Esta es la primera colección de ilustraciones del mangaka Beten Kohito más conocido por su nombre artístico Betten Court, mangaka de Girl Friend (con guión de Masaya Hokazono). Este artbook contiene los trabajos realizados a lo largo de 10 años (1996-2006) que contiene ilustraciones de sus primeros trabajos y además ilustraciones nuevas e inéditas.

En sus inicios se nota que Betten Court realizaba sus ilustraciones a color con pintura y pincel. Más tarde, comienza a utilizar marcadores y lápices. Todo esto se conjuga en su actual estilo; aunque ha dejado aun lado un poco la pintura. La anatomía es bastante correcta y hay buen balance entre personajes y los entornos en que son dibujados. Especialmente, esto se muestra en Girl Friend, con sus preciosas chicas; historias de romance boy and girl with some censored xyz scenes agridulces combina fantásticamente la historia con su estilo.

• Girl Friend – Parte 1
• Girl Friend – Parte 2
• Girl Friend – Parte 3

C’est un peu pour fêter la sortie du 3ème tome de Robot en France que je me suis décidé à publier un billet sur ce collectif. Robot est un collectif d’illustrateurs regroupant plusieurs auteurs asiatiques sous le même projet initié par Range Murata (村田蓮爾) en 2004. Il y a beaucoup de chose à dire sur ces ouvrages, tout d’abord car ils regroupent un nombre assez important de styles différents, mais aussi car ils présentent à la fois des illustrateurs très connus mais aussi des artistes prometteurs. En effet, le nombre important d’illustrateurs différents permet de donner un ouvrage regroupant allégrement plusieurs genres, que ce soit au niveau visuel qu’au niveau conceptuel.

Il y a d’abord une diversité au niveau visuel et c’est cette diversité et ce mélange de style qui donnent une bonne partie de l’intérêt offert par Robot. Comme tout collectif, on obtient un mélange de style graphique qu’on ne peut retrouver nul part ailleurs et c’est d’ailleurs à travers ce genre d’ouvrage que l’on se rend compte qu’il y a vraiment énormément de possibilités différentes au niveau du travail d’illustrateur : Méthode de réalisation, couleurs employées, etc … Si la majorité des œuvres prennent la forme d’un manga, certaines œuvres s’approchent bien plus du comics que de celui-ci (comme pour Sedouka de Shin Nagasawa) renforçant encore plus le coté diversifié des productions.

Mais il y a aussi une liberté au niveau du type de l’œuvre, en effet les travaux réalisés se partagent entre deux simples (mais très belles) illustrations à un véritable manga grand format. Et si le plus souvent on obtient l’enchaînement dans l’ensemble des tomes d’une même histoire comme pour Pez de Hiroyuki Asada ( 浅田弘幸) ou pour Wasteland de Yoshitoshi Abe (安倍吉俊) (qui je le rappelle, est le créateur de Lain), d’autres auteurs préfèrent enchaîner des histoires sans rapports donnant ainsi des histoires courtes allant jusqu’à une 10ène de pages et qui semblent alors être plus des travaux volontairement originaux, peut-être l’occasion donnée à l’auteur de se donner plus de liberté.

Liberté. Car oui, la diversité des œuvres ne s’arrêtent évidemment pas qu’à la partie graphique, l’une des choses génial dans ce bouquin est la liberté laissée aux auteurs quant au genre de leur production. On passe du Yaoi au kawaï, du fantastique gore à l’histoire douce et délicate. Cette diversité fait à la fois quelque chose de génial dans Robot et quelque chose qui est assez double tranchant, dans le sens où quelques œuvres vont forcément du coup ne pas être à votre goût. Mais je ne pense pas qu’il faut s’arrêter là dans un collectif, on n’achète pas un collectif uniquement pour lire une nouvelle de Yoshitoshi Abe par exemple, mais aussi pour découvrir d’autres styles qui nous sont méconnus. Robot nous laisse ici l’opportunité de nous ouvrir à d’autres styles inhabituels, des styles qui sont d’habitudes réservés à des séries qu’on n’aurait pas souhaité acheter. Et ça c’est aussi une qualité que l’on ne peut pas reprocher à ce collectif, la possibilité de rentre grâce à un tome à une 20ène d’univers différents.

Aussi, à savoir que plusieurs illustrateurs se soient décider à réaliser un même ouvrage en commun ça n’a rien d’habituel et c’est même plutôt surprenant de voir cet initiative. Bien autre chose qu’une opération marketing, on a plus l’impression que c’est une tentative entre les différents artistes de se faire découvrir entre eux. Tout simplement génial comme vision si c’est le cas et encore plus quand on sait la masse de travail qu’ils ont.

Si au Japon il y a actuellement 10 tomes de Robot, 3 tomes sont sortis chez Glénat (que je remercie d’ailleurs au passage, d’avoir voulu reprendre la série après l’abandon de Kami) au prix d’environ 23 euros chacun. Il est vrai  que malheureusement la qualité du papier s’est dégradée dans le passage d’un éditeur à l’autre, cependant l’édition est travaillée différemment pour chaque partie de l’ouvrage et la qualité finale semble tout de même au rendez vous. Peut être devrait-il comme on l’a proposé, augmentez le prix et proposer un beau papier glacé, mais personnellement je suis déjà assez content  de la qualité du livre. Il annonce qu’ils vont publier un tome tous les 6 mois, espérons que vue les délais larges qu’ils s’accordent, ils n’aient pas de retard. J’ai regroupé ici les différents auteurs présents dans les 3 tomes et le nom des différentes contributions dans chaque tome.

