The American Effect

I went to see the exhibit at the Whitney last Friday and it surprised me. The brochure explained how we were about to see how 47 artists from all over the world see America and promised a varied range of views. However, I felt like most of the pieces where pretty critical and negative. In times of a pretty contrived perspective from the American media, it felt to me like a breath of fresh air; but I actually wonder if it surprised or bother other people, or if the excess of negativity made some lose interest completely. Have you seen it? Do you want to share your opinions?

El efecto de América

El Whitney tiene una exposición muy interesante. 47 artistas de todo el mundo presentan su visión de America y pese a lo que era de esperar, en tiempos de patriotismo y monólogo mediático, la mayoría son bastante negativas, incómodas y críticas. El canadiense Mark Lewis en su documental "Jay's Garden Malibu" compara el país con un placentero jardín californiano por el que pasean actores porno y entre los cuales la tensión puede saltar en cualquier momento. Miguel Angel Rojas crea collages con diminutas redondas de hojas de coca y billetes de dólar que denuncian la presión que rige las relaciones de USA con Colombia. Y otro de mis favoritos fue Gilles Barbier, que en un tono más humorístico presenta a los héroes de cómic: Wonderwoman, Capitán America, etc... como figuras de cera en un geriátrico. Para más inri, la figura de Supermán se derritió hace un par de semanas en el apagón.

The films of Charles and Ray Eames

Lately I have been totally fascinated by the work of this couple: their furniture design, architecture, industrial design, photography and specially their great and not as well known short films.
Between 1950 and 1982 they made over 100 ranging from 1 to 30 min. My three favorites so far have been:
"The Powers of Ten" (1977) probably the most famous one, starting at a one meter square image of a picnic, the camera moves 10 times further away every 10 seconds, reaching to the edge of the universe; then the journey is reversed, going 10 times closer each ten seconds, ultimately reaching the interior of an atom.
"Tocatta for Toy Trains" (1957) an ode to the uncommon beauty of common things.
"901: After 45 years of working" (1990) which is a film about the Eames, not by them. It is a visit to the Eames Office at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, California (where they worked from 1943 to 1988) and a document of its closing. If you can tell about someone by looking at the space where they work, this film tells volumes about them, their obsessions and passions.

For more information go here

Barcelona

Last summer after our trip to Barcelona we put together a photo site. Take a look if you haven't already. www.jimmygnass.com/barcelona V.2 is coming soon.

El año pasado montamos esta web con las fotos que sacamos en Barcelona. Echadle un vistazo si os la perdisteis la primera vez. Pronto tendremos v.2.

See Mars tonight

See the best view of Mars in 60,000 years on Wednesday, August 27th at 5:51am EST. Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles/55.76 million km. away. It will appear as a brilliant pink light and will be the brightest star in the sky. The last time Mars was closer than this coming Wednesday's appearance, was September 12, 15,617 BC. The next time it will be this close is 2287.

Midnight Madness

Nos convocaron a las siete y media de la tarde y acabamos a las diez y media de la mañana. De los 300 que empezamos debimos acabar unos 50. La gimkama más larga y exagerada de la historia. Pero así es como se hacen las cosas aquí, no?

Empezó en Chinatown con pistas escritas en chino, miles de operaciones matemáticas y citas bíblicas escondidas en galletitas chinas que alguien nos tenía que dar y que pese a la insistencia de Melissa, no, no era esa mujer que se hacía la borracha. Esa era auténtica.

Equipados con linternas, prismáticos, cinta adhesiva, mapas y unos extraños artefactos que se iluminaban cuando encontrabamos las pistas, corrimos, nos equivocamos, emocionamos, perdimos y llamamos la atención de alguna patrulla de policia.

A las cuatro de la mañana comiendo arroz frito tuvimos dos bajas, porque se caían de sueño. Nos quedamos seis pensando que no podía quedar mucho más, pero entonces, una pista nos hizo cruzar el puente de Manhattan llevándonos a continuar el juego en Brooklyn. Y pese a que estábamos hechos polvo y pensamos en dejarlo, vimos salir el sol desde el puente.

Una vez en Brooklyn perdimos a otros dos y nos juntamos con el equipo blanco, que parecía estar algo más despierto que nosotros. Enrrollamos cintas de papel en farolas para formar palabras, intentamos descifrar códigos con pequeñas cartas de póquer y ligamos actores y películas vinculados por la teoría de "seis grados de separación".

Nos costó quince horas. Pero hay algo medio masoca, medio especial en eso de acabar comiendo bagels y bebiendo café en una terraza debajo del puente de Brooklyn rodeado de gente tan loca como tú, sin poder moverte, pero pensando en quizás, repetirlo el año que viene.

