Ambroise Tézenas’s Beijing: Theatre of the People
Right now, the 2008 Beijing Olympics are cleaning up the mess left behind from the millions of people that passed through their city. Their forty billion dollar sporting event has come to a close and fans from around the world will take away memories of an interesting city that opened up to the world like it has never done before. One person in particular, who used China as a backdrop for his phenomenal photography project, was a French photographer by the name of Ambroise Tézenas. He made several visits to China between 2001 and 2005, taking truly innovative photographs. The subsequent book — Beijing: Theatre of the People — is a must, not just for lovers of Eastern culture and photography, but for people inquisitive about ‘a city caught between two worlds, an ancient past and a frenzied present’.
His work reminds me of Dan Holdsworth and Alec Soth, as Tézenas delves deep into the urban Chinese landscape, making some of his shots look otherworldly.
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New York-based designer, and sometime Lost At E Minor contributor, Deanne Cheuk visited Beijing prior to the Olympics as part of the New Grand Tour. We touched in with her to see how she found the experience of being over there: ‘we visited some really modern art galleries, which seemed to be on par with with the best galleries in New York City’.
New York-based designer — and occasional Lost At E Minor contributor — Deanne Cheuk returned recently from a visit to China where she snapped these awesome shots of Beijing. Read more
Chinese artist Xia Xiaowan’s 3D paintings using multiple panes of glass to create depth are simple in concept, but the results are pretty captivating. His pieces look like strange cloud people appearing out of the ether. Read more
Also by ARI STEIN
Ten years of German photographer Jürgen Teller’s candid, glamorous photo campaigns for Marc Jacobs’ men’s and women’s collections have been collated into one cohesive 576-page fashion bible. This book does an excellent job of detailing just how significant this collaboration has been for fashion, featuring appearances from the likes of Sofia Coppola, Charlotte Rampling, Meg White, Thurston Moore, Rufus Wainwright, William Eggleston, and Winona Ryder. Read more
One of the most intriguing stories I’ve come across this year is about a young artist called Yonlu, born Vinicius Gageiro Marques in the town of Porto Alegre, in Brazil. His story is short but fascinating. As it goes, this sixteen year old songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and virtual artist locked himself in his bathroom, signed on to one of the various suicide forums he belonged to on the Internet, and took his own life, remaining online until the very end. After his death, his father went through his computer and found numerous musical creations, including the songs that make up his debut album through Luaka Bop. It’s an amazing listen and very ahead of its time.
Edgar Muller’s three-dimensional street art
Some people are talented, others are just truly remarkable. German artist Edgar Muller makes these three-dimensional apocalyptic fantasy street art in cities across the world. His work is reminiscent of that of English artist, Julian Beever. Read more
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David Laity is all about girls with curves. He places the women he portrays in a position of power. They are in the midst of sexual but subtle poses and are particularly entrancing for their ambiguous expressions. The washed out colours and smooth, voluptuous curves in the drawings exacerbate the sexual undertones, making the images thought-provoking and provocative throughout his body of work.
Along with the greening of brown sites, this has to be one of the answers for a more eco future. To take a large piece of land, to maintain the bulk of it as it is naturally, and then to design a highly dense yet attractive living environment. Read more
Daft Punk eat your heart out! This striking looking watch from Tokyo Flash packs enough LED punch to blind innocent bystanders.
Oh man! I just want to curl up inside one of Will Cotton’s artworks and immerse myself in the sweetness of its surrounds. Read more
Epsilon is a cool game inspired by the activation of the real-life particle accelerator, the LHC, in the CERN lab in Switzerland. Read more
The issue of abortion has hardly ever been represented so honestly by a movie. Knocked Up and Juno gave the pro-choice movement a boost, and of those two, only Juno came close to confronting the issue. In the Princess of Nebraska, the main character suffers through indecision, naivety and turmoil that seem much closer to reality. Read more
Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a dark force dwells. Wolves in the Throne Room are one of the most inspired and original black metal bands in America (and in the world, for that matter). Read more
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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
Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
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
Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more
1970s and 80s Soviet Union buildings
Cambodian born photographer Frederic Chaubin is the editor of French magazine Citizen K. His photo series on bizarre buildings built in the former Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s is absolutely fascinating. 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
Lads, this is one to keep your girl smiling. Made from a sterling silver band, with 18K yellow gold and a 0.07 carat ruby, this ring by Satomi Kawakita is absolutely stunning. We have it for sale in the Lost At E Minor online store. Read more
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