myeongbeom kim, edison, branch+goldfish+glass+steel, 15x15x30in.

yes, it’s another ‘look at this artist!’ post. i’m in the middle of an essay on bill henson and robert mapplethorpe, so i sort of have art even more on the brain than usual. i’m writing a number of other articles at the moment, but it’s a careful balancing act about what gets published where first, and i’m afraid my little blog always comes last. in the mean time, artists it is.

myeongbeom kim, untitled (restroom installation).

and i gotta say, myeongbeom kim is a pretty good artist to showcase.

myeongbeom kim, untitled, candle and thread, 5x4x3in.

i love microcosms. worlds-within-worlds, the universe in a fish’s eye, a stick-insect’s whole life lived out in a terrarium big enough to feel like a jungle. snow-globes and dolls houses. greenhouses and roof-gardens and japan’s sea of trees. a hospital room, or the glass gentleman’s apartment in amelie. the world is full of smaller worlds (and, there is always the biblical and narnia-esque hope, maybe bigger ones). not all of myeongbeom kim’s work is like this, but my favorite pieces are (though arguably i think you could say that installation art is almost always a form of microcosm. one is, after all, installing a new reality or idea into an existing space, creating a world that was not there before and will likely cease to be at a later date).

myeongbeom kim, rest, bed+lawn+pillow, 75x98x39in.

i’m hard-pressed to decide which i love best – light-globe fish-tank, or the tree in the candle? an impossible choice. i did acquire a doormat from the side of the road the other week, though (all new apartments need a doormat) and i noticed last time i looked that it had started sprouting babies tears. perhaps i’ll end up with a smaller version of that grassy green bed by accident? i hope so.

sincerely, from the depths of an art-study-bubble,

nyx x

mark da cunha lopes, from the ‘vertebrata’ series, title unknown, via trendland.

this photograph by french photomanipulator Marc Da Cunha Lopes just does my head in, in a very pleasant way. i told you bones and pastels were not incompatible!

what this photograph has, indupitably, is the element of surprise; but it’s more than the ‘wait, what‘ moments scattered throughout the rest of the series (‘vertebrata,’ which has just finished showing at rabouan-moussion gallery in paris). there’s something viscerally alarming about this one – of course there is, it’s a huge disembodied head, floating around some ordinary suburban home like it belongs there – or perhaps (more chillingly) is on the prowl. more than that, it’s clearly a parrot, and i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who wouldn’t want to run into a beak like that in a dark ally.

maybe i just have an over-tactile imagination, but this image actually fills me with a bit of genuine horror. it brings to mind legendary creatures like the nukekubi, a japanese and chinese capable myth capable of detaching its head from its body so the former can float off into the night to devour victims with a mouthfull of shark-like teeth, before returning to its neck in the morning to create a deceptively human whole. in similar fashion the image above instills in me a spine-groping sort of dread, in part because it looks too real to be anything other than terrifying.

mark da cunha lopes, from the ‘vertebrata’ series, title unknown, via trendland.

of course, since parrots aren’t really carniverous one has to wonder whether what looks like a saber toothed-something skeleton might in fact be more lethal. on the other hand, if you’ve ever had interractions with a parrot, you’ll know they do like to…chew things. or chew everything. in something that size you’ve got to admit that’s a little intimidating.

yours, with snappish affection,

nyx.

the stylecookie blog/e-zine may be the sweetest thing in the world. of course you’re supposed to buy the things on the site as well as look at the pictures, but i’m less interested in that.

if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you’ve probably clued on by now to the fact that my aesthetic…oscillates. on some days i like bird bones, blacks and greys, on others it’s all sugared almonds and ellen von unwerth. i like to think that these two ends of the aesthetic spectrum aren’t so much incompatible as complimentary, like a colourwheel, whereby you choose which hues to put together according to how far apart they’re spaced. often the best match is a diametric opposite.

anyway. i found this on a sugared almond day. apparently their current theme is ‘paper’, and if i were the sort of person who took my breakfast eggs seriously (or ate eggs for that matter) i would definitely want one of those heart-shaped fried-egg molds. i’d probably never use it, but i’d really, really want to. i’m also considering making flights of threaded envelopes for my new apartment (!) – or maybe lanterns, or aeroplanes?i would also like (and use) a lightglobe-in-a-box, as per example here:

between stylecookie and anna-wili highfield this has been a week devoted to the art-ish possibilities of paper. next week will be about birthdays, apartments, and being fashionably disabled. oh yes it will be.

yours in mutual appreciation of cello-tape and crêpe paper (just look how happy it makes this woman),

nyx.

