Removed from a wall in Croydon it cost them £30,000 to buy and restore it.
Watch them walk away empty handed on C4's new show 'Four Rooms' here.
Tuesday 31 May 2011
Four Rooms. Two Idiots.
Tonight saw a couple of muppets turn down £240,000 for a Banksy.
Removed from a wall in Croydon it cost them £30,000 to buy and restore it.
Watch them walk away empty handed on C4's new show 'Four Rooms' here.
Removed from a wall in Croydon it cost them £30,000 to buy and restore it.
Watch them walk away empty handed on C4's new show 'Four Rooms' here.
Monday 30 May 2011
Art meets Film
A new film portrait of Lindsay Lohan by artist Richard Phillips.
A recent exhibition 'Motion Pictures' at MOMA in New York scaled up twelve Screen Tests and projected them on the gallery walls seven feet high by nine feet wide. Warhol shot the portraits at the standard speed for sound film (24 frames per second), but specified that they should be projected at 16 frames per second, the conventional projection speed for silent films in the early period of cinema. Played on a silent loop it gives them an eerie, timeless quality, especially considering most if not all of the subjects are now dead.
Sunday 29 May 2011
Hooper Turner
Stumbled across this American artist last week. Hooper Turner's subject is fashion magazines and shopping catalogues, recreating them on canvas in every detail.
Or in his words...
"I love and hate advertising. Advertising targets suckers, the naïve consumers who are convinced they can purchase the fantasies in the richly printed catalogues or imagine themselves the protagonist of arousing editorial spreads in fashion magazines. The truth is that desire doesn’t function rationally; I can’t sit calmly analyzing the semiotics of commercial imagery, carefully dissecting the palette of references that some photographer and creative director have decided will sell the season’s line."
"Like every other sucker, I get too involved. I have to make paintings of the images that fascinate me and of the many objects I can’t afford. By painting them, spending many hours looking and remaking, I learn the image, explore the details, and hope to see the pictures with new eyes. The paintings become larger than the source and much more materially present. Sometimes I notice the Old Master reference in the pose or the unforeseen crops and strange angles found only in photographs. I wonder why the doorknob for purchase looks so much like a piece of coral instead of like a doorknob. I wish I knew what the woman with her head turned away is contemplating and realize that if someone were voyeuristically watching me, they would see me in the same absorbed reverie."
"I am honest with my paintings and paint what I like. They are not my private vision but rather a collection of our ideals and archetypes. I often include the text, which can create a dissonant note when juxtaposed with the image. Words and pictures coexist in tension, and the strain is intensified in a painting. In the best of my paintings, the stress is enough to force both artist and viewer to confront our desires. Rather than anxiously judge them, we learn more about ourselves."
Saturday 28 May 2011
Gone shopping...
It was inspired by the tutoring, writing, and publishing organization in America, 826 National. To raise funds, inspire creativity, and advertise their courses their writing centres feature fun themed shop fronts with imaginative products on sale inside.
Friday 27 May 2011
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Great Documentary. Great Soundtrack.
Monday saw the first in a series of documentaries about how computers have failed to liberate us and instead distort and simplify our view of the world around us. Watch it here.
The title was taken from a poem by American poet Richard Brautigan.
'All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace'
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
Sunday 22 May 2011
'C'était un rendez-vous' short film
Avec le 'vroom vroom'...
Avec le Snow Patrol...
If you're bored (and if you're reading this you probably are) you can sync the two films by starting them at 2:46 and 0:10 respectively then race the two cars using the Pause and Play buttons. Trust me, the minutes will fly by...
Saturday 21 May 2011
'Hint Fiction'
A story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story...
Robert Swartwood coined the term and published a book with a hundred such stories by known and unknown authors. The result is quite random, here are a few of the more interesting ones...
'They buried him deep. Again.' Joe Lansdale
'Broke and desperate, I kidnapped myself. Ransom notes were sent to interested parties. Later, I sent hair and fingernails, too. They insisted on an ear.' Stuart Dybek
'The school bus picks us up first so we claim the back seats. Make the white kids sit up front.' Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
I plan to have a go myself but the shorter the story, the harder it is to write...
