Wicked Halo

The Crowning of Chic

Wicked Halo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:37:38 +0000

Or, in its original title, Kronung des chic (as it was for Vogue Germany).
One of the editorials Lillian Bassman shot during her comeback in the 90s, it focused on Philip Treacy‘s quaint millinery creations, the perfect partner for Lillian to express her unique vision of glamour.

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RIP Lillian Bassman

Wicked Halo — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:27:53 +0000

2012 has not been a kind year to the creative kind so far. Just a couple of weeks after Eiko Ishioka’s death, the grim reaper struck again, this time taking with him, another great lady of the creative community, photographer Lillian Bassman. Truth be said, she was 94, so it isn’t as if it was completely out of the blue, but it’s still sad to see a woman this talented and groundbreaking die.
I had actually been meaning to do a post about her work for quite some time and after some preliminary research got so enthralled by her work that I actually ended up buying her book “Lillian Bassman: Women” a couple of months ago. Totally worth it I might add, it only furthered my infatuation with her work. For a multitude of reasons, I never got around to do said post, but given this sad event, I guess there’s no time like the present to fix that.

Before turning to photography as a career, Bassman tried textile design, fashion illustration and even some modelling, but a stint at Harper’s Bazaar spiked her curiosity in the world of photography and soon after, she began experimenting with darkroom techniques. She developed her technique which consisted in bleaching, blurring and burning the photos in the dark room, sometimes even painstakingly adding details by hand. This allowed her to fulfill her vision of poetic and romantic elegance and create a new aesthetic, one that resorted to high contrasting, diffuse and moody images filled with grain and with an idiosyncratic vocabulary of gestures. With their blurred silhouettes and unusual compositions Bassman’s images flirted with abstraction and conjured up a sensuous dream world.

“I was interested in developing a method of printing on my own, even before I took photographs,” Ms. Bassman told B&W magazine in 1994. “I wanted everything soft edges and cropped.” She was interested, she said, in “creating a new kind of vision aside from what the camera saw.”.
Basically, before someone even thought of it, Bassman created her own version of modern day Photoshop, that’s how ahead of the game she was!

Her career was quite successful but she grew disenchanted with the fashion world and the way it was evolving and eventually decided to give up during the 70s and pursue other interests.
However, during the 90s her work was rediscovered and she experienced a second surge in her career, re-experimenting with some of her older photos and creating some new ones.

Some interesting links about the woman and her work can be found here, here and here.

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RIP Eiko Ishioka

Wicked Halo — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:15:06 +0000

A sad loss for the creative world indeed. Over time, I’d mentioned her work a few times and had even dedicated a proper post to her eerie, sensual surrealist work.
Her career was a collection of hits and collaborations (Cirque du Soleil, olympic teams, broadway musicals, Grace Jones, Francis Ford Coppola to name only a few) most people could only dream of; from advertising to art directing, costume design to music video, she dabbled in everything and in everything she succeeded.

“I suppose you could say I’m obsessed with creating work that has never been seen before,” she told the New Zealand Herald in 2007. “When I design, I repeat it to myself often, like a mantra.”

Her aesthetic was a deliberate marriage of East and West, which simultaneously embraced the gothic, the otherworldly, the dramatic and the unsettling and was suffused with a powerful, dark eroticism. Her work, whose outsize stylization dazzled some critics and discomforted others, was provocative in every possible sense of the word.

Ms. Ishioka was closely associated with director Tarsem Singh, for whom she designed costumes for four films. For 2000′s “The Cell”, she encased Jennifer Lopez in a headpiece that resembled a cross between a rigid neck brace and a forbidding bird cage.
“Jennifer asked me if I could make it more comfortable,” Ms. Ishioka told The Ottawa Citizen “but I said, ‘No, you’re supposed to be tortured.’”

For a bit more insight into the woman and how she worked, here’s a few behind the scenes for Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s costume designs, part 1 and part 2, and for the Immortals.

Her swan song will be the Snow White retelling “Mirror Mirror” directed by Tarsem (which btw, faces stiff competition from that other Snow White retelling, Snow White and the Huntsman).

One of her latest pieces of work, was the costume design for the Broadway musical Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark. Its opening garnered the attention of Vogue, which dedicated a spread shot by Annie Leibovitz to it. (note, the couture frocks featured are not by Eiko).

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Glenn Arthur

Wicked Halo — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:56:55 +0000

Glenn Arthur is a California based, self taught artist who paints on wooden panels with acrylic paints.
His work is frequently based on a few recurring items: beautiful women, death, skulls, hearts and humming birds. All and all, a winning combination indeed.
More of Glenn on his portfolio site, facebook page and twitter.

