Blog — Page 86 of 281

Turbonegro, Tom of Finland and High Gloss

My first exposure to Turbonegro must have been via the triumvirate that are the Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives, Helta Skelta and Never is Forever albums, which entered my rotation in the early 1990s.

However, it was not until the 1996 release of the defining Ass Cobra album and the subsequent tour, where I got to meet them the first time, that it clicked.

What Happy Tom, i.e., Thomas Seltzer, the creative force behind the band, and his worthy constituents had created was a refined and deliberate signification of styles and influences, which the band channelled into their own boundary pushing brand of alchemy.

Musically, Turbonegro have never not been beyond all doubt and when they started to adapt their denim and moustache look in the mid-90ies, after trials and errors in the style department, things really took off.

To understand the nuances of the homosexual innuendo of Turbonegro, the oeuvre of Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen, i.e. Tom of Finland, is indispensable. In essence, each constituent of Turbonegro modelled themselves in a subversive manner after Tom of Finland’s characters.

Abrams book’s ode to the queer cult artist, i.e. Tom of Finland: The Official Life and Work of a Gay Hero, was created in close collaboration with the Tom of Finland Foundation and not only pays homage to the well-known artwork celebrating every facet of the male body, archetypes and hyper masculinity, but also sheds light on rarely seen materials from the archives.

The book is not only introduced via a foreword by Jean Paul Gaultier, but the pencil drawn depictions of gay erotica are substantiated by an extensive interview with the man himself, which is not only lending perspective but makes this tome one of the few on the subject that resemble having an authorised, official seal of approval.

No matter your sexual preference or the often hyperbolic aesthetics, it would be difficult to argue that Tom of Finland lacks a liberating, keen and cheeky sense of humour and artistic values that go far beyond mere graphic and explicit sex content, which ultimately helped to create a new identity for the gay scene. With over three hundred photographs and illustrations, a beautifully curated and authorative coffee table book on the subject and one that is bound to raise eyebrows.

Change of gear?

Let’s transition to the comparatively tame heteronormative mainstream realm: After starting out as the assistant of David Chapelle, Vijat Mohindra has established himself firmly on the firmament of a new generation of idiosyncratic photographers and has refined an aesthetic of his own.

While there are no pre-defined boundaries as to the subjects of his lens, the common denominator could be pinned down to hyper-syntheticism and defiance of the portrayal of candid realism.

High Gloss: The Art of Vijat Mohindra is a monograph dedicated to his fantasy worlds and his unique collaborations with brands and artists. While it is not further wondrous for musicians like Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj to be depicted in Mohindra’s over-the-top glossy manner, things get interesting and nuanceful when artists like Amanda Lepore, Tyra Banks, and A$AP Rocky enter his microcosm.

The eye candy found in High Gloss not only comprises the photos widely known from mainstream publications, but entail footage specifically shot for this tome, which not only looks ace across the table from Tom of Finland, but should be of interest to anyone remotely interested in the art sitting at the intersection of photography and fashion.

Monet & Friends: Life, Light and Colour

Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park

Sydney, Australia

April 17, 2021

After first incarnating with a multi-sensory ode to the Dutch master van Gogh, 2021 sees the Royal Hall of Industries hosting Melbourne-based Grande Experiences’ homage to the French impressionists, with an array of artist flanking luminary Claude Monet, e.g. Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, Gustave Caillebotte, Armand Guillaumin, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat amongst others.

As the name of the exhibition suggests, it is not merely limited to a visual feast based on the backbone of huge choreographed projections, but an immersive tour de force as it also incorporates carefully calibrated lighting and sonic arrangements to shed light on both the artistic emissions and the lives of the protagonists on display as well as olfactory facets, through aromas which are subtly injected to permeate and enhance the exhibitions, thereby giving it another level of depth enhancing the experience and engaging all senses.

Employing state-of-the-art projection technology based on Grande Experiences’ dynamic SENSORY4 multichannel motion graphics, and serenaded by a classical score delivered in saturating  surround sound, one finds oneself mesmerized and transported into a world of nineteenth hundred artistic excellence.

Not unlike Grande Exhibitions did with Van Gogh Alive, they have created another captivating and enthralling experience, which is not only bound to excite the inducted but is suited perfectly for families and the uninitiated to gain access to the world of not only what Monet has accomplished with his plein air landscape painting style but to the realm of art at large through a fun and engaging way – a way that despite all technology involved still feels organic and not gimmicky.

Hope to be able to witness Grande Experiences’ other travelling exhibitions soon and visit their Museo Leonardo da Vinci in Rome once travel restrictions are lifted.

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image from exhibition website

Vogue X Music

Vogue Magazine

To say it with the words of the ever so eloquently Marge: “…Greta Garbo and Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean on the cover of a magazine. Grace Kelly, Harlow, Jean. Picture of a beauty queen. Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, dance on air. They had style, they had grace, Rita Hayworth gave good face, Lauren, Katherine, Lana too - Bette Davis, we love you. Ladies with an attitude. Fellas that were in the mood Don't just stand there, let's get to it - strike a pose, there's nothing to it…Vogue, vogue!”

