I came across musician RY X (Australian singer-songwriter Ry Cuming) via his band The Acid and their album Liminal before I discovered his music with Frank Wiedemann as the duo Howling. RY X’s vocals are distinctive in both bands, which feature minimal electronic sounds: ghostly, meditative, intimate and a touch melancholic. Just last week Howling released their album Colure, and prior to the drop I’d been listening to the gorgeous track Bind on repeat. Check it out.
small stories: a pink paper bird
Artwork: by @ami_imaginaire_streetart, Paris
a pink paper bird
in a tree
unlikely
unseemly
but beautiful
© Angela Jooste
beyond the sea
Artwork: mural by Millo, Beyond the Sea, Monopoli, Italy, 2020
Wonderful new mural from Millo (@millo) Beyond the Sea in Monopoli (Italy) for @_phest_ festival.
The mural is about shelter, climate change, and the the tropicalization of the Mediterranean sea. It’s an important reminder that even while the world is focused on the pandemic, the climate change crisis is still a priority.
Millo’s description of the project : “It's typical of marine environments to change in relation to climatic fluctuations, but the combination of this change with other ecological stressors such as pollution, eutrophication, anoxia, fishing pressure, the acidification of the oceans let us think that the new species arriving in the seas are not the main problem but that there won't be any species left at all in the future if we continue to ignore how strong is our impact on the ecosystem.
The tropicalization of the Mediterranean should not be regarded as something apocalyptic or irreversible we can make a huge difference by acting consciously towards our environment.”
trailblazer
Artwork: Trailblazer’ by pipsqueak was here (@pipsqueakwashere)
Just a girl and her friend creating a new path in the wild…
Wonderful work titled Traliblazer from duo @pipsqueakwashere.
Morning Mist
I’ve been listening to this a LOT! Vaal’s awesome remix of Elison 404 & 404 Guild’s track Morning Mist (2020). Vaal is a big fave of mine since I heard her mind-blowing and original mix (2018) on DHA FM (Deep House Amsterdam) Mix #347 (listen here). I keep going back to it, as well as Vaal’s album Nosferatu (2019) released on her label Pale Blue Dot, which features a number of tracks from the DHA mix. Anyhow, check this out!
WHATEVER
Image: charcoal sketch by @emelimartensson_illustration
I’ve posted before about my love of the fashion brand 5PREVIEW, headed by Creative Director Emeli Martensson. The first top I bought from them was an oversized dark grey, silk-jersey t-shirt with “WHATEVER” printed in black. I wore it ragged and today, i’ve got a simple white t-shirt version that’s become an iconic part of their collection. For me, it encapsulates letting anything happen; letting go of control and just seeing what comes; that anything is possible, and confronted with the world and all it can throw at you, it’s like a shrug and a release and a giving into the moment and just letting yourself be—WHATEVER.
Earth Speakr
Artist Olafur Eliasson, in conjunction with the Goethe Institut across the EU, has developed an art project that allows kids to create an artwork that speaks up for the future of the planet, and that adults can listen to what they have to say. It gives kids a voice on environmental issues, and the opportunity to connect and collaborate with a global audience. Earth Speakr is free of charge and comprises an app, website (https://earthspeakr.art/en), physical presentations and more!
Olafur Eliasson wrote this about the project:
“Earth Speakr is a collective artwork that invites kids to be artists. What Earth Speakr will become depends on the Earth Speakrs – their creativity and imagination. The artwork is made up of their thoughts and visions, concerns and hopes. What they create can be playful and whimsical, serious, or poetic. There is no right or wrong, and it is easy for everyone to take part. Earth Speakr invites kids to speak their hearts and minds and participate in shaping our world and the planet, today and in the future.”
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Trying to stay true…
Solstice 58.58°
The winter solstice this year was a doozy: a solar eclipse, new moon, solstice trifecta. It’s wonderful to know the days will be getting longer as the sun’s light becomes more prominent.
Flipping to the northern hemisphere, here’s a short film by director/photographer Lewis Arnold Solstice 58.58° documenting a trip made on the Summer Solstice exploring pertinent issues of sustainability, creativity, revolutionary surfboard designs and travel during these challenging times.
Set in northernmost Scotland the film features Easkey Britton, Sandy Kerr and Chris Noble musing on alternative ways to approach taking a journey “in search of pristine Atlantic waves and the liminal Solstice light.”
Lasco Project, Palais de Tokyo
Artwork: installation by JR and OSGEMEOS, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2016
Artist JR (@jr) posted this yesterday on IG, a timely reminder of a project he worked on with the Sao Paulo twins OSGEMEOS (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) in the tunnels under the Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2016:
Artwork: installation by JR and OSGEMEOS, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2016
“4 years ago, with my brothers @osgemeos we did a very special project in the basement of the @palaisdetokyo #LascoProject@hugovitrani.
