the goddess of 1967

I have recently watched the indie Australian roadmovie "The Goddess of 1967" (2000), the title of which refers to a car. That's right, a car. But it's not any car, it's the so-called goddess which is English for the French word déesse = DS = Citroen DS (nice play of words ;-).

The movie starts with a mysterious and eccentric Japanese buyer who flies to Australia to pick up the goddess, he had purchased online. This adventure is the context for following the car's and its owner's history back several generations. The main character of the movie is the actual car owner, a blind young woman, with a more than difficult past that will have to be explored.

I am not quite content with the directing by Macau-born Clara Law and husband Eddie Fong. The slow pace of the movie is not balanced and makes it seem draggy. Moreover some issues seem to be left unfinished, some choices unexplained, some scenes superfluous, some characters (like the Japanese man, or the young woman's mother) don't seem to develop and the flashbacks segment the narrative in an unfavourable way.

Nevertheless, the movie's strong points are amazing and make me recommend the movie without hesitation: the amazing cinematography (exquisite frame composition, beautiful colors), the strangeness/bizarreness (at least to me, reminiscent of Arizona Dream), the serious, almost distressing themes (death, coming of age, child abuse, revenge etc.), the focus on the female universe (even the car is a feminine entity) and the brilliant(!) performance by Rose Byrne.

Watch a "behind the scenes" documentary about the movie here: part1, part2, part3

I watched it since it was suggested by Scott in a comment to a post by Danica on Kitsune Noir and I loved the trailer (music: Walk Don't Run 64 by The Ventures), which is why I am sharing it here as well:

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.

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."

music

RT @reese: the right music fights the demons. electrically surges the soul. gets the proverbial ass moving. makes dreams happen.

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!

my new medicine

On such a beautiful sunday I will share my newest medicine below. The post was orginally published on KoiKoiKoi, where I have written more details about the video.

The beautiful short film is titled "Dear Japan", was shot with a handheld Canon EOS 7D by Nathan Miller and brilliantly edited by Matthew Brown using the track "Empty Room Trailer Version" by Zack Hemsey.

What I especially like about it is that it feels like a dream, a memory or a flashback that looks familiar enough to belong to any of us. I have to say it diminishes my itchy feet to finally visit the country and my longing for that culture, so I am re-watching it regularly. Especially refreshing is that it does not use any stereotypical representation of Japan, and if it does, it comes across very subtly (I don't remember seeing one kimono/maiko in there!).

Enjoy the wonderful imagery, the impecable sound and the fast-paced but perfectly-timed editing of Matthew's "Dear Japan":

baths - lovely bloodflow

The video below was recently released for Baths' "Lovely Bloodflow" (directed by Alex Takacs and Joe Nanikn of Young Replicant) and I recommend it for its cinematic beauty. It depicts the last minutes in the life of an injured samurai, whose dying moments are prolonged by two fascinating spirits of the forest (yokai), who take him to meet the main forest spirit. This one will finally put an end to his agony in exchange of his soul.

via Nerdcore via Stereogum

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.

eureka - review

Eureka (Yûreka), one of my favourite films, is a movie directed by Shinji Aoyama. Interestingly, as I was preparing this review, I have read that it is considered to be THE finest Japanese film of the last decade. It is a sepia-coloured, over 3 hours long, slow-paced film, with little dialogue and soundtrack. It is characterized by documentary - style long - shots and excellent cinematography, composition and editing. And indeed, even though it's long (I watched it in two sessions), there is nothing unnecessary about this movie and every second of it is essential for the entire whole.

The story evolves around the three survivors of a violent bus hijacking: a bus driver and two young siblings. This trauma will eventually mark their lives in various aspects. Two years later, the bus driver leaves his wife, is kicked out of his brother's home and is in search of a place to stay. Interestingly, he manages to find the two children, who had shared the unfortunate hijacking experience with him. But he finds them living alone, abandoned by their mother after the death of their father. These characters then embark on a journey and drive aimlessly in (ironically) a bus across the country. A series of murders complicates the plot and suggests a dark secret that will eventually be revealed towards the end. In short, it is a story about people, who help each other in their spiritual search of something they don't know they were looking for.

