David Seidner: Paris Fashions, 1945 Opens at the International Center of Photography

David Seidner, Robert Piguet, Raphaël, Pierre Balmain, 1990. © International Center of Photography, David Seidner Archive.

NEW YORK, NY.- David Seidner: Paris Fashions, 1945 presents photographs of a collection of couture-clad dolls made for the Théâtre de la Mode, a wildly creative effort by the French fashion industry to broadcast to the world that they were back in business after World War II. In 1990, contemporary fashion photographer David Seidner (1957–1999) was asked to photograph the dolls for a reconstruction of the original project. Through September 6, 2009, fifteen of these color photographs from the David Seidner Archive, along with one of the original dolls, are view at the International Center of Photography.  After the liberation of 1944, the French couture industry was badly weakened. Shortages of food, electricity, and supplies brought production to a virtual standstill. During the Occupation, strict fabric rations were imposed on the couture houses, which faced the constant threat of foreclosure. To help revive the international stature of the business, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne conceived of a small exhibition, Théâtre de la Mode. With limited access to materials, the organizers commissioned wire-frame dolls just over two feet tall as the models and invited the major fashion designers of the day, including Balenciaga, Jacques Fath, Lucien Lelong, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Pierre Balmain, to create exquisite miniature dresses.  The exhibition of over 230 dolls, displayed in artist-designed sets, opened in Paris on March 27, 1945 in the Pavillon Marsan at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The international creative talent involved in the project included the Frenchmen Jean Cocteau, Christian Bérard, and Éliane Bonabel; the Russian Boris Kochno; and the Catalan Joan Rebull. The show was an instant sensation, and traveled to London, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna, New York, and, finally, San Francisco. Within the year, the French fashion industry had been revived. The dolls had completed their work spectacularly and were donated to the Maryhill Museum near Portland, Oregon, where they disappeared from public view.  In 1990, the dolls were rediscovered and returned to Paris, where they were recoiffed and restyled for an exhibition at the Musée de la Mode. Because of his pioneering work photographing French fashion and historical gowns, David Seidner was asked to photograph the little dolls. In his images, Seidner captures the essence of French postwar style. The rough, abandoned sets he used echoed the backdrop of the original exhibition, and also stand in for the environment in post-Occupation Paris. Like the postwar fashion photographs made in front of bombed buildings, the coiled ropes, splintering wood, shards of glass, and exposed wire in Seidner’s photographs attest to the precariousness of life and fashion at the time, and underscore the courage and spirit of the people who persevered.  David Seidner (February 18, 1957–June 6, 1999) was born in Los Angeles and worked as a photographer for twenty-five years, spending much of his time in Paris. Among the world’s top fashion photographers, he was perhaps best known for his work with the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent, his striking formal portraiture and nude photographs, and for his orchid series, the final project before his death in 1999. His artwork and portraiture were largely inspired by the chance-based philosophy of composer John Cage, whose work considered the classical Chinese book the I Ching as the basis for musical pieces. via Artdaily

Grégoire Alexandre

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BAMAKO - 7th African Photography Meeting at Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona

Maazouz Azamourm, Camel Boy.

BARCELONA.- The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona presents the exhibition Bamako – 7th African Photography Meeting, curated by Pep Subirós, from 24 February to 1 June 2009. As in previous years, Bamako has two main objectives. The first is to present an overview of contemporary African photography, a particularly outstanding art on the creative scene of that continent, which, despite its geographical proximity, is only now beginning to receive the attention its cultural and artistic vitality deserves. The second is to showcase the importance of the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie, a biennial event which, after seven outings, is now consolidated as one of Africa’s biggest artistic meeting points. With these objectives as its base, and thanks to an agreement with the organizing bodies of the Rencontres in Bamako, the show at the CCCB presents the pick of the 2007 event: some 200 photographies and a selection of original videos, and printed and film documentation. With the title “In the City and Beyond”, most of the seventh Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie de Bamako centres on the theme of the urban phenomenon. The urban phenomenon rather than the city because, over and beyond the usual reductive views that see cities as material, functional structures and devices, they are, in reality, fundamentally networks of relations between individuals and social groups. In addition to its specific theme, represented in particular by a selection of some 150 photographs from the “International Exhibition”, this latest review of the Rencontres at the CCCB includes the “Tribute” to a foremost African photographer, the late Serge Jongué (Guyana, 1951-2006); a “Monograph” given over entirely to Samuel Fosso, one of the great contemporary creators who are taking photography to the forefront of the visual arts; and, finally, a selection of the original videos submitted in the section “New Images”. via Artdaily

Spaghetti benches

words James Richards Visitors to the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in west London may never sit comfortably in a public place again. Pablo Reinoso’s new exhibition features three ordinary park benches – but with a twist. “I call these my spaghetti benches,” says Reinoso. The benches’ wooden slats appear to be still growing, snaking out beyond one end. On one piece, the slats climb up a nearby wall in a mass of wooden tendrils. In another, the slats intertwine and overlap before forming another bench. “I love working with the material. But it’s a slow process,” says Reinoso. “You can’t use a single piece of wood because the grain wouldn’t support the curves I need. Bending the wood is only realistic when you have lots of pieces the same shape. Here, I had to carve individual pieces then glue them and just keep repeating.” “An ordinary park bench takes about two days to make – for one person, the spaghetti bench takes two months,” he adds. “But if I had the time, I could have gone on for a kilometre.” The first floor of the gallery will also feature Reinoso’s “breathing sculptures” – a wall of fabric cushions controlled by miniature fans. They inflate and deflate at a rate designed to mirror a person’s breathing pattern. Visitors will also get a glimpse of Reinoso’s future projects, including models of a concrete staircase to the treetops, and four spaghetti benches intertwining to form a covered pagoda. The show runs from 30 April – 17 May images Courtesy of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery cwgdesign.com www.pabloreinoso.com via Iconeye

Art Commerce Collision

The Swedish-American renegade creative duo Hart + Larsson have been quite a stir of late, first with their spoof Marc Jacobs advertising campaign (complete with it’s Juergen Teller pastiche) and then with their hijacking of the front cover of New York Magazine. Envious of their ability to mix art with commerce, lifeiscarbon® recently caught up with Tomas Larsson to hear about some of their more interesting projects.

