Reggie Watts/Santogold/Taylor Mali

I wish i could claim ownership of finding this awesome man, but i cant. Someone else did and i am posting this because its so incredibly important. Reggie Watts tackles issues such as race and gender in a comedic way. The weight of his subject-matter is off set by his awesome ability to make you giggle at it......in a nervous and funny way.

In his video Fuck, Shit, Stack he uses crude language in order to comment on the lack of use of proper language within young culture today. He comments on the status of HIGH ART with his "put some fuck on a wall. ananlyze it" commentary, and ties it all together with horrible statements about women and wearing bullet proof vests for no reason, thus commenting on race. The cynicism and sarcasm are so important.

Please watch this video in its entirety. Im also attaching a Santogold song because she is amazing.

im also going to attach one more video about language specifically, taken from def jam poetry by a guy named Taylor Mali.

i vote for complete annihilation of art-speak. we need to take it back down to basic feelings while, like, you know, still declaring things to be, like, true.



what?!??!? this is brilliant!

Ellen Gallagher- DeLuxe

Ellen Gallagher- Delux


Hottie


Ellen Gallagher's work examines race through the use of ads from black publications or images of blacks. In her piece, DeLuxe, Gallagher exaggerates the wigs and blocks out the eyes of the black women in the wig ad, creating caricature like representation of the black woman.

This piece speaks to age old trend of black women conforming to European standards of beauty, trading in natural hair (in texture and color) for straight and colored hair in order to 'fit in'. On one level, Gallagher's piece is simply an exaggeration of the unnaturalness of the wigs on the black women. The bright yellow cut out brings out the odd shapes of the wigs, making them seem more like geometric headdresses rather than hair. On another level, the yellow wigs represent the hair colors that many black women chose that generally (although their are some exceptions) do not occur naturally within the black race. On the third level, the whiting out of the eyes shows loss of identity. The individuality of the black woman has been melted into white ideals of beauty, making everyone a cookie cutter image of the blond, straight haired prototype of beauty. The whiting of the eyes also adds to the caricature appeal the piece as a whole.

I'm all about people expressing themselves with their hair or whatever else, but when I see black women out on the street, on t.v, in film, or in print with long, blond straight wigs/weaves, there is something that doesn't sit well with me. I don't believe that everyone black women should always embrace their natural hair at all times, but straight blonde hair seems like such a stretch to meet another races standard of beautiful hair. One of the worst examples of this that I have seen was Hottie from Flavor of Love. She wore a long, thick, blonde wig (See image above) for the entire show and when asked if it was a wig, she said had the nerve to say her hair grew out of her head like that! When I looked at Deluxe for the first time, I thought about Hottie. All that blond hair and those big eyes. Hottie is a walking representation of DeLuxe.

Vincent Price - my long lost love

(Fabulous picture of Vincent Price as Egghead from Batman)

As a child until my teenage years, I had this obsession with Vincent Price. Anything that had Vincent Price in it, even if it was a sound clip of his voice, I was on it. One of my favorite movies when I was younger was The House of Wax. I could watch it over and over again. There was something about the macabre nature of Vincent Price and his films that I loved, plus the sound of his voice is like a knife cutting through hot butter!

Today while going through Slate.com, I found an article about Vincent Price. Apparently him and his wife were food aficionados and there are several collections of his recipes available. I even found an audio clip of him explaining how to make Viennese eggs!

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/CM/Vincent_Price_-_Viennese_Stuffed_Eggs.mp3

I am posting this for sheer entertainment value. I just want Vincent Price to come back to life, stroke my hair and read me a bedtime story. Below are youtube clips of Tim Burton's short film 'Vincent', which is narrated by Vincent Price, and Vincent Price's reading of The Raven.

My Vincent Price obsession is officially revived.

Dreams of Flying

Photographer Jan Van Holleben has a collection of photographs called Dreams of Flying. This collection is absolutely adorable. Van Holleben uses posed figures lying on solid, flat surfaces, to create the illusion of movement. The juxtaposition of the poses imitating movement on flat surfaces create playful images that evoke a happy feeling. When I look at these pictures, I think of moments when I was a child (and even now) where I let my imagination take me away to something fantastic. Even though I might be sitting on a rock alone, I could imagine that I was standing on the moon searching for life. I love that these photographs remind me of that. Below are some of the photographs I found in the collection that I adore.

