LIPSTiCK TrACeZ

Most of you have probably heard of the Chanel mobile art pod that Zaha Hadid designed for Der Keiser.    Well, Mr. Lagerfeld's pod is coming to a city near you and will be in NYC in Central park Oct. 20-Nov. 9, 2008.    You should check it out. 
One of my favorite artists, Swiss born Sylvie Fleury is showing her Costom Commando purse sculpture.     Sylvie is amazing and has been doing edgy installations and fashion savvy art work for over a decade.

Here is some of her work.    She is so seductive and polished.   I just love it.   

Her little glittering heirlooms are the bejeweled evening clutches I have been lusting after.   I love Judith Leiber's little bauble bags too, these are just edgier.

Streetwear brand FUCT has always done cool shit.    Erik Brunetti, Fuct's founder and designer is a dear friend and creative force.  My Jaws Fuct t shirt is still one of the coolest shirts ever.  His videos are hilarious and the clothes have attitude for days.  Since the early 90's Erik was an enfant terribe on the streetwear scene. All grown up Erik is now an indie dad, look out for his hot wife Emmelie who is working with him to bring us Baby Fuct.    I love this video footage.   It's like Steve McQueens wet dream.     Erik will be releasing a new collection in mid OCT.

Manufactured and sold exclusively in Japan, the FUCT- SSDD (Same Shit Different Day) collection is inspired by classic, traditionally American style . Each garment was carefully engineered to convey a vintage, "worn in" look, using special aging and distress techniques as well as simulated magic marker print detailing. Referencing styles of cinema classics like Vanishing Point, The Trial of Billy Jack and Easy Rider, FUCT's SSDD collection echoes the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960's and 70's such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle./

         fuct  

I was shocked to find out that there have been 23 hijackings and attempted seizures off the Somali coast since mid-March. (Intern. Maritime Bureau)   When Vivienne Westwood created her critically acclaimed pirates collection, I doubt this is what she had in mind.   Weren't pirates characters from big Hollywood action movies, with gorgeous movie stars swashbuckling about in Keith Richard's makeup?   I don't know, maybe I have been sleeping under an art rock, but I thought this was worth blogging about.
 

Somali pirates have launched what the International Maritime Bureau calls the biggest surge of piracy on modern record, attacking more than 60 vessels this year off Somalia and in the adjoining Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal, is the main shipping route between Asia and the Middle East to Europe.     For the first time, they attacked a passenger ship carrying 302 civilians, mostly British and American. 

"The southern coastline is among the most dangerous in the world," said Mr Mwangura. These criminals have not only stolen valuable cargo, they are now taking hostages.

I hate to be a fatalist, but no where is safe. .

Washington post article

Jill Greenberg has been around a long time.   She's a very successful commercial photographer and has had some success in the "fine art" photography world.  Although it looks just like her commercial work hung in a "fine art" gallery if you ask me.    Like McCain or not, is beside the point here.
This scandal is all about ethics.  Deception was employed to manipulate a public figure who's only fault is that he is a political candidate running on the Republican ticket.    Yes, he's a warmonger, but make a painting if you want to address that.       Unfortunately for him, McCain was the pawn that Greenberg manipulated; unbeknownst to him.   The above images are before and after "personal" shots that Jill did, below is the unretouched cover where he looks like shit, she purposefully left red eyes and bad skin.

A little backround about her.   Jill is the same photographer who shot "crying babies" a couple of years ago and had a billboard on Highland Ave advertising her show at her gallery.     During the shoot she asked the parents to leave the room for a few minutes and proceeded to upset the children, take candy away, yell at them, do whatever it took to get a shot of them crying.      As a mother, I wonder why would you do this?
  Ms. Greenberg is terribly self involved.     Stick to bears and dogs- Jill.
 
Her legacy, aside from her work, she will be remembered as the photographer who ruined it for everyone else.    The repercussions are as follows:
photographers will have less control on the publication of their images. 
-magazines will have less chance of getting public figures to pose and if they do will demand photo approval.
Here is the quote Jill gave PDN about the shoot and how the shots were done.


Greenberg asked McCain to "please come over here" for one more set-up before the 15-minute shoot was over. There, she had a beauty dish with a modeling light set up. "That's what he thought he was being lit by," Greenberg says. "But that wasn't firing."

What was firing was a strobe positioned below him, which cast the horror movie shadows across his face and on the wall right behind him. "He had no idea he was being lit from below," Greenberg says. And his handlers didn't seem to notice it either. "I guess they're not very sophisticated," she adds.  In the meantime Jill was fired by her agent and sued by The Atlantic.    She has since gone back to Bruce at Artmix who was her agent (and mine) a few years ago.     What she really needs now is a PR clean up crew to do some damage control.

