Now that is some street art! Interview + a good number of photos of his work.

His website - a world of amazingly clever design:

[copied from European Affairs]

Book review:
De la Culture en Amérique by Frederic Martel
Editions Gallimard, 2006, 613 pages

Reviewed by François Clemenceau

( In here; how France can profit from the American approach to culture (and he's not kidding, either); excellent read, give it a go. )

[François Clemenceau is the Washington-based correspondent of Europe 1, the French radio network.]

When photographer David Maisel set out in a helicopter above Los Angeles he was capturing a perspective of the city normally limited to LAPD patrol helicopters and their parasitic partner - the “eye in the sky” news teams. However, Maisel’s images differ remarkably from our previous perspectives of the city instilled through high-speed chase videos.

Frozen in black and white and reversed, the city appears almost biological in its organization, blurring our sense of scale. From above the city appears chaotic and yet somehow rationalized. The forms are clearly created from a set of rules defining development: the freeway, the train yard, the city block, the water canals, all highly organized systems. But it is the collision of these different systems that is most fascinating; the abstraction and distance exposes the similarity between the underlying networks that make up the city, and the complex networks of the biological world.

This series of photographs make reference to the ephemeral conditions of the everyday, a field condition in which multiple narratives coexist and overlap, creating the evolving pattern of the contemporary city. Oblivion makes visible the adaptable nature of the city as it emerges from the interactions of these complex networks evolving in real time. From this perspective, Los Angeles can be understood as an evolving, growing ecosystem in which the interactions of countless sub-networks combine to create the patterns of the city.

Onwards to the photos!

[link from brenner]

OK, so maybe Victorian imagery has been modified a thousand times already to look even more disturbing than it is on its own, but this artist is so bent on it that she actually makes it look fresh. Quite a few images reminded me of the work of Felicien Rops and to a smaller degree Odilon Redon, and this is a recommendation as it shows she caught the same sense of unease they felt about their time. Enjoy.

[Add.: I chose this image as a sample of the artist's work because the women's expressions reminded me of this medieval fresco from the village of Beram in Istra, Croatia.]

Photos soon. In the meantime, what is your favourite building?

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My top three:

#1: The National Assembly (Dhaka; Louis Kahn, 1974): Absolutely my favourite building in the world, which I must visit one day. I will dedicate a separate post to it (as I'd already announced before and never really got to it), but for now, let it be known.

#2: 30 St Mary Axe (London; Sir Norman Foster, 2002): It has the LOL factor, OK? You can be in a really foul mood but the moment this thing comes into sight you giggle like a five year old and feel better instantly.

#3: The Great Mosque (Djenné; Ismaila Traoré, 1907): It's made of mud and it still looks better and more original and beautiful than most things around, and by around I mean all I know of the world. Kudos to the architect.

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Will make a more comprehensive list soon; in the meantime, hugs and goodnight!

Firstly, today I took a 1923/1932 Borges anthology and opened it at a page that mentions Krazy Kat and dubs it "already mythic". Reading this made me very happy.

Secondly, this post by futurebird has been in my mind since it was first published; it shows beautifully how the differences between rural and urban dwellings we (well me anyway, but I'm sure I'm far from alone in this) imagine and believe in are inverse to what they really are. The post is but one in a series of the artist's ponderings on urban naturalism and I strongly recommend you study them. I have always felt that there is nothing unnatural to the city, but futurebird explains it better than I ever could. I also recommend that you check out her art but beware, death from envy is a real danger.

The latest two entries of my favourite art site, the Giornale Nuovo, are devoted to two formidable men from my region: Janez Vajkard Valvasor, the Baroque cartographer, and Juraj Julije Klović, the Renaissance miniaturist. A good read for a peaceful evening, plus stunning reproductions.

Behold this beautiful, beautiful website!

On her work, and more gorgeous images.

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Also, another place that's hard to leave once you click - Illustration Friday!