Christo's Big Air Package

Christo unveiling Big Air Package

Christo, the world famous environmental artist, unveiled his latest large-scale installation work "Big Air Package" last Friday.  It is the largest indoor sculpture ever erected.  It will be on display at the Gasometer Oberhausen in Germany from March 16 to December 30, 2013. 

 

Big Air Package: on top, inside and concept drawing 

 

The sculpture is made from 20,350 square meters of semitransparent polyester fabric and 4,500 meters of rope.  Encased inside a 117 meter high industrial complex (Gasometer), the inflated balloon-like piece has a total weight of 5.3 tons and a volume of 177,000 cubic meters.

 

Erecting Big Air Package

 

The balloon fills the enclosed space of the Gasometer, leaving a small passage around the sculpture to walk around in.  Air fans create a constant pressure of 0.27 millbar to keep the sculture inflated, with airlocks at the base to allow guests to come in and experience the art piece from the inside.  Light coming in from the skylights on top and 60 additional projectors create an otherworldly atmosphere and ambiance for the visitors.

 

At the opening of Big Air Package, March 15, 2013

 

Acting like a gigantic tent diffuser, the viewer is transported into an experience with pure light.  In Christo's own words, "you are virtually swimming in light when you are inside the Big Air Package... the inner space is probably the most unique aspect of the piece...when experienced from the inside, the space is almost like a 90 meter high cathedral."

Blood Art

Vincent Castiglia in front of one of his "blood" paintings

Vincent Castiglia is an artist who fully epitomizes our current culture.  With the rise of the "vampire" in popular entertainment, and our shifting focus on the organic and the sustainable, he is the perfect artist for our time.  This Brooklyn born artist stumbled on a concept that will surely have a cult following in years to come:  painting exclusively using human blood.

 

 

The concept seems shocking at first, but you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality and craftsmanship of the artwork.  Vincent's "blood" paintings are comparable to the drawings of the great master illustrators from the Renaissance-- Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Durer, but with a more modern-gothic phantasmagoric twist.  Using the human figure (anatomy) as his starting point, Castiglia examines the human experience and comments on our collective psychological and existential dilemas.

 

Using blood as paint, Vincent's illustration/paintings have a quality akin to classic ocher, the color used by the earliest artists.  Mixing his blood with water, he applies the mixture to paper very much like watercolor paint. Some of his paintings are huge (seven feet lengthwise), which can take up to 30 vials of blood and several months to complete.  Vincent believes that by using his own blood, his work literally comes "alive" with his own psychic/life force; dissolving the barrier between him and his artwork in the most literal sense.  The resulting masterpiece is not only unique, unusual and rare, but also visually stunning and viceral.  His art has the capacity to engage (or assault) us on multiple dimensions, from the most primal (by his use of blood), to the emotional and finally to the conceptual.  The caliber of his work earned him the honor of being the first American artist invited by the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland to have a solo exhibition.

 

The artist's paint tubes and brushes

      

"Blow Job" by Tadao Cern

This is something I found in Facebook... A series of portraits by Lithuanian photographer Tadao Cern (Tadas Cerniauskas) using "air blasts," to create comical caricatures of everyday people.  The series was created during the Design Weekend in Vilnius. Visitors to the Tadao Cern studio were invited to participate in a live photo session.

It's graphically hilarious and visually novel.  It reminds me of the wonderful times I had as a child, when I would stick my head out of our speeding car to experience the blast of wind distort my face in weird contortions.

Here is a sampling of "Blow Job":

For more information on "Blow Job" or Tadao Cern, please go to www.tadaocern.com or Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.364606033586614.77800.151290258251527&type=3

--all photos property of Tadao Cern

Pre-Oscar Inspirations

Douglas signing his prints for the exhibit

Douglas Kirkland's special new exhibit for the Oscars (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), "Out of Character" opened today, Feb. 11 at the AMPAS's Grand Lobby Gallery.  One of the most prolific celebrity/movie-set photographers in the history of Hollywood, Douglas was commissioned by the Academy to photograph all 20 of the Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress nominees for this year's Oscar race.  Only three sets of the exhibition prints will be produced, with each nominee receiving a signed copy of their individual photos.  The images will also be featured in the Oscar Awards telecast this year.  The larger than life portraits will be on exhibit at the Academy’s headquarters at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills until March 18.  “Out of Character” will be open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free.  After the exhibition, one complete set of the large-format portraits will become part of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library photograph collection.