You’d find yourself hard pressed claiming that throughout the last four decades, Vogue has not been at the forefront of popular mainstream culture, at times making or breaking artists with their features and trademark photography.

After the Vogue book series has zeroed in on fashion, accessories and shoes before, it was about high time for a tome like Vogue x Music to emerge, which, as the title suggests focusses not only on the iconic portraits of the who-is-who of mainstream music culture from Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Madonna via Patti Smith to Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Kendrick Lama and everyone in between, but substantiates them with extracts from interviews with musicians with the selection being defined by quality and significance and refreshingly agnostic of genres.

Drawing on a history of close to one hundred and thirty years, Vogue X Music focusses on the last century and  it should not come as a surprise that Vogue X Music effortlessly showcases both the timelessness and evolution of glamour and captures the X factor, i.e., the “je ne sais quoi” that makes some artists bigger than others.

Apart from the well-known musical personalities, what I like most about the book is the non-hierarchical, non-chronological arrangement, which helps to put the art of photography front and centre and offers the opportunity to closely inspect how e.g. Richard Avedon, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot captured the essence of musicians through their unique lenses.

Summa summarum, an exercise par excellence and tour de force in the eye candy department and a beautifully curated coffee table book, recommended for any music lover.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer – Hops to Home

Subscription services can be hit and miss – specifically when it comes to libations. However, beer clubs with subscription models are mushrooming, with the obvious advantage for the customer being about time and convenience whereby you are receiving something you need on a regular basis to your door, i.e. one does not have to place an order and it just turns up.

Now, the better ones have an element of curation, personalisation and exclusivity, ideally with products that you cannot easily get elsewhere and different each time. Subscription services that make an effort avoid becoming boring by offering more than dull commodity items and treat their clients like true VIPs with money-cannot by-treats, special access to new products and collaborations are rare.

Enter Hops to Home.

Acknowledging that taste preferences are individually different and ever changing along with the credo that every fruit in the ever increasing variety of the beer garden should be tasted at least once, Hops to Home offers the opportunity to explore fresh new beer expression on a monthly basis.

Hops to Home’s  Fresh Can Beer Club offers five different beers every four weeks, ranging from India Pale Ales, Pale Ales, Session IPAs, Porters, Sours, NEIPAs and Stouts with the guarantee that all of their limited release beers have been specifically canned and sourced directly from the respective Australian independent brewery.

Each delivery is accompanied by detailed tasting notes shedding light on both the beers as well as the breweries and subsequently, mid-month backed up by reviews of the beers in each pack by Quarantinnies and Aussie Beer Explorers.

The April pack won me over instantaneously with an exclusive collaboration with Hop Nation (an exquisitely piney, red IPA, a tour de force of hops with stone fruity citrus highlight); a West Coast IPA courtesy of Ocean Beach Brewery with Chinook hops taking the centre stage as well as my fist exposure to Bondi Beach brewery with their IPA marrying an array of seven hop varieties. The offering is flanked by an American style Pale Ale by Boomerang Beach Brewery and the Australian styl, sessional  Newy Pacific Ale.

Word around the campfire has that Hops to Home next offering will feature exclusive collaboration with Bodriggy Brewing as well as Tallboy and Moose, both of which we have covered as part of this series.

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image from company website

Mike Parr: Performances 1971 - 2008

Black Inc. Publishing

Mike Parr’s shadow looms large, both on international terrain but specifically on terra australis. Having emerged on his artistic mission in the early 1970s, his oeuvre encompasses not merely a vast array of media but specifically performances, which not only work on different levels but more often than not have a political message at their core.

Over the years, I have had the fortune to not only visit Parr’s exhibitions but been lucky enough to witness some of his performances very close to the action, specifically the ones we have documented via our features of the Dark Mofo festivals, which Mike Parr has created monumental events for.

Being a self-taught artist who has always been marching to the beat of his own drum, Mike Parr very early own carved his own lane and developed what can be described as a signature language and visual aesthetic with the common denominator being his complete physical and intellectual commitment to his art – a commitment that often transcends boundaries and uses his body as a medium to deal with traumata and other experiences.

Challenging societal norms , the notion of identity as a fixed concept and conventions of what is perceived to be “normal”, Parr champions imperfection and has established these themes as consistent components of his body of work.

To do justice to an artist of Mike Parr’s calibre is challenging at best and I have long sought for a book comprising a comprehensive overview of her performances. Fortunately, there is Black Inc. Publishing, an accomplished publishing house focussing on quality non-fiction, fiction and poetry, based in Melbourne. 

While there is a myriad of publishers dabbling in the arts, it is Black Inc’s passionate approach, careful curation, tailored editing and a sense for relevant new works within the confines of art, history, politics, biography, criticism and current affairs, which gives their publications an omnipresent sense of relevance and substance.

Black Inc’s tome on Mike Parr, i.e. Performances 1971 – 2008 is an homage par excellence, both paying tribute and simultaneously examining Mike Parr’s artistic endeavours and by having Mike Parr himself at the helm of the operation, it offers unparalleled access to his unique world and views.

With its pared back yet stylish and elegant packaging, Mike Parr Performances 1971 – 2008 is essential for anyone harbouring an interest for artists who have dedicated their life to pushing boundaries in every sense of the word.