~.~

ps: all images via stylecookie

anna-wili highfield, robin, 2010.

‘sculpture’ is a fragile sort of word; it defines such a breadth of artistic endeavors that it’s sort of more useful to use in the negative than the positive. anna-wili highfield‘s work is paper-based and so fragile-looking it seems almost more like textile art than sculpture. the pieces seem tennuously held together, their edges rough and flyaway.

anna-wili highfield, race horse, 2010.

despite the obvious presence of structure beneath the delicate surfaces, they appear almost organic, like a fluke composite of dried leaves, animal shapes occurring naturally in the frail detritus of human lives so pretty appropriate for this blog, really. plus. they’re very, very beautiful. don’t you think?

anna-wili highfield, horse in a timber box, 2010.

it’s probably not surprising, then, that i think her pegasus works are most successful. horses – particularly those of greek myth – are powerful, full of tail and rippling of muscle. very masculine, very strong. to cast them in torn papers and wire, then, is a curious breaking down and rebuilding of a classic symbol of virility into something that blurs lines between fierce and insubstantial – a state i, obviously, find eternally fascinating. plus, the movement really works to the advantage of these pieces.

anna-wili highfield, pegasus bust for hermes, 2011.

with the exception of a few of her particularly exquisite small birds, i find the bunched paper tendons and the torn-edge impression of passing wind or speed much more compelling than the scientific stillness of others in highfield’s menagerie.  it’s rare for me to be more interested in wild depictions than scientific ones, but here it works. or maybe i’ve just always been a bit romantic when it comes to flying horses.

yours in delicate solidarity,

nyx

nyx mathews, sickly, sticky, sweet, 2011.

…make photographs.

first photoshoot taken with my new Nikon D3100 (aka, True Love In Black Plastic). the rest are on flickr. sticky, sweet, a little grotesque. i got wine on my chin, and had to swallow more than i bargained for when my housemate came home unexpectedly early (we’re rather new at living together; i’m afraid i caught her unawares, traipsing about in the shed with my shiny new tripod (!) and a pile of faintly putrid red grapes).

yours, a little stickily,

nyx

shan jiang, cover illustration for starbucks share zine chinese edition.

if starbucks actually looked like this, i’d frequent it. just sayin’.

 richard corman, madonna, 1982, “i shot madonna” in out magazine.

my photo of the day is vintage madonna by richard corman. he took this the year before her first album came out, before she got famous, etc., etc., bet you know the rest.

the best thing about this photograph? it’s the eyebrows. look at her eyebrows. fantastically wing-like, utterly un-plucked eyebrows. they’re amazing. where is a vogue editor when you need one? everybody should be copying this (i say this despite my own obsessively tweezed and arching brows. i just don’t have that great flared outer edge she does. so ok, maybe not everybody).

what makes them stand out particularly – and particularly beautifully – is how perfect and classical her makeup is, how it frames her brows as a deliberate absence of interference. the conscious groom-don’t-remove of body hair may be my favourite kind of ‘fuck you’ to the feminine norm. it’s like trimming your underarm hair instead of shaving it all off; or keeping your bush perfectly intact (including those curls which cross the sacred bikini line) and colouring it a vile shade of fuschia. it says ‘i have a very strong (optional: and feminine) aesthetic, and an exceptional personal grooming routine, but i don’t actually want to look like a prepubescent aryan with big tits. i choose to diversify and explore the full range of aesthetic options my body provides, not just the ones sanctioned by almighty vogue, elle and the holy bazaar.’

of course, there are ways to do this by or despite a wholistic dipilatory approach, too, but i’m just sayin’. some of your options include the artful retention of bodily hair.

and i do wish more people would try out these eybrows. they’re fucking fantastic. you could pull them off, i know you could. post pictures after, won’t you?

