Friday, 9 March 2012

David Pollack

http://www.dpvintageposters.com/cgi-local/content.cgi







I love the simplicity of David Pollack's vintage protest posters. They are straight to the point and have a clear and easy to understand message. I also like the use of appropriation. Using such a well known image such as the Uncle Sam poster, grabs peoples attention as it is so easily recognisable, but also it has certain connotations. People will look at that and immediatly make assumptions about the appropriated poster due to the associations they already have about the origional image.

Monday, 5 March 2012

Tasya Van Ree

http://tasyavanree.com/



Tasya van Ree has always been intrigued by the everyday wonders of the visual world. The sense of expansive awareness that for van Ree is a prerequisite to photography enables her to capture the small everyday flashes of insight that come when we are open to them and often go before we can fully grasp or appreciate them. Her extraordinarily vivid images are also a testimony to her eye for form and composition. Her photographs are infused with romanticism, darkness, intimacy, and a certain lyrical quality. They also capture the essence of the people, the landscape, and the intricacies of both the animate and inanimate worlds, and are a sort of meditation in seeing the powerful testaments between the relationship of human presence and transitory nature.

Van Ree’s works are both formally vigorous and eternally evocative. Van Ree has consistently produced a highly compelling body of work on varied subjects. Her photographs have been exhibited widely (in solo exhibitions as well as along side David Lynch, Jessica Lange, Gus van Sant, and Amy Arbus), and are included in numerous private collections.

http://www.afterellen.com/people/2010/8/tasya-van-ree

To refer to Tasya van Ree as simply a celebrity photographer is to do her (and yourself) a disservice. The out Los Angeles-based artist's work isn't just pretty faces posed in cool places — it's raw, sexy and gives you pause. The fact that some famous people might be involved only adds to the intrigue because, somehow, they become nameless in the beauty of the photos.
"It's really just a combination of raw imagination and uninhibited technique," van Ree said. "Taking those two elements and turning it into what I interpret as beauty. I see it as photojournalism infiltrating fashion and finding a home in the fine art world."
Van Ree's new exhibit, "Untitled Project," debuts at L.A.'s Celebrity Vault on August 11. It's a collection of portraits that she's taken over the last year. She describes them as "a showcase of randomness, staged performances, intimate moments, candid gestures, pondering expressions, seductive revelations, playful demeanors, and so forth."

One of her frequent subjects is actress Amber Heard, who she references as her "muse." She told us that Amber is to her as "Gala is to Salvador Dali, Kiki de Montparnasse is to Man Ray, Beatrice is to Dante Alighieri."
This week, van Ree and Heard were organizing a protest in West Hollywood against Target for their support of anti-gay LGBT politicians. Target has now apologized for their actions and, as a result, the protest has been called off.
"I want equality for every single person in this world," van Ree said of why they had planned to protest. Often her work is political, which van Ree said is largely part of the viewer's own interpreation.
"It is perhaps the most complex movement of the mind," van Ree said. "Art, when done from the heart, will always excrete a deeper level of understanding, no matter if the artist intended the meaning behind the piece or not. Of course, there is a certain direction that I start off with when I begin a project, whether it be in the medium of photography or painting, but it always seems to manifest itself into something entirely different, more complex then I ever thought it could get. It builds itself into a world where numerous people can interpret it, as oppose to just me."
Much of her work is done in black and white, which van Ree said "emits a certain sentiment."
"It contains a certain presence; it takes the subject matter and ignites a certain lyrical quality within it that one cannot express in words," she said. "It dives deep into one's subconscious and swims around in the thoughts they never knew they had. I love a beautiful black and white photograph because to me, it contains every second of time, wrapped up in one single shot. It evokes in me pleasure, melancholic sensuality, romance and every other human emotion one can think of. There's a timelessness there, that really moves me, especially in today's exceedingly fast pace world. There's a comfort there, a philosophy that can be seen and not heard, a truth that holds my attention. There's nothing else quite like it."
If you can't attend the "Untitled Project" exhibit in Beverly Hills, then you can view her work online at TasyaVanRee.com, where the sensuality and romance is on display. As for future works, van Ree said she's dreaming up what her next exhibit.
"I can go in a few different directions," she said. "These are some ideas that I'm playing with; gestures of sexuality, documentation of idiosyncrasies, reflections of the female body, light vs. dark narrative."
All of these things already play roles in van Ree's work, but expanding on them can only make her body of work even better.

