Grizzly Bear | "Ready, Able": the video

It's no news how I feel about Grizzly Bear - I mean, I have expressed my undying love before.  Veckatimest is still up there and I don't see myself hiding it in the back of my closet any time soon.  I still consider it one of my favorite releases of 2009; plus, I have too much emotional baggage attached to this album.  But, on my behalf, I do consider this mild addiction still meandering in the realm of the healthy.  Anywho... why justify?  This is the land of the free, right?


Last week Grizzly Bear released the music video for "Ready, Able".  Now, the videos for their two previous singles proved GB is constantly pushing their limits.  What can I say?  They're creative entities - slightly twisted, but creative nonetheless.   I love "Two Weeks", adore "While You Wait For the Others", but "Ready, Able"is my ultimate favorite (Just so you get a picture, it is the most played song in my iTunes -- but, seriously).

Like the song, the video opens the door to different interpretations, it is truly the visual equivalent to the aural experience.  On one hand it is mysterious, dark and makes you turn to yourself to do some self-examination.  On the other hand, it is playful, full of colorful details and imaginative.


The band decided to use claymation, stop animation using clay, under the direction of Allison Schulnik.  I particularly liked Schulnik's interpretation once the song hits the bridge, where the track comes to a climax full of organs, strings and chorus.  In turn, the ghosts are isolated in the darkness and spotlighted as they morph from one emotion/character to the other.
(PERSONAL FUN FACT: these forty seconds after the bridge are my favorite part of the song... so, thank you Allison Schulnik for making this moment so worthwhile).
Anywho... enjoy!




NOTE: While we are on the subject of claymation, I feel I should mention two artists that come to mind, just in case you want to pursue this form of art.  

First artist: Jan Svankmajer, a Czech cinematographer considered one of the front runners of stop motion and clay animation.  He is best known for his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland and his surreal short Darkness/Light/Darkness.

Second artist:  Daniel Farah, he is a Mexican artist who has recently emerged from Savannah College of Art and Design.  He is an animation and a motion graphics artist.  His portfolio is quite interesting, full of short-films definitely inspired by surrealism and magic realism.

Urban Art: Surviving the White Wash

I realize it's been a while... but this weekend I had some great encounters with great urban art around Boston.  So... here are a few...

 

 

KIA Soul Collective Rolls Into Boston: of cars, art and music

I noticed that the Kia Soul Collective Tour will be hitting Boston this weekend.  Yes, three days of complementary beverages and cars, free test-drives included.

Never been that impressed by motorized vehicles, but this event has a catch: an awesome line-up, music and design.

I'm personally thrilled to see Jonas & Francois, the parisian team of filmmakers, probably best known for being the masterminds behind Justice' "D.A.N.C.E." video.  The young directors will be featuring a shortfilm they have created solely for the Tour titled "Soul Streets"  - Back to the Future's DeLorean meets A-Ha's Take On Me?

The line-up, yes...

          Thu    Oct 15th   Cymbals Eat Guitars & DJ Redfoxx

          Fri     Oct 16th    Here We Go Magic, White Rabbits & DJ's Frank White, Mistaker, Ghostdad

          Sat    Oct 17th   Boy Crisis & DJ's The Bladerunners, Knife, and Harmeet

AND.... should you  test drive the new KIA models, of course, you get the opportunity to see the Pains of Being Pure At Heart at a private bash on Sunday. 

Where is this being held?    Artists For Humanity  -  100 W 2nd St, South Boston

Damian Ortega | DIY "Mexican Style"

DIY -- Do It Yourself.

Trying to define, compare or begin to explain this acronym has been quite a challenge.  Even before writing this, I had a hard time arranging my thoughts and, to be completely honest, even after doing some research and going through sleepless nights thinking about it, I am still intrigued by its meaning.

I was given the awesome opportunity to be present in the curatorial/staff walk for the new ICA's exhibition Damian Ortega, Do It Yourself, where Ortega himself was giving a full disclosure of his works.  For art lovers, like myself, this was pure bliss.  And, I mean, is it possible not to be remotely interested in his exhibition when you are welcomed by his Cosmic Thing?  I was drooling all over it when I first saw it.

DIY is a term usually used for things related to home improvement, like building and repairing things without professional help - think about the Ikea phenomenon.  In art, it evokes ideas of breaking things down, reassembling, and manipulating everyday objects in such a way that they are brought out of their usual context.  Without getting into technicisms... DIY has a lot to do with ready-mades and the Duchamp and Damien Hirst legacy.

