Mike Nelson at Creative Time
Entering Mike Nelson’s exhibition in a dilapidated garage on New York’s Lower East Side, I’m signing a release form exempting Creative Time from any responsibility should I be injured, or die, while checking out ‘A Psychic Vacuum’. I was curious to see what socio-cultural hotpot he was gonna stir, but after signing that, I’m totally seduced, just by the potential danger of it all. Racy it may seem, but the ensuing exhibition is about as sexy as Dubya in a garter belt. Though it manages to arouse more than a few dust reactive sneezes, digging up buried fears of a global apocalypse that feels far too close right now. Known for his large-scale architectural installations, Nelson’s turned an irrelevant warehouse-like space into a haunted house of hard cultural truths tackling American values, religion, and war in its spookiest caverns. Nelson’s installations are fleeting, this experience ends October 28.
- 0
- 0
Also by SACHA VUKIC
The Depreciation Guild is two guys and a Famicom. That’s techno for a certain brand of gaming hardware — Nintendo. The result is an intoxicating swirl of shoegaze dreampop and electro artfulness that leaves you swooning. Kurt Feldman and Christoph Hochheim take notes from My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Cocteau Twins, as well as more contemporary acts like M83 and Ulrich Schnauss. Hmmm. Taking your beloved old school Nintendo Entertainment System to unexpected concert-hall packing potential; now there’s an idea! Their album — In Her Gentle Jaws — is available for free download via their website. [hear also the music of fellow Brooklynites, Yeasayer]
Listen to The Depreciation Guild track, Sky Ghosts.
DFA Records need little introduction to dancefloor devotees, but Hold On, a recent release by lesser known artist Holy Ghost!, may not be on the radar just yet. It will be though: we nominate it for track most likely to receive stereo overplay.
It’s either the eye-pop effect of his palette or the graffiti tag sensibility of the brushstrokes that endear David Reed’s new paintings to me. They just seem familiar. In what can feel like an austere and exclusive world of high culture and Chelsea art openings, his solo show opened with a mix of 20-something hipsters and beret-topped collectors. So it seemed like Reed achieved what his bio outlined as his original premise — to re-contextualize abstract painting within a greater visual culture. His exhibition runs at New York’s Max Protetch Gallery until December 22.
YOU'RE SAYING (0)
No comments yet.
HAVE YOUR SAY
“Black ink warlock” Justin Bartlett has done some of my favorite metal album covers of late, such as the one for Bohemian Grove’s Age of Retrogression and Pentemple’s self-titled record. His outsider-ish style reminds me a bit of the work of Rudimentary Peni frontman, Nick Blinko, but he has much more sophisticated sense of design and layout. Read more
One of the things that hotels, and international hotel brands in particular, are often criticised for is a lack of identity, the feeling of being somewhere but nowhere simultaneously. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. One of the emerging trends in the industry is the personalization of hotels around a style or a theme, so feast your eye on 7 of the coolest and most individual themed hotels from around the world! Read more
When my uber-creative and slightly eccentric twin brother announced one day that chainmail would be making a return, it only confirmed that he’d missed out on the fashion genes. But after checking out the fingerless chainmail glove in Toby Jones’ new collection — My hands are tied — it now appears he had a legitimate vision. Working a look straight out of a Mad Max scene, Jones’ designs will have us accessorizing in true post-apocalyptic style, using everyday objects as adornment. But you don’t need to be cruising around town in a black Interceptor to appreciate them. Be your own character with chain swinging padlocks and multi-purpose shoelaces. It’s about time you got your hands into something different.
Oh wow. The illustration work of Brooklyn based James Blagden is amazing. The colours leap out like flouro socks in a mid-80s Wham clip. Read more
Grace is part of a new series of books by author Dale Cusack. The story chronicles the lives of Grace and her feline companion Boot in their struggle to fight the evil Drawl and the cover illustration was done by Auckland-based artist, and Lost At E Minor contributor, Dennis Juan Ma. We asked him about what shaped the colour choices for the piece: ‘I wanted to create a mystery world within the reality. I wanted the colour to encourage readers to stimulate their imagination. I illustrated the covers with a classical Japanese wood block look to show the oriental flavour of the cat’s world. And it just happens that I’m a wood block art fan’. Read more
You heard it here first. Singer-songwriter Julian Perretta might just become the most exciting new artist of 2008. Read more
There’s a world-weariness about Two Gallants frontman Adam Stephens. It reveals itself in the Tom Waits-like raspiness that permeates his gin house drawl and in the talkin’ blues narratives that he weaves around his simple acoustic fingerpicking. They are the new superstars of the West Coast scene, majestic showmen in homespun rags.
Listen to the Two Gallants track, The hand that held you down.
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Yum, yum, cupcakes are fun. These creations are so clever, so arty, so damn bizarre that it would almost be a shame to eat them. Almost! Read more
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
The knuckle sandwich charm necklace by This Charming Man features two pieces of bread on either side of a tiny set of brass knuckle dusters. Rad huh? Get yours now for $140. Read more
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
