beautiful things: the strange acessories and interiors of eunsuk hur

i honestly can’t figure out the context of this work (or, perhaps, its purpose), not least because the biography section of the site comes up with a blank page (always unhelpful).  but whatever hur’s work ‘is’, it is undoubtedly beautiful, which i do appreciate in and of itself.  i love the textures, but most of all i am enchanted by the blending of wearable and interior art – i’m fascinated by the confusion of the wearable/non-wearable divide.

and those 3-dimensional wallpapers are pretty damn stunning.  again, i’m not sure whether this is the purpose of the work, but i’m taking what i can get and running with it (though ‘nomadic wonderland’?  ‘nomadic’ is one of those generic ‘ethnic’ reference words which i’m really not sure can ever be applied ’well’ to an object or collection thereof.  it’s like calling something ‘tribal’; so generic it actually means nothing, but evocative of some romanticised ‘primative’, and thus culturally appropriatory none the less).

unfortunately the website is enough to drive a person crazy – particularly if one happens not to be possessed of the world’s speediest internet connection – waiting for every picture to load really kills the visual impact.  i know the theiving of images is a big concern for a lot of artists, and ostensibly flash prevents this – or at least makes it a little more complex – but i have to admit it’s not an argument that holds much water, to my mind.  the price for making people sit around and tap their fingers whilst waiting for your work to load is just too high; i’m pretty sure i stumbled across hur’s site on 3 separate occasions before i actually made it far enough through the frustration to see any beautiful photographs.

plus.  why refuse free press?  or: for more information refer to this article by asia-pacific artist hazel dooney.  it has some rather compelling arguments for making your images as thievable as possible (and simply watermarking obsessively).

 

what do you reckon?  better to control your images absolutely, or let people use them and just make sure anyone who sees it knows it’s yours?

beautiful things: eva wylie and sally smart

eva wylie, close to (near berserk), silkscrene of fabric and mixed media, philadelphia international airport, 2006.

today i am enamoured of the work of philidelphian eva wylie, who does a mixture of collage, installation, and walpaper-art – this last being something i particularly love, and come across rarely. (i found wylie via oh joy! - lucky me)

sally smart, the exquisite pirate, 2004-7

the first ‘wallpaper-artist’ i discovered was sally smart, and i’ve been enchanted ever since (i saw one of her works for the exquisite pirate just the other day).  it’s such an under-utilised medium, and such a delicate and intriguing mixture of the tactile and the two-dimensional.   it’s also an art-form that is very ‘feminine’ – or at least designated as such – because of it’s obvious roots in the ’domestic’ and ‘decorative’ arts; but smart’s work is exhibited in some of the most prestigeous galleries in the world, which is pretty amazing when you think about it, and a pretty brilliantly subtle appropriation of public space through ‘private’ (ie, ‘feminine’) art.