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24/02/2012

Matter Magazine

Almost two years have passed since Enrico Grigoletti interviewed Mr. Olu Michael Odukoya for The Blogazine. Once more the enlightened founder of Kilimanjaro – the critically-acclaimed cult magazine which has been established for eight years, winning a D&AD award in 2006 – is again back to us to draw our attention to his brand new magazine: a modern bi-annual journal titled Matter. Dedicated to a readership interested in the way that new technology affects culture, lifestyle, fashion, and the arts. Matter is a publication targeted to stylish and contemporary men and designed to be read by women as well. The reader of Matter is a flexible person able to understand the potentials and the possibilities offered by the new frontiers of technology; usually a man who lives the present, constantly looking towards the future of an ever-changing and increasingly sophisticated world.

Sharing the same curatorial and design values of its sister publication Kilimanjaro, Matter is the first editorial experimentation that covers different issues concerning style and conceptual art, analyzing them through the lens of modern technology. As said by the project’s mastermind Olu Michael Odukoya “Matter’s content is fairly even split between the creative disciplines, with technology being the unifying thread.”

The cover of the first issue of Matter is dedicated to the English Trip-Hop musician, producer and actor Tricky. Interviews featuring digital media artists such as Aaron Koblin and Pierre Huyghe enrich this first number of the magazine along with a discussion with the art critic Matthew Collings about art on the Internet and a photo portfolio of the conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner by Ari Marcopoulos.

Monica Lombardi – Images courtesy of Matter Magazine

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24/02/2012

Guest Interview n° 36: Christine Onorati

Independent bookstores are few and far between these days, with online retailers like eBay and Amazon selling canonized works directly to your doorstep for a fraction of the price. So what makes them tick, and how do they manage to stick around? We sat down with Christine Onorati, the founder of WORD, the immensely popular and influential cultural epicenter in Greenpoint, to find out why. We discussed the increasingly diverse role independent retailers have to play in an era when your favorite magazine, op-ed, or piece of literature is just a click away.

WORD opened in March of 2007. How did it begin?
 I had a bookstore before in Long Island. I closed it and I moved here. It was a little bit smaller used book store called the BOUNDRY bookshop. But the real reason is because we live here. We love it here. My husband and I moved to the neighborhood in 2006, and we moved the store here in 2007. It didn’t come out of nowhere. We had a store, but we just wanted to move it to Brooklyn, where people actually like bookstores. [Laughs]

WORD is nearly as much of a venue as it is a bookshop, and hosts a variety of events atypical for a bookstore. You don’t have all that many traditional readings. How do you go about booking events?
[We] brainstorm what we think will be a good event. Our philosophy is that there are so many events happening at any given time in New York City that we always try to make them be a little special. Maybe it’s a conversation, maybe it’s a party, maybe it’s the author being interviewed by somebody interesting. We try to stay away from straightforward, single authors standing on stage and reading fiction.

How do you manage to stay viable with online retailers, such as Amazon, that offer books at a fraction of the price?
 That’s a good thought―that we do stay viable. [Laughs] It’s hard. We always say we don’t look at Amazon as our competition because we can’t compete with Amazon. They sell books cheaper than what we buy them for. I hate bashing Amazon too much, but they don’t care about books. They use books to get people onto their website to buy other things. Because they sell them as loss leaders, they don’t have any interest in the world of books, so if people are just looking at price, it’s very hard. Books are sold everywhere, and people can get books very easily in many different places. It’s not enough to just have a place where you put books on the shelf―you really have to be a place where you want people to feel a part of it, more of a community of people who like the same stuff.

And WORD curbs to their tastes a little bit more.
 Yeah, and it takes a while to build that relationship. We’ve been here for five years and we’ve been doing a pretty good job. We want to be a place where the neighborhood wants to come and feel comfortable. We never judge people. We’re happy to order anything. That’s the difference―people want to come here and be part of something. They want to really be part of it. And we want to make people feel very included in the store, as opposed to just ordering something online.