On retrouve des auteurs plus ou moins connus dans le monde du manga et de la japanime, notamment et surtout Range Murata qui est le character designer de Last Exil, Blue Submarine N.6 et du récent Shangri-La. Il y a bien sûr Yoshitoshi Abe que j’ai cité plus haut, mais aussi Osamu Kobayashi (小林治), le directeur de la série Beck.

_________________________________________________

Il serait trop long de décrire les 3 tomes en large et en travers alors je vais m’attarder qu’un peu au 3ème tome dans ce billet. J’avoue que j’ai dès le début été un peu déçu par ce tome, je m’attendais à avoir plus de trois illustrations et la couverture de la part de Range Murata, mais plutôt à une suite de ce qu’il avait fait lors du 1er tome. Étant donné que Range Murata doit être peut être le seul personne dans le monde de l’animation à laquelle je suis de près les contributions, alors forcément la déception est là. J’espère uniquement que dans les prochains tomes, il ne se contente pas de nous servir que la couverture.

Pez de Hiroyuki Asada doit être la série de Robot que j’apprécie le plus, déjà le style de Hiroyuki est vraiment magique, en avançant le violet en couleur de fond il donne déjà une ambiance très posée et vraiment agréable. Il y a aussi Dragon Fly de Shigeki Maeshima (前嶋重機) qui est très bon, plutôt cadré seinen, le style s’accorde très bien au genre et donne un rendu assez impressionnant, à se demander si il n’a pas été déjà dans le staff d’une grande série. Wasteland de Yoshitoshi Abe est aussi pas mal comme on pourrait s’y attendre mais n’est pas pour autant incroyable, cadré aussi dans le seinen mais bien plus gore, le seul hic est la nette impression que l’histoire n’avance pas assez rapidement. Les quelques illustration de Imperial Boy sont quant à elles vraiment sympas.

Coté pas terrible, on a Suzumo Robo qui ne vaut pas cher, de même pour Batchy Twins, qui n’apporte pas grand chose à part peut-être l’impression que les asiatiques qui dessinent en comics ont une fâcheuse tendance à ne rien dessiner de très sérieux, même si Sedouka sauve la mise derrière sans pour autant être génial (il faut aussi dire que je n’ai personnellement jamais accroché aux comics). Accalmie au crépuscule qui est la suite de la série commencée depuis le 1er tome est assez étrange. Le coup de crayon de Yasuto Miura est plutôt original et apporte quelque chose d’assez à part au niveau graphique comparé aux autres œuvres, personnellement je trouve le rendu pas terrible, surtout au niveau du charachter design de la fillette.

Je vais m’arrêter là pour Robot, mais avant de terminer j’aimerais mettre en avant le blog archive-scan qui vient de fêter sa 1ère année d’existence et ainsi remercier l’auteur de tous les scans qu’il propose (à voir si vous êtes amateurs d’illustration/artbook !).

Edit : J’ai uplaudé des illustrations de shin Nagasawa en passant sur son site. A télécharger ici. Enjoy’ !

Great collection of my Emily Paintings, illustrations and rare artworks & sketches. Very nice quality, good job Dark Horse Books! Available Dec 23rd at emilystrange.com

Great collection of my Emily Paintings, illustrations and rare artworks & sketches. Very nice quality, good job Dark Horse Books! Available Dec 23rd at emilystrange.com

Check out Peggy Noland’s psychadelic contribution to fashion.  Making weaves for the likes of Flavor Flav, her style is clearly outspoken.  She is known for her use of polka dots and large proportions. 

Noland is a self-taught designer from Kansas City.

Read more at Dazed Digital (link below).

http://dazeddigital.com/Fashion/article/5697/1/Peggy_does_the_Polka

By Catherine McGuire

David is a contemporary surrealist who creates rich and profoundly original painting, drawing and sculpture. Enrico David has been nominated for his solo exhibitions How Do You Love Dzzzzt By Mammy? at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, and Bulbous Marauder at the Seattle Art Museum. However these are just facts. In order to understand Enrico’s work, you must experience it.

Let me paint you a picture in words. Imagine a featureless white rectangular room; insert a black oblong stage, half a metre high, stretching from one corner to the other. The stage is set for a piecemeal of images. On the right there is a huge painting on canvas, a head in the middle occupied with pornographic thoughts, failing to be released through the tiny slit that forms its mouth. All that comes out is the insidious painting to its left, a figure in the shadows banging a drum in flurry of hands, resembling Günter Grasses Tin Drum.

A rectangular box stands close by with the picture of disturbing disfigured dolls arranged in all shapes and sizes, peering down a trap door at the paper cut out of a man in the foetal position, dressed as a baby. Stage left a human sized canvas ellipses the side, portraying a deranged red head holding onto a pole, accompanied by a man in a turban in a pot on its right (which looks remarkably like Noel Fielding in The Mighty Boosh). Centre stage lays the deformed black body of a faceless man, is you can call it a man, lying disfigured across the stage, connecting these installations with this stretched arms and legs.

‘This must be the work of a mad man,’ are the first thoughts that flash through my head, disconcerted by the dark figures, the disembodied shapes and most of all the artist rendition of himself in the form of the two deformed manikins, that resemble neither man nor animal, one positioned in the audience and the other staring out from the stage.

Yet the more I regarded Enrico’s work the more I became fascinated with the psychological meaning behind each carefully positioned composition. The theatre became a challenge of comprehension. What is it the artist wants me to see?