Mark Twain once received this telegram from a publisher:
NEED 2 PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.
He responded:
NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.
CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.
NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.
Talking of telegrams...
The novelist Victor Hugo, anxious to know about sales of his newly-published Les Misérables, sent one to his publisher.
It simply read: “?”
The reply was: “!”
It doesn't get more succinct than that.
Robert Swartwood coined the term and published a book with a hundred such stories by known and unknown authors. The result is quite random, here are a few of the more interesting ones...
'They buried him deep. Again.' Joe Lansdale
'Broke and desperate, I kidnapped myself. Ransom notes were sent to interested parties. Later, I sent hair and fingernails, too. They insisted on an ear.' Stuart Dybek
'The school bus picks us up first so we claim the back seats. Make the white kids sit up front.' Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
I plan to have a go myself but the shorter the story, the harder it is to write...
Mark Twain once received this telegram from a publisher:
NEED 2 PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.
He responded:
NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.
CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.
NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.
Talking of telegrams...
The novelist Victor Hugo, anxious to know about sales of his newly-published Les Misérables, sent one to his publisher.
It simply read: “?”
The reply was: “!”
It doesn't get more succinct than that.
Wednesday 18 May 2011
In-flight entertainment
Space shuttle Endeavour captured by 33 year old Stefanie Gordon on board a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Florida.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Sunday 15 May 2011
A Legend Reborn
This is our latest ad. The story of Chivas Reagal 25.
A story brought to life using hundreds of archive photographs and months of painstaking animation under the supervision of directors Alon and Shay at th1ng.
We owe those guys a drink methinks.
Rock 'n chair
Today's Sunday Times Culture section...
Neil Diamond 70
Cliff Richard 70
Roger Daltrey 67
Jon Bon Jovi 49
Rod Stewart 66
Bryan Adams 51
Ringo Starr 70
Larry King 77
Catch them while you still can.
Tuesday 10 May 2011
Monday 9 May 2011
Spot the difference
Last week thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes as the Mississippi River burst its banks.
Not to waste an opportunity Debbie Ricketts spent the day recreating an Airwick ad we made last year.
Thanks for the photo Debbie.
Saturday 7 May 2011
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Get on my land!
They say there's only one way to make a small fortune in farming...
Start with a large one.
This week a real life farm will be taken over by web users across the world who will vote on key decisions taken on its cattle, pigs, sheep and crops.
The MyFarm Experiment will hand over power at the National Trust's 2,500-acre Wimplole Estate Farm in Cambridgeshire to 10,000 members of the public who will choose which bull to buy, which crops to plant and whether or not to turn the lower field into a cannabis plantation.
Wannabe online farmers will pay a one-off £30 fee to join, which also allows them to visit the farm in person. Alternatively there's still Farmville, the other virtual farming game which currently has 47 million players a month and is still Facebook's most popular game.
Start with a large one.
This week a real life farm will be taken over by web users across the world who will vote on key decisions taken on its cattle, pigs, sheep and crops.
The MyFarm Experiment will hand over power at the National Trust's 2,500-acre Wimplole Estate Farm in Cambridgeshire to 10,000 members of the public who will choose which bull to buy, which crops to plant and whether or not to turn the lower field into a cannabis plantation.
Wannabe online farmers will pay a one-off £30 fee to join, which also allows them to visit the farm in person. Alternatively there's still Farmville, the other virtual farming game which currently has 47 million players a month and is still Facebook's most popular game.
United States of Idiots
Fox News reports the death of President Obama...
Fox News reports the death of 'Usama' Bin Laden...
Time Square sticks a cherry on it.
Monday 2 May 2011
Living in a box
This is the 'Safe House' designed by Polish architects KWK Promes.
The property boasts 6,100 sq. ft of floor space, indoor swimming pool and giant movie projection screen.
It also transforms into a fortress at the touch of a panic button.
These guys live in a box too, only there's isn't made of reinforced concrete.
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