Light Drawings

by Ben Claassen III & Kimberly Dorn
(via)

Technorati: movies, installation, photography, visual art, art, contemporary art, vvoi

Using Yorick's laughter

I'm sure you know Damien Hirst's recent work, For the Love of God. Created as the most expensive contemporary art work in the world, it is valued at about 75 million euros. Hirst underlines the value of the diamonds (about 30 million), and plays on the incapacity of judging the "value" of a work by giving it huge value since the beginning.
This business move, not uncommon among the creme de la creme of contemporary artists, is brilliant, of course. You either get it, or you don't. If you go for the bluff, it automatically ceases to be a bluff. Therefore, if you criticize it for being just a silly idea, or a great idea but with a silly number of zeros next to it, or for being a shallow philosophy for the nouveau-riches, then you just don't get it. Of course. Which makes it seem critique-proof.
So far, so good.
But it gets better.

"We must buy the diamond skull for Britain" - this proclamation was made to his countrymen by Jonathan Jones, a journalist of the Guardian to keep the"most amazing artefacts ever made in this country". Jones thus encourages the British to purchase this "work of art", made by"the treasure of Great Britain" Damien Hirst, which is currently on the market for 50 million pounds. Our British friends, we are coming to rescue you! Like the cheap Polish labour well known to you, Polish artist Peter Fuss wishes to relieve the British nation from such a great expense. "For the laugh of God" by Peter Fuss will be available in the Polish car on ART CAR BOOT FAIR at a competitive price of 1000 pounds. In addition, you may also buy a limited (1000 copies) edition of signed and numbered graphics for only 1 pound each. You will not have to wait for tickets anymore to seea skull set with diamonds, and the time of watching Fuss's skull willcertainly not be limited to 5 minutes! To make his work, Peter Fuss used about 9870 pieces of glass polished and cut to look like diamonds, worth 250 pounds and spent 18 hours to complete the piece. Income from sale of Fuss's skull and its accompanying graphics is supposed to amount to 2000 pounds - this is eight times as much as the invested amount! Before the skull goes to the trade fairs to London, it can be seen inPoland, during the Modelator event in Modelarnia, which will take place on28 June.

This is great. Answering another artist is really a delicate matter (and trust me, I know how it can fail). But here, the perfect match is created. It not only lives off the other work, and lives well, gives it a wonderful ironic twist, but also manages to play on the idea of production and even on the stereotype of cheap Polish labor!
One of the best aspects of this project is that it does not stop at an idea. It is not a conceptual work. Someone actually goes and does this, speaking on the very same level as the original statement. And with a terrific sense of humor.
Peter Fuss has been making some interesting work, most of it apparently attracted to controversy. I have been watching him from afar. Some of his previous work (see, for example, his Three Billboards About Love) is poignant and intense while remaining elegant, if not "beautiful". What I like about them, and what makes me uncomfortable as well, is the state of tension between the will of changing something and the need for a distanced, often ironic look, that tends towards a critical fatalism - if I can use that term (a situation where the work does nothing in the sense of working towards an alternative to whatever it criticizes, and appears to be presenting it as a horrible but unavoidable reality).
"For the Laugh of God" has the wonderful quality of being at the same time a critique and a development, a variation on a theme. Irony does not finish its scope. But then, of course it speaks a very different language. The lightness and double-meaning (after all, it is a skull) resemble Yorick's. There is a game between kitsch, luxury and rottenness that, to me, outplays master Hirst.
I would love to buy this. Unfortunately, not only am I completely broke, but I consider this is an opportunity that has to be understood, appreciated and used by the British. So maybe a print?


More on Damien Hirst's work here, on Peter Fuss's art here, and on other Polish related artists here.

Technorati: fine art, art installation, visual art, art, contemporary art, vvoi

Jack the cat thinks the afghan I'm making is just for him. Blogger has been having problems lately so I hope this post pushes through my SLC sweater post.

Here's the Dale of Norway Salt Lake City Olympic ski sweater knit in Heilo. Unfortunately I think this pattern is already out of print. I greatly enjoyed knitting the intricate patterns - check out my favorite dancing little people on the back yoke! Right in between the little people is the Olympic flame.




DH has worn this sweater exactly once. Unfortunately it really is too warm for the climate here. If it wasn't so hot I'd be knitting these sweaters all the time.

Dale of Norway Cardigan

I finally managed to get some sweater photos. This first one is from Dale of Norway - the booklet, number 79, is out of print and this sweater is number 7913. I made it in Heilo and it is so large I wear it as a coat in winter. It is starting to pill but I love it anyway and it is extremely warm.



This was my first steeked sweater and when I was cutting the steeks for the front button band I cut right through to the back of the sweater - about a 2 inch hole. After swearing like a sailor for several minutes I ripped the hole on all sides to make it bigger (ouch!) and then knit back and forth and kitchenered the top and bottom together. You can't tell at all from the outside - it was in the plain stockinette area in the bottom center.



Tomorrow I'll show my favorite sweater of all time, DH's Salt Lake City Dale Olympic ski sweater.

According to one of my kitchen thermometers brought outside, it is pushing 100 here today. Good thing I'm working on a heavy wool afghan! Even better, I apparently chose the single most difficult color to photograph in the history of mankind (Wool of the Andes in tomato). I'm almost done with my seventh square - the Ginger Smith Square. The KAL for this fun afghan is HERE.



I will keep trying to get photographs you can actually see. If anyone has any ideas about taking photos of a really really bright red color please let me know. So far I've tried inside, outside, flash, natural light, Ott lite, etc.

Defining place

I am here:

For a synchronic look, you go here (wonderful!). For a diachronic one, you go here. (and explore the rest of the blog as well).