Will Barras

Paul R. recommended me to check out the illustration series SCRAWL 1 & 2, where he found Will. (Thanks !) You can see more of his art here or in the last issue of the Spanish magazine Rojo where he has some spreads. Enjoy!

American Literature

So after living here for 4 years I realized I haven't been reading that many American authors. I may need some help. Any recommendations? thanks!

Ron Mueck

It's been a couple of months since we saw his work at the Smithsonian, but I wanted to share it.

Ron Mueck (b.1958) Australian and now based in London, worked in advertising, children's television, making models for photographers and film makers before achieving critical acclaim for his art. His figurative sculptures are usually cast in silicone and acrylic, but the interesting part is how he manipulates the scale so the figures are much larger or smaller than life-size. His 4.5 meters crouching Boy was acclaimed at the Venice Biennale in 2001.

Blackout

Michelle Thompson

I found her in an old CA and felt in love with her work. Check it out at http://www.inkshed.co.uk/MTbook.htm

Worth remembering for anyone interested in creating anything

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men,- that is genius. Speak your latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,- and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgement. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton, is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibity then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that thought the universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

- Piece from "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson ,1841

Bolsos Corbata / Necktie Bags

Irene hace bolsos. Los bolsos corbata. Piezas imprescindibles en cualquier vestuario. Quieres uno? Envíale un mail.
"i-bcn es un taller de moda que ofrece diseños personalizados.
en i-bcn creamos piezas únicas a partir de materiales reciclados, elaborando nuestros productos localmente. la filosofía de i-bcn se resume en dos palabras: diseño sostenible. i-bcn está en la calle carders 31. si quieres más información, envíanos un mail a ibcnmoda@hotmail.com"

Irene makes the coolest bags in Barcelona. Her creations turned into i-bcn, a fashion boutique that creates unique pieces from recycled materials. All the products are manufactured localy. The motto is "substainable design".
If you want a bag or more information about i-bcn send an email to ibcnmoda@hotmail.com

Spanish cuisine

The New York Times magazine dedicates a huge article to the New Spanish Cuisine. I like the idealism and energy that this paragraph reflects. Seems to be bigger than the cuisine, seems to talk about the spirit of the place, which I totally agree with.

In Spain, young chefs still think touchingly believe that they can change the world. Anduriz realizes that "If I thought people were just coming to eat as 95 percent of people do, I wouldn't do this." But a creator cannot think this way. "The Spanish cooks understood they have to do an artistic cuisine, whether or not people understand" Garcia Santos says. "Picasso would never have painted as he did if he cared whether people liked his painting. There are only a few people who know about food. Do you think there are more than 10,000 people who like Ferran Adria's food? The difference in Spain is, nobody likes or understands what El Bulli does, as nobody understands the way of painting of Picasso, but nobody says it is just nothing. In Spain, a minority cuisine can convert the ideology of a country and become the dominant ideology."

-From "A laboratory of Taste" by Arthut Lubow

Vacas

We watched "Vacas" for the first time yesterday. "Cows" in its English translation is the first movie by Julio Medem, a Spanish movie director worth checking out. ("La ardilla roja"-"The Red Squirrel", "Tierra", "Los amantes del circulo polar"-"Lovers of the Artic Circle", "Lucia y el Sexo"- "Sex and Lucia").
The movie is an interesting mix of broken conventions and uses the magic narrative of Medem that will be more present in some of his later movies. Beautifuly shot and proud of its origins, something not so common in Spanish movies that normally try to look like something else, this fable is vasc from beginning to end. Aizkolaris included.

On maps

Maps are not really true to the size of the countries and therefore are not fair to all peoples. It is pretty interesting since a map is something we don’t seem to challenge as much. Check out The Peters Projection at www.petersmap.com. An equal-area map that displays all countries at true size and proportion. It was done by the German historian Arno Peters who was concerned with the fact that most other maps projections diminished the size of developing nations. It can help challenge assumptions and reduce ethnocentric bias.

Swimming Pool

Acabamos de ver “Swimming Pool” de F.Ozon y aunque la película me ha decepcionado, me recuerda en cierto modo a la lógica de Millás. “Quizás no exista ni existamos nosotros, del mismo modo que no existió aquel tesoro que encontré en la playa.” Ayer terminé “Dos mujeres en Praga” y empecé a pensar más en mi lado izquierdo. Creo que lo tengo un poco abandonado últimamente. Será la mayonesa?

This is working!

This finally seems to be up and running.
Gracias Jaume!