Influx Insights Weblog

painting our history

Influx Insights — 2010-02-08T17:04:44Z

Belgian artist Luc Tuymans has been the talk of Europe for at least the last 5 years and has been described as Europe's greatest living artist after Gerhard Richter.

Now, thanks to the efforts of SFMOMA and others a retrospective of his work can be seen in the US.

It's work that on the surface challenges the conventions of painting, but more than that, uses art to provoke discussion about history and culture.

At first glance, it's hard to take in the work. The color palette is muted and depressed, there seems to be an artificial barrier between the canvas and the viewer, it's like he doesn't want you to get close.

There's one series of paintings of banal objects that are out of focus, blurred so that they look like fragments of our memories, but many of these have deeper stories behind them (that's Tuymans style); a body lying innocently on a couch turns out to be a murder victim, the portrait of a man that seems very ordinary, is in fact, a a cancer sufferer.

At its core, Tuymans best work deals with politics and history. There are two series that deal with World War 2; one with concentration camps and the other the broader theme of Nazism.

While many of these WW 2 paintings here are difficult to view, often being minimal and sparse, they all have deeper stories to tell, but when viewed as a series, complete an arc.

In his architect series about Nazi Germany, there's a painting from a photo of Albert Speer on skis and a blurred out portrait of Himmler which render these key protagonists dangerously harmless and innocent.

The work that explores the Belgian colonization of the Congo is perhaps the most impressive. It highlights the key motifs of the story by isolating the key players and covering the assassination of a leader and the exploitation of resources. It's also art that caused a political response, this series was first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and caused ripples that forced the Belgian government to admit their role in assassination of the Congolese leader.

American isn't spared as he explores the country post 9/11 with paintings that include a portrait of Condoleezza Rice and what appears to be a falling World Trade Center, but in reality is simply another demolition. Tuymans is telling us how we've all been manipulated by media repetition.

In a world where new, bright digital media is the "thing", Tuymans shows us that painting still has a potent role to play. He's using his art to challenge and warn us about the power of the diversity of media images that surround us. He's asking that constantly question ourselves to find deeper meaning in these images.

Posted by Ed Cotton

towards a new visual literacy

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T10:26:39Z

Take a look at Keith Schofield's video for "Heaven Can Wait" by Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, yep it's a couple of months old.

It's an interesting montage of imagery, that has less to do with film and more to do with a load of random and messed up stills, so it was interesting to read that Schofield's inspiration happened to be the internet.

"While looking around for ideas for music videos I find myself on a lot of found-photo websites like ffffound.com or Tumblr pages. I find the lack of context so interesting and I have a huge folder of these random photos. I've done other videos that have been inspired by one photo or another and I always thought it would be great to make a video where it's just like flipping through this folder where every scene is a different image. So something like the pancake astronaut is basically a recreation of a Photoshop that somebody did."

For years, the Internet, was mainly text based, but we are seeing a huge shift over to visuals increasing bandwidth sharing sites cropping up everywhere.

While it started with photography, it's now moved to include illustration, but more than that, it's increasingly about people building upon each others ideas, sharing visual jokes, etc.

It seems we gaining a new level of visual literacy as we become bombarded by more and more images that are increasingly subverted and played with.

Schofield's video clearly points to this and doubtless we will see more takes on this emerging space over time.

Posted by Ed Cotton

math is creative

Influx Insights — 2009-11-30T15:53:11Z

We are coming to an age where the envelope of creativity is being expanded to include a broader array of talent. Having math and programming skills has always been a creative pursuit, but has never had creative respect. However, things might be changing here as the music visualization by Peter Menich illustrates.

Fast Fourier Transform from peter menich on Vimeo.

Posted by Ed Cotton

art and advertising

Influx Insights — 2009-10-06T09:31:09Z

It seems that art has found it self in the same problem as advertising, it has to provoke in order to get people to pay attention.

Artists seem so desperate for attention, that they've got to come with ever more interesting ways of getting people to take notice.

They've got a hard balance to achieve between the spectacle and deeper meaning; if you push too hard for spectacle, the meaning can get lost.

Turner Prize finalist, Roger Hiorns is an interesting case. He's big on the spectacle; his exhibit for the prize is the pile of dust that resulted from the destruction of a 747 jet engine.

The video below shows an installation he created in a disused London apartment using copper. It's quite a spectacle and certainly a brilliant idea on one level, but more than that, I am not sure.

Posted by Ed Cotton

making sense of stuff

Influx Insights — 2009-09-19T11:42:34Z

We are increasingly moving into a world with a surplus of data, where meaning and difference is going to need to be communicated and presented in ways that are understandable. To make this happen, we are going to need a new breed of creative talent; the data visualizer. These folks are part programmers and part artists and are perfect meld of left and right brains.

Here's a great example from Information is Beautiful, it helps to put monetary billions in context.