   
PDN article

Ahhh, my furry ,snorty, little friends.    They are so cute, and I have ranted on about them before.   They really are a fashionista's best friend.     Witness these "natural born models" in Raymond Meier's fabulous spread in Oct. Vogue.  I know from personal experience that pugs take direction very well in front of the camera.  They are diva's, demanding attention on the set.    They knawww  at your shoes and sofas and pee on the couch, but other than that they can strike a mean pose.     They look awefully good in a LV or Birkin bag too.  Just humor me.

I really enjoyed this show and it was quite unexpected.   Something a bit street edgy, even for MOMA NY.   Television by Nam June Palk and Otto Piene 1968.



Amazing works by Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez, Nicolas Lampert, Pol Bury stood out.   

From MOMA Press release.
In the 1960s, the decade that saw astronauts land on the moon, artists were likewise seeking to expand boundaries of time and space and to have new experiences. At the same time, portable video equipment reached the consumer market--suddenly simultaneity and "now," the present and the past, became content. Musicians led the way in developing new working methods, and music was at the forefront of interdisciplinary experimentation during the early days of media art. This exhibition looks at the dynamic connections that occurred from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s with a display of early media works by Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, Steve Reich, Joan Jonas, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, and David Bowie presented alongside related drawings, prints, and photographs by John Cage, Jack Smith, Ray Johnson, and others.  FYI: Those are nipples on the outside of the bustier.

The ultimate compliment for a designer is the cover of American Vogue.     If "Anna" likes you, you are "in".    Atleast in fashion circles.  For a "non advertiser" like Rodarte to get the front cover worn by the lovely Rachel Weisz is a big deal.    Most don't know but cover credits (both makeup and clothing) and back cover credits are big business, they are sold and brokered by advertising reps at major magazines. 
If you buy ad space you are quaranteed "editorial" coverage.   Chances are, the cover will feature Chanel, Kors, Armani etc because those companies bought 5-8 pages of advertising in the current issue, not because they are great or fabu.    She's also wearing those insane bondage Louboutins which is a nice juxtaposition to the sassy shot.    This is a nice change, seeing a small boutique company that does not advertise featured on the cover. Beautifully shot by the amazing CRAIG MCDEAN in the East VIllage nonetheless.    ITs hot.

Only the good die young.     Nagi Noda, a friend and artist I admired passed away Sept. 7 at her home in Tokyo, Japan.  I had to wait two weeks to write this post because I was so sad to hear the news.    I hope that many will discover and enjoy her amazing talent eventhough she is no longer with us.   

Her family issued a statement on her website.   She was 34 years old.   My sympathies go out to her loved ones and many admirers.    She will be sadly missed.
Nagi Noda's art site


Her work was dark and witty and had an air of elegance and sophistication.   A beautiful, talented woman,  she was also an amazing director of music videos and TV commercials and worked with many artistic collaborators (Mark Ryden, Colette, Libertine, Nike, Coke, Laforet and Jack White)  creating memorable projects in the fashion and contemporary arts world.

The amazing funeral cake sculptures were part of a larger fashion collaboration, unfortunately all a bit too ominous.    Portrait of Nagi by Kenneth Capello and images of Nagi's work from her website.   Rest in Peace Nagi..

Oops he did it again.    Damien did it his way and won, again.    I speculate that Damien, Larry Gagosian and Jay Jopling, (his power dealers) have been buying back his works for the last couple of years to make this auction historically profitable.     Luckily for them it happened one day before the dow jones industrial average dropped over 300 points.    You know those hedge fund guys.   Good for Damien, bad for artists and the gallery system.

Damien is quoted as saying an auction is , "a very democratic way to sell art."

LONDON -- A sale of pickled sharks, butterfly paintings and other pieces by provocative British artist Damien Hirst has raised $198 million, silencing his doubters and defying the global economic gloom.

Sotheby's auction house said the total for the two-day sale was a record for an auction of works by a single artist.

The turmoil engulfing global financial markets did nothing to dampen prices as more than 600 prospective buyers packed the showroom for each of the three auction sessions. Others around the world bid by phone. (LA Times/ Assoc press) Images from White Cube gallery

"Although there is risk involved, I embrace the challenge of selling my work in this way," he said. "I never want to stop working with my galleries. This is different. The world's changing. Ultimately I need to see where this road leads."

The lots, previewed Monday, include "The Golden Calf," an embalmed calf with hooves and horns of 18-carat gold. It is expected to fetch 12 million pounds (US$17 million) at the Sept. 15-16 sale. "

The Incredible Journey," a zebra in formaldehyde, has an estimated sale price of 2 to 3 million pounds (US$2.8 million to US$4.3 million).

The sale also will include Hirst's paintings of spots and butterflies.

Four of the works are being sold to benefit charities, including youth group Kids Company and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Hirst, 43, is among the best known of the "Young British Artists" who came to prominence in the 1990s. His often provocative and disturbing works have included a diamond-encrusted skull, sharks and sheep preserved in formaldehyde and maggots attacking a cow's head.

Contemporary art collectors such Charles Saatchi helped make Hirst famous and his works expensive, and they are displayed in museums such as the London's Tate gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (source:  Herald Tribune)

Damien piece