Technorati: photography, art, contemporary art, vvoi

Changing Identities

1.Redesigning flags according to clients' wishes.

2.Redesigning your identity in Second Life.
Notice the guy's t-shirt : "World without strangers".

Spruce Mountain Men's Mittens

I'm pretty happy with this design for men's mittens. I used three skeins of Andean Treasure alpaca yarn. I purposely started the sore thumb gusset an inch above the corrugated ribbed cuff which I think gives a better fit for men's hands. The only problem really is that of course the stripes don't line up at the end of the row but I put the end of the row opposite the thumb so it is less noticeable. I'll try to pin down DH this week to get a photo of him modeling the mittens.

Telling stories. Andy Huang times two

There are two Andy Hunag's living in the US and making great animation.

1. Andy Huang, a student of arts and animation at the University of Southern California, brings us Doll Face, a fairy-tale about... to be honest, I was so pleased with the visual aspect of the video, at first I completely missed the story. Let me give you this opportunity, too.

So, the story is, well, simple. But the doll is charming, the melancholy lightness of it, the delicate texture. Should we always ask for more?

2. Andy Huang, a graduate of communications design from Pratt University, introduces us to a world where design meets animation meets a baroque sense of humor. His is a polyphonic world, one that flies in all directions, cares not about narrative but about a certain shape, balance, impact.

Both Andys have some things in common. Their work is slick, clean, well-focused, it is not afraid of pop, of a certain type of flashiness.
On the other hand, they represent two different choices. One tends towards clean narrativity, a beginning a middle an end, (and in this order...), the other seems much closer to visual arts, chaos is welcome, Flash animation, clean powerpointy cuts, the new digital collage...
This is really a very serious issue: the consequences of each of these options are impressive. Of course, they can be combined, interpolated, tried out and thrown out at will... But there is such a thing as a body of work, career progress, or artistic development. And there is a need for storyline, for things happening that cause other things happening. Causality. And yet, from the perspective of contemporary art this seems so petty, so ridiculous, when you have all these broken, mashed up, re-redone languages... As if it weren't an issue. New playwriting? Experimental cinema? Installations? Maybe. And yet, while participating in all these experiments, while promoting them and enjoying them, I somehow still feel the deep thirst for story.

This is a test post. My last post at Blogger (about German Twisted Cast On) isn't showing up for some reason. I'm currently trying to figure out if it was just that post or if something is broken.

I'm not really into all the different cast ons and bind offs out there. I've tried many of them but the truth is I use the long-tail cast on 99% of the time for speed and simplicity. That is until yesterday when I finally tried the German Twisted Cast On. It is performed almost the same as the long-tail cast on but it varies in how you insert the needle into the loop around your thumb.

It looks like the long-tail cast on except there is what looks like a purl bump above the cast on ridge. This extra length of this cast on is one reason why using it for corrugated/two-color ribbing is a good thing - you're less likely to see the second color peeking out below the cast on edge. It is also much more elastic than the long-tail cast on which is nice because I'm using some non-elastic alpaca for the project shown. The best thing about the German Twisted Cast On though is that corrugated ribbing doesn't curl at all. I love corrugated ribbing so I will be definitely using it in the future.

HERE's the photo tutorial I used to learn this cast on. She uses two different colors for each end of the yarn to better show the method.

I'm currently designing a pair of multi-colored yet masculine mittens for DH (in alpaca). The colorwork gloves are finished but I can't seem to decide what color fringe to add. I'm waiting to take photos until I decide.

A while ago I taught 14 year old Jeanette to knit. She turned out to be a knitting prodigy. Her first project was a garter stitch scarf in Red Heart yarn, her second was a pair of really really large socks, and I think her third project was the Dale of Norway Mt. Rose colorwork steeked ski sweater. It was gorgeous!

Anyway, she knit me these lovely socks in Nature Spun sport weight. I'd been meaning to get better photos. These are the Norwegian Stockings from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. Aren't they wonderful? Thanks again Jeanette!

I'm really running behind this week. I wanted to take a photo of the six squares (of a total of 18) I've finished for the Great American Aran Afghan. I've decided this will be my main summer project - maybe I can finish by fall. I originally intended to finish it by last fall so I'll be a year late.

I do have some fun links:

Cupcakes decorated with a knitting theme - these are so cool! She even includes a marzipan tutorial.

What the World Eats - Time mag photo essay of 16 international families and what they eat a week along with how much they spend. Who knew so many people drank soda?

HERE are instructions for making your own herbal dream pillows along with some fun herb blends. I just bought a bag of dream pillow herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs so I plan to make a few out of satin. I'm going to use them for yoga or just plain relaxing.

I'm a huge fan of the knitting patterns by Woodsmoke Woolworks. Look HERE and HERE for some of the most wonderful and whimsical patterns. I've made her bunnies and carrot hat a zillion times and I won the blue jays and cherries pattern but some of the others are tempting me - the Dragonflies, Water Lilies and Frogs, the Chickadees hat.

Aran Sandal Socks and New England Socks

I'm still working on trying to get decent photographs of the sweaters - they look too washed out in my photos but I will prevail.

I also have trouble photographing light colored texture socks so I tried again with those as well. I rarely wear these because I'm terrified I'll get them dirty. The first socks are the Aran Sandal Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks done in some handspun Cormo I bought at Taos Wool Festival. I like the way the cable pattern extends down the heel.




These are the New England socks from Nancy Bush with a spiral toe. I think I knit these in an old Elann yarn from Pingouin - called La Laine maybe?

great so sweet

this puppy so sweet..

via

Which one is real?

one of them is the real puppy

oh nice puppy

in the red basket