CATCHUL8A

Kinky Nastassja Kinski And Richards Retrospective

London tomorrow, Rome soon after. France doesn't feature in the itinerary at the moment, but could do considering the Richard Avedon retrospective thats about to start at Jeu de Paume.

Cars For Ishtar

Givenchy and local label Toni Maticevski supply the threads for this shoot by Australia's own Georges Antoni. Featured in the new Oyster magazine that I picked up flying out of Melbourne yesterday, the baby in the backseat gives the image an extreme poignancy re: the current issues of gay marriage, whilst the cross hanging from the mirror is echoing the evident awareness of catholicism that resounds within Australia as the papal visit draws ever nearer. The androgynous appeal of the child's two cold companions destroys the stereotyped butch femme dichotomy, whilst also supplying the resident teen-libertine-come-fashion-student-come-hipster Oyster audience with a healthy dose of Ballardian chic, both conceptually and in aesthetics as seen in this 1985 cover of J.G. Ballards' Crash. The photo is also quite good.

CALL ME TRIMTAB

LDN

I'm there in less than a week, in time to catch the Fashion In The Mirror exhibiton running from the 18th of July to the 14th of September at The Photographers' Gallery. Featuring photos from Steven Kleins Valley Of The Dolls project (above), it will also be serving up steaming pictorial plates of Melvin Sokolsky and Grégoire Alexandre to name but two more, so just watch me suit up, scone up and ship out to smash the Motherland for a grimey six faster than you can do the rolex sweep.

Cretins!

The plot of this movie is murkier than the Yarra after rain, but the above video clip showcases some moments of The Cell that are pretty undeniable in both there heinous nature and also the quality of Tarsem Singhs signature large scale concept execution. Warning: Nearly as dark as every third friday.

EXYZT

Exyzt are the french design crew behind Etienne De Crecy's amazing live setup, amongst lots of other things involving bright fluoresence and dance music. Pictured is their design installation within the Social Club in Paris from Janurary this year. Word to 3rd or the Gerb.

All Systems Koh

Terence Koh (born in China but living in NYC) has reached noteriety through his brash use of media over the years, boozing up battered canvases, berating us with outrageous performance pieces and blinding us with super expensive gold Balenciaga legwear.

Many of his works all embrace a strong pornographic subtext, and his websites are somewhat of a testament to this. He lays waste to those few high profile galleries that embrace him, with a monochromatic orgy of textured apparatus that could potentially cool even Caligula's hedonistic harem to nothing but dull embers of hubris. Oh Terence.

Represented by Javier Peres in LA it's advised you keep your ears pricked for anything he is getting up to/into/onto/out of/under/over.

Carpentry

Vision Ships

(In place of the Swarovski 'Runway Rocks' video, which can be found HERE.)

The cream of the progressive design crop were on show in London this week, as part of Coutts Londong Jewellery Week as Swarovski enlisted 16 designers to create a catwalk aesthetic for their jewels. Including Hussein Chalayan, who sends our retinas off to the dysfunction dungeon with his piece capable of lush LED beam refraction, as well as lesser knowns such as Collado Garcia and Manish Arora who break the bank with bedazzled bodysuits, the show is living proof that consistency is the paste jewel which only weak men cherish (1), but Swarovski is the crystal skull.

8008Z

American Apparel have been spitting out more tit than a baby on the end of an empty udder, and with their recent ad campaigns even making use of a professional pornstars there's no telling when or if it will ever end. Truth be told it has paid off, with it's Sydney store soon to open and its net profit worldwide totalling some $211 million. Is any fuss necessary? Thoughts around the water cooler seem to be a little varied as to the depiction of women in the campaign, having noted on one blog the highly quotable following passage, in regards to use of a "heroin chic" aesthetic:

So what does this image say? “Hi I’m Natalie, I’m an eighteen year old who just loves American Apparel! By not wearing any top and laying in a passive way I’m suggesting that I’m submissive. Being submissive is so much fun, guys will buy you nice things and you don’t have to think at all! Notice how my eyes are sort of droopy and how it appears I’m not interested? I just did shitloads of heroin. Heroin is really wicked because it keeps my weight down, because really I wouldn’t have gotten this modeling job if I didn’t have a BMI below my age.”

