I just discovered the work of BENKA. His artist statement on his site explains it all:
BENKA opposes mankind´s dangerous game of underestimating the consequences of AI. Whether it is the digitization of our social relations through the invasion of smartphone screens, the progressive introduction of humanoids and cyber-surveillance, our contemporary society is facing a crazy mutation.
His artistic approach aims to expose the question of the robotization of our world. If we are still very far from a war against robots as seen in the series of Terminator, our time calls in his opinion to the questioning of our relationship to artificial intelligence. If A.I. has a considerable advantage in fields such as medicine or astronomy, on the other hand, it presents many drawbacks and raises both questions and concerns.
These numbers and letters in his paintings are captchas.
A captcha is a program that protects websites from bots by generating tests that humans can perform unlike malicious computer programs (robots). The captcha is used to verify, for example, that you are a human when connecting to an interface (login) or to avoid "SPAM" on your mailboxes for contact forms on your website.
These captchas are interpreted by BENKA and transformed into a symbol of his artistic struggle.
Well, regular readers, I had anticipated posting something--anything--from London Fashion Week but the schedule was so light, there was nothing to post about. I think each day had only maybe three events...and maybe one of those each day was an actual show. Honestly, I think LFW is on life support. Nothing to see here, move along. Let's see if it even exists next winter.
So while Pitti Uomo cycles through (I will be sharing some photos of the Peacocks of Pitti Uomo, as usual) and we wait for Milano Moda Uomo to start, Saint Laurent showed not on a schedule, and in Berlin. The show called "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" is a nod to the 1982 Rainer Werner Fassbinder film "Querelle". The inspiration and connections are many and cross back and forth between France and Germany...so hang on. The legendary gay French author and playwright Jean Genet wrote his novel QUERELLE DE BREST in 1945 (published anonymously in 1947 because of the gay subject matter, with illustrations by another legendary gay artist Jean Cocteau). The legendary gay German filmmaker Fassbinder made it into a film called "Querelle" starring Brad Davis as Querelle and the legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau. In it, Moreau sings a song called "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" based on a line from an Oscar Wilde poem. Current head of Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello showed his Spring Summer 2024 collection at Berlin’s newly renovated Neue Nationalgalerie designed by another legendary German, Mies van der Rohe. A classic Parisian house, Saint Laurent, started by a legendary gay fashion icon, now headed by a Belgian designer created a collection that is Teutonic vs. Gallic, and the mash up of what is known in French as tailleur, translated as "suit tailoring" and flou which means the fluid draping of unstructured garments. Hence the cross pollination of the exquisite architectural precision of Mies van der Rohe's steel and glass Parthenon and the flowing, silk and chiffon creations of this collection. Vaccarello has been working hard to do away with gendered clothing for both men and women; he actually sees a sort of middle silhouette that is neither masculine nor feminine. I love this idea of, not the feminization of men in clothing, but the promotion of true genderless dressing.
The immense shoulders on the tuxes and suits mirror the marble monoliths that hold up the ceiling at the museum. Such tension needs its opposite and the louche, off-the-shoulder blouses trailing long Isadora Duncan-like bows tied at the neck are a statement. But after the last Saint Laurent collection from Fall Winter '23-'24 at the imposing Bourse de Commerce in Paris, posted here where I observed that the attitude of the garments were steeped in a dramatic, darkly seductive power that is thrillingly approaching the Vampiric, we have landed in Berlin. And I still think they are all vampires. I mean, just listen to the tense, frightening soundtrack for the show. Overall, I get a little bit of "The Hunger" and a little bit of the recently remade "Interview With The Vampire." Watch the models with slicked-back 1920s hair stride through the space wearing dagger-sharp, heeled boots in the video below, while chamber versions of "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" plays...and notice how low the arms are on the aviator sunglasses, making them sit differently on the face. So inky black, so icy, so powerful, so ethereal, so indifferent, these Berlin Vampires. They'll drain ya sure as look at ya.
Berlin-based artist Tina Berning creates breathtaking figurative and portrait pieces that utilize very minimal brush strokes. Many have a glorious, ethereal, watercolor-y sense about them. Gauzy, rippling, fading women gaze out dispassionately, yet in compelling colors.
Parcels (previously here) bring us more smooth jazzy funk with "Somethinggreater"--and they are all dressed in Gucci! From their new release "Day/Night" available November 5, 2021.
And Noah Hill with those earrings and that hair...*sigh*
Parcels are my new favorite band. They've been around for a few years now, but they showed up on my radar when they released this fun, engaging video for "Live Vol. 1," a live performance they did at Hansa Studios in Berlin (merely the location where David Bowie recorded his legendary "Low" and "Heroes" albums, as well as where U2 recorded "Achtung Baby").
This charming Australian five-piece formed in Byron Bay in 2014 and are now based in Berlin, Germany. The band is composed of keyboardist Louie Swain, keyboardist/guitarist Patrick Hetherington, bassist Noah Hill, drummer Anatole "Toto" Serret, and guitarist Jules Crommelin. The band say they draw influence from Steely Dan, Marvin Gaye, The Whitest Boy Alive, and Toto, but they are often compared to musical icons from the 1960s and 70s such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys drawing upon both their look and sound. Their 1970s uniform aesthetic was made a staple after making the guise as a last-minute dress-up for their performance at the 2016 Lollapalooza afterparty, sticking with it ever since. I definitely hear a major blue-eyed soul/white funk sound and the blend of Gaye and Steely Dan works for me!
On 30 April 2020, Parcels released their live studio album, Live Vol. 1, an 18 track tape recording mixed on an analog console in the Hansa Studios in Berlin, mastered without any edits. Hansa Studios, located by the remnants of the Berlin Wall, has played hosts to 70s rock icons' sessions such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop.
The album was released amidst the Covid-19 global pandemic. Alongside the album, Parcels released instrumental tutorials for the song "IknowhowIfeel" to their Instagram account. Hill said that "it felt very insensitive and not aware to be releasing anything that wasn't in some way connected to the coronavirus ‘cause that was encapsulating everyone's thoughts".
"Live Vol. 1" was released with a video of the recording session. Director Carmen Crommelin, also responsible for directing the "Tape" film clip, said in a press release that she "wanted the camera to be both passive and intimate, so you could politely observe from a distance and walk through the room like a friend".
And they are simply a tight, kick-ass live band. Listen.
Artist Ariane Müller just showed her wonderful skeletons at Schiefe Zähne Gallery in Berlin. Her press release read:
"For the last three years I have been working on comedy, and on a big rolling laughter I had envisioned feminism could be. Then maybe out of biographical reasons this summer I started to draw other places where gender is not discernible or only because of individual choices. It also started with the anger I felt seeing a 17th century moralistic image of damnation of a woman being painted as a skeleton, and my wish was to surround her with other people so as to wish her well somewhere."
"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ museum/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”
I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.
Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft) and I will be happy to provide a link. If you are the owner of an image and would prefer it be removed, I am happy to do that as well.
I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain me. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.
All-time Favorite Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)
Amelie
American Beauty (Alan Ball)
Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)
Belle et Bete (Cocteau)
Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)
Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)
Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)
Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)
Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)
Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)
Easy Rider
Edward II (Derek Jarman)
Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)
Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)
Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)
Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)
Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)