Through out Enrico’s work there is a presiding theme concerning the body. The human form is rarely presented as a unified whole. Instead it is fragmented, deformed, creating a sense of physical and emotional crisis proliferating, which contributes to the uneasy exchange between the viewer and art work. Enrico is confronting the viewer with images that the on lookers may not want to confront themselves, such as the fear of ‘disfigurement’, not socially fitting in to the common ‘norm,’ and in the process being found out.

Enrico David has said that his art works purpose is ‘To organise and give structure to the often chaotic nature of (his)emotional response to reality.’ This theatre of the mind is like a foreign language one tries to decipher, but can not fully comprehend. The artist represents his own incomprehension with his presence as manikin, with in and with out this production. There are no translators. One is lead to theorise, with out ant ‘true’ answer at the end, and this is the fun of Enrico’s work.

This is definitely a must see, and more importantly, a must experience. I will leave it up to you to go and experience the Turner Prize and formulate your own thoughts on this artist in particular, as words are not enough.

Lucy Skaer, nominated for her solo exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery and A Boat Used as a Vessel at the Kunsthalle Basel, provides the spectator with an array of challenges to the eye. Using photographic sources, Lucy aims to transform a simple picture from one state to another, testing the perception of 2D and 3D boundaries in her artwork. 

Skaer’s concept of image translation can definitely be identified in Thames and Hudson (2009), an installation that is reflective of an art-book publisher and/or two cities with their two rivers. The image of a wooden chair projects from one piece to another from a physical wooden chair to a calligraphy style print that is almost reminiscent of an algebraic equation.  Skaer covered parts of the chair in black ink and produced the 2D print, which appears behind the chair in the centre of the installation. There seems to be a recurring theme in the works of this artist of removing an image from its context.  By looking at both 2D and 3D parts, there becomes a constant comparison between different forms, which is ultimately a test to the viewing experience.   Skaer believes that translation between pieces results in a “graphic return to the real world”

By slowing down the understanding of these contributions, the works become reduced to the art of looking itself.  Leviathan and Edge (2009), a partial sperm whale skeleton, definitely proves this point.  The installation can only be seen through vertical breaks in two false walls and there is a distinction between details and the whole.  The spectator takes more time to consider the piece and therefore more detail is discovered at an immediate viewpoint.

Black Alphabet (2008) appears as a flock of coal dust sculptures that feature as a repetition of Brancusi’s Bird in Space (1923).  Skaer produces the sculpture 26 times, the total of times that Brancusi produced the work. Dependent on angle, the piece reveals a medley of different letter-looking shapes. It could be said that this piece holds significance on the basis that Bird in Space (1923) acted as the foundation of a lawsuit which challenged what constitutes art.  As Skaer aims to challenge the perspective of the viewer, implementing images into different forms, this would certainly have influenced her decision to create Black.

Skaer can be commended on her transformation of simple images into ambiguous artwork.   Her works lie somewhere in between reality and imagination, delaying comprehension and directing the audience to differentiate between mental and physical landscapes.

¿Tienes problemas para decidir qué  tipo de auriculares comprar? Con este Artbook tienes la solución.

Estamos ante la perfecta unión entre información sobre los auriculares más innovadores del mercado japonés y el arte “Bishoujo” de ilustradores de prestigio.

Este libro consta con  más de 50 ilustraciones de diferentes artistas reconocidos como Range Murata, Eizo Houden, Yoshitoshi Abe, You Shiina, Shuji Sogabe, Midori Foo, Kozaki Yusuke o Miwa Shirow.

Las imágenes ilustran el uso de algunos auriculares existentes hoy en día de las compañías Apple, Kenwood, Monster Cable, Panasonic, Pioneer, JVC-Victor, Skull Candy, Sony, entre otras. Cada ilustración contiene una breve descripción técnica de los auriculares y un  comentario del autor sobre la imagen.

Por si fuera poco, también incluye una entrevista a Nobuo Uematsu, el famoso compositor de la serie Final Fantasy, comentando las distintas opciones de auriculares que él suele usar, como los STAX (SR-007A, SRM-007tA) o los Sony MDR-CD770.

Además, contiene información sobre la música y  películas que los artistas te recomiendan para poner a prueba la calidad de los auriculares.  Una selección bastante equilibrada de Rock, Clásica, Jazz, Pop, y OST (incluyendo Macross F OST 2 y el FF VII OST y FFXII OST) y versiones de películas como  Dark Knight y The Sky Crawlers.

Como curiosidad, también incluye un divertido manga sobre los factores a tener en cuenta para una correcta elección de unos auriculares, una guía de lugares para comprarlos  (sólo para Japón), y 10 directrices para corregir el uso de los mismos.

Datos:

Headphone Girls : A Pictorial Book ~ Headphone Shojo Gahou (ヘッドフォン少女画報)

Artista: varios

Editorial: Gakken

Idioma: Japonés

ISBN: 978-4054042308

123 páginas con 108 a todo color.

