August 30, 2009 - Hedi Slimane Interview by Wallpaper

Wallpaper* Oct 07 (Thomas Demand - Interviewer)

Thomas Demand : Sorry to bore you, then, but I keep in mind what relation the viewer might have with my work. That's when the systematic isn't important any longer, but only enables a relatively clear and at the same time complex way of communication; making pictures and looking at them is a communicative act. I was also wondering about your furniture designs, because they don't even try to accommodate the sitter in any ergonomic sense.

Slimane : I don't think about it. I never wanted to whisper anything to any viewer.

As for the furniture design, the F System was a reduced and raw approach to function, and to obsolete or forgotten functions (mostly from the 18th century French 'social furniture').

I designed using Word, as if I was an illustrator(for instance : _-_ ). I used signs to create a system of proportions and functions. It was not at all about accommodating and was anything but ergonomic. I guess it is always a sort of metaphor. Is design really about pleasing or comforting anyone? In men's fashion, we had 20 years of shapeless suits, because of the need for 'comfort'. I think it can be interesting to experiment with restriction and constraints. And you might get used to it.

Thomas Demand : Do you think you will ever use colour? Like frappuccino brown with a twist of lavender?

Slimane : It's not going to happen in this lifetime. It has always been about reduction for me. I'm blind to anything but monochrome.

Thomas Demand : You said once that you like to approach everything like an ameteur. That's a phrase that has something Wildean about it to me - don't ask me why. However I am competely on the other side. I think things only make sense after you have loooked at them for a long while. And making a decent suit seems to need that. I know it's not something you want to talk about, but do you acknowledge that you got better at certain things over time?

Slimane : I guess it is really specific. When I buy a new electronic device, I never read the instruction book. I try to find my own way. I didn't study fashion or photography at school, and never wanted to. I was scared that a teacher would form my taste. I started taking pictures when I was 11 and designing my clothes when I got to 16.

I did it because I had a desire to do it, nothing else. I didn't think of developing any skills, I didn't feel like I had to prove anything in that way. I just had to express certain principles and ideas and develop my vision. I never wanted to sign on for a career; I usually run away when I feel I'll get stuck on a one way road, or someone wants to get a hold on me and put my work in jeopardy. I asume I was always trying to convey the same idea through different media;

Sometimes you get lucky and things work out organically. Your expression becomes tighter and more focused. But it is rather intuitive, like developing an inner operating system.

August 15, 2009 - Picasso's Quote

"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are other who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." - Picasso

July 24, 2009 - Andy Warhol On Being Shot

"I always worry that when nutty people do something, they'll do the same thing again a few years later without ever remembering that they've dont it before - and they'll think it's a whole new thing they're doing. I was shot in 1968, so that was the 1968 version. But then I have to think 'Will someone want to do a 1970s remake of shooting me?' So that's another kind of fan." - Warhol

July 24, 2009 - Warhol's Movies by Jonas Mekas

"You watch a Warhol film without being hurried. From the beginning it prevents the viewer from being in a hurry. The camera hardly moves from the spot. It remains foccused on the subject as if there were nothing more beautiful and important than this subject. We can look at it longer than we are accustomed to doing, and this gives the viewers an oppurtiunituy to clear their minds of everything. We begin to understand that we have never really seen what happens when hair is cut or how one eats. Although we have had out hair cut and we have eaten, we have never truly perceived the act of hair cutting or eating. The whole reality of our environment suddenly becomes interesting in a new way, we feel that everything has to be filmed in a different way." - Jonas Mekas

July 24, 2009 - On Warhol's Films

In the beginning Warhol's films mainly concentrated on the simplest proceedings and events : Sleep (1963) was his six hour film debut and shows a sleeping man while the camera slowly moves over individual parts of his body. Actually the film consists of only 20 minutes, the rest being repetition of the first sequence, repeating the technique of his silkscreen pictures. Empire (1964) presents an eight-hour view of Manhattan''s pride, The Empire State Building, photographed from the 44th floor of the Time-Life building. The film portrait of Henry Geldzahler shows the art connoisseur smoking a cigar- for 100 minutes.
He claimed that one could do more while watching his films than when watching other films : one could eat and drink, smoke, cough and look away and then look back again and always find that everything was still there.

July 24, 2009 - Andy Warhol's Quote

"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet."
- Warhol (1975),

July 24, 2009 - Haneke's Quote

"Pornography, it seems to me, is no different from war films or propganda films in that it tries to make the visceral, horrific, or transgressive elements of life consumable." - Michael Haneke

July 17, 2009 - Leo Tolstoy's Quote

"I replied that I had not read Rob Roy, but that it was very interesting to me to listen to it, because I preferred to read books from the middle instead of from the beginning.
It is twice as interesting; it starts you guessing what has happened, and what will happen." - Leo Tolstoy's Childhood Boyhood and Youth.

July 10, 2009 - Leo Tolstoy

"In my opinion, it is in the smile of a face that the essence of what we call beauty lies. If the smile heightens the charm of the face, then the face is a beautiful one. If the smile does not alter the face, then the face is an ordinary one. But if the smile spoils the face, then the face is an ugly one indeed." - Leo Tolstoy from Childhood, Boyhood and Youth.

June 23, 2009 - From An Interview With Nomi

From an interview with Klaus Nomi.

