Sunday, April 28
Las Vegas, I love you. (at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas)
Tuesday, April 23
“One failed attempt at a shoe bomb and we all have to take off our shoes at the airport. Thirty one school shootings since Columbine and no change in the regulation of guns.”John Oliver (via azspot)
(via dpstyles)
Friday, April 12
Feels like Where the Wild Things Are. Creepy but I kind of love it.
Charles Fréger, Wilder Mann: The Image of The Savage
For over ten years, Charles Fréger has been on a photographic expedition, capturing portraits of uniquely costumed and uniformed cultures around the world. His diligent practice has ranged from documenting students at the Beijing School of Opera, to a traditional all-boys Maori college. Describing his method during a recent lecture at FIT, “I keep shooting until I can’t go any further, to the last possibility of a project… I consider my way of taking portraits like bringing back a scalp; I go out hunting, and when I return home, I look at the trophy and see that my work is complete.” Yet the purpose of this process exceeds the image alone; Fréger is fascinated by what it takes to gain the respect of and access to a community. “Permission is almost more important than the photo.” Finding the right way to approach a group, and discover what compromises are necessary are instrumental his approach to any project.
Most recently, Fréger has traveled throughout 19 countries over the course of two winters to document the “wilder mann,” or wild men that populate the extant tribal cultures of Europe. Donning costumes to perform fertility rituals and rites of spring, ordinary men transform themselves into strange beasts, akin to Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things, were it not for the ubiquity of hard drinking in ceremonial performance. These traditions are always a push and pull, between the expression of wildness, of animality, and the control of those savage forces by man. The bear is a central figure to many of these pagan religions, respected as a deity and feared in shared proximity throughout the early history of Europe. Christianity spelled the demise of both bears literally (Charlemagne ordered massive hunts to eradicate the bear population) and symbolically as gods, however smaller villages disconnected from this crusade were able to maintain traditions more easily.
The moment where you let yourself be wild is wonderful… Though if it happened all the time, it would lose meaning. You can’t just stand up on your desk in the middle of your office and let loose, it would be a mess. More than about being free, it’s about being animal, it’s about recognizing where you are coming from, your organic part, your primitive part. I think having this in a certain territory, in a certain space, in a certain time, make it somehow more powerful, more intense.
Wilder Mann taps into a realm of universal consistency that can be sensed yet not easily explained. Fréger has also photographed similar wild man traditions in Japan, whose origins are completely unique from the ceremonies in Europe. It is important to contrast the universality of these mythological alignments, with the shallow cliches put forward by globalization. Fréger is passionate about discovering individuality and transcendence within outwardly homogenous communities. “You hide yourself behind a mask so you have the right to do things that are not usually acceptable. You can transcend the responsibility of your single identity.”
Wilder Mann has also influenced many others. “It’s not just my project anymore,” said Fréger. Josef Nadj has choreographed a performance currently being performed in Paris, explicitly inspired by the ceremonial and carnivalesque embodied in Fréger’s work, and Italian musician/composer Teho Teardo has created a soundtrack to accompany the beasts of Wilder Mann.
Now in its second printing, Wilder Mann: The Image of The Savage has been re-released by Dewi Lewis Publishing. Selected works from the series will also be exhibited at Yossi Milo Gallery, opening tonight and on view through May 18.
Wednesday, April 3
(via soupsoup)
Wednesday, March 27
(Source: tastefullyoffensive, via bffproductions)
Monday, March 11
Moet & Chandon.
This was secretly brilliant.
Tuesday, March 5
It was this that made me understand her art.
Marina Abramovic meets Ulay
“Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again. at her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing it and this is what happened.”
(via soupsoup)
Tuesday, February 26
LOL!
Hollywood summed up right here.
(Source: catpissneverclean, via bffproductions)
Thursday, January 17
Thursday, January 10
Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan In Your Movie | NYT
Lindsay Lohan moves through the Chateau Marmont as if she owns the place, but in a debtor-prison kind of way. She’ll soon owe the hotel $46,000. Heads turn subtly as she slinks toward a table to meet a young producer and an old director. The actress’s mother, Dina Lohan, sits at the next table. Mom sweeps blond hair behind her ear and tries to eavesdrop. A few tables away, a distinguished-looking middle-aged man patiently waits for the actress. He has a stack of presents for her.
Lohan sits down, smiles and skips the small talk.“Hi, how are you? I won’t play Cynthia. I want to play Tara, the lead.” Braxton Pope and Paul Schrader nod happily. They’d been tipped off by her agent that this was how it was going to go. They tell her that sounds like a great idea.
#LongRead. Stop what you’re doing and read this article. It’s one of the most compelling pieces of entertainment journalism I’ve read in a long time.
This is fascinating.
