Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen has been called a modern-day Da Vinci, and refers to himself as a ‘kinetic sculptor’. The Dutch artist uses everyday materials like cardboard and balsa wood to make enormous, wind-powered creatures that evoke prehistoric insects and primordial crustaceans that move with eerie and beautiful elegance.
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Also by GERRY MAK
I had to put up with some seriously obnoxious jocks and drunken highschool kids at a recent show featuring flavor-of-the-moment acts that did the whole ecstatic, 80s electro thing that’s so popular these days. Lots of fluorescent colors. I had to blast some death freaking metal when I got home, and Hooded Menace fit the bill perfectly with their doom-leaning, aural assault. Nothing pisses me off more than tepid, uninspired music, and nothing makes me feel more alive than real, gut-wrenching, skull-pounding, giddily sinister heavy metal.
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The bad boy persona in the art world is still alive and well in Australian-born painter and installation artist Anthony Lister. Posing for most photos slumped below his work, cigarette dangling from his lips, Lister is the latest in a long line of somewhat deviant figures in the art world. His work, which generally features superheroes — ‘misguided role models,’ as Lister puts it — has a jerky geometry to them, yet simultaneously a gestural quality reminiscent of 80s art deco, fitting with Lister’s ‘impulsive genius’ image and suggesting a bit of a nod to the cocaine-dusted, heroin-soaked downtown New York scene of 30 years ago. Read more
Heeb magazine founder Jennifer Bleyer recently interviewed me for an article about young creative types on food stamps. The editors at Salon.com decided that I am a hipster. I don’t really know what that means. Judging by the comments that the article generated, I’m some sort of lazy bum who can’t give up my artisinal chevre. I don’t need to go into detail defending my food choices, but all I’d like to say is that I try to buy healthy foods at the lowest prices. I never eat out. I love to cook, and I really need to control what goes into my food, so I cook every meal for myself. I often share with friends. I want to be healthy and I want my friends to be healthy because none of us have health care. Read more
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We checked in with sometime Lost At E Minor contributor and all the time brilliant designer and illustrator, Deanne Cheuk, and asked her what had been keeping her busy of late: ‘I’m curating an issue of Theme magazine; designing some prints for Sue Stemp and Something; and working on new drawings for a show in January 2010 at the Monster Children Gallery in Sydney. In terms of the next big project I have coming up, I have sunglasses that I designed with Colab coming out later this year. Yay!’
When Big Brother means nothing more than a new low in television standards, the warnings of Orwell’s classic 1984 are more poignant than ever. Miniluv — or The Ministry of Love in Oldspeak — is where Winston was brutally tortured, brain-washed and ultimately learned to love Big Brother. And no, he wasn’t watching TV. Wear your highbrow literary tastes with pride. Created by graphic-tee fashion label the-affair and printed on soft American Apparel, this tee is available for purchase through our online store.
TIME magazine’s annual Person of the Year issue is coming out this week. I illustrated one of the runner-ups, but of course, I have to keep my mouth completely shut. I don’t know who is the winner though. On TIME’s website, you can see all the past covers of this most talked about issue of each year. It’s a good time to look back history and learn from it anyway, don’t you think?
I love the bold colours and childlike themes in the illustrations of Atlanta, Georgia-based artist, Jessica Gonacha. It’s like Spring time all year round. Read more
Kirk brings Molly to meet his family for a pool party but she doesn’t have her swim suit. Kirk, an average Joe, can’t believe his luck when gorgeous babe Molly falls for him even though he’s the first to admit She’s Out of My League. In cinemas April 1.
Alice in Wonderland-obsessives take note: the fantastical and whimsically surreal artist, Mark Ryden, will be signing copies of his latest book, The Tree Show, at the MOCA store in Los Angeles on Jan 31st. Read more
Shortstack are a Washington DC band that not many people know about outside of the the city. They recently released an EP of covers with some sweet choices on there — The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, and The Pupils, among others. Once again a band takes different styles, sounds, and time periods, and owns it like an extra finger.
Listen to the Shortstack track, House On Fire.
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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
Greek/Italian artist Angelo Plassas creates flash- based websites that are each interactive pieces of art unto themselves. Read more
The clever folk at Code Organ made a sythesizer that turns webpages into music. Just enter a URL and listen to the sweet, sweet sounds your site produces.
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.
German painter Armin Rohr’s works look like stills from Stan Brakhage films, all acid-washed, scratched out, and ethereal like a sudden flood of memories. Read more
Originating in Shanghai, the Feiyue sneaker first appeared in the 1920s. This small shoe made of light material that has guided the paths of all social classes in China, has crossed continents, arriving in Europe in 2006 where it was picked up by a team of French enthusiasts, fascinated by sneakers and urban culture. Read more
The new Runaways movie looks at the formation of the seminal girls’ group which spawned Joan Jett’s career. We have a Runaways prize pack to give away, including Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits CD, the film’s soundtrack, and Joan Jett’s photobook with Todd Oldham. To enter, just leave the name of the city you live in! Read more
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Jenn Porreca said | 8 March, 2008
Gerry,
I’m sorry that i didn’t see this earlier. I am forever a fan of theo’s work.
I troll his website often for new images, glimpses of ideas. Hoping to visit him some day.