Interviewer : It was said about you that you were either the 8th wonder of the world, or a tragic accident of the nature. What do you think of this definition?

Klaus : oh it's wonderful, it's extraordinary. I hope it's true.

Interviewer : Why are you hiding behind this make-up?

Klaus : I'm not really hiding, I'm showing out, because the way I am it's hard to look like a normal person. You know, in the streets, when I was a kid, people always said I looked strange, and it made me feel very unhappy. And all of a sudden I go on stage, and people like me for that ; but as soon as I'm outside, I feel like I have to hide, because people laugh at me, because of the way I look. Now I'm using this look, it works for me, I even exagerate it. I used to hide my large forehead, but now I'm selling it.

June 11, 2009 - Mythologies

Mythologies is a book by Roland Barthes, which is currently high on my reading list. The book is a collection of essays examining the tendency of contemporary social value systems to create modern myths.
For example - Barthes describes the image that has been built up around Red wine and how it has been adopted as a French national drink, how it is seen as a social equaliser and the drink of the working class, partly because is seen as blood-like and points out that very little attention is paid to red wine's harmful effects to health, but that it is instead viewed as life-giving and refreshing in cold weather it is associated with all the myths of becoming warm, and at the height of summer, with all images of shade, with all things cool and sparkling.

June 9, 2009 - Damien Poulain

Viktor & Rolf
TV Test Card
Shell
Organic
Gareth Pugh
Concorde

The illustrator/graphic artist Damien Poulain has distilled significant events in politics and pop culture into toy-like objects for his exhibition, Totem 49. He leaves us wondering about the modern day tribes and mythology that we have created.

"Totems traditionally serve as the symbol of a family or clan. What interested me was the symbolism of the totem, the fact that a symbol was used by a group of people and worshipped. I wanted to reinterpret that in a contemporary way with our own codes and symbols." - Damien Poulain

Dazed Digital: How did you choose your 49 totems?
Damien Poulain: The themes of these Totems are events, people, facts and beliefs that have marked our society and me as an individual. They act as a timeline for the 21st century. I had to be selective about what key moments in history, people and landmarks to work with. They represent my understanding of the world.

June 4, 2009 - Dapper Kid

Dapper Kid's blog is one that I enjoy reading. It's a rich source of information and imagination all wrapped in one. His writing along with supplying us with knowledge, makes us wonder. So for my 'literature and music day' (refer to first post) today, I thought I would read his blog and find a few of my favourite paragraphs from his blog posts.

1. "We are forced to grow up far too soon, and we quickly forget the innocence and wonder of our days of childhood fantasy. But what happens to these seemingly immortal fairy tales as we forget day by day?

Perhaps their world falls slowly into ruin, decaying as our memory of its beauty is erased callously by age. They grow decrepit, silently wishing and hoping we would just remember. They cling on helplessly, clawing away at their cramped niches in the deepest and darkest recesses of our minds. They dare not even let out a whisper, lest we take notice and violently shrug them off in our ostensible maturity. They wish we would bring even the smallest of lights into their world and, even if only for moment, allow them to be beautiful again."

2. "The sea is a being which has inspired writers, poets, artists and indeed humanity since time began. It is said to have no memory, nor has it any loyalties. One may treat it with respect for a lifetime, yet in one moment, it may choose to drag one violently down into its silky darkness, only to return instantly back to its deceiving calm.

It is a place where one can become anyone they seek to be, and indeed it has long attracted those wishing to forget their past. It is both a means of life and fortune, but yet it remains unlucky for even those who have spent their lives enraptured by its mysterious allure. One can seek to understand the ways of the sea, yet after a lifetime it is still as impenetrable as it was the day when one first set eyes upon its glistening surface."
3."Whilst seated in a deceptively cushioned chair, which after the first half hour begins to feel as padded as a seat carved out of solid marble, your mind begins to wander down the many diverging pathways of your thoughts and memories. You begin to take a closer look at your surroundings, you begin to imagine things, and you allow your thoughts to be free."

4."Fashion is not about just looking beautiful, rather it is about feeling beautiful.
It is a unique experience for us all, that delves into our emotions, insecurities and creativity. It is in its rawest form, the material extension of our selves."

June 4, 2009 - Quote From Nicolas Ruston

Dazed Digital: What is it about consumer culture that fascinates you?
Nicolas Ruston: The thing that fascinates me about consumer culture is the way that our beliefs and values have increasingly become shaped by the things that we buy (or buy into) and equally how the things that we buy (or buy into) are cultivated as a response to our evolution as consumers. The media landscape is an environment that suckles us from infancy – a piece of packaging, or a jingle from an ad, can evoke as much nostalgia as a family photograph.

May 30,2009 - The Treachery Of Images

The first time I saw this a few months ago, I asked myself what it means. Is this some kind of a joke I don't understand? I just forgot about it. As I was going through Rene Magritte's wikipedia entry I got to the part about this image. 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' is painted below the pipe which means 'This is not a pipe'. This seems fasle but is actually true. The painting is not a pipe but rather an image of the pipe. As Magritte himself commented "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe,' I'd have been lying!"

May 30,2009 - Vincent van Gogh's Quote

Reading van Gogh's wikipedia entry I came across this hilarious quote by him regarding his doctor -
"I think that we must not count on Dr. Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that. Now when one blind man leads another blind man, don't they both fall into the ditch?"