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Codename: Music, Commie Animation Style

Wicked Halo — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:47:51 +0000

I kinda of struggled with what to name this post, and then I settled on that bizarre mess up there.
How to properly describe mostly (and/or entirely) animated videos resorting to a red/black/pale color palette (the first two) and russian design esthetics (the last 3) makes for a rather long title, but in my mind, they’re all connected, one way or another (even if by some remote disjointed connection only I manage to see!)

N.A.S.A. – “Money” (feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip)
Directed by Syd Garon & Paul Griswold, art by Shepard Fairey

The Knife – We Share Our Mother’s Health, directed by Motomichi Nakamura

Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out, directed by Jonas Odell (who btw made another one of my fave videos for Goldfrapp)

Franz Ferdinand – This Fffire, directed by Stylewar

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Nick Gentry

Wicked Halo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:11:34 +0000

Whoever said floppy disks were a thing of the past was dead wrong, because the past can be used for cool things.
Brit artist Nick Gentry’s work comments on the effects that the development of technology and cyberculture had on society, with a distinctive focus on obsolete media. He is known for his floppy disk and VHS tape paintings, placing an emphasis on recycling and on the reuse of outdated materials as a central theme.
Check more of his work at his website, facebook, twitter, flickr and vimeo (dude’s everywhere!).

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Margot Tenenbaum Muse Extraordinaire

Wicked Halo — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:16:39 +0000

Spoke Art, a San Francisco based art gallery, has for the past couple of years, organized exhibits based on director Wes Anderson’s movies (they’ve also hosted a couple of Quentin Tarantino vs Cohen Brothers exhibits). While Anderson’s movies are always filled with quirky, colorful and ultimately unforgettable characters, one above all others, seems to have captivated the minds of a great part of the artists invited to participate in these events.
Featured in 2001′s The Royal Tenenbaums, a tale about an estranged family of former child prodigies, Margot Tenenbaum though a fictitious character, is clearly made of that rare cloth whose unique personality and sense of style (the slick hair, the retro styling, the hairclip!) somehow manages to inspire artists across the board and bring out their best.
Played by Gwyneth Paltrow (a most of the time blah actress imho), Margot Tenenbaum is a playwright and adopted daughter, who once ran away from home for two weeks, to meet her birth family and came back with half of one of her fingers missing. Infamously secretive, she’s a closeted nicotine addict, who smokes unbeknownst to anyone else in her family, successfully keeping it a secret for more than two decades.
And without further ado, here’s a whole lot of Margot Tenenbaum as seen through the eyes of a myriad of artists:

Shannon Bonatakis

Jonas Lofregn

Ruben Ireland

Darryl Peirce

Jason Levesque aka Stuntkid

Cate Rangel

Ken Keirns

Chuck Sperry (Who packs a double punch by paying hommage to Alphonse Mucha’s art nouveau classic poster “Medea”. As you might remember, I’d already tackled Chuck’s work before, looking at some of his sources of inspiration)Irma Rivera

And of course, la real Margot

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Jenny Marie Smith

Wicked Halo — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:47:58 +0000

“I create because, well…I just have this urge to create. I was born with it. It’s completely unexplainable and I don’t know where it comes from. My purpose is to add permanence to the ideas and images that drift through my head and hopefully, at the same time, create something visually pleasing that others will enjoy.”

Not a lot of information available on this lady, all I know, is she’s a Gemini from Chicago, but just looking at her work will surely tell you loads. Somewhat reminiscent of Natalie Shau‘s work, her universe is filled with pouty ladies trapped in a dark and powdery world.
More available at her site.

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Balloon Mood ‘ 2011

Wicked Halo — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:52:38 +0000

It’s that time of year again…and in keeping with my very own tradition, here are loads of balloons to welcome the upcoming new year!
This has been a year of many changes for me, having moved to another country et all, which prompted a blogging hiatus, but now that I’m more or less settled, my new year resolution is to get back to blogging duties. I’m also planning some minor cosmetic surgery (on the blog of course not myself :) as I’ve grown slightly tired of this look, but that’s further ahead down the road!
May 2012 be the balloon bomb for everyone…

Pics in order of appearance by Ellen von Unwerth, Phillip Toledano, Eolo Perfido, Steven Meisel, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Peter Lindbergh, Luciana Val & Franco Musso, Marton Perlaki, Elliot Lee Hazel, Sophie Delaporte, Rodney Smith, David LaChapelle, Camilla Akrans, Ann He, Noa Avishag, Nam, Lara Jade, Kirsty Mitchell, Viviane Sassen, Unknown

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Merry Christmas

Wicked Halo — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:25:31 +0000

You know the drill, right?

Santa Claus…

…presents…

…ornaments…

…and the more the merrier…

…and of course all sorts of golden christmassy things:

Pics by Ellen von Unwerth, Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello, Andrew Yee (x2) and Kristian Schuller for Douglas (x3)

MP3 = The Golden Filter – White Nights

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Wicked Halo

The Crowning of Chic

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Balloon Mood ‘ 2011

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