Douglas in the AMPAS Grand Gallery among his prints

Douglas' work has been a constant inspiration to my own portraiture work.  He is and always will be one of the great ones I look up to in both technique and artistry.  Please come and visit his new Oscar portraits if you can.

Here are some words of wisdom about photography, from some of the artists that inspire me:

Wynn Bullock's "Color Light Abstractions"

The Exhibit at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California

The first time I came across Wynn Bullock's "Color Light Abstractions," I literally gasped at the simplicity, breath and magnificence of this largely forgotten, ground-breaking body of work.  In 2010, the Bullock Family Estate started a traveling exhibit of the newly scanned high-resolution prints of "Color Light Abstractions" from Wynn's 35mm Kodachrome slide originals.  The transcendental beauty of Wynn's images have finally been printed in the way they were originally photographed in the transparencies.

"As sounds in a musical composition can be used not to express physical objects but ideas, emotions, harmonies, rhythmic orders and most any expression of the human mind and spirit, so light can be used visually to express the mind and spirit." – Wynn Bullock

One of the great American Photographers of the 20th century, Wynn Bullock discovered photography in Paris in the 1920s while pursuing a career in singing.  After discoving the works of Man Ray and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, he bought his first camera and began taking pictures.  It took more than 10 years before he decided to pursue it seriously.  He graduated from the Art Center College in 1940, where he experimented with alternative processes like solarization and bas relief.  His early experimental work was exhibited in one of the L.A. County Museum’s early solo photographic exhibitions. 

In the early 1960s, Wynn Bullock started experimenting with color and light.  According to him, he was always facinated by light -- "As long as I can remember I have been fascinated by light…light as a force and an entity in its own right. I recall as a boy finding pieces of glass on the California desert. Some pieces were of recently broken bottles. Their colors were familiar and didn’t excite me. Occasionally, however, I found pieces of very old glass with beautiful prismatic colors. I thought only light and time could have created these colors and I was deeply moved." 

Playing and experimenting with pieces glass shards and crystals, he came up with his own process of directly capturing light and color in film -- "I discovered that I could take a piece of crystal or glass – very fine optical glass – and crack it up. A large piece can break into thousands of little pieces and each one of them comes out with just a beautiful fracture. I would put a few little pieces on a contraption of 8 or 10 layers of glass and I’d have a light underneath. And then I would use other lights. As I moved the pieces around against colored materials [e.g., shards of stained glass and colored cellophane], the fractures would begin to show up in different ways.  It was such close-up work. You couldn’t identify the glass, but by being that close and out-of-focus, all kinds of strange and beautiful optical shapes and effects would form in space. To me that’s real, that’s no illusion. I could move one of these little pieces and it would change the whole character of the picture. I used every kind of light – prismatic light, lights under, lights to the side…. I could move the lamp, I could move the light underneath – I could control the form of the optical image. I wouldn’t use them all at the same time, I would just use them creatively.  When making these pictures, I use light not to make objects recognizable, but to create beautiful pictures in color, line, surfaces, texture, forms, and space dimensions through the action of light as it strikes objects."  The "Color Light Abstraction" series was created using this simple technique. 

Grounded 1: Meditations On The Terra Firma

Ribbon-cutting for "Grounded 1" last Dec. 7

I have been a practicing Photographer for more than thirty-three years.  Photography started out as a hobby at the age of eleven, and it has been a constant presence in my life ever since.

When I turned professional five years ago, I decided to keep a part of my photography personal and experimental.  “Grounded: Meditations on the Terra Firma” is my first Series dedicated to the original impulse I had when I received my first camera -- to explore the medium of Photography and to use it to see our world in a different way.

I decided to start this personal (experimental) photographic journey at its core.  Light, shadow, texture, line, shape, color and composition comprise the most basic elements of the visual arts -- the fundamental building blocks of Photography.  “Grounded: Meditations on the Terra Firma” is pure photography, concentrated on the most essential elements of the Art.  All the photographs in this Series were shot as is, without photo manipulation.*

Beside the "Grounded" Exhibit poster in Ayala Museum

I opted to use a simple camera from the onset, devoid of any controls, to force myself to focus on these crucial elements.  I ended up using an IPhone, instead of my Holga or my Polaroid cameras, because my cellphone is always with me.  It is the modern day counterpart of the Polaroid and the Instamatic camera, and everyone is familiar with it (very few remember what Polaroids are).  After all the camera, no matter how simple or complex, is just a gadget that captures images.  It is our ability to ‘See’ and delight in what we see that dictates what we photograph.

