Anyone who knows me probably knows that I have an addiction to books that borders on the unhealthy. I look at them, I read them and I buy them (then I usually stack them). I've always been drawn to Taschen books, the subject range usually overlaps with my ever-changing interests... from Alchemy to Pop Art. There are probably very few Taschen books I wouldn't read or appreciate. They do a fantastic range of design books including illustration & art.

My most desired book would have to be the limited edition title about the Japanese photographer Araki.

Everything about this book drips with beauty and seduction, just like the photos of Araki himself. If you are not familiar with his work you will soon want to be, although certainly his photography is not for everyone and some of it is definitely not safe for work.

This is an extremely high production volume limited to just 2500 copies and each individually numbered and signed by Araki himself. What a shame they cost £2000 each... I guess I will just have to make do with the Abridged Budget Version for £40 instead.

Incompetently managed (both on and off the field) Japan also lost to Korea in Olympic baseball action (boxscore). A pretty resounding 5-3 defeat. I don't even know where to start on this one, but I'll list some of the shortcomings of Team Japan as managed by Senichi Hoshino (who has never won the Japan Series as manager, and indeed there might be a reason why).

• Despite the limited 24 man roster (NPB uses an expansive 28 man roster), the team took injury question marks Kawasaki and Murata with them to Beijing. Nishioka's injury on top of this didn't help matters, as the team was down to 11 position players at full health for the Korea game (though Murata played).

• This forced Hoshino's hand and he started all glove no bat Araki at second and solid hitting catcher Satozaki at DH. These wouldn't normally be bad decisions except he let Araki hit second even though he is by far the worst hitter on the team (classic old school baseball move). And for some unknown reason he, yet again, let incompetent Abe catch instead of the defensively superior Satozaki catch, and this cost the team a run when Abe's errant throw to second scored a Korean run.

• Hoshino also left pitchers in too long in the game, with pretty good relief corps, he should've pulled Wada earlier in the inning, and he has admitted to this mistake. And he also left reliever Iwase in for too long even though he is clearly more hittable this year and is not a shutdown reliever like he used to be (or like Fujikawa, who didn't get to enter the game).

Good news is that, despite Hoshino's bumbling management, the team still has a decent chance of making medal rounds due to Canada always coming up just short (tough 1 run losses to Cuba, USA, and Korea), and Taiwan recording their first ever loss to China in pixy dust extra inning rules (China might be onto something though, as they managed to pull Korea into extra innings as well, though this time they lost 1-0). Korea and Cuba are both unbeaten at 4-0, but Cuba looks like the team to beat. Since Japan still has to play Canada, chances of both teams making it into medal rounds is slim to nil, considering that USA now has a relatively easy schedule having already played the 2 undefeated teams.

Cuba 4-0

Korea 4-0

USA 2-2

Japan 2-2

Canada 1-3

China 1-3

Netherlands 1-3

Taiwan 1-3

This Kuricorder Quartet version of the Imperial March might sum up my feelings pretty well at the moment, after waking up with a hangover from an all you can drink birthday party on the day of those defeats.

Winking Sist, inserito originariamente da Phantastica Aesthetics.

My lovely friend Cry has done this super fabolous make-up for my sist winking faceplate!!!
She will come soon at home and finallt I'll bring Sonika to life!!!!
I'm so excited to study her raver look!!!
thanks so much Stellinaaaaa!!!

Il y a les Rencontres de la photographie à Arles tout l’été, le Salon Paris Photo en novembre à Paris. Il y a désormais l’incontournable parcours parisien de la photographie ! Initié l’an dernier par les éditions Chez Higgins, il se poursuit au mois de juin avec une soixantaine de galeries participantes. Et pas des moindres ! Vous pouvez voir les vues de Paris par Karl Lagerfeld à la Librairie 7L, les robots de Vincent Fournier galerie Acte 2, le voyage à Palerme d’Anne Deguelle galerie Dix 9, les images de notre planète par Marc Ruwedel chez Françoise Paviot… Ils sont donc 60 pendant trois semaines à nous faire passer de découvertes en découvertes. Et n’oubliez pas le rendez-vous les 14 et 15 juin au marché de Brancion pour une superbe vente de livres consacrées… à la photographie.

PPP, Parcours parisien de la photographie, Du 10 au 30 juin. Voir le programme sur www.leppp.fr

Now, a young French artist, Benjamin Deroche, has made a series of photos in honour of the master: Tribute to Araki. He has tried to reproduce with a dead chicken the pictures of bondage, with odd, but also disturbing, effects. In a interview given to Liberation's blog Zoum Zoum, Deroche says Araki is one of his favourite photographers. Goodness knows what Araki thinks about it.