Circuit bending with Pokemon

Found this guy just bored surfing. He's called Kaseo, check out his site here

Ruby Slippers

The ruby slippers are the magical shoes worn by Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) in the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz.

The ruby slippers were designed by Gilbert Adrian.

One pair is on permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. (ROAD TRIP!!!!!)

The Ruby Slippers play yet another integral role in the 1985 Disney film "Return to Oz", in which Disney had to obtain rights from MGM to use reproductions in the film. Unlike the slippers used in the 1939 film, the hand-made British spool-heeled shoes for Return to Oz were covered in hundreds of red crystals.

Miranda July

http://mirandajuly.com/
Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performance artist, musician, writer, actress and film director. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, after having lived for many years in Portland, Oregon.

Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 film and was the debut feature-length film by Miranda July. The film won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

This clip of the film says it all...




here are some photos i was attracted to as well:

Miranda Lichtenstein revisted

Jack Pumpkin Head in Return to Oz



Lichtenstein's The Healer

I found another photograph of that I love. It reminds me sooo much of a movie that came out in the late 80's called Return to Oz. There was scene where Dorothy, the scarecrow (with the large, creepy, jack-o-lantern head) and the rest of the group were in the attic, or either basement, of a house. The room contained all these old household items that I guess were being stored away. I believe they fashioned together some kind of plain out of the goods they found to get out. Well, the room that The Healer photograph was taken in reminds me of the room in Return to Oz. Due to the collection of the old things and removal of a sense of exact place and time. I can't tell where the person is at in the photograph surrounded by all those old vanities. The mystery of the setting adds to it's beauty. Its quiet lovely. I think I like is so much because it reminds me of Return to Oz, which is one of my childhood favorites.

Miranda Lichtenstein

I don't know anything about this artist, but I found these photographs of hers and I found them to be beautiful. They are a series of dancers with wing type shawls that are gorgeous. They radiate this beautiful light and seem to be transparent. I wish I knew the materials they were made out of, but I can't seem to find much info on them. Just thought I'd share.

Nia's High Fucking Art Book

So ive been doing this kind of work i do for a very long time. none of these photos/video's of/about my body and life went public until about two years ago, mainly because of my own stupid hang ups about who i really am. this book i made for candidacy called Machine is about this.
its not that there was anything to "come to terms with" or any of that "finding myself" bullshit. ive never been in denial about who i am or what i do. its been very clear, to me at least. its mainly the fact that ive always known the truth i just worked myself to the point of numbness. ive lied to so many people for so long and i dont know if im just too old to care anymore or what.
either way, heres the link. blurb will only allow 15 pages to be previewed. its a 92 page book. youll have to let me know if you want to see it.
btw- i should have made that fucking cover text white. or the cover. i duno. the cover just sucks in general.
oddly, there are NO nudie photos of me in it (SHOCK!). in fact, there are no people at all. i felt like the photos had to be boring because the text is really heavy. but never fear, i have something like 4,000 naked pictures of me on my hard drive, they will reappear.





http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/212227/a8936e4762ab414fcb

The fantastic in the everyday

Aaron Ruell (born June 23, 1976) is an American actor who was born in Fresno, California, but grew up in Clovis, California.
As a photographer he shot the promotional photography for Napoleon Dynamite, and designed the opening title sequence to the film. His photography has been seen in nearly every major publication and a book of his photography titled, "Some Photos," published by Nazraeli Press was released in December. He was recently awarded "Best Advertising" for his work with Citibank and "Best Website" in the 2007 PDN Annual.
Ruell studied film at Brigham Young University.
Although his photography is amazing and successfully draws attention to the idea of the fantastic in the everyday, he is most noted for his performance as Kipland Ronald Dynamite (or Kip) in the indie movie Napoleon Dynamite.
His fine art and ad work can be found at www.aruell.com
I am personally attracted to his work because of the way he creates these perfectly planned "snapshots" of people and intertiors. As we all know by now, i have an infatuation with deadpan. Formally, his work is beauiful, adhearing to the rules of thirds, color theory ect. Conceptually, i am very interested in these seemingly boring photographs that ooze personality upon closer inspection. I like "boring photography".