Art Here and Now » Asia

Color Photographs of Russia – Before Color Film Exists

Trout Monfalco — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:16:13 +0000

Today, photographs are taken from devices in our pockets, then beamed to a worldwide audience in a matter of moments. At the dawn of photography, the equipment was large and cumbersome, developing glass plates to reveal images was an intense process, and color, of course, didn’t exist. To take photos required an expedition of many to haul all this equipment, often at great expense. Simple black and white photos involved lots of labor to produce.

So add to this a great invention – shooting in color, before the invention of color film. This was accomplished by shooting three images, one quickly after the other, each with a red, blue and green filter over the lens. After the film was developed, they could be projected using three magic lanterns, also with red, green and blue filters, overlapping to recreate the color image. This is the screen plate color process. Prokudin-Gorskii had studied the technology in Germany, but invented his own camera and projectors for his photographs.

From 1909 to 1915, before the invention of color film, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii won the support of Tsar Nicholas II to set out on an expedition to photograph the Russian Empire. By 1918, the Empire had fallen, and Prokudin-Gorskii was living in Paris. In 1948, after his death, the Library of Congress bought the entire collection from Prokudin-Gorskii’s heirs.

Here are some examples of the collection. To view the entire collection, visit The Library of Congress – The Empire that was Russia, The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated.

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Haiti’s Only Film School Keeps Filming

Ten Contemporary Indian Artists

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:57:54 +0000

At this Ted Talk, Ravin Agrawai presents an overview of 10 upcoming contemporary Indian artists. Below is the talk, and more in depth information about each artist.

More about the artists

Bharti Kher at Hauser & Wirth
Alwar Balasubramaniam
Chitra Ganesh
Excerpt from Rabbithole
Jitish Kallat
Perspectives on contemporary art, interview with The Economist
N.S. Harsha
Dhruvi Acharya
Raqib Shah
A group show including the work of Raqib Shah where ornamentation is given voice.
Raqs Media Collective
Subodh Gupta
Show from the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Ranjani Shettar

Indian culture found in the artist’s work

amar chitra kathas – “Immortal Captivating (or Picture) Stories”, is one of India’s largest selling comic book series, with more than 90 million copies sold in 20 Indian languages. Founded in 1967, the imprint has more than 400 titles that retell stories from the great Indian epics, mythology, history, folklore, and fables in a comic book format. (wikipedia)
bindi (as used by Bharti Kher) – is a forehead decoration worn in South Asia (particularly India) and Southeast Asia… Traditionally it is a dot of red colour applied in the center of the forehead close to the eyebrows, but it can also consist of a sign or piece of jewelry worn at this location. The bindi has become a decorative item and is no longer restricted in colour or shape. Self-adhesive bindis (also known as sticker bindis) are available, usually made of felt or thin metal and adhesive on the other side. These are simple to apply, disposable substitutes for older tilak bindis. Sticker bindis come in many colors, designs, materials, and sizes. Fancier sticker bindis are decorated with sequins, glass beads, or rhinestones. (wikipedia)

Paintings from Living Rice – Inakadate, Japan

Trout Monfalco — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Back in 1993, people of Inakadate in northern Japan began planting four types of rice in patterns, which when mature, would form huge images when viewed from above.

Here’s a timelapse of several of the paintings growing into place.

Farmers use computer-aided plotting to design images and determine where the different varieties of rice should be planted.

A close up view

In the years since, other regions of Japan (and people in other countries) have joined in the practice. Meanwhile, Inakadate’s creations have become much more complex and sophisticated. Agreements between farmers have also allowed the artworks to span multiple farms.

View from a paraglider:

Nichitsu Ghost Town, Haikyo of a Mining Town

Trout Monfalco — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:39:43 +0000

Nichitsu was a mining town in Saitama Prefecture, about three hours from Tokyo. At it’s peak in 1965, there were about 3,000 people living there. Now the town is completely abandoned.

Here the Tokyo Times blog posts many Haikyo photographs (廃墟写真, usually meaning photographs of modern ruins) of the ghost town.

Other photographers have also visited Nichitsu, including Michael John Grist, producing these photos of an abandoned Firehouse.

Read more about the history of Nichitsu (Google translation).

Two books by haikyo photographer Shinichiro Kobayashi:
Deathtopia and Ruins.

Who Are the Live Sand Animators in those Commercials?

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0000

In live sand animation, sand is lit from underneath using a lightbox and manipulated by an artist in real time to create images. This performance can be projected for a live audience or filmed.

