Behind the Logo

BP claim that they are 'beyond petroleum'. But this is a company that is up to its neck in the dirtiest oil going - poised to invest in the Canadian tar sands, and causing environmental catastrophe through deepwater drilling.




Their nice green logo doesn't really seem to fit them too well, so Greenpeace UK ran a competition to find a logo that they could use to rebrand BP.



The results are displayed on this flickr site.
More information at Greenpeace UK

Impressionism

Impressionism- Hannah Haas

View more presentations from Ben Dover.

Reverse Grafitti

Sydney Biennale 2010

Image: Araya Rasdjarmrear 'Van Gogh's The Midday Sleep 1889/1990 and the Thai Villagers' 2007 (from 'The Two Planets Series' photographs and video 110 x 100cm, 18 mins)

Source: interview with feminist artist Araya Rasdjarmrear.

More Biennale 2010.

Dear Teacup Saucers

A thankyou note per day written on a post it note and blogged. Leah Dietierich is a well of gratitude for objects and occurrances from steering wheels to saucers.
Reading them reminds me that, at the end of the day, it is the little things that matter. And the big things too...like attitude and a sense of humour.

thxthxthx

Abstract Expressionism

What Is Abstract Expressionism? -- powered by eHow.com

Kandinsky

Pop Art

Andy Warhol

Andy

Kabul

This statue is a painted clay Bodhisattva that was part of the Kabul Museum's 100,000 collection. The photograph is all that remains of the artifact, one of thousands destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001.

Fortunately many items such as 2000 year old Bactrian gold jewellry and ornaments, ivory statues of water goddesses and Buddhist terracotta statues were spirited away for safe keeping during Russian occupation and the Taliban regime. These are now reappearing around the globe and being returned to the Afghan government.

The travelling exhibition 'Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul ' is showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in 2009.

source: Pakistan Times and Kabul Museum and National Geographic

(Not) Living in Public

Ondi Timoner's documentary 'We Live in Public' is a cautionary tale that documents the crazy projects of dot com bubble millionaire Josh Harris. In the film we get to see the surveillance of one pre-911 art scene in New York: the hedonistic, pointless performances by those who wished to validate their lives by living them on camera. The film highlights some of the tacky aspects of humanity that are played out both on line as well as off line.

Unfortunately the mogul's 'art' projects lack design integrity. His social experiments are intrinsically cruel and paint a very bleak picture. They are devoid of any kind of conscience not to mention basic netiquette. They are to discerning audiences what junk food is to those of us who eat organic. We don't buy it.

It is my hope that we can educate the myspace generation to cherish their privacy and value the communities that support healthy limits.

77 Million Paintings

77 Million Paintings.
Conceived as 'visual music' and using 'self-generating' software, three hundred of Brian Eno's hand-drawn images are cut-up, rearranged and realigned to produce infinite variations. Completely random, entirely original, constantly evolving, the results come to life on luminous screens in a brilliant display of colour, shape and form. To complete the experience, layers of ambient sound interweave to create a mesmerising soundscape.
Shown at the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale, as well as in Tokyo, London and San Francisco, 77 Million Paintings will run throughout the whole of LUMINOUS as a free event in The Studio at the Sydney Opera House from 26 May to 14 June 2009.

source: Luminous

Savant Art

Megalopolis 22, by George Widener

This picture of an imaginary future city shines light on a common savant fascination: calendars. The artist George Widener is both a calendrical and artistic savant. He says that the numbers in this painting reflect numerical patterns that emerge when he plays with dates. “I find many strange things happening,” he says. Although his pictures are almost impenetrable to the viewer, Widener is convinced that thinking machines of the future will at least appreciate them: “I really do believe that superintelligent machines will explore my pics, with thousands of dates with thousands of connections and patterns in them, someday, for relaxation.”

source: news scientist

Soda -Jerk

Soda-Jerk is a collaborative team of 2 Australian sisters who are digital remix artists. Their practice is a combination of paper and digital collage, scratch video and popular culture sampling, Soda Jerk sources material from popular culture such as record covers to Elvis films, hip hop music and Stanley Kubrick creating new narratives and meanings.

Soda-Jerk’s feature length movie Pixel Pirate II: Attack of the Astro Elvis Video Clone is made of samples from over 300 films and songs. It is referred to by the artists as a sci-fi/biblical epic/cheesy romance/action flick. The story goes that space pirates abduct Elvis Presley as part of a scheme to destroy the Ten Commandments of Copyright Law, laid down by Moses in prehistory.

source: geekgirl & sodajerk

This post is a part of the Ada Lovelace Collection. Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Find out more at findingada.com.

Interview on Radio National Artworks

The Quote Generator

Let's Get Naked

Doing the rounds of art school degree shows in Sydney, I am reminded of the hothouse atmosphere where ideas are fertilised and occasionally new species mutate. There is loads of perverse sexual imagery and juvenile politics as well as an undeniable energy.

I reckon everyone should have a go at art school. If I was queen of the universe it would replace compulsory military service. Imagine a world where everyone was given the opportunity to learn to draw the naked human figure in charcoal.

Cradling Tentativeness

Procedural Architecture is a design manifesto of sorts created over a 40 year collaboration by Madeline Gins and Arakawa. The dwellings are designed to be uncomfortable. There are no straight lines, no clear horizons, the floor is uneven and walls skewiff.

The premise is that humans are happier foraging for berries than we are sitting on a recliner with remote control. We are more content climbing a mountain than standing on an escalator. Comfort provokes anxiety because we anticipate its demise.

New York Times: A Death-Defying House

Art 2 Muse

Meredith Gaston is one of the artists showing work at the Washhouse Gallery in Rozelle, Sydney 12th – 31st August 2008 with a group show organised by Art 2 Muse.

Art-2-Muse is an online art gallery which showcases established Australian artists. Art lovers can view and acquire artwork online or see the works in the flesh at the artist’s studio. They hold regular exhibitions at various Sydney venues.

Diggin' For Truth

Artist Jennifer Khoshbin carves sculptures using actual books, talking about her process she says:

"In a series of small, self-contained, conceptual pieces entitled The Book Project: diggin’ for the truth, my focus has turned to the sculptural use of books. I methodically carve each page to create a “depth of thought”, and minimally design the surface with mixed images of birds, insects, botany, women, or children, with hints of the inorganic- manufactured objects, advertising, or text.

In these experiments I am trying to delve into the books, into facts and knowledge, as a way to understand my world. Using the surface space to express what I “dig-up”, I seek some resolution between the organic and the inorganic, hoping for the authentic."