art18 Jun 2007 11:19 am
my 15 mins comes in bits and pieces
I love it when I can feel like a real photographer: http://www.dcist.com/2007/06/15/the_weekly_feed_4.php
art
Brian and I saw Helvetica last night. If you ever need to be inspired that words (literally the *words*) have power, this is a brilliant example. This film was a love letter to and a rant against helvetica and it totally inspired me to be more conscious of the fonts I choose.
Sadly, I can’t think of the last time I used helvetica deliberately. It was the standard font of my Mac youth and when I was given the opportunity to choose between several fonts, tired old helvetica got the shaft. When I swapped back and forth from Mac at home and PC at work, I switched over to arial, which seemed “newer” me. (And after reading this article I think that that part of my life is better left forgotten.) Eventually, even arial seemed dull and I became enamoured of verdana for everyday use for both screen and print, Tw Cen MT, when I felt “modern,” and garamond when I was feeling pretentious.
Now I say, Viva La Helvetica!
art17 Dec 2006 11:37 am
I was in Brooklyn last weekend and checked out the Ron Mueck exhibit with my brother. Mueck is not an artist that you ever want to drop acid and look at. I was freaking out in a sober state and I can’t stop thinking about it.
His pieces are realer than real. Every little detail is perfect. and not perfect like a porcelain doll, but perfect in the way that humans are. The scars, the wrinkles, the visibility of veins underneath skin, toenails, arm hair, pubic hair, elbows—everything was human-looking and scary as hell.
There was a 20-foot-long freshly born baby (with umbilical cord) that looked like she was about to roll over and start crying. A tiny couple spooning in bed - their flesh sagging in just the right way. I wouldn’t have been surprised if any of the pieces got up from where they were and started walking around.
I think the issue I have is how far these sculptures played with my perception of reality. In the room next to the sculptures was an Annie Liebowitz exhibit. Now her photographs are beautiful because of the detail and the depth of the prints - how much essence of the subject is captured in two-dimensions. Because it’s 2-D, I’m pretty confident of the line between subject and viewer - I know where I stand in relation to the people she has photographed. I can stand 2 inches away from them and I know they aren’t going to reach out and grab me. Mueck’s work has just as much depth and passion as Liebowitz’s but it’s in 3-D, the lines are blurred, and I’m not so sure if his subjects are friendly. creepy