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

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 

*this one

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

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