Ortega naturally brings a lot of his Mexican heritage into his pieces; references to his natal country are not evident, but definitely present.  This survey of the last decade covers his Coke bottle sculptures, leather floor plans, mirror cubes, chair sculptures, videos and photographs... the list goes on.  Though, in a brief Q&A session he admitted to be identified, hence, driven to work with bricks.

I genuinely loved this show.  But, i know... Contemporary installation art can be scary and slightly confusing.  As a friend said, it's hard to be face-to-face with a piece that many times needs to be explained to be understood; a piece that isn't necessarily 'pretty', with bits and pieces of a foreign culture.

If you feel this when facing Ortega's work, then I say: Eureka! Success! He brought you out of your comfort zone, and triggered curiosity.  Maybe even made you questioned your own stance.  

The ICA will have his show 'til January 2010.  Enough to see it once, twice or maybe three times?

DAMIAN ORTEGA

WHITE CUBE PROFILE   |   THE PHOENIX' PHOTO GALLERY OF EXHIBITION

Chorus Gallery | When Art and Bicycles Come Together...

I have recently acquired a new addiction: biking.  It's not about style or going green.  I fully admit that it came as the final solution for my final problem: boredom.  Being a recent graduate and "funemployed" all of a sudden was not that fun. My bicycle not only became a distraction in itself, it also led me to find new and bigger escapades.  Now I openly pledge my love for the two-wheeled vehicle.


Of course, when I heard Open Bicycles had reopened its doors in Somerville, I was lured to visit the store.  What came in as a true surprise was to see that the store had a gallery as part of its complex, the Chorus Gallery.  


It is a rather small exhibition space, much too small for my taste.  But it's never been about quantity, its about quality, right?  Upon navigating the interwebs and doing a little research, I noticed this gallery dedicates its space to eclectic, contemporary art.  Its artists have a clear design-related background and tend to focus on the city.  Broad enough?  Well, by "the city" I mean it has an urban feeling - the themes, the subject matter, the colors, or just the vibrancy of the metropolis present in the style.


The current exhibition Momentum is dedicated to Matt W. Moore known for his vektorfunk psychodelia.  Appropriately enough, Moore transfered his kaleidoscopic geometry to four bike frames, which accompanied his canvases.  I must admit I am an not a fervent follower of his style, but there is something about this exhibition that happened to attract me... a lot.  The canvases were static but there was an undeniable sense of movement in them.  An orderly chaos.


So by the time I parted, I was stuck with these rather interesting visuals.  On my ride back I couldn't help but think how dull some bike frames appeared to me... they needed some color, some vektorfunk in their lifes.

OPEN BICYCLE

"IT AIN'T THAT SERIOUS" OPEN BICYCLE SHORTFILM   |   SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Urban Art: Surviving the Whitewash

Boston is a hub of urban art.  No coincidence! It is a full-grown metropolis (the largest of New England), the college capital of the world, and a Fung Wah bus ride away from NYC... there is a constant influx of creativity.


I heard via word-of-mouth about the X-Men mural and, to my dismay, I found it already gone.  Given, many residents don't really appreciate any of the tagging, especially in areas like Back Bay and the South End. Understandable.  Yet, is it a sign of an ever-growing generational gap?  A matter of taste?


In honor of the now gone Sentinel, I've decided to pay tribute to the few surviving stencils and tags I found on my way there... Urban artists!!! Keep on 'rad-i-fying' the city... 

Shepard Fairey | "Supply and Demand"

                                                             
This time the ICA went all out: they legitimized urban art, rather disliked by many, by transferring it to their museum walls. Shepard Fairey's exhibition Supply and Demand was one of the more controversial ones this spring-fall, largely because Fairey was arrested at the doors of his very own opening show. Now, putting that minor, yet very important, detail to the side, the show well deserved to turn faces because of the artwork.

Supply and Demand was Fairey's first complete survey, covering work from his early skateboard designs to his latest murals. "Hope", the unofficial poster for the Democratic campaign, received the greatest attention from the public.  I find it amusing some have argued this iconic image was the reason for Obama's victory; I leave that up to you to decide...

                          

Unfortunately, the show was brought down mid-August and, of course, Fairey left with a bam. He closed the cycle with a great dancing party within ICA premises, giving the masses a little taste of his spinnin skills, along with Z-Trip and Chuck D.  You can still listen to Fairey spinnin, just make sure to check out the Phoenix's video covering Fairey's night of debauchery.

SHEPARD FAIREY

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