RIP, LB

 Louise Bourgeois, photographed by Annie Liebovitz. Photo from the New York Times

One of the twentieth century's most influential sculptors, Louise Bourgeois, died on Monday aged 98. Bourgeois' work was largely unknown until the artist was in her sixties and seventies, despite the fact that over the course of her life she produced some of the most challenging and confronting sculpture of the twentieth century.

Bourgeois' sculpture is large scale, psychologically loaded, and frequently unsettling. The now eponymous giant cast iron spider is a testament ot all these qualities. The work's title, Maman (French for mother) shakes things up even further. Who would call a spider Mum? What kind of feelings does Louise Bourgeois expect us to feel for this behemoth arachnid? Yet the knowledge of its title completely changes our experience of the sculpture. Suddenly Maman is much more than just a giant spider: the work is a meditation on relationships, protection and vulnerability. Plus, by having people walk underneath the statue, Bourgeois says as much about the pregnant relationship between viewer and art object as Donald Judd did back in the sixties. 

Other works reference sexual ambiguity, human frailty, and in the case of Cell (Glass spheres and hands), which can be found at Melbourne's NGV, the complexities od childhood. I've only briefly studied Bourgeois, so am certainly not the most authoratative source. If you do want to read a little more about her, there is an excellent write up at the art daily with Lydia, which I stumbled upon while googling Louise Bourgeois, and will now be keeping an eye on. There is also an intellgent and thoughtful article at the New York Times.

Image credits:

1. Maman at Milan's Musem di Capodimonte
2. Cell (glass spheres and hands) fromt he National Gallery of Victoria's permanent collection
3. Maman at the Tate, London

from Russia with love

Pasteups by Canadian street artist Specter, found at my old favourite, Wooster Collective. I love the scale, the detail, and the unexpected burst of colour in the grimy urban landscape.

Meanwhile in May...

...I am exploring my new suburb at sunset instead of studying like I should be (toungue twister, much?)...

 ...and revelling in the return of iTunes (it wasn't working on my old computer). On the playlist for May:

winning the prize for Best Line in a Music Video, "But he smells like ranch dressing!"


The Black Keys, Tighten Up


and, from an old favourite with the most amazingly gravelly wonderful voice,


The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" (official video) from The National on Vimeo.

The National, Bloodbuzz Ohio

small stakes

With a name springing from a song by Spoon (how cool is that, just by the by?), The Small Stakes is the studio of graphic designer Jason Munn. He is most famous for his band posters, and when you take a look at these witty gems it will be easy to see why. Jason is releasing a book of his posters, and I think it might just be a coffe table essential. Awesome design + awesome bands = right.up.my.alley!

all images from The Small Stakes.

PS: If you enjoyed these, two more designers working in the same niche as Jason Munn and producing equally awesome posters are Delicious Design League and Spike Press.

why i love photography: water//eau//acqua//wasser

Because three photos all on the same topic can nonetheless be:

abstract

geometric

and documentary

images from The Big Picture@Boston.com's post for World Water Day.

PS I am throwing three more in because they are just so damn beautiful and moving that I couldn't restrict myself to the initial three.

a bit of Balla

 Giacomo Balla, Bankruptcy, 1902

I am struggling away trying to have a draft of the first chapter of my thesis ready for Wednesday, and all I want to do is get out of the house...to the art gallery, to a cafe, more than anything else to take a walk with my camera. For now I am making do by enjoying the gentle stillness and poignancy of some pre-Futurist Giacomo Balla goodness. Isn't it exquisite? Can you belive that it was painted in 1902? It wouldn't look out of place at some trendier-than-thou Flinders Lane art gallery, methinks. Good ol' Balla.

your everafter

A Love Letter For You  is a project created by artist Steve Powers, entailing series of fifty sign-writing inspired murals running along a train line in Philadelphia. Ex-graffiti artist Powers began the project by putting out an open call for people's thoughts on the rewards and complexities of relationships. Now, I like to think of myself as fairly no-nonsense and unromantic, but even I can't resist the sentiment here. Plus there's all that juicy typography to boot.

Posts about the murals have been floating around the net for a while now, so apologies if you've seen this all before - frankly, given how cute the whole project is, I just couldn't resist sharing. I am feeling pretty worn out from an excessive combination of work and study at the moment, so the thought of having my morning commute pepped up by these babies is appealing to me in a very big way. Take note, Melbourne (well, I guess we do have Crateman...maybe I just need to spend more time west of the city...).

Enjoy. 

between the salt and stars

A few weeks ago (ie pre house-imposed-internet-silence), ABC arts covered photographer Murray Fredericks' project Salt. For a number of years, Fredericks made an annual pilgrimage to South Australia's remote, moon-like Lake Eyre. The lake is bare, and featureless, yet this very featurelessness makes it a blank canvas for the shifting colours of light throughout the course of the day and into the night. Salt is both an ongoing photographic project, and a documentary of Fredericks' time at Lake Eyre. As several reviewers point out, the resulting film becomes as much about Fredericks' emotional journey as it does about documenting the lake. Breathtaking natural beauty is juxtaposed with extreme isolation, not to mention the challenges posed by environmental conditions.

In addition to documenting the lake via still photographs, Friedricks also made several time-lapse films. Timelapse photography has always been a favourite of mine, and when you combine this with racing clouds and spiralling star streams the result is nothing short of amazing. I can't embed the snippets of time-lapse, but you can check them out via the website for the Salt documentary. Highly reccomended. At risk of sounding very lame indeed, I got that 'you-are-small-and-insignificant-punch-to-the-gut  feeling from them, well and truly. And, on that note, enough of me; time to be mesmerised by Fredericks' photography. If you scroll down to the bottom I've embedded the trailer for the documentary, which is also worth investigating.

images 1-3 from Arc One gallery's website
images 4-8 from the Salt website