Ben Aqua

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Australian illustrator Alice Carroll produces quirky and whimsical works. Each piece is a response to a word selected every week in order to keep up the creative tempo – quite an effective method as the results are intriguing. I warmed to her interpretation of ’sour’, in particular, as it captures the word right down to the knee bone, but in a strangely friendly way. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Along with San Francisco and Barcelona, New York is arguably the modern street skating city, both in reality and image. Because of the unique background, experience and perspective of the film’s creators and the decision to “cast” the city of New York as one of the main characters, Deathbowl to Downtown promises to be an unprecedented, seminal film. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

From this artist selection of t-shirts comes this Mydeadpony illustrated t-shirt, silkscreened on a limited edition tee, and distributed in a vinyl sleeve, with a biography of the artist on the back of the sleeve. Every t-shirt is numbered and signed by the artist, and comes in organic cotton.

WE'RE THINKING

I love the colour and textures that permeate Brooklyn illustrator Ilana Kohn’s work. A Pratt graduate, Kohn ‘works mainly through combining traditional painting techniques with various manners of collage and occasional digital media’. Read more

WE'RE READING

From the cutting rooms of Dior through to the backstages of the Babyshambles, and even These New Puritans, it seems former Dior designer Hedi Slimane has seen it all. But his newly published photography concept book — Rock Diary — leaves me asking many questions about the symbiosis of fashion and music, especially the glorification of renowned drug addict Pete Doherty. Read more

This is really amazing, a poignant and richly textured video and sound piece from Brooklyn-based artist, Alex Itin. Read more

WE'RE LISTENING TO

‘I have been trying to go with my whims. Fuck it, let’s make an iPod album’. This statement from Team Genius leader Drew Hermiller was the jumping off point in the creation of the band’s debut self-titled full-length album, one of the most interesting and eclectic pop records of the year. ‘Basically it’s a reaction to the modern way music is consumed and listened to’, Hermiller says. ‘The idea of an album with a focused sound and a complete statement kind of gets lost now-a-days. Everyone shuffles around, so I thought “why not write an album that does the same thing?” Luckily, the band did an awesome job of keeping up with it’. Download a couple of free tracks off the album in our Music Download section [pssst, it's in the third column of the site]