Phantasmaphile

Les Deux Garcons

Les Deux Garcons 

Ahhh, how I love the work of Les Deux Garcons.  I do not know much about them, other than the fact that they create odd yet whimsical assemblages from found objects and taxidermy parts.  What else does one need to know, really?

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Classified Ad

My dear Phantasmaphiles:

I am starting a band, and am currently seeking members/collaborators.  I write songs and sing, and am looking for partners in crime.  I want to create the musical version of this site.  In other words, songs that are imaginative, a bit odd, and contemporarily magical.  If you are intrigued, or know others who may be, please take a look at my craigslist posting, for further detail:  http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/muc/300616128.html

And of course the music recommendations I've posted right here may be a good reference point, too:  http://www.phantasmaphile.com/music/index.html

My email is:  phantasmaphile@gmail.com

Thanks for reading.  Looking forward to hearing from you!  XOXO

Carrie Ann Baade show!

Carrie Ann Baade  "The Insomniac"  2005

Our dear Carrie Ann Baade will be having a show at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art.  The exhibition is entitled "Virtues and Vices," and will be up from March 30th - May 20th.  Thrilling!

 

Piero Fornasetti

Piero Fornasetti

Italian designer Piero Fornasetti was a true master.  He took everyday objects like dinner plates and lamps and imbued them with style and wit.  My favorite series of his is his variation on a woman's face.  His nod to surrealism and use of bold graphics has yielded some of the most iconic images ever created.  I just received the book Fornasetti, Designer of Dreams in the mail today, and it is an exquisite volume.  It was out of print for a while, but it looks as though it's back for now.

David Trulli

David Trulli  "Girl on the Porch"  2005

I bet people are constantly making the pun that this work is "Trulli" amazing.  Fact of the matter is, I have never seen such an arts and crafts staple as scratchboarding elevated to such a lofty and dazzling level.  David Trulli's skill and innovation are to be commended.   

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Good Beads

                  
The above is a photograph of Darryl Montana, the chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe.  He and his tribe are true New Orleans treasures, and they perform in gorgeously elaborate beaded costumes which Montana and his partners create themselves.  The beloved jeweler Suzannah Murray is currently collecting donated beads and supplies on behalf of this sacred enterprise.  If you have any extra beads, feathers, sequins, etc which you would like to donate to this very good cause in order to help keep this tradition vital, please email Suzannah at suzannahleigh@hotmail.com.

Ai Kijima

Ai Kijima  "Erehwon 18"  2006

The above piece is made entirely of sewn together cloth scraps and cut-outs. The media list reads:  "Fused, machine quilted.  Recycled materials including bed sheets, curtain, pillow case, clothes, apron, handkerchief, tablecloth."  Ai Kijima has created an entirely soft version of collage, and it's stunning.

Lovely Dark and Deep

The Pelham Art Center has a new show up called "Lovely Dark and Deep:  Women Artists Retake the Fairytale."  It features several fantasic female artists, including Phantasmaphile fave Adela Leibowitz.  The show is up through April 28th.  This might merit a day trip!

Melora Creager

The luminous Melora Creager (of cello-rock group Rasputina) has a new solo CD out, called Perplexions.  If you like string-accompanied songs about consumption, Victoriana, opium, orphans, frayed ribbons, astrology, woodland creatures, tornados, corsets, cannibalism, amulets, and the like, then Melora Creager is your girl.

Great Patti Smith Quote

"I used to have this, this idea, that I was sort of like, part of, like, this alien race that were part Venus and part American Indian. Now this sounds kind of funny now, but I was very serious about it as a child. [Laugh.] I had a whole cosmology and a whole universe, formed around these thoughts. But, I definitely didn't feel at home on the planet. I felt much more at home when I'd read books about the Aztecs, or about, or if I'd read stories about aliens on other planets. Or I just, I didn't really feel like I belonged... Those private thoughts I had, were part of my creative energy, or the complexity of my mind, but I wasn't a disturbed child, I was just, a little off-beat, I guess." 

-Patti Smith, being interviewed on NPR

Mark Ryden's Tree Show

Mark Ryden

Ohhhhhhhh!  Mark Ryden has a new show up!  The Tree Show is at the Michael Kohn Gallery in LA, and looks to contain magical and arboreal artworks.  I wish I could see it in person.  Hopefully a catalogue will be put out for this.

PJ Fidler

PJ Fidler  "Heaven"

PJ Fidler's pieces are exercises in exuberance.  The macabre and the merry co-exist in a frenzy of color.  Such a treat.

Felicity Powell

Felicity Powell  "Tentacled"  2006

I love when an artist takes a classical medium and uses it in new and exciting ways.  Felicity Powell's glass and wax pieces are surprising and refreshing.

Oh, Japan!

Japan, how do you consistently produce such amazing looking films?!  I love you, that's all there is to it.

I'm seeing The Taste of Tea this weekend:

And Paprika comes out in May:

Swoooooooon!

(Paprika tip-off via)

Dreamy Music Pt 4

Bat for Lashes - Fur & Gold - Spooky, woodsy, good for nocturnal fire-dancing.  Like Tori Amos mixed with pitch.  And, at times, the Ronettes.

Clinic - Visitations - The masked men are back with another raucous album.  Each song pulses and drones hypnotically, and is topped with their signature pressure cooker vocals.

Joanna Newson - Ys - Yes, it is THAT good.

Miho Hatori - Ecdysis - Eclectic and sophisticated solo album from half of the marvelous Cibo Matto.

Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - This has been out for a long while now, but I realized I never mentioned it here.  One of the best albums of the past 10 years, in my opinion.  Soaring, spiritual, weathered, and sparkling.

Magalie Guerin

Magalie Guerin  "Easter Sunday"  2005

Holy moley.  Magalie Guerin's work is so strange, candid, and deftly rendered, that I find the experience of looking at it very moving.  It's a rare gift to be able to create art that is at once confessional and real, yet extremely imaginative, and Guerin has it in spades. 

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