“Grounded: Meditations on the Terra Firma” is also my initial foray into Abstract Photography.  Inspired by the avant garde work of Aaron Siskind, I wanted to retrace the possibilities of  Abstract Expressionism in Photography.  Siskind deliberately obscured his subject matter by concentrating on form, texture and simple visual elements to push Photography into the realm of abstraction; Simple and direct, without employing elaborate tricks and gadgets.  Upon discovering the possibilities of abstraction Siskind exclaimed, “For the first time in my life subject matter as such, has ceased to be of primary importance.  Instead I found myself involved in the relationships of these objects, so much so that the pictures turned out to be deeply moving and personal experiences.”

Preparing the Prints for the exhibit

I was walking down Hollywood Blvd. one afternoon, when it dawned on me that the pavements on this street are probably the most photographed side-walks in the whole world -- Pavements normally ignored, but have transcended the mundane by virtue of the names and hand/footprints of the media celebrities imprinted on them.  Why not photograph regular pavements and celebrate them in the same manner?  Aaron Siskind had a series of photographs of ‘tar-marked asphalt roads (his last Series 1986-88),’ which he elevated into Abstract Art -- because they contain interesting calligraphic-like elements that most people overlook.  Since Siskind’s photos were mostly in Black & White, I became excited by the thought of doing mine in color -- a small but significant variable that can heighten visual impact.

“Grounded No. 1” was born.  Seventeen different Los Angeles Cities ‘abstracted’ in a quatrain of photographs like the stanza of a poem ...distilled from the most basic visual elements of the ground we work and play on.  Gravity grounds us to the earth and nothing is more constant in our lives than the firmament beneath us.  Art exists around us, if we just took the time to ‘Look and See.’  “Grounded” is my photographic meditation on the Terra  Firma, the terrain we live and walk on.

*Technical Notes - I used an IPhone App. called ‘Camera Bag’ in the ‘Lolo’ setting to heighten saturation -- a digital approximation of Medium Format Color Reversal Film (square format). But the pictures remain as they were originally shot (no tweaking in Photoshop), with color gradations reflecting the natural daylight color temperature shifts during the time of the day they were captured. No special lenses or attachments were used.

My 1st Solo Exhibit: "Grounded in the Old Manila International Airport"

My new Fine Art Photo Series - "Grounded," will finally be shown to the public.  This first installment of an ongoing Series, is a collection of 18 Art Prints featuring photographs of Los Angeles County streets assembled in a quartet.  Inspired by the avant garde photography of Aaron Siskind, "Grounded" revisits the possibilities of Abstract Expressionism in photography, using the most elemental ingredients of light, shadow, color and texture.

The Prints will be on display from December 4 (Aaron Siskind's bday) to January 6 in the Filipinas Heritage Library, the historic 1930s Manila International Airport in the heart of Makati (the Philippines' central financial district).  The venue was the country's first international airport and served as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Airforce during World War II.

Spencer Tunick's Naked Art

A thousand plus naked volunteers flock to the Dead Sea

Last Saturday, September 17, one thousand two hundred people (men and women aged 20 to 60 years old) flocked to the Dead Sea in Israel to get their photos taken in the 'buff.'

Most Photographers are happy to have a camera and a nude model, but 44 year old Spencer Tunick likes his pictures populated by hundreds, if not thousands of naked and willing volunteers.  Referred to as "installations" by the artist, these epic nude photographs often feature an immense number of participants shot on scenic locations.

Photographer/Artist Spencer Tunick

A New York native, Spencer Tunick began photographing nudes in public locations in 1992.  Since then, he has taken his 'installations' all over the world.  According to him, "The body is always beautiful... It is a living entity...  It represents life, freedom, sensuality and it is a mechanism to carry our thoughts..."  His work has been documented in three HBO specials, "Naked States," "Naked World" and "Positively Naked."

Spencer directing his cast of thousands.

