Eyes

Koichiro Tsujikawa - "Eyes" from Passion Paris on Vimeo.

Inspiration

Photography by
W. EUGENE SMITH

Oni Ayhun

“Once upon a time long long time ago there was a mystical city called Tar.. And at that time all the cities were intact and flourishing, there were no ruins, because the final war had not yet begun. When the great catastrophe occurred, all the cities crumbled.. except Tar.. Tar still exists. If you know where to look for it you will find it. And when you get there you will be presented with wine and water and you could play with a gramophone. When you get there, you will help harvest grapes and you will pick up scorpions hidden under white rocks. When you get there, you will know eternity. You’ll see a bird that drinks one drop of water from the ocean every hundred years. When you get there, you’ll understand life. You’ll become a cat, phoenix, swan, elephant, baby and an old man. You’ll be alone and accompanied. You’ll love and be loved, you’ll be everywhere, and yours will be the seal of seals. As you approach the future, you’ll find ecstasy, and it will never abandon you.” 



Quote from 
ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY'S "FANDO Y LIS", 1968

Image from 
OAROO2 LP COVER

Inspiration

Photography by
LANE CODER

Peli

 Who wants to envoke the spirit?!

FNO

Comiendo

 The New Brooklyn Cookbook launches this October. Many of our favorite haunts are participating in the publication that celebrates a new food movement of local, slow and considerate cooking that has made Brooklyn a popular dining destination these past few years. The contents were pulled off of a Grub Hub post and have left me relishing in the recipes that will be bequeathed onto the popular masses (Uh, Dumac and Cheese?). Yummmm.

Mizu

Come and join!!!

Art Openings Season

HOLY SHIZZEL! Thank you DKS! 

• Marcel Broodthaers: Major Works at Michael Werner Gallery, 74 East 77th Street, 6-8
  