Many commercials have been popping up lately which use sand animation. Who are these artists? There are four well-known sand animators that create much of this work.

Ferenc Cakó claims to have created the artform, and has created promos for Animal Planet.

Ilana Yahav has performed in many commercials, including for Qwest.

Joe Castillo’s best known work is for The Passion of the Christ.

Kseniya Simonova is a YouTube sensation. Her winning performance from Ukraine’s Got Talent has been viewed over 3 million times.

Visit the official sites of Ferenc Cakó, Ilana Yahav, Joe Castillo and Kseniya Simonova.

Performance – Live Animation

An elephant paints a self portrait

Trout Monfalco — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:51:39 +0000

In this post I pondered whether dolphins blowing bubble rings were a form of art. After all they serve no purpose except aesthetic ones – the dolphins are having fun and stare at them. So now we have this video of an elephant painting a self portrait.

Whether methodically trained to do this or not, how is it different than a person painting by plan? If you are trained to paint faux marble, or you paint by numbers, or you watch a show and follow along. What if you’re trained in a style? At what point does this trained mimicry become art, and when is it not? Is this elephant making art? Or is it just trained obedience, like a dog playing fetch?

Graffiti Artists at the Bethlehem Wall

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:54:23 +0000

In Bethlehem, artists from all over the world, including local artists, have been making art on the barrier wall separating Israel and Palestine.

Video from the BBC:

Photographer Kazuhiko Kawahara

Trout Monfalco — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:56:12 +0000

Collaged photographs form a kaleidoscope of beautiful patterns.

Visit his blog: Pallalink.net
A story from Wired

Haikyo (廃墟写真, Haikyo Shashin) – Japan Photography of Ruins

Trout Monfalco — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:55:38 +0000

In the past when I’ve thought about moving to a new place, some cities don’t quite fit me because they aren’t eroded enough. I’m drawn to erosion for some reason, it’s like seeing all of history inside an object or scene. David Lynch said it better – “When you see an aging building or rusted bridge, you are seeing nature and man working together… man has built it and nature has added into it.”

When people build things and then, for whatever reason, abandon them completely, nature quickly starts adding into it. This erosion is captivating, and reveals layers of history, character and texture of the people who left. Sometimes everything is left behind in mid-use, place settings on the tables, machinery prepped to run, a still life frozen for vines and rust to overcome.

Take a look at the great haikyo photographs (????, Haikyo Shashin) on these sites:
Spiral – Research (my favorite is this abandoned amusement park); ruin-Japan; Haimono ruins photo; and Shinichiro Kobayashi.

Two books by haikyo photographer Shinichiro Kobayashi:
Deathtopia and Ruins

Learn Japanese (Rosetta Stone) and travel to Japan (Travelocity).

Profile of Designer and Illustrator Qian Qian

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:47:43 +0000

When you do your own work, it’s your own point of view. It’s how you see the world, your own perspective on things reflected in the artwork. But with advertising or marketing, you’re helping other people get their points of view across. You’re just an interpreter.
To me, that’s the fundamental difference between designers and artists. You speak for yourself, or you speak for someone else. They’re separate things, but I think I can do both. They don’t really conflict, as long as you know what’s right and wrong!

Japan Ink – Inside the Manga-Industrial Complex

Trout Monfalco — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:54:58 +0000

The current issue of Wired is all about manga – how the industry works and how it conquered America.

Two stories:

(pdf) How Manga Conquered the U.S., a Graphic Guide to Japan’s Coolest Export, the story of Manga in the US told using Manga.
Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex

Read some manga and learn how to draw it in these books, and a favorite from my childhood.

Take a a trip to Japan, it’s beautiful.

Performance – Live Animation

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:57:22 +0000

I’ve seen similar things, but nothing as insanely complex as this… what I can only describe as Performance Animation. From South Korea:

Momus – The Norwegian, the Scotsman and the Japanese

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:59:48 +0000

Inside Japan (a bit like Berlin), there aren’t really serious art collectors. Inside Japan, people like Murakami and Nara make their money by doing corporate identity (Vuitton, Roppongi Hills) or mass-producing souvenirs… Art is collapsed into the mass market. Galleries are often in department stores, and often show what we’d think of as commercial work; record sleeves, airline advertising. But also there’s the wider perspective that Japan doesn’t really have a tradition of high art separated from design, crafts, practical things, commerce… And there’s no point in accusing Japanese artists of “selling out”. When Nara makes a puppy-shaped alarm clock, he’s distributing his work through the radically flat social structure of Japan much the way Warhol said he’d like to.

