the floral still lifes of Christiane Kubrick (in EYES WIDE SHUT)

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I really need to revisit EYES; it’s been far too long.

Christiane’s paintings serve as more than decoration. Their floral subject matter reinforces the movie’s themes of lust and decay. Another work titled Homage to Van Gogh, an imitation of the Dutch master’s work seen in the background as the characters eat breakfast and watch TV, evokes the concepts of truth and authenticity, which play a central role in this story about a troubled marriage.

As author Juli Kearns explains in a frame-by-frame analysis of the film:

“What is authentic and what is not the real thing? What hasn’t fidelity? Butter is not butter and what represents itself as a bear is instead honey. In the Looney Tunes cartoon, Santa proves to instead be the Tasmanian Devil when the soot is removed. And then there’s Christiane’s rendering of Van Gogh flowers in homage of him.”

(via artnet)

David Lynch's "A THINKING ROOM" installation

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via Dezeen ::

Lynch had a clear vision for the space from the beginning, taking an interest in the materials and colours used and even creating a small decorative sculpture that sits at the top of the picture frames that hang on its walls.

"We sent him twelve samples for the walls, with more texture and less texture and many different blue shades," di Benedetto said. "He was happy like a child when he received all of the samples in LA."

On top of the large chair, seven metal rods connect it to the ceiling, where they branch out. Like the often ambiguous images in his films, the design was left unexplained by Lynch.

"The only thing that we know is that these are the connections between something like the soul and the absolute; a flow of energy from your soul," Monda said.

links/2024w11

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And we're back to the weekly list: Squarespace changed up their iPad editor and made it impossible to add links, so it's simpler to do it this way and put it together once a week on the Mac.

links/2024w07

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At around age 60, with her 3 children all grown up and out of her hands, Sugiyama decided to relocate from Saitama up north to Iwate prefecture where she had relatives, and was closer to her birthplace of Aomori. She obtained her chiropractors license and opened a small practice where she served the local community for over 10 years. 

One day, Sugiyama found a pack of discarded colored markers near a dumpster. Noticing that they were still in good shape, she decided to take them home and begin doodling. Soon, images of trees and rivers all inspired by the nature of Aomori began pouring out of her and onto the pages of a sketchbook. After a year or so of sketching with the markers, Sugiyama remembered her mother’s colorful kimonos that had been stored away. There was no use for them in storage so the artist, whose creative juices were now flowing, decided to begin incorporating them into her work, which eventually led to a style she has coined as “Kimono Reborn Art.”

links/2024w06

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Experimenting with returning links to being their own weekly post (or perhaps twice-weekly, on Weds and Sat?), a hodgepodge of trailers and quotes and more. Plus it’s easier to update these at the last minute than it is trying to update the newsletter before it sends (and K said she enjoys clicking through them so there). Anyhow…

And if a prosthetic need not mimic the limb it is replacing, then perhaps prosthetics could be more than just replacements? Ms Clode is an expert in the design of robotic prostheses controlled by artificial tendons. She is keen to explore the possibility of augmenting existing bodies with new capabilities, making prosthetics “a technology that could be of use to everybody, not just amputees”. To that end she has designed the “Third Thumb”, a small and robust prosthetic digit that does exactly what it says on the tin. Controlled, like Ms Knox’s vine-arm, by pressure sensors in a pair of shoes, the thumb can be used to replace a missing one. But it can also be added to an intact hand on the opposite side from its existing, biological thumb.

Keita Miyazaki

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Stunning sculptures made of salvaged, welded car parts and origami:

sculpture of welded car parts with blue origami spirals and flowers bursting out of it

In his solo exhibition Excess of Desire at Gallery Rosenfeld, Miyazaki’s sculptures appear to grow from the floor or sprout from pedestals. Metal components meet intricate origami, exploring the dualities of robustness and fragility, the decorative and the utilitarian, and heaviness and lightness. The ends of pipes blossom with colorful fans and spindles of folded paper, juxtaposed with car parts in a reference to the 20th-century automotive boom and advancing technology.

Miyazaki articulates ideas around functionality and decay by welding together fragments of mufflers and engines that no longer operate for their intended purposes. He incorporates carefully selected parts, such as specialized mufflers that were produced illegally in the 1980s and 1990s, which rose to popularity because they could increase the car’s noise level and produce a specific sound. Challenging the frivolity of excess in wealthy society, the artist reframes the components as flourishing, botanical-like forms.

You can find more of Miyazaki's work at Colossal and via his Instagram.

links/2023w29

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