Tuvimos la gran oportunidad de conseguir unos pocos volúmenes de este maravilloso libro de Arte de Shingo Araki y Michi Himeno, los dos ilustradores de la adaptación al anime de los Caballeros del Zodiaco.

Desde su publicación en 2004 éste ha sido un libro sumamente apreciado, pues incluye arte de la serie del 86 al 88 y las películas del 87 al 89 y la OVA del 2002. Este volumen de pasta suave compila maravilloso arte a color, gengas fascinantes, explicaciones de los episodios mas importantes y entrevistas con los diseñadores Shingo Araki y Michi Himeno. El texto está en japonés, pero lo mas impresionante es el arte.

¡Este es un artículo que ningun coleccionista serio se puede perder! Solo hay unos pocos asi que no lo pienses demasiado.

Just Browsing sews together the latest fashion news from our global sources of mags, trades, blogs and tipsters.

Elvis Has Entered the Building
Why did Karl Lagerfeld show up yesterday to Zaha Hadid’s magisterial moving art space in Hong Kong three weeks late? It was commissioned to send a Chanel-sponsored exhibition of artists like Yoko Ono and Araki around the world, it was Karl’s idea, and each artist made a special piece inspired by a Chanel bag. What might he have been up to on February 27 that kept him from attending the opening? Please post your ideas in the comments section.

Arrivederci, America
Canny Italian retailers are following in the footsteps of their ancestor Marco Polo. Today brings news that Milan’s 10 Corso Como is about to cut ribbons in Seoul, and plans to expand across the rest of the continent soon. And Versace is bypassing the American retail scene to invest around 70 million exclusively in Asian storefronts. (Hong Kong, China, even Kuala Lumpur will receive Medusa’s kiss.) The company says Asia is their second most important sales market after Europe. I guess all we can say is, Duh. Maybe it’s not very professional, but rejection hurts.

The Great Un-Bagged
As we enter the Gilded Age v 2.0, it makes sense that fashion houses would want to redefine the meaning of “luxury.” Yeah, yeah, the meaning of luxury again. Yawn. But the CEO of The Luxury Institute, Milton Pedraza, says that many designers will do this by hiking prices even further than the exchange rate would require, and reducing their presence in department stores. By renouncing masstige and circling the Bentleys, they’ll regain their formerly elite status, and keep out the riffraff. You know, the riffraff who, six months ago, were their clients.

Where’s Paco?
The L.A. Times reports today that Paco Rabanne’s much-commented-upon absence at the L.A. Fashion Week show of his Ukrainian protégée Veronika Jeanvie — yes, we know — was caused by a fight between Puig, the Spanish conglomerate that owns Rabanne’s name, and the designer himself, who was thus grounded in France. Paco, L.A. Fashion Week was created to give out of work paparazzi something to do between capturing socialites vomiting at Hyde. Enjoy Paris at this time of year and let them get along with it. They’ll always have Lauren Conrad.

Pick A Bale
Supima, the PR front for the association of US Pima cotton growers, must have a lot of faith in the shortness of historical memory. To promote a new pop-up store in SoHo that will sell Wamsutta sheets, Three Dots T-shirts and AG Adriano Goldschmeid jeans, Supima has planted a field of cotton and started handing out mini-bales to passers-by. Is Just Browsing showing our age, or does a cotton field a stone’s throw from Manhattan’s African Burial Grounds still smack of a not-so-downy soft moment in our nation’s past? Call it the look, the feel, of slavery.

Short Shots

I really don’t know where to start with this one…as it would be an understatement to say that Nobuyoshi Araki is in his own world in which photography is at the center. I can’t say that I know much of anything about Araki, though I can say I was near overwhelmed at the astonishing amount of Araki’s work that manages to find its way within this book of monolithic proportions.

Flowers, street photography, a smattering of experimental photography, photos of his cat and photos that chronicle his life are what make up this enormous collection of Araki’s work. Oh, and page after page after page of photos of women. Highly questionable, pornographically outlandish photos of women. Tons of them. This is what makes this write up so hard. Sure the other stuff is good; it’s honest, charming and his flowers are swarming with color. Though most are nowhere near the intensity and impact of the nude and nearly nude photographs that singe your brain. It’s pretty hard to forget the numerous photos of women, each barely wearing a kimono, being suspended from the ceiling with nothing but rope. It’s my opinion that simply writing these off as pornographic and nothing but would be misinterpreting them. I’m at a loss for words when it comes to trying to understand just what Araki is trying to communicate with such photos or even the very idea, though I suppose that’s why they’re so interesting. At the risk of dealing with crybabies, I’ve chosen not to upload any of these photos. I mean no offense to Araki himself, but that’s not something that I have the time to come under fire for.