Sobrecubierta a color

Tamaño: 25.6 x 18 x 1 cm

Precio: ¥1.890

Fecha de publicación : 2009/8/12

]]> http://frikadasdelargan.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/artbook-kanon-%e2%80%93-the-ultimate-art-collection/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:41:16 +0000 argantonio http://frikadasdelargan.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/artbook-kanon-%e2%80%93-the-ultimate-art-collection/

Creo que Halloween es la fiesta que más me gusta de todo el año, porque al igualq ue el resto en el fondo se resume en la pura comercialidad, pero al menos en esta los adornos son super bonitos, las calabazas lo inundan todo y lo mejor de todo el disfraz es la prenda de vestir de uso obligatorio…

Bueno me habría gustado hacer un buen post sobre Haloween, de esos detallados que em gustan hacer a mi, pasando desde el origen y contexto histórico a curiosidades y lindas recetas para este día tan terrorificamente dievrtido, pero no estuve y luego no le vi demasiado sentido hacerlo, así que el próximo año lo haré anticipadamente y luego dejaré que el blog lo cuelgue automaticamente por s yo no puedo, o bien lo colgaré con un día de antelación, que pensándolo bien es lo mejor porque asi os da tiempo de comprar las cosas para las recetas XDDD.

En fin pero como no quería despedirme sin tener algo de este lindo día os voy a habalr sobre una figura de merchandising  muy adecuada para Haloween, auqnue está basada en un videojuego erótico.

Todo esto es producto de UNIONSHIFT, creadores videojuegos japoneses para adultos, y pertenceiente ala compañía SOFTPAL, dentro de sus productos encontramos CHu x CHu y Wagamama Capricccio. En ambas series sale nuestra bellisima chica calabaza Melissa Seraphy.

Una de sus más famosas ilustradoras es Noizi Ito (Nacida el 9 de Agosto de 1977), la cual no es solo conocida por sus ilustraciones en Videojuegos eroge de UNISONSHIFT, como por ejemplo en la no

vela visual que se ha adaptado como videjuego de playstation 2 “Nanatsuiro ★Drops” (ななついろ★ドロップス). Sino tambien por ilustrar mangas y animes como por ejemplo “Suzumiya Haruhi”

  TRABAJOS DE NOIZI ITO:

Videojuegos ordinarios

* Dancing Sword ～Senkō～ – MTO (diseño de personajes)
* GUILTY GEAR – AcuSystem Works (ilustración menor)
* Nanatsuiro★Drops Pure!! – UNiSONSHIFT:Blossom (proyecto e ilustración original)

Eroge

* Be-reave (ilustración original)
* Wasurena Kusa ～Forget-me-Not～ (ilustración original)
* Komorebi ni Yureru Tama no Koe (proyecto e ilustración original)
* Peace@Pieces (proyecto e ilustración original)
* One More@Pieces (proyecto e ilustración original)
* Nanatsuiro★Drops (proyecto e ilustración original)

Ilustraciones

* Shakugan no Shana con Yashichiro Takahashi
* Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu con Nagaru Tanigawa
* Peace@Pieces con Masachika Kobayashi
* Nanatsuiro★Drops con Wa Ichikawa
* Nanatsuiro★Drops Pure!! con Kaya Akasaka (al cargo)
* bee-be-beat-it! con Masaki Kamiya
* Urusei Yatsura con Rumiko Takahashi (presentación especial en la ilustración final del volumen 13 de la reedición)
* Bianca Ovastade con Tsutsui Yasutaka

Manga

* Yume Miru Vampire (Interbrain)

Artbooks

A través de los años, Fujitsubo-Machine ha producido varios artbooks con dibujos hechos por Noizi Ito.

* Noizi Ito Gashū Guren (MediaWorks, 2005)
* Noizi Ito Gashū Ⅱ Kaen  (MediaWorks, 2007)

ALGUNOS VIDEOJUEGOS DE UNISONSHIFT:

Nanatsuiro★Drops:

Nos narra la historia de Tsuwabuki, un estudiente un poco antisocial que conoce a dos chicas, una de ellas es  Sumomo una estudiante de intercambio, y ambas chicas miembros del club de jardinería.  Por obligacion de una profesora Tsuwabuki acabará introducido tambien en dicho club , en donde sufre un terrible accidente tras chocar con un perro muy sospechoso “¡¡¡Se convierte en un animal de peluche!!!!”. Será su profesora quien le informe de que para arrgelar la situacion debe encontra a la chcia adecuada para conseguir las “siete gotas estelares”. Así es como Sumomo accede ayudarlo a pesar de que no sabe quien se esconde tras el animal de peluche.

Chu x Chu Idol (Chu×Chuアイドる):

Este juego vio la luz en el año 2007,  y bueno una imagen dice más que mil palabras así que aqui os cuelgo un par de videos con la OP del videojuego.

Letra de canción:

koko dake no naisho no hanashi
gakkou ja ienai mou hitotsu no kao
kyuuketsuki datte himitsu wo
kyouyuu

shiteru no wa anata hitori dake
kono atashi ga ki ni haitteru nante meiyo na hanashi!

Chu! Chu! KISU shite ageru aishite ageru
Chu! Chu! dakara atashi wo chanto mitenasai
Chu! Chu! koi no mahou wo kakete ageru
anata wa eien ni atashi kara hanarerarenai

motto hitorijime shitakute
atashi no MONO dake ni shite shimaitakute
dakedo ne sunao ja nai kara
kawaiku ienakute ittsumo gomen ne
konna atashi datte hitori no tada no onna no ko da mon

Chu! Chu! anata no koto ga daisuki dakara
Chu! Chu! atashi no koto wo suki ni narinasai
Chu! Chu! koi no dorei ni shichaou kana
isshou kono mama de futarikiri sugoshitai no

Chu! Chu! anata to kurasu hibi takaramono
Chu! Chu! nani ga atte mo zutto hanasanai
Chu! Chu! riyuu nante hitsuyou nai ja nai
isshou anata dake? Please, Please, Kiss me

