BEAUTY: Performance Art--Beili Liu

Chinese-born artist Beili Liu is just incredible. She works with unconventional materials like thread, water, salt, carbon, bread, and burning charcoal.

For her performance piece The Mending Project, she had gallery visitors cut off strips of cloth so she could sew them back together, working under hundreds of suspended Chinese scissors.

From her website:
"The installation consists of hundreds of Chinese scissors suspended from the ceiling, pointing downwards. The hovering, massive cloud of scissors alludes to distant fear, looming violence and worrisome uncertainty. The performer sits beneath the countless sharp blades of the scissors, and performs an on-going simple task of mending.

The overwhelming situation presented in The Mending Project is balanced and softened by the silent persistence of a simple mending action. The large quantity and intense force of the scissors elevate the confrontation between the objects and the performer. The installation/performance evokes urgency, concern, and fear, while simultaneously influence viewers through the calming and healing aura of the mending action.

As each visitor enters the space, one is asked to cut off a piece of the white cloth hung near the entrance, and offer the cut section to the performer. She then continuously sews the cut pieces onto the previous ones. The mended fabric grows in size throughout the duration of the performance, and takes over the vast area of the floor beneath the scissors."

The amazing piece alludes to the role of women not only in Chinese culture but in the world, the Sisyphean tasks of slave labor in Asia and elsewhere, and the strength and perseverance of those in such situations.

Liu now lives and works in Texas. Visit her website to see some truly remarkable installations.
http://www.beililiu.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Amber Koroluk-Stephenson

Amber Koroluk-Stephenson lives in Australia but paints suburbs that look like suburbs no matter they are in the world. And like so many artists who portray the suburbs in some form or another, Koroluk-Stephenson perceives that slippery, indefinable creepiness inherent in the suburbs. I was going to talk about the narrative in these images, but they actually seem to exist in some kind of pre-narrative state, suspended in a stillness, full of mystery.

Top to bottom: Arrival; Hidden Spectacle; Humble Abode; The Kiss; Hideaway

http://www.koroluk-stephenson.com.au/

People of the Art Museum by Grant Snider

Art appreciation as a way of life by Grant Snider.

https://medium.com/@grantdraws

BEAUTY: Installation--Sou Fujimoto

London's Serpentine Gallery is currently showing its 13th annual Pavilion Commission. Past year's structures have been designed by architects, designers, and artists such as Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei (2012), Frank Gehry (2008), the late Oscar Niemeyer (2003), and Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural structure in 2000. But this year's structure is designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto who created a curious lattice structure of thin, white, steel tubes which covers an area of 3,800 square feet and includes social spaces in its interior.

The Serpentine layered on top of this another commission: London-based United Visual Artists created a network of LED lights that are installed along the steel tubing of Fujimoto's pavilion. At night, the lights turn the cloud-like structure into a lightning storm... or a display of what it looks like when flashes of electrical impulses travel at incredible speeds along the neural pathways of our brains.

http://www.sou-fujimoto.net/
http://www.uva.co.uk
http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2013/02/sou_fujimoto_to_design_serpentine_gallery_pavilion_2013.html

BEAUTY: Mixed Media Art--Choi Wong

For his "Halo Series," artist Choi Wong takes found antique photographs and embroiders their subjects with golden halos of all shapes, sizes, and designs, then mounts them between acrylic plates with golden rivets.

http://www.choiwong.nl/

BEAUTY: Art--Samuel Vizor

Samuel Vizor's art work, whether traditional paintings or digital works, portray unusual scenes of anxiety, danger, fear, loss, and a certain sense of dread that comes from living in the suburbs ("There's an uninvited guest in your home, go there now"). They often focus on children, families, and the separation of those two things. It is imaginative and creepy work that hits a primal chord...

Top to bottom: Aliens; Bunny Man; Family; House Visitor; Johnny Gosh; Legends of the Internet; Night Drive; Suburb; The Glitch Ghost Appears; Vivian; Window

http://www.samuelvizor.com/

The Ten Second Self-portrait

Try it: set the timer for ten seconds and sketch as fast as you can...

BY JEF

Welcome, Raven-Symoné!

Ex-"Cosby" star, actress, and singer Raven-Symoné has outed herself via Twitter. Yesterday, she wrote: "I can finally get married! Yay government! So proud of you," in reference to the Supreme Court decision striking down DOMA.

Welcome, Raven-Symoné! Continued success to you!

"Hearts Like Ours" by The Naked and Famous

From their forthcoming release "In Rolling Waves" out September 17, 2013.

The chord progression stirs emotions...

http://thenakedandfamous.com/

It must be August...

...because our classic Northern California flower, the Naked Lady, or as it's known by its Latin name, Amaryllis, sprouts up practically overnight. Like clockwork, come every August, these special pale pink trumpets literally appear out of nowhere along nearly every highway, road, yard, field, pathway, and park. They possess a fascinating, barely-there, watery fragrance reminiscent of a mildly sweet candy.

Photos by JEF

BEAUTY: Installation--Giuseppe Licari

Italian-born Giuseppe Licari now lives and works in Rotterdam creating charming installations that are often focused on nature and our relationship with it. Licari says, "Nature has always been a big passion and the relation of nature and man-made environments is something I often try to confront in my work. He elaborates in his artist statement on his website:
"I focus on the space surrounding us and I often use a whiff of universal irony, trying to convey a message in a way that it is easily accessible. I do this partly because I intend to give to the audience an active role in my work; performances, workshops, installations and public art are ways of dealing with the audience through a social experience. People are invited to participate, but simultaneously, they create different levels of relations and
contribute to the artwork itself."

