2.07.2011
I have this series' entire collection of DVDs. What is interesting, I find, is that the commercial, "popular" artists that come on the show with their poems are noticeably less impressive and leave less of an impression on me than those whom I have never heard before. Come to think of it, that should not really be a surprise.
One thing that this show constantly reminds me of is that there are still spots and nooks in the art world where appearances do not matter, appearances are only secondary. It's really all about having something to say.
Yuichiro Miyano.
Good-by
These are just the tip of the visual artistic iceberg. More on photographer Yuichiro Miyano's deeply moving collection on Flickr. Above photos are clickable too.
2.06.2011
REUTERS | Damir Sagolj
A boy with his face decorated with thanaka paste waits outside a local school for children of migrant workers from Myanmar, near Mae Sot in northwest Thailand October 15, 2010. Myanmar’s long standing political crisis has forced millions of people across the border for a better and safer life. Some 140,000 refugees live in official camps along the Myanmar-Thailand border, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
I suggest looking at this slideshow while listening to Coldplay's Warning Sign
If you knew me better, you'd know I cry over many things --- music, stories, commercials, films and even a still photographs. I cry mere seconds after first realizing the visual or oral experience.
Call me a sissy cry baby but I dread, I truly dread the day I realize I can't cry or be moved any longer.
ikenaga yasunari.
Photos of paintings taken from a feature article on koi koi koi | Visual Arts Magazine : Portraits of Women by Ikenaga Yasunari, August 2010
Come by Ikenaga Yasunari's site.
* * *
On the website fuckyeahethnicwomen, there is at least 3 pages of debate on the turn of phrase "ethnic women" and why the mods chose this as a their blog title. I personally don't give a shit about what they name their site, and this is coming from an, as the term is at the moment applied, "ethnic woman". Their have an wonderfully eclectic photo collection of the most attractive, interesting-looking women. They most definitely, with the help of their site, blurred the lines and have diminished the concept of "(only one) standard of physical beauty". That is all that matters. Check the site out. It's utter visual overload --- You leave it thinking "beauty is such a dynamic, multi-faceted and multi-layered concept, why do we even at all attempt to pin down and define it and give it limit?"
I dare say I am quite relieved to have been born and raised and live in a circle where race is never really an issue --- or perhaps it is to some extent but no one's really ever psychotic about it and would go off the deep end, pulling with them every single person they encounter by projecting whatever racial/ racist notions they have.
Where I am from, people are not very sensitive about these things. One could successfully argue that naivete or ignorance of racial struggle is nothing to be proud of but I think something or someone somewhere should just stop the whole vicious cycle and just turn the other cheek. Toni Morrison wrote once that labels say more about the labeler than the labelee. Moreover, in Buddhism, it is believed that no person can really hurt you unless you give them permission.
So to hell with labels and terms. They are at best arbitrary. I am who I am, you are who you are. To me, "racial struggle" is now all about keeping my thoughts pure --- that race is nothing to be sensitive about... nothing to mind. We have to move forward and heal some time and I believe the time is now. It is about putting absolutely no value to the stereotypes attached to being of a certain color (white or any shade darker). If I let any of your primitive assumptions get to me then alas, I have given you your victory. Not going to happen. Over my dead body.
I, as "a person of color" (yeah, yeah, yeah), will not accept your condescension and arrogance AND I also won't accept your pity and "affirmative action" favors. Any decision you make based solely on the color of skin is a point against you and I will not take advantage or disadvanatge of it. I will not be a hockey puck or play any part of this game.
It is not about who gets more favors or who should receive the most pity and compassion based on the color of their skin. I'll love you because you are a wonderful person. I'll hate you because you are an asshole. Races white and any shade darker offer good and bad apples anyway so if you are going to make color constantly the only big fat issue, then that's your boulder to carry for the rest of your sorry, pitiful perpetually stressful life. I'll shake my head to you.
The website description reads:
reconstructing idealized norms of beauty. celebrating diversity in all forms.
art, photography, and anything else.
To the MODS, this is exactly what you are doing. Pay no mind to narrow-minded people stuck in the past and people who oddly find comfort and strength in the confines of social conventions. CARRY ON, MODS. CARRY ON.
2.04.2011
"Perfection is completely overrated. It is absurd. You open these magazines and the end result is that it can make people feel somewhat inadequate. Which is stupid, because that person has been through three hours of hair and make up. And at least I can make people think, ‘Yay! It’s okay to be catastrophically dressed.’"
- Helena Bonham Carter
Both photos by Bryan Adams.
Yes, the "Summer of '69" singer-songriter himself.
Paolo Roversi
I have to say this is my kind of styling: Model or subject's hair disheveled, barely there make up, not more than two articles of clothing and one or no accessory at all. I hate it when pictures are photoshopped to death and end up looking too pinched up. I like photos that are grainy, softened or slightly blurred. In a way, flawed, if you will.
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