xn

the cure has been one of my favourite bands since i borrowed bloodflowers from my local library, some time back around 2000. it was the first time i’d heard any non-chart-topping music of theirs (ie, lovecats or friday i’m in love) and i was…stunned, i think, by the realisation that music could be that intense and beautiful and (appropriately enough) out of this world. i’m pretty sure the album was my first real exposure to the post-punk genre, too, a musical style that has since lodged itself permanently under my creative and aesthetic skins.

anyway. the purpose of this post is not really an exposé on my violent musical longings, but more a recommendation that – even if you don’t actually like the cure‘s music – you watch the video for alt. end, just because it’s beautiful. i’d love to make a television series like that some day; equal parts magic realism, angela carter, and aeroplanes. my perfect mix.

xn.

edit: also, as of today, some work of mine can be found on ramp up and the abc environment portal. i am really rather excited. please take special note of my very first item of hate mail in the comments section (well, maybe ‘hate mail’ is a little strong. i’m being wishful here in a sort of wilde-ean manner). can i just say again, because i am a geek and thus derive quite a thrill from this particular piece of information: PUBLISHED ON THE ABC. that’s australia’s independent broadcasting network, for those not in the know. apparently i’m a real journalist or something now. it’s a bit crazy.

nyx mathews, and i shall be queen, 2011

it’s been a long time since i finished a 2d piece of art, and i mean a long time. i usually get halfway through, decide i’ve learnt what i wanted to learn via the process, and get bored (at which point, quite logically, i abandon the picture). this one i struggled with for weeks and weeks before i finally finished it today. i had everything down but couldn’t figure out what to add to her hair. i tried ribbons, and vines, and bird-skulls, and cages, and a hat, and a crown, and hated it all. the character is from a comic book i’m working on, on and off, and i knew i wanted to include a syringe somewhere because i like the idea of insinuating my old medical paraphernalia (and thus echoes of my own pathology) into my work. it feels a bit like getting something back from a disability that is usually just, well, disabling. but i wasn’t sure how to frame it.

and then max and felix found a mary-jesus-joseph statuette on the side of the road, done in china, glazed in lurid glassy colours, with a sacred heart painted on jesus’ chest and poor mary’s head missing. i have always, always felt a strange and unconquorable love for the high-kitsch aesthetic of certain types of catholicism, resplendant with candles and porcelaine figures, bright colours and fake flowers. think of the capulet family shrine in baz luhrmann’s romeo + juliet, decadent and obsessive. and the bloody, sacred heart is just so ripe for interpretation and appropriation; plus i can never look at one without thinking about margaret atwood’s cat’s eye. makes them hard to resist. i’d love to do a photoshoot based on that same aesthetic…flourescent flowers and headless statues… it could be great.

xn

‘i bake pies and wake the dead. i live a very sheltered life.’

if you’ve yet to hear about pushing daisies, listen now. it’s gorgeous, it’s hilarious, and it’s really worth watching. i find the constant presence of a narrator a bit hard to handle, but other than that it’s pretty delightful all ’round.

what you notice first is, of course, how aesthetically stunning it is. it’s like a technicolor disney fairytale, but with great persnickety dialogue and far fewer songs (i do like disney, in small doses and for its visual appeal, but i can’t stand all the singing).  you can definitely see the dead like me similarities in the super-quick and consistently hilarious dialogue and soft-core morgue humour, but daisies is much cuter, both visually and character-wise. the first bit i like (the cute visuals) but the second is a little bit disappointing if you have seen dead like me and were anywhere near as enchanted with the main character (george) as i was (she’s pretty much my ideal of misanthropic sarcasm. i think we’d be great friends).

still. pushing daisies is definitely worth a look. the dialogue is fast and smart and funny in a manner that’s just dark enough to balance out the super-sweet-pastel-50s style of the aesthetics. i also love kristen cheonoweth - she’s one of those rare, rare people whose voice perfectly matches their physique, and i really appreciate that in an individual. and my favourite visual elements of the show? chuck’s crazy-beautiful of 50s style sundresses, the vintage cars, and the aunt’s wardrobe of impeccably matched eyepatches. i love the distant echo of twin peaks in that last one…

xn.