ESCHER'S PUDDLE

On Saturday I went to the M.C. Escher exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. It was fantastic seeing his work up close because it really allows you to appreciate the details.

I had only really been exposed to Escher's famous surrealist work, but the stuff that I responded to the most at the exhibit were the more simple images. One piece that stood out to me was "Puddle", a woodcut print originally made in 1952:

Since 1936, Escher’s work had become primarily focused on paradoxes, tessellation and other abstract visual concepts. This print, however, is a realistic depiction of a simple image that portrays two perspectives at once. It depicts an unpaved road with a large pool of water in the middle of it at night. Turning the print upside-down and focusing strictly on the reflection in the water, it becomes a depiction of a forest with a full moon overhead. The road is soft and muddy and in it there are two distinctly different sets of tire tracks, two sets of footprints going in opposite directions and two bicycle tracks.

KORE-EDA x KEEGAN

Ummmm.... just watch this.

The amazing Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows, Afterlife) + the amazing Keegan DeWitt.

LANDSCAPE OF CHILDHOOD

My dad recently introduced me to China born, France residing artist Yan Pei-Ming, and his new exhibition "Landscape of Childhood"- currently showing at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. The exhibition features 34 large flags, painted in stark black and white with the faces of endangered children in China. Steel tubes descending from the gallery ceiling blow powerful gusts of wind down on each flag.

When I saw the video my dad took, I was immediately struck by the originality of the presentation, and the beauty of how the art moves in space. I can only imagine what it's like in person.

My dad wrote about the exhibition for his New York Times Style blog, where you can also see the video of "Landscape of Childhood" in action. Check it out:

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/now-showing-yan-pei-mings-landscape-of-childhood/?src=tm

FRANCOISE HARDY

I love this photo/her...

TOM SACHS - CAMERAS

CAMERAS
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
21 June 2009 - 16 September 2009

“While Tom is widely known for his do–it–yourself version of Pop appropriation, the Cameras exhibition expands upon his interest in the functional, utilitarian, and socio–economic meaning of objects, rather than their superficial character. This concern is what sets him apart from most other artists working with Pop influences.”

- Aldrich exhibitions director Richard Klein

http://www.tomsachs.org

VITTI & BELLMONDO

Here's a photo I've been meaning to post for a while. 60's French film icon Jean-Paul Belmondo hanging out with 60's Italian film icon Monica Vitti.

I'm inspired by this photo and these two legends on a number of levels, firstly I am a fan of both of their filmographies. Belmondo's work with Jean-Luc Godard and Vitti's collaborations with Michelangelo Antonioni are among my favorite films of all time, and I never figured these two might have run in the same circles. So it's kind of cool to see them together.

And secondly they inspire me style-wise. Just look how cool they look in all black!

FENCING SHIRT

100% cotton...Asymmetrical curved placket...Dramatic shoulder strap-style yoke on the back, echoed on the front.

By Robert Geller.

GIMME!

IRRELEVANT FANTASIES

"Hollywood is not failing. It has failed. Filmmaking cannot survive without individual expression. Motion pictures cannot be made to please the producer's image of the public. Without individual creative expression, we are left with a medium of irrelevant fantasies that can add nothing to an already diversified world."

- John Cassavetes