20090923

Inez + Vinoodh's Art and Commerce editorial for Oct. '09's W Magazine



[brilliant.]

Soooooo.... okay. We're having a trial separation with Blogger, but have been breathlessly posting our hearts away on our tumblr - but we HAD to post this amazing editorial shot by the incredible Dutch duo Inez va Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. *allllll of it.

These pairings are so so so smart.

*And we LOVE Freja and Raquel!






[*yli]

Photo Source: W Magazine
Slideshow created by *yli factory
Music: "Black Flowers" Yo La Tengo

20090531

guess who's bizzzack!


our posts have been freed! 

oh gosh, did you miss us?

it's been so long.


stay tuned!


xoxo 



[*yli]


20090406

GEN ART FIlm Festival




did anyone go?


anyone?


Bueller?



We were @ Antik last nightthismorning  which also happened to be having a party for one of the films.
Pretty much everyone agreed that they were @ the party for the film festival, however we could not find a soul who knew which film in particular was being lauded that night. 

            *ouch?


[*yli]

20090329

CYCLE & Morning Breath @ Ad Hoc Gallery


Okay seriously? 

we. love. ad. hoc. gallery.


We are LOVING what they're doing, what they're about, and who they are supporting in this community of contemporary artists. Every single one of their upcoming shows through to Jan 2010 has a sexy purple parking spot on our iCal.

*if you knew how we felt about Brooklyn, you'd understand how epic that was.

**don't get us wrong, we don't hate Brooklyn... but a gnarly roommate experience soured us on BK for a bit - we're over it ;-)  /TMI moment.


Sooooo, in the spirit of our street art obsessions this week - we got into Morning Breath & CYCLE's show at Ad Hoc on Sunday.

*psssssh CYCLE and SWOON in one week? Get into what we're into, kids. It will give you life, that's a promise.

We are loving this street art/graphic design fusion into the world of fine art. We've had numerous debates with some of our more conservative peers about the "place" those particular genres hold in the contemporary art world and artists like CYCLE and Morning Breath (the duo Jason Noto & Doug Cunningham) are the reason why. The work in this show was undeniably art. Case. Closed.


*case. closed.



[ *yli ]


Photo Source: email




20090325

SXSWerly shindig @ MoMA: Department of Eagles premiers their video for "No One Does It Like You" directed by Patrick Daughters and Dzama


....




Well, we love Dzama, and we also LOVE Poprally's program @ MoMA, but the enjoyment factor? Tough call. It was o.k.

To be fair, we'd come off of a late lunch after a stressful day - the last 45 mins or so of which was spent with our friend trying to convince us it was going to be a drag - even though heading to this thing was the whole purpose of our lunch:

"it's going to be like a mini SXSW.Layyme."

"you know like, what? ONE song by Department of Eagles?"

"the vid will be on youtube by midnight, and you can get the poster in the shop tomorrow."

"$50 says Patrick Daughters will have come and gone in the time it takes us to catch a cab."

"I don't feel like going."

                                  *Be that way, raincloud.


So, we went alone. Solely for the love of Dzama. We love Dzama - was this mentioned already?
Our day was kind of rubbish so free cocktails & a quickie concert? It felt prescribed, and also kind of perfect that we could hit it solo, just in case we wanted to grab a drink, our free poster, and bounce. 
 
Pooper Lunch Buddy's assessment was about %60 correct.

The DoE set was quite SXSW-y.    
*do you like this shade? the colour is "Not Surprised."

 The Grolsch was beer-y. The water was flask-y. The Q&A was drag-y. Patrick Daughters  was indeed absent and kicked it via satelite - but he was quick witt-y. The poster was poster-y, and the video was kook-y.

Fin.


                                 *all in all? Cool set, we loved the vid, the scene was waste of time-y and Marcel Dzama? Kinda dream-y.


[*yli]




Photo Source: moma.org

                                      

20090318

Faces/Recent Works Aimé Mpané


Our first introduction to Aimé Mpané was about 2 years ago. We'd seen his first US show "Bach to Congo" at Skoto Gallery back in '07 and were completely and irreversibly affected by his work. One piece in particular, a woodcut print 

from his "Woodpecker Series" left us so brokenhearted we flaked on our plans the rest of that day and spent the night researching organizations that help the children of the Congo *conflict.

*it's not a "conflict." We only use the term Congo conflict because it is google searchable and we're providing a link to an organization dedicated to helping these kids. Fundamentally, this is a war and these children need as much help as they can get.

So, we'd been looking forward to seeing more from him for quite some time and we were more than ready to return to Skoto - we'd only been there twice before coming to see "Faces", once being to see Mpané's "Bach to Congo" and once before that for Obiora Udechuwu's  solo show (where we were honoured to have meet Chinua Achebe *!!!!!!!!) so Skoto has a very special place in our hearts. Each time we've gone, we've left feeling deeply touched and re-connected.


"Faces" was haunting. Haunting. 

The matchstick installations were again incredible. The series that kept our breath in particular, was the "Face" series in which he's used an adze to mine the faces of children out of wood panels - some are chipped gently into the wood and painted with detail, some so savagely hacked that there was no face left to paint. Some sad, some tragic, some serene, all powerful.  The show will be up until the 21st, it is not. to. be. missed.


Skoto Gallery:
529 West 20th Street
5th floor
212.352.8079

[*yli]


Photo Source: skotogallery.com
"Untitled I, 2008"
Aimé Mpané 2008
mixed media on wood panel, 32cmx78cm




20090315

We Came for Swoon...


*and stayed for Tod Sieele, YUM.

So yesterday was the benefit silent auction for "Swimming Cities of Serenissima." We bought a crapload of raffle tickets but won't know if we won any of Swoon's work until the 26th. Keep your fingers crossed for us kiddos! 
This was seriously ridiculous amounts of fun - and we almost didn't go.
We'd begun our day mid afternoon on a belly full of coffee wandering about Design Within Reach looking for a little gift with which to bribe a friend of ours (hey Xen!) into letting us tag along with her to SXSW.

Heavily caffeinated, we went to momofuku to kill the twitches with spicy noodles, shitake buns, and considerable amounts of ginga kogen. Needless to say after that we were in no mood to trek to Brooklyn to watch a fleet of found object ships drift about.

*we don't even really like beer but sometimes it just...goes.

Long prelude short, we ran into, *get ready for this now... our friend's ex-roommate's, ex-studio mate's, ex-fiance, who was also planning to attend and we were re-motivated. Especially since we are fans of Swoon's work and we love the kooky kids of Secret Project Robot.  
*Plus they promised us a party 'til the wee hours, gotta luv that. 

get into their website and all the collaborators that made this love fest happen and try to catch their send-off party scheduled for the 21st and support support support if you can.

[ *yli ]

Photo Source: swimmingcities.org
Photo Credit: Tod Sieele