In addition to a successful bookstore, WORD has over the years become a popular community center for people with common interests and desires, literary and otherwise. Was this always your intention?
 Like I said, you can buy books anywhere, so I really feel like if a neighborhood can’t support a bookstore it really can’t exist. I don’t really look too much for people from a million different towns to come and support us. It ultimately has to be a Greenpoint store. This is where we are, and I think we’ve found a place where people like us. I think we have to be a reflection of the community. The customers are a part of the store, they can come here and ask for anything they need, get their gifts here. I never want to be a kind of book store that makes people feel like they’re not cool enough to shop here.

What are your plans for the future?
 To keep doing what we’re doing. I have no idea what the future of bookstores will be. It’s really bleak. All I know is that we are growing slowly every year, people like buying books here. I don’t really see a future where people are going to stop wanting books, but some people say that’s the case, and if that’s the case, I guess we won’t be around forever. I just don’t ever see books dying here. People like books too much to give them up.

Lane Koivu – Images courtesy of Christine Onorati

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22/02/2012

Provisional Space By Roma Publications

When William Morris established Kelmscott Press in the 1850s he couldn’t have known what it would cause around the year 2000.

The expression ‘independent publishing’ wasn’t of a common use in the period when one of the most significant revivals in the history of printing was getting a foothold. Morris fought viciously against industrial production of books in order to protect the dignity of the printed letter as conveyor of human thought and knowledge. Looking at it nowadays we might judge Morris a snob, as mass book production led to a significant cultural revolution. Without judging Morris any further, we must agree that his teaching has raised quite a numerous population of illuminated graphic designers in the present. In more than one hundred years of aggressive development, designers have passed through many phases, and as history is always cyclical, here we are again.

Today’s print revival movement is called ‘independent publishing houses’ and the phenomena has reached such a wast output that probably any of you reading this can name at least two. As much as one can appreciate the effort and beauty of making things by hand, not all of these independent publishing houses really manage to produce something that goes beyond a few xeroxed zines.

Actually there are only a few that have started producing mature books, both as physical objects and as type of content. One of those publishing houses is “Roma Publications”, founded by Mark Manders and Roger Willems in 1998 and based in Amsterdam. In almost fifteen years of though work the publishers have produced a huge amount of books neither of which is to be disregarded. The bases of their success certainly lies in the strict collaboration between the artist and the publisher through a ‘content-specific’ method. This is why their editions vary from 2 to 150000 and can take the form of a flyer as well as an exclusive artists’ book.

To celebrate the earned success Roma Publications has gathered its niche of precious authors in an exhibition called ‘Provisional Space’. If you’re around Paris, be sure to pop by Castillo/Corrales until the 7th of April, to see this truly morrisian heritage.

Rujana Rebenjak – Images courtesy of Roma Publications

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21/02/2012

The Art of Learning to Love What You Hate

Today, Tuesday February 21st noted writer Starlee Kine will tell you how to turn your personal obsessions―be it petty Facebook stalking, Phil Collins, or an unhealthy fascination with dirty laundry―into stories other people can relate to. And if you’re anything like Kine, you may even be able to make a little money off of talking about your weird habits. “How to Capture the Cultural Zeitgeist” takes place today Tuesday, February 21st at The School of Visual Arts and focuses in on the nature of obsession, and how to churn those impulses into (potential) cultural artifacts.

In addition to writing, Starlee is also a radio producer and pop culture critic. When not chronicling her clinical hatred for AMC’s The Walking Dead for New York Magazine‘s Vulture blog, Kine regularly contributes to This American Life and CBC Radio’s WireTap. She is currently working on her first self-help book, titled It IS Your Fault, and along with illustrator Alex Jones created the Post-It Note Reading Series.

Like most ideas, her cultural musings seem born out of anger generated while watching television. As she says in a recent interview with Time Out NY: “The idea started because I’d been writing recaps of The Walking Dead, the TV show with the zombies. I write those recaps because I was really obsessed with hating the show. I would watch it and live-tweet my anger toward it. When the second season started, I wrote to New York Magazine and said, ‘I actually need a place to put all this.’”