Posted by Ed Cotton

hatch show and the anti-technology movement

Influx Insights — 2009-09-10T12:26:08Z

Hatch Show Print is a letterpress shop in Nashville that's been in operation for over 100 years.

Last night at CCA, I had the pleasure of listening to Jim Sherraden take us on a slideshow journey through the history of the shop. It was interesting to see a full house of young CCA students eagerly hanging on Jim's every word.

In a world of digital manipulation, Cut and Paste and Photoshop, Hatch Street stands out as a last bastion of organic, hand-crafted designing and printing. It's a reminder of how good things can be when they are hand made and it shows how important story and nuance are to people's relationship with objects and institutions.

Hatch Show has never been busier as lots of people start appreciate what they have to offer. It's also touched the cultural zeitgeist as everyone from Coldplay to The Smithsonian wants a part of Hatch Show.

The small 10 person shop takes on a total of 600 jobs a year and charges the same price for R.E.M as it does for a local Nashville band playing a gig to 12 people. Only now are they thinking of tacking on a design fee for their efforts as it takes an average of a week to create a poster.

Jim highlighted a couple a couple of great campaigns he'd been involved in and singled out Vitro Robinson's work for Taylor Guitars and last year's CNN campaign for the election, where its posters were central to the messaging.

While Apple and Google are grabbing much of the headlines, it's important to note there's a significant shift away from technology and Hatch Show stands in a beacon to this new movement.

Here's a nice film about the shop.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the creative process is deceptively simple

Influx Insights — 2009-08-10T08:25:37Z

To the average man on the street, if there's such a thing, the creative process appears easy. Taking photos, doing ads and creating magazine covers is probably not thought of as being a complex task.

Here the guys from Macworld, show just what it takes to create a cover for the magazine.

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the masking tape artist

Influx Insights — 2009-06-23T12:51:18Z

Buff Diss is an Australian who confuses authorities with his masking tape street art.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the art and craft of hatch show print

Influx Insights — 2009-05-31T18:09:01Z

A great film telling the story of Hatch Show Print, a letterpress printer in Nashville, that along with its rich tradition, celebrates the power of human craft.

Posted by Ed Cotton

art expresses the times- the death of the american auto industry

Influx Insights — 2009-05-27T13:52:38Z

Sometimes art manages to express and sum up the situation better than any writer or analyst. Such is the case with Johnathan Schipper's slow motion video study entitled "The Slow Inevitable Death of America Muscle". Schipper simply takes two classic American muscle cars and creates a slow motion crash between the two vehicles. So slow, that the crash took 6 days.

Posted by Ed Cotton

hirst and harley

Influx Insights — 2009-05-01T12:50:13Z

I was reading the story about British artist Damien Hirst doing an art bike for Harley. It's a one off and for a good cause, but I wondered if it was on brand and right for the bike icon.

Here are my thoughts on why it's wrong...

1. Art and bikes- everyone's adding plus art to everything. Harley's iconic and classic status surely means it doesn't to have to play that game

2. Hirst as relevant culture- If you are going to do art, shouldn't it come from the culture?

3. Hirst is a Brit- Harley is so USA, it's not even funny. It's almost unthinkable for the brand to going beyond these fine shores.

However, perhaps the current zeitgeist is forcing Harley to re-think its entrenched image and succumb to a broader view of the world; one that embraces other cultures and disciplines to become a brand that can think beyond the shores of the USA.

Posted by Ed Cotton

little red riding hood- the infographics version

Influx Insights — 2009-03-21T21:34:50Z

Slagsm

reality is the new fiction

Influx Insights — 2009-03-08T08:38:06Z

"We now live in an age in which the imagination of the novelist lies helpless before what he knows he will read in tomorrow morning's newspaper"

Philip Roth-1961

This close to 50 year old quote is used by Gordon Burn in his amazing article on media saturation published by The Guardian.

Posted by Ed Cotton

moma goes on a run

Influx Insights — 2009-02-12T13:03:36Z

Following the trend of showcasing museum art in public spaces, MOMA takes its work to the Atlantic/Pacific subway station.

Posted by Ed Cotton

communicating scale

Influx Insights — 2009-02-07T20:06:36Z

Some of biggest problems are tough to comprehend, if we can't understand them then how can we be expect to play a role and do our part?

The Environment

Lots of jargon and difficult theories to understand, but hardest of all is to comprehend the issue on a human scale. In Bristol this week, artist Chris Bodie with his Watermarks Project, shows us where the sea level will be on buildings if various events happen, such as the melting of the Greenland ice cap, shown below.

Thanks to BLDG BLOG

A Trillion

Here CNN tries to explain what a trillion is and ends up looking like a skit from The Daily Show.

Big challenges and issues are hard to communicate, but it appears artists, rather than journalists are the guys who can really do it. They seem to be able to think of ways to put human beings in the picture and give us a sense of scale.

Chris Jordan is an example of an artist who does this really well.

Posted by Ed Cotton