In his piece Humus, Licari installed tree roots in a ceiling and lit them dramatically with halogen spot lights, casting shadows on the gallery floor. This mysterious, subterranean piece makes us reflect on areas of nature that we normally do not see and thus do not contemplate...there is a world of life underground that we do not know about. How many other worlds are we not usually aware of? How many other perspectives are we missing?

For Public Room, Licari installed a public park inside a gallery space, inverting the idea of indoor/ outdoor and public/ private. Attendees are invited to spend time in the space doing whatever one does in a public park setting: read a book, have a picnic, visit with friends...

Although this piece is not specifically focused on nature, it does focus on the nature of community and cooperation. Serial Swing requires at least three people to operate but it works best with five. Participants must coordinate their efforts to swing, bonding over a fun activity...

And The Sky In A Room was inspired by a series of forest fires in 2007 which destroyed a big part of southern Europe. For this piece, Licari says "A sick tree was cut down by the municipality of Rotterdam, cut in smaller pieces, archived and re-built inside the exhibition space." In this way, a small piece of nature was saved and preserved. It brings to mind images of museums in the far future where people one day will go to see what a "tree" looked like.

http://www.giuseppelicari.com

"Husbands" by Savages

I witnessed this amazing, intense live performance of "Husbands" by Savages a while back but chose not to post it. And I can't seem to let it go...so here it is now. Savages' debut album "Silence Yourself" was released a little over two months ago but media coverage of the band before that was heavy, with comparisons being made to early Siouxsie, Joy Division, and even Gang of Four. I hear all of that (leaning more toward Joy Division myself) but I also hear Killing Joke in there, too.

In October, 2012, they made their UK TV debut on "Later with Jools Holland" where they ripped through "Husbands," leaving me gasping a little at the close of the song. The barely restrained fury, the tones of cold madness, and the controlled chaos held right on the edge in this performance is absolutely riveting. Lead vocalist Jehnny Beth (who makes me flash on Sinead O'Connor) doesn't sing as much as she issues urgent cries and powerful wails. It is all thrillingly frightening, and, well...savage: the controlled chaos feels as if it could swing off the track and come for you at any moment.

"Whoa, I woke up and I saw the face of a guy
I don’t know who he was, he had no eyes

His presence made me feel ill at ease
His presence made me feel, ill at ease oh, oh

It’s on the final hour, it’s on the final hour
Of myself, of myself

God I wanna get rid of it
God I wanna get, get rid of it, yeah, yeah
Get rid of it

My house, my bed, my husbands,
Husbands, husbands, husbands, husbands

We’re standing here all alone
When my eyes were closed and my mouth went numb
Does he know me very well?
When you talk in the dark will I see him again?
Will I see him again?

He sung the final hour, He sung the final hour
Of myself, of myself

God I wanna get rid of it
God I wanna get, get rid of it, yeah, yeah
Get rid of it

My house, my bed, my husbands,
Husbands, husbands, husbands, husbands
My room, my life
My husbands, husbands, husbands, husbands"

http://savagesband.com/

"Round" by Barbarossa

I discovered Barbarossa as the opening act for Junip this summer.

I fell in love with this beautiful song from his 2006 release, "Sea Like Blood."

Given the symbology of a circle, this simple song is actually quite profound; listen to this cyclical, hypnotizing song on repeat and let it go "round and round" in your head. We all of us go round in our lives and heads and hearts every day, on a planet that spins and goes round a star...

http://www.barbarossamusic.com/

"Sunder" by Hibou

A musical project fronted by Peter Michel.
Poppy, breezy, but intriguingly dense.
From Hibou's debut release "Dunes."

https://www.instagram.com/hibouband/

"Fall Fully Backwards" by Frank's Daughter

"Fall fully backwards/ Into your soft empty bed/ Safe here and warm/ like the first breath you take"

This is a re-recorded and, according to vocalist Frank, more accessible version of the song "Fall Fully Backwards" which appears on "The Sound Of A Heart Unravelling," the debut release from the creative duo Frank's Daughter. Frank explained the reason for the alternative version in an interview with slavemag.com: "The album was written and recorded in a way that we didn’t intend to have singles. We saw the album as one piece. We weren’t sort of constrained by length or timings or fills, so songs fitted in to this kind of web of an album and they would have their tempos changed or their rhythms changed to fit within the structure of the album. And singles work in a different way to that, and although we felt 'Fall Fully Backwards' would be a really good single, it needed a radio edit, and we didn’t want to start changing the construction of the song. We felt it would be better to do a reworking as a single that was its own thing...So, I really liked that idea of our song living its own little life separate from the album. We were tempted to call it something else, but we thought we would just let people discover that it was a completely different version."

Frank and band mate Arthur recorded the haunting, melancholy collection of songs for "The Sound Of A Heart Unravelling" over a three month period in near-complete isolation in an off-season Alpine hotel that had been gutted for renovation; the only electricity was in the top floor studio. Frank estimates that up to 80% of the lyrics were improvised. And contactmusic.com reports that Frank and Arthur's "background in visual art is obvious from the care they have taken with the album promos. Every vinyl and CD copy has been wrapped in black tissue and twine, and given a blue wax stamp with the band's logo."

When describing their music, the duo themselves say that "comparisons can be drawn with Talk Talk, post 'Kid-A' Radiohead, Portishead, Massive Attack, even Kate Bush." With a list like that, how could I not like them?

http://www.franks-daughter.com/index.php