“More than anything, we are purveyors of style. We want to create things - whether it be films, photography, websites or clothing - that all refer back to the H+L style. Ultimately we want to populate the world with things that posses a certain look or voice. We see no clear distinction between art and commerce. What we do, in essence, is called The New Enthusiasm.”

“Some of our more notable past and present clients are AOL, MTV, GE, Olympus, Mike&Ike, Every Day With Rachael Ray, and Paramount. Presently we are developing an original online program with Comedy Central.”

Take a look below to read more about Hart + Larrson and to see some our favorite projects by them. YouTube, Frank Gehry and Brad Pitt are just a few of those who have had the honor of being given given the Hart + Larrson treatment:

Based in New York City, Hart + Larsson was founded in 2002 by Tomas Larsson (born and raised in Sweden) and Greg Hart (originally from Ohio, US).

The complete Marc Jacobs spoof campaign can be seen here:

Part of the hijacked New York Magazine cover publicized via a recent poster campaign.

Get a glimpse inside the creative genius of Frank Gehry when he’s commissioned by Theodore Kaczynski.

Be sure to watch the wonderful though bizarre Brad Pitt Cube film on Hart + Larsson’s website

No coffee table should be without Arktip magazine (another lifeiscarbon® favorite), especially not the issue featuring the Hart + Larrson collaboration.

Hart + Larrson

via lifeiscarbon

The Red Ribbon Project

The Tanghe River Park, located in Qinhuangdao, China, features a new installation of red steel that stretches for 500 meters along the riverbank.

The Red Ribbon project integrates a boardwalk, lighting, seating, environmental interpretation, and environmental orientation. It is made of fiber steel, and lit from inside so that it glows red at night.

Four pavilions in the shape of clouds are distributed along the ribbon, which provide protection from the weather, meeting opportunities, and visual focal points.

via Coolboom

Via CONTEMPORIST

Van

Van, Cleveland, Ohio, 2007
via Flak Photo

Photo © Sara Padgett Heathcott — featured in 31 Under 31: Young Women in Art Photography

Stalking Particles, James Brittain: Collisions 25/02/2008 -18/03/2008

I've been kind of obsessed with the building since I watched "L'Ultime Particule" 6 years ago.

A documentary by the French director Michel Andrieu that tries to explain particle physics through a quest for the research physicists of matter of today and yesteryear. Invariably kitted out in a red parka and a soft hat, the programme's investigator scours the planet and the archives in search of the research physicists who are stalking the ultimate particle, the Higgs boson, in their quest to understand the structure of matter. CERN is an important stage of his journey. It's all in French but definitely worth seeing.

The big LHC 2008 Open Day is on Sunday 6 April in Meyrin.

















So I'll be going to the AA to see Collisions.

Collisions is a large-scale photographic triptych featuring the world’s largest particle accelerator at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland known as the Large Hadron Collider. The photographs were taken in summer 2007 during the final phase of construction at the centre for European Nuclear Research by London-based photographer James Brittain.

The Large Hadron Collider has been under construction for the past 11 years and is located underground in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. There are few signs of it on the surface – just occasional sheds, chimneys and bunkers intervening haphazardly in the landscape. The Collider is housed inside a 27-kilometre-long tunnel about the size of London’s Circle Line. It has been built as an experiment to recreate the conditions that occurred at the point the universe began – the moment known as the ‘Big Bang’. Physicists intend to use it to discover the elusive ‘Higgs-Boson’ particle or ‘God Particle’ – a subatomic particle not yet observed by science, but believed to hold the key to understanding the architecture of all matter. Once in operation, sub-atomic particles will be accelerated in a vacuum along a slim pipe inside the tunnel at roughly the speed of light, then crashed into each other. Physicists are interested in observing what occurs at the point of the collisions: large mechanical equipment has been installed at four collision points along the tunnel to carry out these observations. It is the particle collisions that are thought to hold the key to decoding the universe. The accelerator is due to be officially switched on in summer 2008.

One theory under scrutiny in the experiment is that of ‘supersymmetry’. This proposes that everything in the universe beginning at the subatomic level, has a symmetrical partner – with all human life described as a ‘grand dance of particles’, each with a symmetrical shadow. Brittain says of the project: ‘For a photographer, such thoughts about symmetry are at the heart of the process of describing space in pictures’. The photographs are intended as simple observations of the spaces and machinery created. As a project of physical investigation, the accelerator’s construction has been driven by function. Little or no thought has been devoted to aesthetics. Yet the resulting creation is often extremely beautiful.' Brittain is an independent photographer based in London. He began his photographic career in Africa and later trained in architectural photography at the London College of Printing.

images via James Brittain's site jamesbrittain.co.uk

via AA

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