James Jirat Patradoon
Sydney-based artist, James Jirat Patradoon on his career defining moment: ‘If I could trace my artistic inspiration back to one event, it would have to be the Neo Tokyo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001. I had never seen art like that before; I didn’t know you could be so playful with it. I vividly remember the Yoshitomo Nara sculptures made out of bandages, and Kenji Yanobe’s atom suit and Godzilla/Astro Boy sculptures that blew bubbles. It was just so fun. I think because a lot of Japanese art contains references to pop culture, it’s more accessible for audiences. They aren’t so intimidated by it because it can be quite light-hearted but still have a serious undertone to it’.
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Also by NATALIE LIECHTI
Current UK beat-boxing champ, Beardyman, recently kept impatient crowds entertained between sets at London’s Lovebox Weekender. We spoke to the Brighton resident about his offbeat style: ‘I’ve been doing it since I was a baby, but I never knew it was called beat-boxing. I thought it was just a habit, like biting your nails, and people were always telling me to stop. Being a good beat-boxer is a mixture between being a good DJ, a cheesy street magician and a vocal athlete’.
A haven for all things creative,
With distribution as far-reaching as Japan, Australia, Spain and the UK, bi-monthly magazine FACT has been covering the best in music and art since 2003 – and best of all, it’s free. We spoke to editor, Sean Bidder: ‘We were, and still are, in love with magazines — and looked back to two particular periods for inspiration – what we considered to be the “golden age” of magazine publishing in the 1930s, when art and lifestyle magazines were beautifully produced products, and to the thrilling, vital and independent DIY fanzine culture that first sprung up in the 1960s’. Read more
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Build your next bike at Bamboo Bikes Studio, who help cyclists build their own custom, bamboo-framed bicycles. The organization, in partnership with the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Millennium Cities Initiative, uses revenue to subsidize sustainable bamboo bike factories in Africa and South America.
I checked out the Armory Show in Manhattan a couple of weeks back and amongst the aisles of impressive contemporary art I was particularly taken by the work of Japanese artist, Mahomi Kunikata, whose vibrant and colorful paintings are full of mischievous characters and ‘joy joy’ sentimentality.
Artist Bill Zeman has an ruthless, hard-nosed art director giving him orders — his four-year-old daughter. He posts the products of their stormy collaboration along with her devastating critiques on his blog, Tiny Art Director, where you can also purchase the book version. Read more
The highly polished electronic sound of Minneapolis band UltraChorus falls somewhere between Hot Chip and Phoenix, bringing a cut and paste indie rock aesthetic to late nineties Hip-Hop and R&B. We have their debut single, Words Kept Talking [listen below], available for free download in our Music Download section.
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This is my favorite place in New York to spend a Sunday afternoon. No, I’m not talking about Central Park. But rather, The Park, a restaurant in Chelsea which took its name from its past life as a parking garage. Read more
I don’t get Flight of The Concords. I just don’t find it funny. I also don’t get most comedy these days. It’s so derivative and clichéd. Everyone wants the same laughs. I like comedy that pushes the boundaries in strange ways. Fonejack is one underground unit that have had me rolling around on the floor with their real life skits. Read more
The people at Nixon have created a simple but funky watch for those carefree days. The Time Teller P features a basic design made up of durable materials, spiced up with some unconventional colours. Read more
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Oslo artist Gry E.Pedersen blends digital artwork and photos, but her generally experimental artwork also includes more traditional forms of paintings. Read more
Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. Read more
I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.
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There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
Diane Koss’ recycled bottle monsters
Check out Diane Koss’ amazing handmade stuffed monsters if you’re looking for a last-minute gift. Her mostly cycloptic creatures are fashioned from felt made from one hundred percent recycled plastic bottles. Read more
This beautiful archival pigment print by New York-based illustrator, Fernanda Cohen, is called Fashion Ruined My Life. And it speaks for itself. Just look at her face! We have it for sale for just $75 in the Lost At E Minor online store. Read more
We’ve just updated the Lost At E Minor iPhone app in the iTunes store with some new features. It’s a daily snapshot of the latest content from the site. You can download it now. Win? Well, it’s free. So you win, we win. Snap!
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come clean said | 13 September, 2007
I find that Japan is a great place to be inspired by art. There seems to be a lot more of it as part of everyday life than other places I have visited.