http://tasyavanree.com/interviews/exclusive-interview-with-artist-tasya-van-ree-for-unleash-pdf







Thursday, 1 March 2012

Obsessive about Kate Moennig

If I was Kate Moennig, and I read this, I would be terrified!!!!!

http://discussion.l-word.com/viewtopic.php?p=408831



Kate Moennig played Shane in the L Word. Now, lesbians get OBSESSED with the L word. And especially Shane. She was very hot and got laid a lot - ergo a heroine for brand new lesbians, or girls in the 18-25 bracket. The way it was scripted was: bad childhood - can't commit - messed up about relationships - brilliant friend but fucked up with everything else.

Don't get me wrong, I like the L word, it was groundbreaking, fun, sexy, entertaining, but I don't think it was meant as a documentary. The way I think of it is its like Friends, if you live in New York you don't spend all day at a coffee shop with 5 friends who also apparently also never work. Its a TV Show, not reality. Same with the L Word. I have no issue with anyone affiliated with it. Its the fans - they're fucking crazy!!!!

And I have to feel a little sorry for Kate Moennig, a lot (and I mean like 80%) or lesbians I know think she is Shane. And I'm pretty sure she's not even gay. So she must get creeped out when she see's this:

Having now seen both Season 4 and 5-I agree with most of the posts I have read. Kate (Shane) character is pathetic-really messing people's lives up and as soon as she has some sort of prospect of settling in with a woman she screws the real estate woman in the prospective flat.
All this hard done by stuff as an excuse for this behaviour is wearing thin and getting on my nerves!

Calm down love, its not real.



The Origional Stonewall 'Get Over It' Campaign

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_school/education_for_all/quick_links/education_resources/4007.asp

The origional campaign by Stonewall was focused on tackling homophobia in schools, sending out leaflets, stickers and postcards with the logo on were sent to all the 5000 secondary schools in England. This is brilliant, it was a fantastic campign.



However, I feel like now the message has been changed. The red t-shirts bearing this logo were always available on Stonewall's website, but they have been picked up by people who don't understand what they are talking about. Of course bullying in schools is wrong, for whatever reason be it sexuality, race, hair colour, but in England, we are so lucky that this generation is growing up in a world of acceptance. Aside from ignorant individuals, it is generally seen as wrong to bully someone based on their sexuality. But of course you're going to get some wankers who fell like its ok to shout in the street, but that's an idiot thing, not a gay thing. If I wear a short skirt as a young girl, I probably get as much shouted at me as a guy would in one. Don't get me wrong I'm sure people would stare at John in a mini skirt, but on one hand, feel lucky that you live in a country where people are either too polite to heckle you or just know it is socially unnacceptable, on the other hand, if you choose to be flamboyant and throw it in peoples faces - accept not everyones going to like it, or be uncomfortable, or just intrigued if they've never seen a same sex couple before.

With regards to the slogan Some People Are Gay, Get Over It, I think this is a good message to send into schools where it is an issue. High school is where young peoples opinions are formed and this is the best message to send. However, people who are not in high school, but are happily sat in a gay bar with their boyfriend/girlfriend, surrounded by other gay people, in a gay area of a major city DO NOT NEED TO WEAR THIS T-SHIRT! I would be horrified to think that when people found out I was a lesbian, they thought of that t-shirt and the wankers that wear it. It is pure self obsession.

That it why I have changed the logo for my own posters - a campaign for teenage/young adult gay people who have the easiest fucking life, and by moaning and complaining about their non existant gay-orientated problems, belittle the people who actually do need the help and who know what its like to not be able to be gay.

'YOU'RE GAY. GET IVER IT!'