Art - Portable.tv

Yum Yum Hits The Nail On The Head

2010-09-07T16:07:13Z

Animated Short no.1 from Yum Yum London on Vimeo.

Beth Algieri and Jonny Plummer of London studio Yum Yum know that sometimes life can be struggle after frustration after giant meat obliteration. Post watching this twee little animation we couldn’t help but slap our knees and laugh gleefully looking at each other with “totally, right??” expressions on our faces. With perfect comedic timing, candy-coloured characters and a sweet tongue-in-cheek approach, this animation perfectly captures the fun-soaked creative vision of Yum Yum. Check out their website to view their other playful and clever animations, illustrations and designs.

panoptICONS

2010-09-06T12:28:49Z

panoptICONS Utrecht 2010 from Helden on Vimeo.

If you weren’t forced to endure a horrid class on media theories in your first year of university (lucky!), the word “Panopticon” might be totally foreign to you. It was a name given, in 1785, to a prison building, whose designed allowed prisoners to be observed at all times, without being able to do any observing of their own. It’s also used as a contemporary metaphor for things like CCTV and shows like Big Brother.

The idea’s been re-imagined recently by Thomas voor ’t Hekke and Bas van Oerle, two dutch artists whose project panoptICONS “addresses the fact that you are constantly being watched by surveillance cameras in city centres.”

By attaching their own surveillance cameras to the bodies of birds and placing them throughout the city centre of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the artists are demonstrating how such invasions of privacy “feed on our presence”.

Poster Boy vs. Museum of Modern Art

2010-09-02T15:01:26Z

Poster Boy: Gone Fishin from kskill on YouTube

In February last year, New York’s Museum of Modern Art hired a guy called Doug Jaeger to design some subway ads for their most extensive and expensive advertising campaign ever. Rather than trying to fight against vandalartist Poster Boy and his razor-wielding buds (who would, inevitably, want to make some adjustments to the self-adhesive re-creations of the gallery’s most famous works), Jaeger recruited him. Dressed in official MoMA jackets, they were allowed total access and privacy to an entire subway tunnel-cum-gallery and Poster Boy relished the opportunity to freely cut and paste the advertisements.

Then Jaeger got fired from the museum.

While the conspiracy theorists had a field day declaring it an obvious and clever marketing attempt on MoMa’s part (an art museum hired a guy to get them publicity, then they fired him for getting an artist involved, which got them heaps of publicity), it’s only now that we get a sneaky peek at what went on the night P-Boy and Jaeger remixed the posters, thanks to a video by Keith Haskell, who we have to thank for a bunch of “spend time with Poster Boy”-type videos.

We’d love to know what you think went down in the MoMA/Jaeger/Poster Boy saga. See what Gawker, Juxtapoz and Vulture had to say about it, and let us know where you stand!

Everfresh: Blackbook

2010-09-01T16:28:26Z

If you live in Melbourne and you’re unfamiliar with the Everfresh crew, then it’s possible you’re an impostor and are not from Melbourne after all (wat?). The local collective – comprised of artists, Makatron, Meggs, Phibs, Prizm, Reka, Rone, Sync, The Tooth, and Wonderlust – have been shaping the urban landscape since 2003, and are responsible for some of the city’s most revered public art displays. In fact, you know how people say that in London, you’re never more than nine-feet from a rat? Well, in Melbourne, you’re never more than nine-feet from an Everfresh piece.

This month, the group will be launching their highly anticipated Blackbook (deets below!), comprised of an extensive archive of photos, stories and artworks. Hardback editions are available for $80AUD, and are hand-signed and limited to 500 copies. For more information, or to place a pre-order, check out the official Everfresh website.

MELBOURNE: Friday 03 September, 2010. 6-11pm
1000 £ Bend, 361 Lt Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
with DJ Camo /J-Red / The Operatives

SYDNEY: Friday 10 September, 2010. 6-9pm
aMBUSH Gallery, 4a James Street, Waterloo

TOKYO: Friday 24 September, 6-9pm
PLMLIS Gallery

ART MEMES.

2010-09-01T11:46:37Z

1. After updating his website last week, and confirming his hand in a few suspected pieces in Hastings and Glastonbusy, Banksy is back, with a new installation in the seaside town of Brighton. The piece, entitled Pier Pressure, features a tuna net-draped dolphin attempting to jump over a leaking barrel of BP-branded oil. Locals seem to be feeling it.

2. Portland can now add ‘Badass Mario Kart Bike Lanes’ next to ‘Nike’ on the list of Kewl Things Our Town Has To Offer. Pretty sure Art Alexakis was born there, too.

3. Last July, Yoko Ono gave a lil' performance at MoMA, aptly (?) titled, Voice Piece For Soprano. As much as I would love to leave snarky comments about how it sounds like she’s having sex with a refrigerator, the truth is that I actually think this is pretty cool. Ono encouraged museum visitors to join in on the action, and the results were amplified throughout the building.