Chu! Chu! KISU shite ageru aishite ageru
Chu! Chu! dakara atashi wo chanto mitenasai
Chu! Chu! koi no mahou wo kakete ageru
anata wa eien ni atashi kara hanarerarenai

SINOPSIS:

Huziki Kensuke, es un chico nomral que por accidente conocio el secreto de la idol, Yoshinobu Shiriuti, cuya fama ascendió de manera aplastante tras recibir el beso de un vampiro llamado Tutú, al conocer este secreto fue tambien víctima de este vampiro de la maldición lo que da como resultado se convierte en el esclavo de tutú, por lo que los tres acaban convviendo en la misma casa. Pues el secreto de la persona que consume sangre de vampiro es que el individuo es incapaz de marcharse de ese lugar,  lo cual dará lugar a muchas escenas de contenido erótico. Entratanto la idol busca una forma de resolver la maldición.

Además Good Smile Company ha lanzado varias figuras del juego hasta hoy, como por ejemplo “Hiyori Pixie” a principios del 2009.

Hiyori Pixie:

Es la hermana más vieja de Tutú, y es el miembro que busca con más ainco  en la familia demoniaca a la madre de esta. Tiene un carácter muy competente, al menos lo tenía hasta que se enamora locamente.

Wagamama Capriccio:

Este videojuego vio la luz en el 2005, y se podría decir que es el antecesor a Chu X Chu,  porque como se verá dos años despues, las protagonistas de este videojuego erótico son secundarias en el segundo.

Además, Melissa, es un personaje para el que Good Smile Company, no solo ha sacado la típica figura erotica en pvc en el año 2006, sino que además ha sacado un par de modelos de Nendoroid, que ya explicaré más detenidamente lo que es en otro post y una serie de minifiguritas.

Proximamente os hablaré con más detalle de este juego, que ya me encuentro un poco cansada xDDD.

Melissa :

Altura: 148cm
Peso l: 40 kg
Medidas : 72-47-74

PARA FINALIZAR AQUI OS DEJO ALGUNOS ENLACES:

Página  oficial de UNISONSHIFT

Enlaces oficiales de los dos videojuegos de Chu x Chu:

Enlace con la we oficial de Waga Mama Capriccio:

Link con imágenes lindas y descripción de la figura de Melissa

Bioshock 2 aura bien droit à une version collector qui comprendra :

- un artbook de 164 pages

- la bande originale du premier opus en 33 tours et celle du 2 en cd

- 3 affiches publicitaires à la mode Rapture

Le tout dans une jolie boîte.

Prix du lot 90 euros pour la version PS3 et Xbox360 et 80 euros pour le pc.

Atelier Series Official Chronicle

Artista: varios

Editorial: Enterbrain

ISBN: 978-4047261068

271 páginas

Tamaño: 11.8 x 8.3 x 0.9 cm

Precio: ¥ 3500

Fecha de publicación: 1 de octubre de 2009

]]> http://blog.ankama-editions.com/2009/11/19/entrez-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-serie-wakfu/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:07:49 +0000 ankamaeditions http://blog.ankama-editions.com/2009/11/19/entrez-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-serie-wakfu/ http://bookletwebzine.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/the-hoerengracht-national-gallery/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:35:30 +0000 natashadevan http://bookletwebzine.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/the-hoerengracht-national-gallery/

Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s installation, The Hoerengracht, brings Amsterdam’s Red Light District to Sunley Room at London’s National Gallery.

The installation represents the district’s notorious “whore’s canal” and is not a particularly attractive sight.  Dutch alleyways are filled with plain-faced female life-size figures posing in  Brothel windows.

Taking 5 years to complete, The Hoerengracht is a dark and compelling piece that reveals the realities of prostitution as it was in the 1980’s. Nancy Kienholz described the work as a catalyst which “opened up discussion” about the issue of selling sex in the Western World.  She claims that, “it’s certainly something that is there in every major city in the western world,” and that, “any taxi driver in any city can tell you where it is.”

It is very rare for the National Gallery to display such a contemporary installation.  However, the curator Colin Wiggins describes the method in this madness.  The Hoerengracht can cast a significant light on the other works present at London’s prestigous gallery.  Many of the works displayed (dated from the 17th century) reflect on prostitution, but most of them look “safe and pretty”.  Godfried Schiecken’s A Man Offering Gold shows a woman sitting on a bed while being given money by a man as Cupid overlooks them.  The purpose of The Hoerengracht is to force upon the spectator a three dimensional representation of the 1980’s Red Light District, provocative and dominated by the sex industry.

The Hoerengracht installation can be  seen from 18 Nov 2009 – 21 Feb 2010 at the Sunley Room, National Gallery.

For more information: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/kienholz-the-hoerengracht

By Julie Scrase

I don’t know that he’s the best, but my vote is with Roger Hiorns and here’s why…

Nietzsche said that the artist does not want to be read but to be learned by heart. Yet that most prosaic act of reading must occur before its more profound counterpart can take place, if indeed it does take place. So I ‘read’ the exhibition. Took in the works of all four artists enthusiastically, inquisitively, critically, contemplatively (God knows what makes for a good ‘reader’?). Then I waited a few days.

Push come to shove, which if any of the artists had I learned by heart? The phrase implies the engagement of the memory faculty pertaining to the intellect, but also of the emotional function commonly assigned to the heart. And without question it was Roger Hiorns whose poetic residue had clung on most stubbornly in the face of Colchester rain, cheap wine, essay induced tears and other corrosive fluids encountered in the daily life of an Essex girl.