It would be too superficial to categorize the film as a draggy, pretentious art - film documentation of three people trying to overcome a deep trauma. In fact, even though slow-paced, this story has elements of a road movie, a drama, a slice - of - life comedy and a psychological thriller. Believe me when I say, it is worth sitting through its entire length and witnessing the characters' rediscovery of life.

I find it amazing how such intensity and complexity of feelings can be conveyed by such simplicity. It achieves what other movies may never be able to, it is moving without being pathetic. It is clean. It is elegant. It is one of the few movies of a very rare and powerful sensibility. And it definetely speaks a different language than anything else you've watched before.

Below is a taster for this wonderful film:

Read an interview with the director on Midnight Eye. Poster source

rin toshite sigure

Here is "Jpop Xfile" by Japanese band Rin Toshite Shigure (aka Ling Tosite Sigure / 凛として時雨 ). The vocals (both male and female) are often high-pitched loud screams. And I mean that as in irritating. However, I like to see the vocals not as a downside, but rather as giving their sound a certain rawness. Plus, the instrumentals have a lot "The Fall of Troy" in'em. Love it!

próximo oriente - auditory treats from asia

I've recently come across a wonderful Portuguese blog that features alternative musical inspiration from China and Asia. The program is called "Próximo Oriente/Middle East", it is created by Hugo Pinto and runs on Radio Macau. Have a listen, it is definetely worth it: an unexpected breath of fresh air, well-documented and with a lot of information on the musicians, if you understand Portuguese. Highly recommended!

Here's just a taster: All mixtapes are so good that I did not know which one to pick. I embedded the most recent one below:

Próximo Oriente - Edição 27.03.2010 by Hugo Pinto on Mixcloud

Become a Fan of Próximo Oriente on Facebook

jwt shanghai & hailong li: shan shui animation

This post has been originally posted on Neocha EDGE.

The China Environment Protection Foundation(CEPF) recently commissioned JWT Shanghai to develop three print advertisements using shan shui style art by renowned landscape artist Yang Yongliang. The advertisements, titled Global Warming, Industrial Pollution, and Automotive Pollution, aimed to raise public awareness of ongoing environmental damage to China’s environment and were displayed as subway posters and full-page newspaper ads.

The ads bear a striking resemblance to traditional Chinese paintings but, when looked at closely, portray environmentally unfriendly factories, cars, and buildings littering the landscape. The campaign has been a big hit with both the public and the press. The printed ads have received a number of international awards: Cannes Lions 2009 Outdoor Silver Ads, New York Festival Awards 2009, NYF 2009 Print Gold ads.

The print ads have been adapted into an excellent animated short (see below) directed by Li Hailong from Beijing's One Production to run on air and on plasma screens in the Shanghai People Square Subway Station. The animation short was awarded the "Spikes Asia Gold Craft Spike" prize in the Category "TV - Best Use of Animation/Computer Graphics/ Special Effects" at this year's Spike Asia - Asian Advertising Festival. Additionally, the entire campaign won a number of Lotus awards at AdFest 2009, including gold for social engagement, best use of illustration, best art direction, and animation.

Apart from its mere artistic value, the campaign has also communicational and educational value: Raising public and governmental awareness might be the first step towards change. The campaign's worth is to be seen in the fact that, it manages to highlight the threat that ignorance represents to cultural identity by making use of aesthetic cues charged with traditional value.

Li, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy with a degree in animation, told us he did not try to solely address environmental issues but also social ones as well: "The campaign expresses a societal attitude change with respect to the concept of "survival" – it activates an "environmental mindset" by addressing motives deeply rooted in everyone's psyche: the universal drive for continuance and the desire for a comfortable life." Li explained that he made use of exaggerated imagery in order to emphasize the lack of space and suffocation people are confronted with today in China – a phenomenon, he says, that leads to increased levels of societal anxiety, confusion, and ultimately, a redefinition of necessity that exploits nature and replaces it with artificial substitutes.

Bravo JWT and One Production.