I’ll let you be the judge of such artistic entanglements on your own time…

Your local bookstore or library should have something similar to this book if not this very book itself, but if worse comes to worse, you can order it here.

Nobuyoshi Araki

 

Idag skolkade jag från jobbet. Min kollega ringde och sa att hon inte vill jobba och jag kunde bara falla för hennes dåliga arbetsmoral och blev medbrottsling utan att blinka. Vi åkte iväg till Stockholm för att gå på Moderna och Kulturhuset med några gallerier som mellanmål.

Det är roligt att gå och se moderna museets samling när de hänger om och lyfter fram nya verk så att man som besökare kan hitta ny-gamla verk och se dem i nya sammanhang emellanåt. Det blir ett vitalt sätt att förhålla sig till konsthistorien. Men det var egentligen inget som var så där jätteinspirerande. Rioutställningen i källaren var en smula tråkig, lite som musli på frukostfilen. Nyttig att ha sett. *sväljer torrt*

På kulturhuset kan man nu se en överväldigande och massiv fotoutställning av den Japanske fotografen Araki. Det är bilder från flera års arbete och dokumentation om jaget, hans jag och hans syn på den verklighet han befinner sig i. Enligt uställningstexten finns ett avbrott i de "kapitel" utställningen består av, är tiden före och tiden efter att hans fru Yoko´s död. Men för mig som såg hans verk för första gången är det en rätt oavbruten bildberättelse. Som de citat (ur minnet, ej korret) som finns att läsa på väggarna säger: "...ett fotografi är likt en roman skriven i jag-form". Jag kanske läser honom slarvigt men det funkar för mig, jag kommer att ha honom i min bokhylla av minnen för en tid framöver.

Det som blir sorgligt i utställningens helhet är att de sensationsartade bilderna stjäl uppmärksamhet av de mer stillsamma motiven. Hans bilder handlar ofta om sex-död-civilisation-urbanitet (staden). Men ni kan ju kanske redan nu gissa att det är mest sex och erotik ögat söker, i alla fall mitt. Det tog mer tid att se de fantastiska bilderna av städer, arkitektur och natur än att supa in intrycken från de nakna kvinnorna som är bundna med rep och upphängda i traditionella Kinbaku positioner. Kinbaku betyder att binda hårt och det är ett straff där de förr band fångar hårt med rep. Idag kallar subkulturer det för bondage och är rent sexuell med sadomasochistiska förtecken. Här pratar vi alltså inte om att knyta fast någon i en sängstolpe med en slips. Det är grova och hårda bindningar han visar, omfamningar som han själv kallar dem. Min fitta knorrade förskrämt vid åsynen av vissa bilder.

De bilder som var vackrast och inte mindre makabert fascinerande var väggen med vackra bilder av blommor, både prunktnande och sensuella men också förfallna till vacker vanitas. Han porträtterar blommorna med en enorm känsla för färg och intimitet. Kom att tänka på Peter Greenways filmer med det vackra formerna och kunde nästan höra lite filmmusik i bakgrunden... och flugsurr som en vacker hymn till de döda.

"Konst handlar ju faktiskt om att skapa något... ett uttryck för det man tycker om, en hängivenhet till det man älskar."

Araki

Under resan hittade jag en bok om gatukonst, grafitti, som jag har haft mycket nöje att bekanta mig med. Konstnären-arna, besudlaren-arna av staden kallar sig Banksy. Den första meningen är; "I´m going to speak my mind, so this won´t take very long." Boken heter Wall and Piece, förlag; Publikat. Sprayfärg och lite schabloner kan bli vackert och fyndigt på ett sätt som är gatsmart. Kom att tänka på den sprayade tv-apparaten på marken jag såg i höstas här i Uppsala. Men Banksy är strået vassare, boken med dess höga bildkvalité på dokumentationen gör att det blir så bra, det är verkligen något att återvända till. Stockholm har också blivit konsttaggad här är en länk till en artikel i Aftonbladet (2007).

Några av verken skulle inte få den udd de får i boken/på fotografiet, de hamnar i en kontext som inte går att ta bort eller förflytta. Ett  litet steg åt sidan ur fotografens position och knorren på verket uteblir. Banksy har gjort några konstkupper där de har hängt upp egna tavlor på konstmuseum i smyg och i vissa fall har de falska bilderna kunnat hänga där i flera dagar innan de har blivit upptäckta (finns att se på youtube).

Boken är jätte rolig och inspirerande, den får fyra paljetter av fem möjliga :)

Inspirationen fick sig ett plåster på såret idag. Slutsats: bör skolka mer.