During Occupation (1940-1944), the basement of the Palais de Tokyo was requisitioned to store the 1200 pianos stolen by the Nazis to the Jews. Working on the walls and on memory, we used archive images, paintings, and drew candles on the ceilings. The pianos and the pianists came back. For security reasons, these pieces are not accessible to the public. They will stay forever on these walls and our memory.
Racism and antisemitism kill. We must refuse them.”
noughts & crosses
Recently I discovered Malorie Blackman’s YA series, Noughts & Crosses. First by watching the BBC adaptation of the books, which is excellent, then, I began reading the books (and I’m hooked!).
Bringing into razor sharp focus the corrosiveness of racism and prejudice, Blackman reverses the racial hierarchy where Blacks (Crosses) dominate Whites (noughts) to emphasise how discrimination based on skin colour infects all aspects of life, including love.
Here’s a précis from Malorie Blackman’s website:
“A Book of Love
‘Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make out time and our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.’
‘Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone.’
‘Radical superiority is a mere pigment of the imagination.’
Sephy is a Cross – a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a nought – a ‘colourless’ member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood. But that’s as far as it can go. Until the first steps are taken towards more social equality and a limited number of Noughts are allowed into Cross schools… Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity by Noughts, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum – a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger…”
(www.malorieblackman.co.uk)
the planet needs...
Truth ❤️
Image: Words by David W Orr, mural by @creativaty
soft & lovely
Artwork: Jenny Holzer from Survival series, San Francisco, 1987
“Turn soft & lovely anytime you have a chance”
Jenny Holzer’s truism from her Survival series (1987, San Francisco) seems an appropriate reminder for navigating life with grace, even during difficult times.
However, there’s always a dark undercurrent to Holzer’s work that layers the truism’s message, in this case the message has been interpreted as referring to women through time being encouraged to be deferential and obliging in their behaviour, often simply to survive, instead of being vocal and strident. The double edge meaning can also be a sign for balance—that both softness and stridency is equally effective when the situation calls for it.
Today, I see it as a sign for kindness, to oneself and others. Any chance you get.
normal/not normal
Image: by Sonya Renee Taylor (source: @yashayoungprojects)
What’s normal?
Seems like the right time to reflect on how we might want to individually and collectively reshape a new way of inhabiting this beautiful planet.
vivus
“Vivus”— Latin for “alive” or “living”
The wonderful designers Vivienne Westwood and her partner Andreas Kronthaler recently celebrated Earth Day with a collaboration involving their fashion house with Canopy, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting old growth forests and wild life by drawing attention to the link between the clothing industry and the destruction of forests. The result is a poem “vivus” by artist and activist Aidan Zamiri celebrating the world’s forests while highlighting the connection of how they’re endangered by the fashion we consume. So, if you’ve ever wondered about the true cost of that humble basic T-shirt you’re wearing, check out Zamiri’s poignant spoken poem/performance.
a velocity of being
Reading, writing, words, language, books, stories…they’re so much a part of my life it’s like breathing. Air. Oxygen. Necessary. Life-giving.
A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader is the labor of love of Maria Popova (check out her inspirational www.brainpickings.org) who compiled 121 original illustrations and letters for children from wonderful people from all walks of life about why we read and how books transform and shape our lives.
Here’s one letter from American writer Anne Lamott (whose book on writing Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is fantastic):
“Hi You,
I really want you to hear what I am going to say, because I think it is the truth. Okay? I’ll make it fast.
If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.
Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.
Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise.
Okay? Deal?
Love you,
Anne Lamott”
joie de vivre
Joy of Life. For anyone celebrating Easter—or not!—stay safe, healthy, hopeful and strong.
Artwork: A collab between @wrdsmth @ami_imaginaire_streetart & @polarbearstencils, Los Angeles, 2018
f major
Something beautiful. Something to imagine.
Polish pianist/composer Hania Rani’s video for her piece F Major from the forthcoming album Home is set in a stunning, wild Icelandic coastline. In our current locked-down lives—the sheer magic of music and dance merging with the elements of nature is freeing. Lets the mind fly. For a while.
the pandemic is a portal
Artwork: SETH (@seth_globepainter) and one of his rainbow portals
Author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness) recently wrote an article in The Financial Times titled ‘The pandemic is a portal’ (read here). Amid the unfolding situation in her country, India, here’s an excerpt that resonates beyond borders:
“Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
joy
Image: Subjoi EP Me & U (2020)
Definitely need more joy right now! Been listening to this a lot—Subjoi’s great track, Joy from their recently released EP Me & U (2020).