The most interesting thing about these hilarious, anti-Walking Dead rants are the amount of comments her posts draw―typically from people who hate what Kine has to say. “I had been warned that if I didn’t like the show, die-hard fans were going to get mad,” she said in the same interview. “I thought I was going to hate their comments. What’s interesting is how important the comments become to you, even if they’re bad.”

Meet Starlee Kine: “How to Capture the Cultural Zeitgeist”, School of Visual Arts, February 21st, 6pm.

Lane Koivu – The image courtesy of Behance Team

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21/02/2012

Kristina Gill: Oatmeal

Today we welcome The Blogazine’s newest columnist, photographer and food stylist Kristina Gill. Based in Rome and a native of Nashville in Tennessee, Kristina is the editor of In The Kitchen on Grace Bonney’s must-read megablog DesignSponge, and will be bringing her cozy, welcoming style for taste to our pages. She’s a master of beauty in the everyday and explores the world through the true-to-sight 35mm lens of her camera. Hello, Kristina! Let’s eat!

“Oatmeal is one of the staples in my cupboard. I love it for breakfast, especially when it is cold out. Usually I add a couple of tablespoons of finely ground flaxseed meal and a bit of butter when I want to add richness. This winter, though, I did something I never do, and I ordered a bowl of oatmeal in a restaurant. It was served with hot buttered currants, bananas, and walnuts. Who knew it could taste so good? Now, when I want an extra special weekend treat and something that will carry me through to late afternoon, I make my oatmeal with golden raisins and bananas heated in a bit of butter, pecans, and a splash of cream.”

Introduction Tag Christof – Text and Images Kristina Gill

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15/02/2012

Ward Shelley: Unreliable Narrator

Ward Shelley likes to make maps. Not of cities, countries or continents, but of cultural trends, literary genres, and social movements. And he likes to fasten his topographical expeditions underneath the skin, within the realm of the body, exploring and tracing his curiosity through the highly intricate human network of arteries, veins, and internal organs. His fascination lies in exploring the existential question posed by David Byrne over thirty years ago, and with the same shrug-of-the-shoulder immediacy: “Well, how did I get here?”

The only difference is that Shelley takes the question a bit more literally, preferring to explore every detail to the most minute edge of his conscious mind. All of which leads us to his current exhibit, Unreliable Narrator, which will be on display from February 17th to March 18th at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn—the same gallery that first showcased his live-in installation We Have Mice (where Shelley spent a month living between the walls) and has represented Ward for years. Pierogi first opened its doors in 1994 to painters, sculptors, film and multi-media artists, and has spent much of its time and effort showcasing New York-based underground notables whose work you’ve seen but probably never heard about.

Shelley is equally allusive—he started his life as an artist around the same time period, having his first show in 1990—although no less notable. There’s no reason for him to be “underground”, nor is he “difficult” or hard to get in any sense of the terms. Shelley is, in a nutshell, of the now. He’s quite straightforward, at least as far as history and pop culture are concerned, preferring to obsess over, cut up and document the history of downtown New York, science fiction, and Williamsburg—101 topics for anyone with a fascination with Gotham City.

He is the first to admit his role as an unreliable narrator, having done so nearly a year ago in an interview with Slate, saying “It would be easier to do [my paintings] on a computer than by hand. But the reason I do it by hand is that one of the important ethical points to make here is that, in the end, this is one person’s point of view. It has no real authority.” In that quote he was ramping against (and in support of) the level of criticism he received for his piece The History of Science Fiction that left many ardent followers of the genre—enthusiasts, forum geeks, under-performing fathers—with a lot to say of their own personal taste. To Shelley, that’s the point: We all have opinions; no history or taste can ever be absolute. If his goal was to spark controversy and conversation in regard to the subject in question (in this case, science fiction), then he certainly succeeded.

Unreliable Narrator will provoke similar emotions. As the title suggest, these familiar infographic formations—intestinal charts, diagrams, intricate histories—lay bare Shelley’s acute attention to detail, putting his observations and private fascinations on full public display, for all to scrutinize and obsess over.

Ward Shelley’s Unreliable Narrator at Pierogi Gallery, 177 N. 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY, from February 17 to March 18, 2012 .