• Marcel Broodthaers Section Cinema at Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, 6-8
• Erica Schreiner, Sol Kjok at Bill Hodges Gallery, 524 West 57th Street, 6-8
• New Narrative curated by John Serdula at Heskin Contemporary, 443 West 37th Street, 6-9
• Rachel Owens at ZieherSmith, 516 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Kwon Kisoo at Flowers, 529 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Holly Miller Recent Work + Mario Naves, that former New York Observer art critic/ painter at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Jim Toia Islands: ant colonies, spores, webs, jellyfish & other natural phenomena at Kim Foster Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Juliana Zevallos Landscapes of Time at Skoto Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 5th fl., 6-8
• Bob Knox, Brigit Graschopf, Rashid Rana, Steve Sabella, Wafaa Bilal The Interrupted Image curated by Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath at Nicholas Robinson Gallery, 535 West 20th Street, 6-8
• Ed Welsh Signs at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, 3rd fl., 6-8
• Zilvinas Kempinas, Ballroom at YVON LAMBERT NEW YORK, 550 West 21st Street, 6-8
• Nathan Carter Pocket Shrapnel Set-Ups Veronica Vex and Brooklyn Street Treasures at Casey Kaplan, 525 West 21st Street, 6-8
• Sally Gil Works on Paper at 571 Projects, 551 West 21rst Street, Ste. 204A, 6-9
• Allan McCollum, Keith Edmier Stop Motion at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, 6 - unknown
• The Space Between Reference & Regret w/ Allan McCollum, Cheyney Thompson, Daniel Buren, Heimo Zobernig, Karin Sander, Matthew Brannon, Philippe Parreno, Stephen Prina, Wade Guyton at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, 537 West 22nd Street, 6-8
• Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin, Do Not Abandon Me atCarolina Nitsch Project Room, 534 West 22nd Street, 6-8
• Gregory Van Maanen The Wolf Returns at Cavin-Morris Gallery, 210 11th Avenue, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Craig Kauffman Late Work Late Work at Danese, 535 West 24th Street 6th fl., Betw 10th & 11th Ave., 6-8
• Jeff Bark Lucifer Falls at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler, 537 West 24th Street, 6-8
• Christopher Bucklow at Danziger Projects, 534 West 24th Street, 6-8
• Talk, David Chang Color in Memory curated by April Oh at Blank Space, 511 West 25th Street, Ste. 204, 6-8
• Gervasio Batista, Jader Neves, Nicolau Drey, Stuckert Brasilia curated by Murillo Meirelles at 1500 Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, Ste. 607, 6-8
• Joseph Zito Not Even the Saints Can Help at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 514 West 25th Street, 6-8
• THAT IS THEN. THIS IS NOW Curated by Irving Sandler & Robert Storr w/ Cynthia Carlson, David Deutsch, Donna Dennis, Hermine Ford, Kim MacConnel, Lois Lane, Martha Diamond, Mike Glier & Thomas Lawson at CUE Art Foundation, 511 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Zito Not Even the Saints Can Help at Lennon Weinberg Inc., 514 West 25th Street, 6-8
• Lori Field The Sky is Falling at Claire Oliver, 513 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Rob Swainston Propositions at David Krut Projects, 526 West 26th Street, 8th fl., 6-8
• Zsolt Bodoni, Feherlofia, Son of the White Mare at Ana Cristea Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Masako Inkyo ShinRaBanSho at Onishi Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Dr. Joseph A. Russo the Dark Side of Nature (Little Found Worlds) at Chelsea Gallery Space, 508 West 26th Street, studio 9E, 6-9
• Elaine Stocki, Ian Campbell, Whitney Claflin Handshakes atThomas Erben Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, 4th fl., 6-8:30
• Alejandro Almanza Pereda The heaviest luggage for the traveler is the empty one at Magnan Metz Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Lori Field The Sky is Falling at Claire Oliver, 513 West 26th Street, 6-8
• Chris Wilder, Gillian S. Wilson, Yves Sauriol at The Ocean / The Waves, 526 West 26th Street, Ste. 502A, 6-9
• Caren Canier, Paintings + Patrick Webb, Punchinello As Other atThe Painting Center, 547 West 27th Street Ste. 500,
• Sarah Peters, Appeal to Heaven + Brent Birnbaum, Danielle Durchslag, Michael Galvin, Morgan Levy, R. Justin StewartUsed Books organized by Ryan Frank at Winkleman Gallery, 637 West 27th Street,
• Karl Wirsum Drawings: 1967-70 at Derek Eller Gallery, 615 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Andr, Latona, Leban and Kleindienst, Liboiron, Wan at AC Institute, 547 West 27th Street, #610, 6-8
• Gabriel Hartley at Foxy Production, 623 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Joshua Marsh Ten Things, new location inaugural exhibition atJeff Bailey Gallery, 625 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Irina Davis Nice Girls at Sputnik Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 5th fl., 6-8
• Jean-Pierre Roy A Rational Spectacle at Rare, 547 West 27th Street, Ste. 514, 6-9
• Linda Mieko Allen & Mark Calderon at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, 520 West 27th Street, 6-8
• Bahar Behbahani, Maria Zervou, Miriam Kruishoop, Pepe Smit, Sanghee Song, Open End at Witzenhausen Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Ste. 530, 6-8
• Stephen Aldrich All the World's a Stage, Contemporary collagemade by cutting up of 19th-century woodcuts & steel engravings from original text sources at Foley Gallery, 548 West 28th Street, 2nd fl., 6-8
• Dave Kinsey New Works at Joshua Liner Gallery, 548 West 28th Street 3rd fl., 6-8
• Tribble & Mancenido Hurry Up & Wait at Sasha Wolf Gallery, 548 West 28th Street, 6-8
• Jaishri Abichandani Dirty Jewels at Fabio Rossi, 548 West 28th Street, Ste. 646, 6-8:30
• Studio School 2001-2010 at New York Studio School, 8 West 8 Street, 6:30-8:30
• Jess Fuller, Josh Blackwell, Lauren Luloff, Leif Ritchey, Robert Janitz, Suzanne Goldenberg Material Issue & Other Matter curated by Michael Mahalchick, Wallace Whitney at Canada Gallery, 55 Chrystie Street, betw Hester & Canal, 6:30-8:30
• Andra Ursuta The Management of Barbarism at Ramiken Crucible, 221 East Broadway at Clinton Street, 6-9
• Santiago Sierra Los Penetrados at Team, 83 Grand Street, 6-8
• Michael Zelehoski's first New York solo exhibition Objecthood atChristina Ray, 30 Grand Street gnd fl., 7-9
• OLEK Knitting is for Pus**** at Christopher Henry Gallery, 127 Elizabeth Street, 6-8
• Richard Wentworth at Peter Freeman Gallery, 560 Broadway #602/603, 6-8
• Miguel Aguirre, Gone With The Wind at Y Gallery, at 4th Sreet, 355A Bowery Street, basement, 7-9
• Orisha: Art without Surrender II at Henry Gregg Gallery, 111 Front Street, Brooklyn, Dumbo, Ste. 226, 6-8
• Closing Party- Cannonball Press: Born Under A Bad Sign at 99% Gallery & Art Center, 99 North 10th Street, Broolyn, 7-10
• Performance, Humans: A Collection at Brooklyn Fire Proof, 119 Graham Street at Porter Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn, RSVP rsvp.acollection@gmail.com, 7:30
• Gail Flanery Horizon at 440 Gallery, 440 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, 6-9
• Bari Kumar & Mondongo, Material Witness at Bose Pacia, 163 Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, 6-8

Vandevelde

Event

Rainbow Crostinis

OC columnists & THE JEWELS OF NEW YORK let us in on a quick and easy late summer snack!