The Dead Sea shoot was Spencer's first 'installation' in the Middle-East and probably the only one ever.  The organizers timed the shoot to coincide with the voting of the Seven Natural Wonders of Nature contest, hoping to draw extra attention to the Dead Sea's declining water level.  According to them, the pictures will also give the world a different perspective of Israel, instead the images of war, tanks and terrorism regularly seen on the news.

Tunick directed his models with a megaphone.  There were four predetermined sets:  Models standing on the sea bed, models floating on the buoyant salt water, models waving to the camera and models standing on the shoreline to show how much the water has receeded in recent years.  The shoot took place from 6am to 8am, since the permit was only granted for that length of time.  

Orthodox Jews objected to the project from the beginning on moral grounds, especially since the chosen location is very close the known site of the ancient city of Sodom and Gomorrah.  So the organizers timed the shoot early Saturday morning, since most orthodox Jews will not take motorized transport from Friday night to Saturday Night.  Most of the models were ecstatic to be given a chance to be a part of history and Art -- the only compensation for their effort is a limited edition photograph of the experience.

Here are some examples of Spencer Tunick's "installations" in different cities throughout the years.  Please be aware that there are some graphically explicit images here.  Anyone under 18 should not click through.

Singapore Vacation

My wife and I took our family to Singapore for a minivacation last week with my mom. The kids have been working hard in school and we all needed a break from our regular routine.  Singapore turned out to be the perfect destination for all of us -- it was just three hours away and it had a lot of new attractions we have not yet seen.

I have been to Singapore several times, but my last trip was more than 10 years ago.  The city has grown considerably and is now one of the top Asian tour destinations in Southeast Asia.   We just stayed for a week, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino and Mall complex

One of its newest attractions is the Marina Bay Sands complex.  A bustling city within a city, which boasts of a one of a kind hotel/casino building with a ship-sized structure on top (worlds largest cantilevered platform) that houses restaurants, infinity pools and a spa with a 360 degree view of the city.

The "lotus like" Art & Science Museum of Singapore

The complex also has a beautiful mall (the Shoppes Mall) that houses luxury shops like Cartier and Louis Vuitton as well as 7 celebrity Chefs restaurants and a skating rink.  It is also home to Singapore's new state of the art Art & Science Museum as well as two world-class performing arts theatres and a huge convention center.

Shooting butterflies (shot by Anne)

Less picturesque but just as spectacular (occupying 121 acres), is Resorts World Sentosa which hosts Universal Studios Singapore.  The resort is still in varying stages of construction, but it will eventually be the home of 6 world-class hotels, a water park, a marine park and a maritime museum.  This certainly is not the same Singapore I visited 10 years ago.

Aside from these two grand resort developments we spent a lot of time in Underwaterworld Singapore, the Singapore Zoo and the Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom.  Aside from the kids, I had a lot of fun photographing the different species of animals and insects for my own print series.  I came back with hundreds of photographs.  A lot of which, won't been seen publicly for years...

--Shot with a Canon 7D with various lenses.

More on Douglas Kirkland

Douglas Kirkland Shooting Marilyn Monroe

This entry is a follow up to my article last Feb.13 on Douglas Kirkland. Although I have written about Douglas even before then (Sept. 12, 2009), I find it hard to condense everything I would like to convey about this talented Artist in a few short commentaries.  So I am adding a short interview and a brief video that might give you a rounder portrait of Douglas as a photographer.

The American Society of Cinematographers interviewed Douglas Kirkland last October 25 after announcing their decision to award him the ASC Presidents Award this year.  In this interview he shares his earlier days -- his first picture, his first camera, his first photo job, appreticeship etc. A great read for any Kirkland fan.

ASC Interview: A Conversation With Douglas Kirkland

Here is a great clip on Douglas and his work. It was taken two years ago at the Calumet Photo (NY) Exhibit: Freeze Frame - 5 Decades of Photographs from the Entertainment Industry.

--Video from youtube.com courtesy of calumetphotonews.

Michael Grecco's "Naked Ambition"

My colleague and fellow Advertising Photographers of America (APA) member Micheal Grecco, is having a photo exhibit from January 15 to February 25 at the Edgar Varela Fine Arts gallery.  Images from his documentary and book "Naked Ambition - An R rated look at an X rated industry" will be on display.

Reception: January 15th, Saturday 6-10pm
Address:  Edgar Varela Fine Arts (EVFA)
727 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, California 90014

Here is a clip from the documentary:


--Photo and video clip from "Naked Ambition" by Michael Grecco.