I would like to thank Hailong for his interview, patience and helpful comments.

mono

Mono is the first Japanese band I have listened to and they have remained one of my favourites ever since. They are a Japanese instrumental rock band that formed in 1999. The band consists of Takaakira Goto (electric guitar), Yoda (electric guitar), Tamaki Kunishi (bass guitar, guitar, piano, glockenspiel), and Yasunori Takada (drum kit, glockenspiel, synthesiser). Although they belong to the post-rock movement, they understand their style rather related to classical music. It is not as much a question of style category, they say, music is about emotion.

"The Kidnapper Bell", may not be their best, but it's their first song I have listened to, the one that got me hooked on them and definetely representative in structure to most of their work: mesmerizing, it starts off in a very soft and delicate mood, builds up tension, holds the tension, holds it even farther and ends in an unbearable climax of melody mixed with crushing noise, leaving the listener (as a youtube user has noted) feeling like they would have only one more heartbeat left.

the eye writer

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people, who are suffering from ALS, with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.

and say o.k.

by Maira Kalman (via WeAreTheDigitalKids)

profile: li hui

I have recently had the great honor to "chat" with a wonderful photographer: Li Hui, who is, just like her photographs, quite mysterious. She started shooting with her first SLR film camera in 2008 but it wasn‘t until February 2009 that she realized she wanted to take photography seriously: taking pictures on a regular basis, selecting them and uploading them on Flickr. Ever since, her work experienced increasing popularity on the internet and has received amazing feedback, as well as coverage by various blogs (e.g. Feaverish Fotography Blog), websites (e.g. interview on artist's space on Fjord or Color Me In) and ezines (e.g. Carpaccio Magazine).

One of the main sources of inspiration for her photography is music: She likes to listen to freak-folk and ambiental sounds, as it helps her get into a certain state of mind. Equally inspiring are coming-of-age movies: „Innocence, originality, the angles from which they see the world, their natural talent“, is what fascinates her about a child‘s perspective. This is most likely the reason why she tries to keep a childlike heart herself.

Li Hui has spent a great part of her childhood with her grandfather, who was a very quiet and reserved person. On her Flickr page, I have noticed that the very first photograph that she has added, was a landscape picture taken by him. In a comment on that photograph she reveals that he was a poet and writer. „We had a similar personality. He taught me how to focus on my own world.“

Her work is emotional, unsophisticated and sincere. But what I find most intriguing about her photography is the anonymity of her representations of people. Faces are a means of direct communication. Interestingly however, Li Hui manages to convey the inherent beauty of the people portrayed by concealing their identity. „I keep trying to create something new in my work, and I'm really tired of people taking portraits." What I love most about Li Hui's work is that it manages to speak to me in a very intimate fashion, somehow mirroring past and potential experiences.

the psychiatrist

Who is the therapist and who is the client? This is a wonderfully poetic and surreal animation by Emily Howells, called "The Psychiatrist". The oddball paranoid versifier is voiced by Roger McGough who speaks a fantastical, fearful and funny imagery. A Must-See!

stupid skeleton

"BOZO SKELETON" is a very funny piece by Japanese artist Shohei Takasaki (one of the first urban artists I have become interested in). I especially like the author's comment:

"This 'BOZO SKELETON (aka Stupid Skeleton)' is obviously what a person looks like after death. But BOZO SKELETON handsomely wears a tight suit and a fancy hat, holds a flower, key, gun, pen...and looks in some sense adorable and also cool. It almost seems like he's trying to do what he wanted to do before he died, and he's enjoying himself while he whistles in the dark. You never know when you are going to die in the world today, and you can feel the effort of a human trying to live the life to the fullest through this dead BOZO SKELETON. This is a story of a departed soul trying to bring back the passion of a normal human being, the passion that living human beings hold."

It is a stupid skeleton after all. Because it is irrational. I highlighted some of the words that made me smile. In my opinion, they are the key words that illustrate how an ambiguous image can tell a complex, multi-facetted story. What it is, what it wears and holds is not as important as how it does all that. This comment is a wonderful example of how the work tells more about the artist than the artist about his work ;)

authenticity

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to..." (Jim Jarmush via Adam Schokora).

Basically the only artform we are left with is a "combinatory artform", a collage of references. Because everything has already been expressed. The only thing left for us to do is to play with and reinterpret fragments. Maybe now more than ever, art is a dialogue (related post on Romanian post-modernism).