4. The pièce de résistance, y'all.

Swanski in Cologne

2010-08-30T14:07:49Z

Swanski live painting cologne august 2010 on YouTube

German street artist Swanski took the guys from Cologne’s Arty Farty Gallery outside to show what can be done with a blank canvas and a little paint.

Never mind the fact that this “blank canvas” is actually the side of a building and a crane is required to get the paint onto it- this is art for the people, man! It’s simply created and displayed for everyone to enjoy. If you’re hanging out in Cologne, head to Niehler Kirchweg 124 and take a peek.

via wooster collective

A Night with JonOne

2010-08-30T13:34:54Z

A Night with JonOne

A collaboration between online magazine BRKW and director Narbru this short doco explores French/American painter and graffiti artist JonOne and his practices as we are taken into his studio and home.

JonOne in an intriguing artist. Although his approach to his art may seem unconventional his theories behind them are practical. He never set out to make money from his art, nor does he believe that he is the most talented artist of his generation, in fact far from it. Having been compared to Kandinsky but drawing inspiration from street graffers, JonOne is humble, slightly eccentric and constantly counting his blessings.

His works burst with color and appear to be a dizzying visual representation of his labyrinth of thoughts, emotions and ideas. At only ten minutes in length and with an incredibly strange yet hilarious last scene ‘A night with Jonone’ is a great insight into the mind of an incredibly unique artist, even if it leaves you thinking ‘what the hell is this guy on..?!’

Karl Addison's Naptime

2010-08-26T15:50:19Z

Nap Time – Painting In Berlin from karl addison on Vimeo.

For his new public work, Berlin artist Karl Addison left his sketchbooks at home and took his markers to the walls of an abandoned beer factory to create Naptime.

His back-to-basics approach to drawing – all clean lines and cross-hatching – has won Addison a bunch of fans, including our favourite Park Slope tea house owner Moby, who likes the odd Addison-designed T-shirt.

World Basketball Festival / Make Something!! workshops

2010-08-25T16:30:00Z

To coincide with Nike’s World Basketball Festival, the sportswear giant got together with Make Something!! and held a series of workshops in New York. Among the artists roped in to assist with the program was V Magazine editor, Emma Reeves, Cassette Playa’s Carri Mundane, and celebrated photographer, Ari Marcopoulos.

In the embedded video above, Marcopolous demonstrates his D.I.Y. zine making abilities to a bunch of teenagers, who, in turn, produce their own little photocopied artefact. If you’re like me, and you’re reading this article in a city that is, A) Not New York, B) Currently freezing cold, and C) Not kewl enough to have had Make Something!! workshops when you were growing up, you might want to avoid watching. It’s depressing, really. Watch this instead.

[via Opening Ceremony]

Alexa Meade's Artistic Deception

2010-08-23T13:12:37Z

Incredible pop-out painter from AlJazeeraEnglish on YouTube

You know that feeling you get when you look at a portrait and it’s so life-like that you have to tell yourself it’s not just a person sitting behind a frame? The work of Alexa Meade is going to cause you to do double- and triple-takes next time you’re in the gallery.

Her pieces are a cross between traditional portraiture and performance art and plays with our perceptions and our idea of reality. A piece by Alexa looks like an oil painting of a person, and it’s not until that person blinks or exhales that you realise she’s painted around and on top of a model.

After you watch the video above and have picked your jaw up off the floor, check out the rest of her mind-blowing works here.

Florian Jenett's Perfect Cube

2010-08-19T13:16:20Z

One Perfect Cube from Florian Jenett on Vimeo.

Artist Florian Jenett has officially blown our minds for the day. After engineering custom software and calculating that, in 12 hours, three synchronised wall clocks can produce a possible 43,200 “constellations”, Jenett photographed the clocks over 24 hours, sped it all up and handed the world this time-lapse piece, in which one sign is formed once every 12 hours for exactly one second. Finally: the merging of maths and arts we’ve been waiting for.

If you can’t make it to the 1822 Forum in Frankfurt, Germany before September 18 to see it in person, you can settle for playing it repeatedly and watching the making of here.

Mini Model Graffiti Man

2010-08-18T15:56:34Z

Tumblingerstraße from yo man on Vimeo.

Who needs tilt-shift when you have immense patience, a tankload of time, a precise and pedantic obsession for detail and posses that slightly deranged mind required for intense creativity? Stop motion animation is only for the brave and passionately devoted and this little gem comes from the craft and cranium of Yo Man. Yo Man has painstakingly recreated the Tumblingerstraße, a legal graffiti wall in Munich, Germany and has frame-by-frame animated a lil graffiti man doing a lil tag on a lil wall in a lil city.

Sourced fromI Love New Work

Sketchbooks on Show

2010-08-10T13:17:38Z

Art House Co op Sketchbook Project Los Angeles 2010 from Edwin Carungay on Vimeo.

