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rietveld 2012

i managed to visit the rietveld academy 2012 grad show late last week and as usual it wasn’t disappointing…. always a good crop and this year seemed somehow to be better than previous years in my opinion, lots of solid research behind projects and surprisingly in graphic design a lot more paper/book projects than usual even…

i spent some time talking to one of the photography students (above & below) in particular: ukranian ‘ola lanko’ who had some great projects… i’ll post more them and her later this week…

m / 09-07-2012 13:44 - tags: , , ,  

a narrative in three colours

just in this week: the amazing new graphic novel from french artist blexbolex entitled ‘no man’s land’ which has been exquisitely produced in three pantone colours making use of transparency and overlapping tints, worth ordering and implausibly cheap for such a beautiful book

m / 06-07-2012 09:14 - tags: , , ,  

£3.99

…so, firstly, yes, I realise toasting bread over a fire would’ve been a lot easier. But was a piece of toast (or designing a better toaster) really the point of this project?…

the subject is entirely serious and worrying but it is one of the funniest books i have read in a while: the toaster project by british graduate thomas thwaites… within half a chapter it became clear that this guy had one of the best degree projects i’ve ever seen

the premise is simple: thomas bought a cheap toaster for a few pounds and then decided to try to make his own one, using a set of ‘dogma’like’ rules to restrict his process including sourcing and fabricating all of the raw materials needed himself; a tale of consumerism, our hunger for things and the damage we are doing to the environment; a highly recommended, troubling and hilarious book…

m / 28-06-2012 09:34 - tags: , , ,  

d13 #4

last week i spent a few days visiting the latest (and much criticised) edition of the (5 yearly) ‘documenta’ art festival in kassel, germany

some of the works which i apparently found interesting enough to photograph (and therefore blog about) included these books, the damaged ones (above & below) are from the archives of the city museum in kassel and are priceless old manuscripts and bibles which were irreparably destroyed by the british RAF during bombing raids at the end of the second world war… more art than history but still oddly beautiful to look at as artefacts

the lower image is from an installation containing several hundred beautiful ‘organic’ books made from solid sections of tree, all neatly ordered in an antique cabinet… unfortunately i cannot recall the name of the artist involved

of course writing about these project doesn’t come anywhere near to the experience one undergoes when actually seeing them (see also these previous related entries here)

m / 21-06-2012 12:51 - tags: , ,  

a new leaf

intricate book sculptures seem to be very much in vogue at the moment, for example: canadian artist guy laramee and american artist brian dettmer

(links via my ex intern ‘joris van megen’)

m / 21-06-2012 08:34 - tags: , ,  
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