I can't really comment on any of the above because i lack the required estrogen, but needless to say it makes for a pretty interesting insight into current advertising trends, such as the increase in use of naked boobs to sell things which cover them. A related article for those concerned with the current state of all things tits and nips, can be found HERE

Playin' Straight For '58

The Atomium. Built in Brussels in 1958 it mimics the atomic structure of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times. It rules, and you can go inside it, with each sphere measuring 18m in diameter. Apparently they are installing a hotel within it for kids to stay over on school excursions. It tells of a time when science was still cool and atomic knowledge was rare, metal was architectures only future and nothing was quite as beautiful as the soundtrack to Fritz Lang's Metropolis echoing throughout cold steel. It's the kind of brash inter-disciplinary statement that should still be defining our literal and conceptual horizons, and it is also 100% L337. They should probably consider installing THIS inside it and then let Steven Jobs find a way to cut production costs whilst mass marketing it as the slickest new objet d'art for all the savvy multimillionaires.

P.s. On the Jobs front, a new iPhone was announced yesterday with a projected RRP of $199 for an 8GB model. Boasting such technology as an integrated eBay interface, a new Sega game and even a fully functional set of in-depth medical diagrams" it's set to blow Blackberry's right off the branch, so consider bobbing in the dark waters of your new phone phund and maybe you'll find yourself sinking your teeth into the juicy Apple Corp.

Been a bit lax due to the above assignment amongst others due tomorrow.
Apologies.

P.s. I've resorted to printing it from home because there's no time for any other option. The high level of infidelity that my printer shows my PC rivals that made known to Blumstein, and leaves me yearning for the day when i just stick my liquid metal meninges into a vat of cold nanophosphate and any idea i've ever had uploads itself onto the cyber-organic equivalent of the worlds biggest digital screen.

Clikkety Clank

Australia's biggest powerball prize was won yesterday by a single man. The prize money? Fifty-eight million, seven hundred and thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and seven dollars and forty-one cents.

Quickly running the numbers on that, please make note that the average Australian earns approximately 57,000 a year. At this wage, after 1000 years of work without spending a dollar you would not even equivocate that amount.

On the reverse side of that coin, Tiger Woods earned $100,000,000 in 2007, leaving a pretty bitter taste in the mouths of most of us still trying to get that slice under control.

Wu-Tang is 4EVA.

Hedi Slimane Frame

Hedi Slimane has taken a short (hopefully) hiatus from design, and is now most accessible to most of us through his photography. He's releasing a book in a few days to co-incide with his MUSAC exhibition entitled Rock Diary, with photos that are featured on his website.

Promising a monochromatic musical journey the book plus exhibition will no doubt overtly euphamise the people and places that make up the worlds ever so potent musical vogue.

Some think that the only knowledge required to operate these days is that pertaining to fashion and music, and although that's a fallacy pure as the driven snow, if it's your bag then Slimane's new book should really have you salivating at the eyeballs with your itchy trigger fingers priming for some glossy page turning.

CLICK HERE if you are keen to make a pre-order, and whilst you're there suss out some of the other books on offer, this one is of particular note, written by Jake and Dinos Chapman of YBA fame.

Segwaying Into The Singularity

CLICK HERE

Sand And Smirnoff In Your Shoes

So for some reason good art never comes to Sydney anymore. Not even Melbourne. Not even Canberra!

QLD, once known to most of us as home of the Maroons, The Big Pineapple and post HSC debauchery. Now instead of their gutters flowing with the sickly sweet smell of barely digested vodka cruisers, they are playing host to some of the biggest art exhibitions to hit Australia in recent years. For example, Andy Warhol's retrospective earlier this year featuring over 300 of the man's most recognisable aesthetic endevours. Now, it's saying hello to a grandiose Picasso retrospective. Featuring numerous pieces from the artist's own private collection, as well as over 80 well known originals and documentary photographs, it's got me a little curious as to just how much coin class of 07 dropped into the pokies/pockets of these guys

Sure, i can maybe understand why its not in Melbourne, cause you know when this happened?or maybe you remember when this happened?

YSL

The man behind the brand, Yves Saint-Laurent has died at age 71.

This amazing human has been credited with numerous fashion inventions, perhaps most famously his humourously title "Le Smoking" suit for women, as well as being the first designer to bring black models to the catwalk. Naomi Cambell wouldn't even be around to get yelled at by Diddy if it weren't for Yves.

Born Humble, Died Rich.

Evolutionary Update #1