Rainbow Crostinis
Serves 4

3 heirloom tomatoes or 1 pint of mini heirlooms (mixed colors)
1 12-ounce ball of burrata (or fresh ricotta)
1 freshly baked baguette
1 bunch of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic, peeled
Olive oil to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Drain fresh burrata over a strainer and small bowl to remove any extra liquid from the cheese.

Slice the baguette lengthwise and into 6 inch segments. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees until lightly browned at the edges. Take each toasted segment and brush the cut side up with the clove of garlic.

With a knife, spread burrata on each slice of baguette. Top off each slice with basil, tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Matter & Motion

Jiggling Atoms from Virtualburn on Vimeo.

Inspired by two of my favorite thinkers, artist Yoko Ono and physicist Richard Feynman, this article is an experiment in physics and event scores. It quotes Feynman’s enchanting stories about a teeming nano-world for a 1983 BBC interview Physics is fun to imagine, recontextualising some of his thoughts as proposal pieces in the spirit of Grapefruit, an artist’s book by Ono.



In the BBC footage, Feynman wonders how some people find science so easy, and others find it dull and difficult – like children, for instance. “In the case of science, I think one of the things that makes it very difficult is that it takes a lot of imagination,” he says. “It’s very hard to imagine all the crazy things that things really are like. Nothing’s really as it seems. [...] But I find myself trying to imagine all kinds of things all the time. And I get a kick out of it.”

Exploring our place in the cosmos, the following transcripts and performance instructions aim to create an experience of science.

Water drop piece

Richard Feynman: “You see a little drop of water, a tiny drop. [...] The atoms in it attract each other. They like to be next to each other. They want as many partners as they can get. Now, the guys that are on the surface of the drop have only partners on one side, so they’re trying to get in. You can imagine this team of people all moving very fast, all wanting to get as many partners as possible, and the guys at the edge are very unhappy and nervous, and they keep on pounding in. And that’s what makes the drop a tight ball instead of flat – surface tension.”

Take a mannerism from an atom in a drop of water.
Gather a group of people in the same room for an hour.
Remain surrounded by a person on each side of you at all times.

Rubber band piece

“Most elastic things like steel springs and so on are nothing but this electrical thing pulling the atoms a little bit apart when you bend something, and then they try to come back together again. But rubber bands work on a different principle. There are some long molecules like chains that are kind of kinky and knocked about in shape. When you pull open the rubber band, the chains get straighter but they are being bombarded on the side by other little atoms trying to shorten them by kinking them, so they’re trying to pull back. [...] I’ve always found it fascinating to think, that when rubber bands are sitting on an old package of papers for a long time, holding them together, it’s done by a perpetual pounding, pounding, pounding of the atoms against these chains, trying to kink them for a long time, trying to hold this thing together.”

Wear a rubber band on your waist.
Eat a sandwich.
Think about the atoms that are pounding on your stomach.

Mirror Piece

“You look in a mirror, and let’s say you part your hair on the right side, but the image has its hair parted on the left side. So, the image is left and right mixed up. It’s not top and bottom mixed up because the top of the head in the image is still up there at the top, and the bottom of the feet are on the bottom. But how does the mirror know how to get the left and right mixed up but not the up and down? [...] It takes a lot of fiddling to describe what a mirror does. If you wave this hand, the waving hand in the mirror is right opposite it. The hand in the East is the hand in the East and the hand in the West is the hand in the West, and the head that’s up is up and the feet that are down are down. Everything’s really alright. But what’s wrong is that if this is North, your nose is to the North of the back of your head but in the image, the nose remains to the south of the back of the head. So, what actually happens in the image is neither mixing up the left and the right, nor the top and the bottom, but the front and back have been reversed. The nose of the image is on the wrong side of the head. Now, when we think of the image, we think of it as another person. And if we think of the normal way that a person would get into that condition over there, we don’t think of the idea that the person has been squashed and pushed backwards forwards with his nose and his head, because that’s not what ordinarily happens to people.”

Mirror all photographs of yourself on Photoshop.
Destroy the originals.