Hiorns employs ‘active ingredients’ in his sculpture and installation which continue to play out developments of or conclusions to the works- beyond the influence of the artist himself. He sets a relationship between two elements in motion (generally finding 3^rd elements to be superfluous) and as such allows the piece its own creative impulse. Functional objects may become ‘imaginative, poetic or esoteric’. Take, for example, his gully which, rather than receiving water, emitted fire from beneath the Pimlico ground (Vauxhall 2003).

Visitors to Hiorns’ room at the Turner Prize will encounter a beautiful, mysterious landscape. Evoking a post-apocalyptic desert in shades of grey. Its subtle, undulating form quietly emanates pathos. All the more so when we learn that this melancholic mass is an ‘atomized passenger aircraft engine’ -now devoid of any mobilizing power. Once full of the potency of the machine, then subject to that selfsame ferocity (powerful apparatus were used in the atomizing process). Once propelling itself on a high-speed journey, soaring through the sky, now slumbering, inertly spread across the ground.

‘An object that is a projection of our minds; our minds boundary is unlimited in this sense’ – So says Hiorns of the fruits of his labour. These words seem particularly apt in relation to his contributions to the exhibition: the material repertoire here boils down to plastic, steel and brain matter (that other great engine!). Hiorns ain’t joking about projecting the mind into his objects, boundary-less indeed! Literal as this in itself may be, the use of the substance is far-reaching in its potential, abstract allusions- triggering ideas of cognition and control. And that is just the tip of the iceberg regarding what the brain signifies in our culture. I was especially struck by the material juxtaposition of this seemingly timeless, organic and intensely personal substance with stainless steel. Their fusion formed a highly formalist image of repeated pattern suggestive of mechanical and not ‘animal’ activity. In another piece, brain matter and plastic are combined (another striking synthesis of materials) forming objects which this time hint at anatomy: bone or sinew; but are ultimately enigmatic; un-placeable. In a sly nod to the ‘what is (conceptual) art?’ problem, the lofty substance of concept and abstraction – brain matter – is, in this case, the very visceral component.

Hiorn’s has been nominated for his council estate installation, ‘Seizure’. This inner-city alchemist poured 80,000 litres of copper sulphate liquid into an abandoned council flat and watched as brilliant blue crystals automatically cultivated, multiplied relentlessly and eventually completed their dazzling seizure of this property which is now reminiscent of an Ali Baba’s cave in a grimly contemporary setting. Condemned flat, turned breathtaking gem-stone on a colossal scale, Seizure alludes to myth, science, real-estate, social inequality and altered states of consciousness. There is an uncomfortable quality accompanying this bejewelled beauty. Its eternally self-generating nature carries an archetypal foreboding. First on show to the public in 2008, Seizure returned, by popular demand, to run from July 2009 until January 2010 and I implore you, if you have not yet done so, to seize your second chance to bear witness to this most startling vision.

By Julie Scrase

It takes a mere fleeting glance at the comments scrawled by visitors as one leaves the exhibition to see that, were it up to the public vote, Richard Wright would win. Hands down.

‘A fresco painter interested in formal beauty’ is how Wright has been benevolently described. Such a label misleadingly suggests a naivety or simplicity which I think can no longer exist in the evermore intellectualised realm of ‘high-art’. If one paints frescos in 2009, and is consequently nominated for the Turner Prize, we can be quite sure that one does so as a commentary upon or allusion to the vast history of fresco painting through the ages. Or, as is particularly the case for Wright, we are aware that it functions as a provocation of architectural surfaces, as a fresh revelation of internal spaces and as a comment on temporality. If one is interested in formal beauty it s not an innate delight in the oh-so mysteriously, divinely occurring golden-ratios. It is a canny questioning of the meaning of beauty, the decorative –and hence typography & tattoo etc- in contemporary culture with, once again, more than a hint of academic allusion to art’s history. In short, Wright is of the post-modern breed: making art about art -resulting in a ‘hybrid graphic Esperanto’.

The big feature of his Turner Prize exhibition piece is a baroque-style painting in gold leaf which sprawls in geometric progressions and repetitions across an entire wall of the gallery. The use of gold leaf is both visually impressive and metaphorically loaded. Gold is a compound whose symbolic meaning is made of deity, glamour, wealth, politics, geography, exploitation and veneration. It takes us delving underground and ascending to heavenly heights and it is the common currency which carries us through the ‘civilized’ terrain in-between: from church to catwalk to commerce. It seems that art and gold have lived parallel if not intertwined, lives.

On close inspection one sees (as is typical of, indeed fundamental to, Wright’s paintings) no attempt to smooth over the imperfections of the wall’s surface, not even electrical sockets or switches. In this sense he is not a ‘white-cube’ artist, every work of his is essentially site-specific and refers not only to itself but to its context – because the two entities cannot be separated. Site-specific work can be problematic as it may too easily be made crass by literal, theatrical or laboured metaphorical envelopment or enrobement of context. However Wright’s subtle method incorporates its context with remarkably elegant fluidity. Furthermore if one feels that the baroque swirls and use of gold-leaf are out-modedly grandiose, the bleakly temporary nature of the work (which a few licks of paint down the line will be gone forever) functions as a slickly sombre and modern counterbalance.