For the fifth year in a row, the Art House Co-op is running its Sketchbook Project. The project works by offering Moleskine notebooks for purchase on the website to aspiring artists all over the world, who then have until January 2011 to return the (hopefully) full books back to Sketchbook HQ. It’s after that that things get exciting.

The books will set off on a tour, from March to June next year, to galleries all over the Unites States. Once they’ve finished travelling, they’ll enter into the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.

To be involved in the project and have strangers thumb through your personal thoughts, sign up at the Sketchbook Project site by October 31, 2010.

Scout's Honor

2010-08-06T14:18:22Z

SCOUT from Kelly Towles on Vimeo.

Street artist Kelly Towles and film-maker Sebastien Tobler have collaborated to bring us the super sweet new video, Scout.

Revolving around Towles' Scout mural, the video features him creating it and a little lady exploring the streets of Washington DC, marveling at the finished piece of public art, as well as a soundtrack by Beirut.

If you’re hanging out in DC, head to 12th and W St NW to see the work for yourself.

Wassaic, NY: Bringing Art To The World

2010-08-05T13:47:33Z

Ben Cuevas interview, 2010 Wassaic Artist Resident from The Wassaic Project on Vimeo.

Located in the small town of Armenia, NY, Wassaic is a haven for artists and musicians thanks to their annual Arts and Music Festival – The Wassaic Project. The project models itself on this mission:

The Wassaic Project is an artist-run sustainable, multidisciplinary arts organization that focuses on community engagement and facilitates artists and participants to exhibit, discuss, and connect with art, each other, our unique site, and the surrounding community.

In light of this year’s festival, the Wassaic Project has compiled a bunch of short bio-type films about the artists in residence for the festival this year.

This clip in particular is about Ben Cuevas, an installation artist whose work this year for the festival is centered around ideas of consumerism and ‘the zen’ in today’s world, making use of his love of knitting to re-create a human skeleton from knitted pieces.

Head over to The Wassaic Project’s channel to see artist bio videos on 4 other artists in residence.

Gluko & Lennon

2010-08-04T17:50:14Z

I’m not really sure how to introduce this video, but I will say this: When I was growing up, I was one of those kids who was only really allowed to watch ABC programming on television (I attribute this to my sound knowledge of Ghost Writer and Widget: The World Watcher). Now that I’m growing up, I don’t resent my parents for limiting my viewing experience, but I do sort of think they implemented their restrictions in a half-assed kind of way. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to force my own children to watch nothing but Gluko & Lennon until the day they turn 18.

Seriously cool shit from Buenos Aires based animation studio, L'Orange Gutan.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents: Anish Kapoor

2010-08-04T17:49:04Z

Are you currently hanging out in Spain, thinking to yourself, ‘this is totes boring, y'all’? Well, get your ass over to Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, man, because they’re currently showing works of world renowned sculpter, Anish Kapoor! The exhibition is the largest of it’s kind, and to commemorate, the museum has published a handful of videos that feature Kapoor himself, showcasing his works. Check them out after the jump! (And for those interested, the exhibition will run until October 12.)

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Avenida Abandoibarra, 2
Bilbao 48001, Spain

THE BEAN!!!

The EyeWriter

2010-08-04T14:51:53Z

Tony Quan (A.K.A. TEMPT ONE) was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2003. The illness has left the graffiti writer almost completely physically paralysed, and, until recently, incapable of expressing himself creatively.

Now, thanks to an initiative from Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, and the Graffiti Resarch Lab, a device has been created which gives Quan the opportunity to paint again – using nothing but the movement of his eyes.

The invention, dubbed, the EyeWriter, is currently in the running to receive a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Rewards Program, which you can vote for by clicking here!

Ants in Your Scanner

2010-08-02T10:09:54Z

ANTS in my scanner > a five years time-lapse! from françois vautier on Vimeo.

Five years ago, François Vautier opened up his scanner and installed an ant colony inside it. We don’t know how exactly someone goes about “installing” something like that in amongst all the wires and techno do-hickeys, but he clearly does, since his scanner kept working.

He scanned the growing colony once a week since then, and created this time-lapse video, which reminds us of the opening credits of a David Fincher film…or a really good-looking reality show.

Elvis Presley - King Creole

2010-07-30T09:34:14Z

Remember a few years ago when Elvis had a resurgence in popularity, and everybody started doing remixes and takes of pretty much everything the man had ever released? Well, evidently, those times are back, and frankly, I’m embracing it.

The above animation to King Creole was produced by Bill Canoni. According to his Vimeo page:

“Some night I came up with this silly shadow-puppet resemblance to entertain my friends. Seemed silly enough to make a video of it.”

What you call “silly,” I call “the funniest shit I’ve seen all year.” Tell me you don’t lose it when the backing singers start crooning in unison.

[via Animade]