Swimming Pool piece

“If I’m sitting next to a swimming pool and somebody dives in [...], I think of the waves that are formed in the water. When lots of people have dived in the pool, there’s a great choppiness of all these waves all over the water. And to think that it might be possible that in those waves there are clues to what’s happening in the pool. [...] Someone with sufficient cleverness could just sit by the pool and figure out who jumped in; where, and when, by the nature of the irregularities and the bumping of the waves. [...] When we’re looking at something, the light that comes out is waves – just like in the swimming pool. It’s just that it’s in three dimensions.”

Look at the waves in a swimming pool.
Imagine what caused them.
Reconstruct that movement.

Narcissism

Have you ever wondered if perhaps you’re a narcissist?

Narcissim : an exceptional interest in and admiration of oneself.

According to Greek Mythology, Narcissus or Narkissos was a beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection. The more he looked, the more he liked what he saw.

Are you a person who derives pleasure from the admiration of your own body or self?

Hmmm. Let’s see. I think of myself constantly, wondering what I can do to please or better myself best. After a painfully erroneous state of mind, I decided my actions should be designed to cement the importance of my self in this world and to that end, I am marked by self-love.

There is indeed nothing wrong with loving yourself. Ladies, if your engrossed into fashion then I hate to break it to you but you must master self absorption better than anybody else.

So turn your envy and self-doubt to narcissistic therapeutic action! Go to the gym! Take up Yoga or Pilates. Feed your brain! Drop that cigarette and cut the liquor out. Start that cleanse and reward yourself. Dump that person in your life if he or she is not embracing and supporting your essential narcissism!

Take exceptional interest in yourself. Admire yourself. Untuck the tail between your legs, Miss Pussy. Hear yourself purr and admire the sound. Be your own biggest fan.

"So there you have it, narcissism is important, as long as one doesn't get lost in one's reflection!"

Quote by
ORLAN

Fritz

Amira Fritz was born in 1979 in Rosenheim, Germany.

Virgin Rebirth

'Virgin Rebirth', has all those things that are still making my heart beat a bit faster - pastel colours, sheer pieces, mixed up textiles and a romantic spirit that is reined in by some form of shape/structure in the design.  These are then added to some hazy yellow-tinged lookbook images and an intention that of course references to beautiful films such as Virgin Suicides and Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

Language

How we see the world impacts our use of language and our use of language impacts how we see the world.
  
"For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity." 
How does our language shape the way we think?

Two aspects of the visual world that provide good examples of how the visual impacts language and vary between languages and cultures: Color & Space.

Color

Winawer and others at MIT take a close look at this subject in "Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination." (2007) For red & pink, there is a correlating opposite in Chinese. The color distinction is not as prevalent as the colors are in the same category linguistically. Red is 红 (hóng) and pink as 粉红, (fěn hóng) or literally "powder red", a linguistic derivation similar to 'light-blue' in English. Where Russian blues are distinct, so are the Reds in English, but in Chinese, they are linguistically related.

This insight/observation points towards a direct connection between the language one speaks and the functionality of the visual cortex and the brain. In other words, the vocabulary you use and how you categorize the world affects the speed at which you brain can recall certain information through your optic nerves. They also hint that left brain hemisphere tasks may be affected by language and visual perception as this is the hemisphere of the brain where language and logical performance is organized.

Space

In addition to color, spatial perception varies among cultures according to researchers. These differences in how we perceive space (eg. size, distance, depth, and direction, etc) lead to corresponding linguistic differences manifested in the words we use to describe our surroundings in different language. This lens of language here affects how we perceive and feel about our surroundings. One might easily imagine how a phrase like "that is a large house", "it is within walking distance", or "it is located off to the right" would vary in meaning between cultures, but there are more subtle and stark differences in how we perceive space differently. The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has several examples of cultural variances. Researcher Steven C. Levinson has interesting insights and states that in "...many cultures (as suggested by at least a third of the small sample) spatial conception is organized in a fundamentally different way than expected on the basis of familiar western languages."

Geography, culture, and even technology shape how we view space in our world. In addition to variance among cultures, there is constant change within languages. It is not solely a function of this 'lens of language'; it is both a function of our language and our experiences. For example, the exposure to mathematics and science has an impact on how we perceive space.

Quote from
LERA BORODITSKY

Zombie

Bored of the same & tired old rock-paper-scissor? Try Mark Rayner's variant: "Monkey-Pirate-Robot-Ninja-Zombie!"

Adventuras

A decade ago, Alessandra Sanguinetti became drawn to a pair of cousins in a rural province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their evident affection for each other is somehow magnified by their mismatched physiques, where Sanguinetti took pictures to "crystallize their rich yet fragile and unattended world" and where she managed to capture the series called “The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams”. Now, at long last, it’s been published as a book.