Lane Koivu – Images courtesy of Pierogi Gallery & Ward Shelley

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14/02/2012

Whitney Houston: Obituary

It wasn’t much of a shock to learn that Whitney Houston had died alone in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel on the eve before the Grammys. It’s almost too perfect. For the past fifteen years the preeminent 20th century pop diva had weathered the worst and most public of personal demons: cocaine addiction, alcoholism and Bobby Brown, to name a few. Every album she released after 1998’s My Love Is Your Love was touted as her “comeback”, and with every release it quickly became apparent that her head was barely above the surface. Her 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, best remembered for her claim that “Crack is wack,” became symbolic of Houston’s condition in her later life: Moody, medicated, in denial, broken, yet also determined to persevere and power forward. That is, until she couldn’t.

Her death grimly fits the stereotype laid out by her and others before her—most recently Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson. Even Whitney herself admitted, in a 2002 interview, that “The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.” Sure, we may have come to expect a tragic, scripted endings from our idols, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them. We tend to think our protagonists will learn from their mistakes before it’s too late, even when common sense tells us it’s likely not the case.

Thankfully, for all of the cheap tabloid dramas that encompassed her later life, it’s impossible to forget the pop accomplishments that made Whitney so endearing in the first place. Her debut album, 1985’s Whitney Houston, sold millions and broke down massive barriers for women, and black female artists in particular. She won her first Grammy for “Saving All My Love For You”, and then the following year won an Emmy for performing that song on the Grammys. With the release of her second album, 1986’s Whitney she became the first female artist to enter the Billboard charts at number one. She was among the first black women to have videos in heavy rotation on MTV, and played late-night talk shows at a time when the idea of a black woman performing on Letterman seemed as likely as democracy in China. She captivated a nation when she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1991 Super Bowl, just as America was getting itself into the Persian Gulf War. Her debut film, The Bodyguard, would produce her most well-known song, a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” In all she would sell over 170 million albums worldwide in her lifetime. Those numbers are sure to skyrocket now that she is dead.

Whitney was a role model for a generation, and for women in particular. Her scope and influence cannot be overstated. Today we have pop juggernauts like Mary J Blige, Brandy, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé to remind us of the path she herself seemingly effortlessly blazed on the on the power of her singular, gospel-tinged voice (and, okay, her stunning beauty certainly didn’t hurt). Houston’s career has been so emulated that it’s hard to imagine there was a time when pop divas didn’t exist. For that she remains a singular artist, the first of her kind. In the wake of her messy death and all of the headline-hungry details that are sure to follow in the coming weeks, there is something we can all agree on: There will always be only one Whitney Houston.

Lane Koivu – Images courtesy of Lapresse & Matt Sayles

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07/02/2012

Slavs And Tatars

Ever since I’ve been conscious of my existence I’ve felt a ‘second class’ person due to my Yugoslavian origin. Coming from the ‘east’ can make you feel poorer, less intelligent and generally less adequate, especially when you’re an immigrant in a Western European country. I wasn’t quite aware of my feelings until I found them described to perfection in a book. The strangely familiar book’s title was “Kidnapping Mountains” and it was compiled by Slavs and Tatars. While the book addresses the complex questions of the identity, languages and cultural independency of Eurasian countries, it also gave me a perfect insight into collective’s work. Slavs and Tatars defines itself as an artistic collective (their work has been in the MOMA collection for a while now) whose practice is dedicated on tracing the cultural, political and social perturbations of a particular geopolitical trait between Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.

One of the latest recognitions, that underlines the quality of their work, that spaces between art and design, theory and critical assumption, practice and speculation, is the “Fernand Baudin prize” attributed for the book “Molla Nasreddin, a magazine that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve”. The book that was published by JRP Ringier, the corner stone of art and design publishing, and designed by Boy Vereecken, tries to re-discuss in a contemporary context the origins and reposition the importance of the early twentieth century publication for the Azeri, and generally muslim, culture in the global political and cultural asset.