All very nice, but what’s the art world’s most publicised prize without a spot of controversy? And this time it does come down to something as apparently innocent as a few rust-red spots above a doorway at the opposite end of the room to his larger wall painting. It just so happens that it entirely diverts the eye from what woud be a well framed view of Lucy Skaers’ installation. This is intelligent one-upmanship at its coolest. But, being a late addition to the show, it has an undoubtedly sneaky feel to it that is at once nasty and delicious in its witty competativeness. It is an effortless exploitation of context par excellence!

Finally, as for the many Wright-supporters out there…I wonder which of those erudite nuances lilting through his ‘graphic esporanto’ inspired them most? Or perhaps they were simply relieved by a pretty picture at last, enjoying that formal beauty of a good ol’fashioned fresco which asks no questons, tells no lies.

“Pez & Hot Strawberry”

by “Hiroyuki Asada”

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“A cactus is called a cactus only because others call it so”

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Resources courtesy of:
» The Rabbit Republic
» Robot Vol. 1 (an artbook compilation of various artists)

Kadokawa lanzará un espectacular calendario de 2010 con ilustraciones inéditas del gran Masamune Shirow (“Appleseed“, “Ghost in the Shell“).

Las medidas serán B4 (310 mm × 242 mm) y saldrá a un precio de 1,680 ¥.

Two years.

prettyprophet: Which is funny, because once you get down to it, the Rabbits actually only started scanlating less than a year ago.

Lavie Rhap: But we will never forget the Rabbit Republic.

prettyprophet: Nope, mainly because it’s a black mark in our history.

Lavie Rhap: What’s done is done.

prettyprophet: The REAL funny part is……me, Lavie…..majority of us, we didn’t even have much to do with “Robot” until halfway in.

nde: Sins.

Lavie Rhap: Would anyone consider Funny to be a patriarch?

prettyprophet: Well, whatever. The actual ‘anniversary’ is in February. This was more just like, ‘hey, remember the Republic and how we started all this shit?’

Lavie Rhap: Despite that fact, we decided to release a number of projects commemorating the event.

prettyprophet: Release flood, Rabbit style. With ACTUAL FUCKING ORDER, I might add. Take it away.

The Doujinshi

nde: It was “Persona 4″.

Lavie Rhap: “New World”, by circle UNI-SEX and artwork by Izumi Kirihara, of “Hitohira” fame.

prettyprophet: A NON-sex doujinshi with Brolen. Yeah, I know, we could’ve slipped in releases of hentai and yaoi to the release order….but fuck it.

Lavie Rhap: Contrary to what we do now, doujinshi was actually the last type of release we did.

prettyprophet: Though it was the FIRST Rabbit-only project scanlated (Ragnarok dj and that one with mecha-lolipops). You can thank ak for that.

The Manhua

Lavie Rhap: After a break, we’ve returned to Nie Jun’s “My Street”, volume two, a joint with our old ally, Illuminati-Manga. A happy anniversary to them as well!

prettyprophet: A break that lasted several months. To be fair to Funny, who I yelled at to no end to get it going, we all wanted a break from it anyways…..the break just kept getting longer.

Lavie Rhap: Manhua wasn’t the first type of scanlation we worked on, however…

The Manga

prettyprophet: Naito. Oh god, Naito.

Lavie Rhap: The elusive artist that we almost gave up on.

prettyprophet: But then Fallen came in……so not only did you get Naito, you got BLACK JACK at the same time. You know, even though I count this as a josei project…….we still haven’t done a straight up josei.

Lavie Rhap: Nor have we done shoujo, shoujo ai, yuri, or harem.

prettyprophet: That’s going by Manga-Updates, right?

nde: Smut.

Lavie Rhap: Shotacon?

prettyprophet: Yeah, you’d want that.

Lavie Rhap: Ah, and historical.

nde: There was Hetalia doujinshi.

prettyprophet: Tragedy? The fuck counts as tragedy?

Lavie Rhap: Perhaps it means in the classical tradition?

prettyprophet: “Contains events resulting in great loss and misfortune.” ……c’mon, that’s half of ‘drama’. Nah, more than half.

Lavie Rhap: Would that fit “Brute Love” under that category?

prettyprophet: “Brute Love”……Lavie, handle it.

The Artbook

Lavie Rhap: This was a very…interesting release.

prettyprophet: Yeah, ‘interesting’.

Lavie Rhap: Technically speaking.

prettyprophet: Technicals.

Lavie Rhap: It was originally considered to be the next project following “Sweet Body”. But “Sweet Body” suffered delays, which culminated in the ruin of Funny’s scanner.

nde: It should probably go off the ‘future’ page.

prettyprophet: Oh yeah, this is actually on that page, for all you puzzle solvers out there. That’s one down.

Lavie Rhap: Something that should be mentioned: it was preordered immediately upon announcement with full intent of scanning, proving that Funny does indeed have a plan…at times.

prettyprophet: Seriously, it was supposed to be the follow up to “Sweet Body”. Think about that.

Lavie Rhap: Doesn’t Funny have anything to say about this?

nde: Yes.

prettyprophet: And?

nde: Waiting for the right way to say it.

prettyprophet: Oh boy. Look forward to that, whenever that happens. Oh, and as I promised, let’s talk about the title.

Lavie Rhap: When a number of us first read “Brute Love”, our comments became centered that.

prettyprophet: It was fucking Engrish. It wasn’t awful, awful Engrish…..but it was distracting.

Lavie Rhap: And concerning a certain project…Funny and nde decided to give it the label of “Brute Love”.

prettyprophet: Made even more hilarious by the fact that when ak translated it, even he recommended “Brute Love”.