Littledo is Love

Today is an apt day to be posting about I Don't Like Mondays new gallery adventure because a) it's not a Monday and b) better yet, it's a Sunday! I Don't Like Mondays Gallery project is an ongoing venture which sees unique collaborations between artists and stores to create wearable one-off pieces - or at least, push the boundaries of wearability to the upper limit. The last artist, Shin Murayama, has created vicious looking masks out of trainers, sheepskin, and can ring pulls forming a decidedly scary teeth-ridden beard.



The latest IDLM Gallery collaborator is former Nylon intern and singer for the folk-rocky Weepaw, Chase Cohl. Her designs are elaborate, handmade headpieces and jewelry under the label Littledoe is Love. Some may feel they need another headband like they need a hole in their head, but there's something very peace, love, and happiness about these pieces. No prizes for guessing the one-offs, specially when they feature a real antique iron crown, beautiful blue/yellow macaque feathers, taxidermy butterflies, 19th century gold tapestry, and a fanned out bird wing (as the last one). The limited pieces are simpler but not less beautiful with the delicate chains and freshwater pearls. I'm hesitating to ask IDLM how much these pieces are but seeing as 50% of the sales goes to Designers Against Aids, then someone with very deep philanthropic pockets will step up and have their heads crowned in Littledoe is Love glory...

Act Up

 

The Silence = Death logo that became synonymous with ACT UP was actually created by six gay activists before the organization was founded. Later they joined!

ACT UP's first demonstration on March 24th, 1987 received much media attention in New York City, but only led to 17 arrests.



Read My Lips was a kissing demonstration that ACT UP employed, non-violently bringing about change toward sexual discrimination.

In the 1980s, frustration and anger filled the streets of New York City as the AIDS epidemic, unchecked and unacknowledged by the government, ravaged the country. In response to the administration's inaction and neglect, author and activist Larry Kramer formed the first and most influential AIDS awareness organization, ACT UP, in 1987 to address the dire problems of the crisis. By educating the public, facilitating a dialogue between pharmaceutical companies and citizens, intelligently employing civil disobedience, and resiliently fighting against sexual discrimination, ACT UP has been and remains an invaluable presence in the fight for equal rights and against HIV/AIDS.

In tribute to the organization and in recognition of its instrumental influence, here is a timeline to showcase those first heroic individuals who put up a fight when the government turned its back.

---

1987 – in March, a group of individuals outraged by the government’s mismanagement of the AIDS crisis meet at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center to discuss plans of action. Larry Kramer founds ACT UP.  The organization's first demonstration takes place March 24th on Wall Street, targeting pharmaceutical companies that are profiting from the sales of HIV/AIDS drug, AZT, but without making it easily accessible to people infected with the disease. After this demonstration, the FDA shortens the drug approval process by two years.

1988 --- In January, ACT UP protests an article written in Cosmopolitan that erroneously states that women cannot contract the AIDS virus through heterosexual sex. Women of ACT UP informally meet with the misinformed writer and demand both a retraction and an apology. After the author refuses both requests, 500 people protest the magazine outside its headquarters, the filming of which is later included in the documentary, Doctors, Liars, and Women.

         -- GRAN FURY, an "invisible" artist/activist collective forms and quickly becomes the artistic complement to ACT UP. Taking on the unofficial role of ACT UP’s propaganda ministry, GRAN FURY prolifically produces loud billboards and bus posters addressing the AIDS crisis.  The collective even reaches the windows of the New Museum. Provoking a dialogue, their strong messages prove direct, powerful, and persuasive.

         -- This same year, Douglas Crimp, an active ACT UP member, publishes his influential writings on the crisis in AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism.

1989 -- For ACT UP’s second anniversary, 3,000 people meet at New York City Hall to protest the inadequacy of all AIDS policy under Mayor Edward Koch. This AIDS demonstration is the largest of its kind to date. About 200 demonstrators are arrested.

1990 – ACT UP organizes a movement against the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 1,000 protesters unite to demand more AIDS treatment and better representation of women and people of color in clinical trials.

         -- This same year, active ACT UP member and film historian, Vito Russo, dies from AIDS-related complications.

1991 -- ACT UP's Youth Education Life Line (YELL) committee helps sway the New York City Board of Education to approve a plan for condom distribution in public high schools.  ACT UP also demands medical treatment for prisoners with AIDS, declaring that “living with AIDS in prison is cruel and unusual punishment."

Be sure to look out for ACT UP because the fight against AIDS isn't over!