was this brilliant mesmerizing video by the Pfadfinderei studio for their track "Rusty Nails". The motion and shapes are so dreamlike, I feel like watching it over and over again.

I loved the part, where the human body is wrapped like a cocoon. The following parts: the wind-blown silk and the uncovering of the bodies are great. But my favourite section of the video comes at the end, where the dynamic layers of the fabric are staged by fantastic body postures and jumps. Enjoy:

Moderat "Rusty Nails" from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.