Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 May 2011

A Bumper Blog Entry

Some people think...

On the 26th April, the legend Poly Styrene died
at the age of 53.
She was true punk rock and an inspiration
to many women and girls.


Sexism is brought to light again, but this time by our not-so-modern, Etonian Leader of the Coalition. Calm down, dear? CALM DOWN, DEAR?! The more these 'episodes', these 'light-hearted banters', come out to play the more debate is roused and the more transparent sexism becomes. Let's not calm down, let's rally against it.
Here's a good article.


WOMAN OF THE DAY: Tehmina Kazi.
Director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, an organisation that aims to raise awareness of the benefits of democracy, Kazi challenges and combats Islamic extremism and Islamophobia. Here's an interesting article about Muslim women making change.
She writes for The Guardian too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tehmina-kazi


Karla Black has been nominated for the 2011 Turner Prize.
What to Ask for Others, 2009


The UK Film Council published a report stating that almost two-thirds of the older women interviewed felt under-represented in films. A report also found that half the population feel that black characters are too often portrayed as drug dealers, two in five say that there are no 'good guy' roles for black characters and two in three say that black characters are overly sexualised. Eastern Europeans are shown as ill-educated and poor; Asian characters experience family conflict; homosexual characters are continually shown as camp, with sexual orientation as their main trait. Films about the working class are seen as too depressing, the middle class too sweet.
Stories exist that show more complex characters and narratives, but the films aren't being made. It's time to start demanding more from our screens. Highlighting these stereotypes and disconnection from society (consumers of cinema) can hopefully start the change. It's a shame that the UK Film Council will cease to exist.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

A Pioneer of Abstract Animation


Synchromy No.2 (1936)

Mary Ellen Bute made 'visual music'. Between 1934 and 1953, she made fourteen short abstract, musical, animated films in collaboration with Joseph Schillinger and, later, with Ted Nemeth, who would become her husband. Many of these films were screened before a feature movie at Radio City Hall in New York. Bute was a founding member of the Women's Independent Film Exchange.
Bute died practically penniless in 1983, sacrificing all for her art.


A short documentary about Mary Ellen Bute

Friday, 31 December 2010

Black Swan Posters




These special, limited edition posters have been put out as a teaser for the new Aronofsky film, Black Swan (to be released in February 2011). I'm not sure how I feel about Aronofsky films, but the posters have made me want to see this film all the more. The posters were commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox and created by LaBoca.

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

A Portrait of Ga

Unfortunately I cannot embed this lovely short film by Scottish filmmaker Margaret Tait,
but you can see it here:


The way Ga unwraps the sticky barley sugar, trying not to get it on her fingers until it's a little shuttlecock to pop straight into her mouth, is tender and familiar.

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Making Marks

I thought I'd share this post from my favourite blog, 2 or 3 Things I Know.
9.08.2010



reduce an idea
to a few strokes

or a single gesture

and then it
will make sense


...like a logo.


georgia o'keefe
the winter road, 1963
blue lines 1916

Thursday, 26 August 2010

Elles at the Pompidou

They say it's worse in Europe.
I have just returned from Paris.
They have women artists on show there!
The Pompidou Centre has dedicated an entire floor (and it is a large floor) to the women in its collection. See the website here for more.
By no means does it mean that this should be your only dose of female artists in the canon, but it's a start.


Thursday, 24 June 2010

Feeling the Uncertain




Whenever I'm feeling uncertain I take a strange comfort in the work of Francesca Woodman (1958-1981).

Saturday, 29 May 2010

A Kiss for Death/A Love for Life

The Kiss, 2003, Marlene Dumas

Death of the Author, 2003, Marlene Dumas

Broken White, 2006, Marlene Dumas

Her paintings remind me of Helen Frankenthaler's fluid and transparent touch: stains dance with lines; shades provoke emotions.

Mountains and the Sea, 1952, Helen Frankenthaler

Thursday, 22 April 2010

Stepanova

'The 'sanctity' of a work as a single entity is destroyed. The museum, which was the treasury of art, is now transformed into an archive'Stepanova with a cigarette, Rodchenko, 1924

'Composition is the contemplative approach of the artist.'
'Technique and Industry have confronted art with the problem of construction as an active process and not reflective.'
For Susie

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Photograph of Patti Smith


This photograph of Patti Smith reminded me of the texture and reverie found in the photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron.

Patti Smith by Annie Leibovitz, 1996. Julia Jackson by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867.