I haven’t quite understood yet all the hustle about the eastern countries arisen lately but Slavs and Tatars have surely contributed for its reassessment. Hopefully this publication is only the starting point for a deeper revaluation of the depth and importance of the usually disregarded eastern culture, and it could also make me feel more proud about where I come from.

Rujana Rebernjak – Images courtesy of Slavs And Tatars and Molla Nasreddin

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06/02/2012

Made In Italy – A Label Or A Concept?

When a class of Fashion Marketing & Communication students got the question of what first comes to their mind when thinking of the phrase “Made in Italy”, most of them answered quality, followed by other affirmative expressions. The following question, if a label spelling Made in Italy today brings out the same favourable words with the same level of certainty, got a more inconsistent reaction from the group. The matter is, as of today, does a label promising Made in Italy truly equal high-end quality?

It’s a fact that the Italian craftsmanship and production quality have had a rough ride during the recent years, and questions regarding what actually constitutes Made in Italy have been intensely discussed. Renowned and prestigious fashion houses, such as Gucci and Fendi, are trying to keep up with their legacy, sustaining the quality level and maintaining the reputation as true Made in Italy companies. By the end of 2010, Fendi published the book “The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian Hand Making Ability” and on Gucci.com the visitor can find a section dedicated to the subject, communicating their focal point; “Made in Italy is an integral part of the essence of Gucci and goes beyond being a mere slogan.” Part of the problem lies in the fact that many brands have moved a great deal of the production overseas, while keeping the label marking “Made in Italy”. Borders are being pushed and the difficulty lies in determine how big part of the goods have to be manufactured in Italy to earn the right for the label.

Further hitches have been found for example in the situation of Prato, the famous Italian production district. In the late 1980’s, Chinese labourers began to settle down in this little city, right outside the legendary fashion city Florence, transforming the textile centre into a fast-fashion and low-end production area. Today Prato holds more than 3000 businesses using Chinese workers to produce low-end garments, shoes and accessories. Materials are often imported from China and products are sold through mid-price and low-end retailers. The line between Made in Italy and Made in China has become very fine, and high-end manufacturers are having a hard time competing with the Chinese factories’ low prices.

In the middle of this discussion it is refreshing to discover young, small companies who still have the inspiration and boldness to start up Made in Italy businesses. These are creative young people who are taking their Italian heritage with them into the future. Organizations such as Mad in Italy and Cento per cento Italiano are actively working to protect the status of Made in Italy. The question that we find important for the future is what we want to do with this legacy. Protect it, or protect and re-launch it in a way that is adaptable to how the market is looking today. Is Made in Italy a label, or is it a concept and a way of thinking and feeling “I wear quality”?

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Photos courtesy of HALO Labels

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26/01/2012

Novembre Issue 4

If you ask the founders of the fabulous Swiss-based magazine dedicated to fashion and contemporary art: ‘Why Novembre?’, they will probably answer you that it is a non-title: “a title that looks like it means something, but does not”. Actually, as readers, we would say that for us it means a lot. It is synonymous of creativity, forward-looking and quality of contents – texts, which worth to be read and eclectic images that strike, together with a fresh and contemporary lay out.

The fourth issue of Novembre is out and now officially distributed worldwide. Written by polyglot, bi-national editors in trilingual version (French, German, English) for globalized people, the magazine, published twice a year, proving itself as an international source of inspiration. The list of contributors is excellent as in the previous issues and doesn’t let the readers down. Special guests, such as Fabrice Stroun, the recently made director of the Kunsthalle Bern board and Haider Ackermann, one of the greatest demanded designers of the fashion system, along with the conceptual artist Hans Peter Feldman and the Swiss performance artist, painter, sculptor, critic, and curator John Armleder, enrich the pages of the magazine with their visions. Last but not least, the versatile contemporary artist Peter Sutherland’s cover, featuring work from his show “Secrets of the Valley”.

Once more 2DM’s talents have the pleasure to collaborate with this unique publication. The photo sections of the last issue this time hosts the shoots by Tung Walsh, accompanied by the stylist Tamara Cincik, and the ones by Bruna Kazinoti. Don’t miss it!