A great piece from Momus. Read the whole post on his blog.

A New Wave for Japanese Art

Xu Bing, Books and Language

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:44:43 +0000

I’ve been trying to learn Japanese this year. I’m making progress but it’s definitely slow. While I took Spanish in high school, my brain didn’t shift the way it is now. As I started to write and learn these brand new characters, I started noticing all the things I take for granted, all the built in assumptions that come from the structure and vocabulary of my native language. The way your language is shaped influences the way your ideas are shaped. Learning a language very different from your own makes you deconstruct what things mean. Not just what words mean, but the ideas behind the words. For instance, the belief in the void or emptiness in early India, combined with the structure of their language, likely led to the creation of the number zero.

I recently saw an exhibit of work by Xu Bing, a Chinese artist who wrote about a similar experience.

I didn’t come to America until I was 35. While my mind was already fully developed, my English level was still that of a child. This awkward feeling that came from my experience of cultural and linguistic miscommunication turned my interest towards symbols, language and communication.

His artwork often revolves around language and books, what forms they take and what they mean to a culture. The seeds for this artistic direction started as a child. His parents were librarians during the Cultural Revolution.

When the Cultural Revolution ended, I returned from the countryside to the city. I took advantage of my parent’s work-related access to the library, and read all kinds of books from the stacks enormous holdings… I was like a starving person who all at once has too much to eat, and winds up so uncomfortable that he is filled with disgust.

Some of his work includes:

A Case Study of Transference – Two pigs in a pen littered with books, one female covered in fake Chinese characters, and one male covered in fake latin alphabet characters, mate in front of an invited “intellectual audience.”
Silkworm Series I – IV – Moths lay small black silkworm eggs onto open books. The eggs form the appearance of a Braille-like language. Shortly after the exhibit opens, the eggs hatch, and the small black worms wriggle over the pages, forming the appearance of ink lines and squiggles, a second incomprehensible language.
The Parrot – A parrot shouts learned phrases to the gallery visitors, such as “You people are so boring!”, “Modern art is crap!” and “Why are you holding me prisoner, you bastards!”

In Xu Bing’s most recent work, Book from the Ground, he is compiling a universal language created from existing international icons. The first icons came from airplane safety cards and airports, and later came from street signs, other safety instructions, advertising and other sources. The icons are chosen for their universality, and require almost no learning curve from most people who read them. His plan is to create a multilingual dictionary and software of these words (for universal translation) and to publish a novel written in this icon language.

Now when asked about the meaning of his work, he often simply points to the Chinese legend of the origin of writing, contained in the Huainanzi. In the story, when Cang Jie invents Cangjie, the God of Heaven is so afraid that grain falls from the sky and ghosts begin to wale.

Those whose culture embraces Chinese characters (i.e. people in Greater China, Korea, and Japan) have such respect for shu and consider it so sacred, that they believe it capable of effecting change in the natural order of things.

The artist’s web sites have many great insights into language, culture and art.
Xu Bing Dot Com (the artist’s web site)
Book from the Ground (project web site)
Xu Bing’s blog

Books by or about Xu Bing

Beijing Modern Dance Company – Pink Floyd’s The Wall

Iraq in Fragments

Trout Monfalco — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:36:44 +0000

Each scene rolls on quietly with poetic light and ambient sounds, with the few words spoken coming from the Iraqi people themselves. Each of the three parts of the film focus on one person, and simply shows what they see and hear, as their voices sparsely speak about their lives. The first person is a Sunni boy living in Baghdad, the second is a Shiite militia-man, and the third is a Kurdish boy in Northern Iraq. There is no judgement to what’s captured. There is little plot, only getting to know each of these people and their worlds.

It’s surprising that anyone could get such personal and intimate access to these people, especially as a western director. Yet director James Longley is able to show each person’s hopes and fears up close. He lived in Iraq for two years to make the film. He went alone and filmed alone.

The children we follow at the beginning and end are wise, moving and heartbreaking. The eight year old boy says “When I grow up I want to live abroad, I dream about living somewhere beautiful.”

Between the governments of the world and anti-government factions, we often forget the majority of people outside these small groups are regular people trying to live their lives. The actions of these governments and factions take their tolls. In the United States, we are often shown the view from on high, but never down close with everyday people, who are trying to go on working and living among the danger and wreckage.

You can’t walk in someone else’s shoes or see through their eyes. But films like Iraq in Fragments take you a step closer to it.