David Hockney

I suppose I will have to let up on my posts concerning artists named David soon, but this is not so much a post concerning Hockney's art- which, as a side note, I adore- as it is one concerning the fact that he (David Hockney)  totally banged Ian Falconer (the man responsible for Olivia the pig), who, as it happens went to my high school and in turn went on to pop Tom Ford's cherry, which in sum total is an excellent series of events. Also contrary to popular belief, Hockney was kind of a hottie.

Exquisite Object #2: Man Brooches

Personally, I think this is a fabulous idea. There are simply too few accessories for men which do not come off as cheap, flashy, or in generally bad taste. Rings are stereotypical, demonstrated in Querelle et al. Necklaces of shell or beads are juvenile, chain, sleazy. Facial piercing seem to have uncomfortable, and distinctly unfashionable, cultural associations, eyebrows are for bros, lips are for those hideous knife blade youth who wear neon with black and hold halfhearted allegiance to some inchoate philosophy involving something like misanthropy only shallower, and nose piercings, while not truly offensive, do seems to carry with them an unpleasant self regard for some perceived conceit to femininity. As for the general male accessories- and believe me this statement would, generally, be entirely anathema to my delicate sensibilities- they are just too subtle. Tie clips and cufflinks are all well and good, but I really must insist on something with a bit more ardor. I also thought medals might have potential, though I suppose one would have to be careful to prevent them from becoming costumey or, and I shudder at the very thought, "steampunk." P.S. "Exquisite Object" in this post refers to the platonic "man brooch" rather than any specific broach, so perhaps "exquisite conceptual object" would have been more appropriate.

Louboutin and Lynch Present: Fetish

Incredible collaboration between Lynch and Louboutin. Lynch, exploiting the same juxtaposition of smokey retro interiors and blurred white, diaphoretic degradation, as he did in Blue Velvet, has created something really worthwhile. Article on the collaboration

Daikichi Amano: Erotic Horror Portraits

Daikichi Amano is a Japanese photography and video artist. His studio, Genki Genki (good feeling), produces work that is often pseudo-pornographic and invariably involves bugs, dead fish, eels, and whole lot of octopi. I confess I do not know much about him, save for the fact that he inserted an eraser and a toy car into his anus as a child. He works in a decidedly Japanese mode, but can also be seen as a member of the artistic tradition of Bellmer, Balthus, Felicien Rops' Werke, and Freud. Here is a link to his website

Salinger and the Postmodern

Michael Greenberg an analysis of Salinger's work in 2010 which induced me to reevaluate the work of a man I had previously considered incurably juvenile. I suppose I am at fault for a shallow reading of Franny and Zooey and The Catcher in the Rye, but I can hardly be blamed. It seems to me everyone who reads Salinger either sees him as an adolescent prophet or a pretentious prig. However it would seem nearly every poorly informed view of Salinger, whether positive or negative, unthinkingly understands his obsession with "phonies" to be motivated by a sense that he himself is not a phony, an idea which people inevitably decide is true or woefully false. However, Greenberg, being infinitely more clever than I and my milieu, sees past so somatic a view, past the blunt surface interpretation I had, for so long, clung to. He proposes that Salinger's "obsession" with phonies, is rather more like a meditation on the concept of sincerity and intention. Salinger's work is that of the endlessly self aware postmodern author, the self-defeating, annular, obsessive morality of "freaks with freakish standards." Here is a link to the article. I you choose to re-examine some of Salinger's work I would strongly recommend pairing it with some of Robert Walser's work, who is certainly deserving of a post of his own, but for the time being I will say only that he has a similarly obsessive metafictional voice, a reductio ad absurdum, infinitely divided sense of morality, justice, penance, and sincerity.

Jean-Paul Gaultier 2011 Fall: Old Upper East Side Ladies

Gaultier's Fall collection this year is really fantastic. To begin with the first model who came down the runway was actually an old Upper East Side lady, sort of Jackie O-ish. After her some of the models were sporting gray-coiffures, and others glasses chains and wire hand carts. Anyway the whole thing was fabulous and I'm glad someone is finally paying homage to the chicest women on earth. A slideshow of the collection

David Shrigley

David Shrigley is a Glasgow based British visual artist whose work includes drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and animation. The first thing one notices upon examining Shrigley's work is that it is extremely funny. The humor of the work is so great it may compel the view to understand it as something other than fine art, such as a quirky or amateur effort at cartooning. And this might well be true were it not for the overwhelming air of pathos that hangs so heavily about the work. Shrigley's work is an inescapably perfect expression of futility. With such subtlety, such aphoristic brevity Shrigley speaks to defeatism and an almost ontological, definitional sense of hollowness and isolation. All aspects of the work touch us with the breath of the void. The often rough nature of the line work, paired with the jarring presence of straightedge and compass, demonstrate the Kafkaesque rhythm of futility, struggle, and inevitable defeat. The English is broken ad hapless, indeed the work is hapless, the artist himself is hapless, and the world is hopeless. His Website

Exquisite Object #1: Tsubota Pearl

Tsubota Pearl is a Japanese lighter manufacturer based in Tokyo and founded in the early 1950s. Zippo simply cannot compare. Tsubota Pearl's website

Fashion's Fascination with Collegiate Chaos

Paul Smith's 2011 Fall collection is rife with mismatched suiting and disheveled, bespectacled tweed. Perhaps the fashion industry has been besotted with the clothing of an Oxford all-nighter for some time, the distasteful term "Geek Chic" is certainly nothing new, and black framed "Buddy Holly" glasses are less than cutting edge. However a certain take on youthful academia, collegiate disorder, sullied, or compromised formality, rumpled classicism seems to be emerging on the runways of the world, promulgating an ethos distinct from the pop-heavy "Geek Chic" of the past. Oddly the horn-rims of 2005 suggested a sort of facile individuality, the outsider identity of all youth. Perhaps "Geek Chic" encompassed a vague acceptance of the pathos of the over twenty gamer and a feeble nose-thumbing in the direction of big business and general adulthood, but ideology was vestigial to the movement and seems to have been all but shed. However the harried-college-student-circa-1930 does seem to hold some more cohesive if not more sophisticated Weltanschauung. One which celebrates intellectualism, granted, of a particularly elegant, adolescent sort. It lays claim to a far less accessible identity than that of generic individuality, it is an outward expression of thought as a stance, a stance that miserably few of us can hold.Slideshow of Paul Smith 2011 Fall

Hello!

I am a first year student at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence Rhode Island. I am 6' 5",  have a morbid dread of public restrooms, enjoy drawing, and devote a great deal of my time to reading. My table manners have been called "adequate." I do not have an overbite, and suffer from neither significant deformities or perversions of spirit, mind, or body. I own a french bulldog, his name is Spondylus. I have never been in prison and did not require braces. I can hold my breath for upwards of 40 seconds and can perform a standing leap of up to 7".

I intent to present to you, nicely and politely, objects and events which I believe will be eclectic, if not interesting.

Wishing to remain your humble and obedient servant,

Polysemy