Lavie Rhap: Personal choice was between “Brute Love”, “Brutal Love”, and “The Love of Brutality”.

prettyprophet: “Love of Brutality” got kicked out because it was too long. Wasn’t poetic.

Lavie Rhap: “Brute Love” became most preferred due to the fact that ‘brute’ could be used as both a noun and an adjective, in comparison to ‘brutal’.

prettyprophet: That was our rationale. Funny? “Two syllables.”

nde: Syllables matter.

prettyprophet: Hey, I ain’t saying they don’t. But man, looking back at the “Brute Love” post, I must’ve seemed like a real bitch.

Lavie Rhap: We actually haven’t discussed the content, have we?

prettyprophet: Ok, readers, you gotta understand a few things: “Brute Love” isn’t totally a Rabbit project. Neither is “Blissful Donor”. Or “My Street”. Or “New World”. See, it’s not just the projects that matter……it’s the release order.

Lavie Rhap: While the overall order for this flood was “newest to oldest”, ignoring “Robot”, we also mixed the genres as much as possible.

nde: Comedy, youth, love, sadism.

prettyprophet: Variety. It’s what Rabbits are all about.

Lavie Rhap: As for the content of “Brute Love”…

prettyprophet: I’ll have to say that I approve the book….and the release…..but fuck the content. Does that make sense?

Lavie Rhap: In your own way.

prettyprophet: And what do you think?

Lavie Rhap: In comparison to “Bradherley’s Coach”, “Brute Love” is less ‘gritty’…but more horrific.

prettyprophet: Now there’s an argument there within the Rabbits……Pat’s of the opinion that Bradherley’s worse because it states outright what’s going on……but that’s the exact reason why I think “Brute Love” transcends it.

nde: To be imaginative can be a curse.

prettyprophet: Now there are some parts where it’s obviously based off movies or books or whatever, but I don’t think that detracts from the effect.

Lavie Rhap: “Cannibal Holocaust” is the first to come to mind.

prettyprophet: Ink, on the other hand, was just impressed by the technicals of the thing……and I’m going to have to say I am too. I mean, if you look at a lot of the horror/guro comics, the art’s usually stark. We’re talking heavy blacks, heavy whites.

Lavie Rhap: There is also a sense of exaggeration; over-the-top visuals to overwhelm the reader.

prettyprophet: Don’t get me wrong, it can be damn good. But when I see that, I get a feeling of…….trashiness, I guess. Like “Litchi Hikari Club”.

Lavie Rhap: Granted, that is of the Tokyo Grand Guignol following.

nde: That could be applied to “Brute Love”.

prettyprophet: Like those two pages that got some sort of narration. Hey, bonus points to anyone who can figure out exactly what the fuck Samura’s talking about on pages 80 and 82.

Lavie Rhap: What I think is Samura’s strongest element is…pain. Pain that I certainly felt.

prettyprophet: Yeah, I don’t give a fuck what Samura says about being clinical, it fucking hurt me to look at it. So congrats everyone, we finally got a project that the Rabbits more or less agree on: this is fucked up, repugnant shit.

Lavie Rhap: What was it that Funny said?

nde: Decadent Beauty. Vice versa.

prettyprophet: Naturally, some assholes like Ed went around showing it off, despite both Samura and ourselves saying DON’T.

nde: Nothing stays forbidden.

Lavie Rhap: But we hope that people do understand that we really do not wish this artbook to be considered only for shock value. I suppose the same could be applied to the Rabbits.

prettyprophet: I ain’t gonna lie, this artbook, with three other releases on top of it……it was fucking exhausting. Guess this is the closest I get to burnout.

Lavie Rhap: Are we counting “Sadomi” as part of the flood?

prettyprophet: Nah. Palate cleanser, “Sadomi”! She’s over.

nde: So ends the celebration.

prettyprophet: Before I forget: post image is Cassandra Cain or, as Pat has come to call her, “AWESOME ASIAN BATGIRL”, eating cheesecake. Funny commissioned it from Kuroi-Tsuki…..using my descriptions of what Cass would look like eating cheesecake, which I had no idea would be used. Well, I tossed in a few bucks myself after I found out it was designed to get Pat to read Western comics.

Lavie Rhap: And it worked!

prettyprophet: Kuroi-Tsuki, bravo……especially on using this SPECIFIC cheesecake. I honestly wonder what people think when dealing with Funny’s insane requests.

Lavie Rhap: This was your idea.

prettyprophet: I know, but it’s not like I actually INTENDED the thing to get made.

nde: Official title: “The Cheesecake of Cassandra Cain”.

prettyprophet: All we need now is Power Girl and Terra making tiramisu.

Lavie Rhap: Or the past and present Robins playing Rock Band?

prettyprophet: Sorry Damian, you get the cowbell.

Lavie Rhap: Which is cute enough on its own right.

prettyprophet: Kuroi draws a hot Dick. Heh.

Lavie Rhap: Poor Jason.

prettyprophet: Man, are we older than them as well?

Lavie Rhap: I believe Jason was in his early 20s.

prettyprophet: Eh, fucking comic book time. Alright, let’s end this. Peace out kids, see you next ACHTUNG. Or next release.

Lavie Rhap: Whichever comes first.

prettyprophet: Seeing how we’re only halfway through November……ain’t much mystery.

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Formato: Jpeg
Dimensiones: 2400×3000
Calidad del scan: Exagerada XD
Tamaño aprox: 71mb

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