“I think it’s my job to try to push sculpture forward, to keep it moving, keep it alive,” Anthony Caro told The Observer of London in 1999. “And you don’t keep it alive just by doing what you can do; you keep it alive by trying to do things which are difficult.”
Archives For Thomas
Robert Lazarinini makes visually skewed tour de force sculpture that as drawings on paper (with a computer) are quite easy to do. Making them at 1:1 in the actual materials is a monumental accomplishment. It took him 2 years to make his breakthrough masterpiece Violin. His last Exhibition at Marlborough looks incredible.
After toying with a process of altering form in a more handmade fashion — “free-form, biomorphic distortions and manipulating molds” — Lazzarini turned to the computer as a means to subject objects to strictly mathematically determined alterations. He began with violin, which occupied him from 1995 to 1997 (a period that also included employment in Jeff Koons’s studio, with mold-making and finishing among his responsibilities). Lazzarini’s violin is based on a 1693 Stradivarius instrument in the Met’s collection. “That was the first object in which I eliminated material translation,” he says of the straightforwardly titled work, which is made of flame maple wood, ebony, and bone, all materials found in the actual instrument. “It was a 1:1 scale, a compound mathematical distortion, and there was a figure/ground relationship,” Lazzarini sums up. “It was the fulfillment of a lot of formal and conceptual concerns in this one sculpture.”
via In the Studio With Robert Lazzarini, Master of Sculptural Illusions | BLOUIN ARTINFO.
JR: Blow Up
The Renegade Artist Spreads His Work Around the Globe in Filmmaker Matt Black’s Latest Portrait
Now a TED Prize-winner, semi-anonymous JR grew up in the suburbs of Paris and began tagging and “exhibiting” on the streets as a teen. When he found a camera on the Metro, he started taking photographs. Now he’s shaking things up with a new system that allows everyone to print and post works in their own neighborhoods, all for free. “It’s true art. That’s why people want to participate,” says Black, who caught up with the self-described “photograffeur” as part of his Reflections series. Today JR, who views the city as “the biggest gallery in the world,” also shows in more traditional spaces, including Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin and the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Los Angeles MoCA, collaborating with artists such as Jose Parlà and Takashi Murakami. “He’s creating this monster project,” reflects the director, “showing that we’re all human—all equal.”
Via Nowness
Kimbra: Settle Down (Live)
New Zealand’s Pop Prodigy Multiplies Into a Formidable Beatboxing Chorus
One-woman, iPad-looping sensation Kimbra performs her breakout hit “Settle Down” in our exclusively commissioned and dynamic short by directors Us.
Us directing duo Christopher Barrett and Luke Taylor filmed a single take of the track to capture the live energy of Kimbra’s performance, visually recreating her vocal loops in post-production. “She builds the entire song using just her vocals, some beatboxing and her iPad,” they explain. “It’s often quite hard to distinguish many layers of sound, so we wanted to break down the structure of her performance, and highlight what she was actually doing.” Currently touring the States with indie rockers Foster the People, NOWNESS caught up with Kimbra on the road to snare her choice of dance moves and drum kits.
viaNowness.com
In the commercial world of portrait, still life and fashion photography everything starts with Irving Penn. There is not one photographer of note up until the 1990’s you could name whom he has not influenced. Photographers based entire careers making pictures informed by Penn’s incredible photographs (that are just as good today as ever). This survey of his work is installed beautifully and all the hits are here to feast your eyes on.
Via pacemacgill.com