Stepping Stones

Images via We Heart It

I have already talked to you all about my want to write and draw on the walls and I'm still not content. I'm talking my paint brushes and chalk sticks to the stairs too. Why not add a creative streak to an often neglected and overlooked feature of your home and stencil your favourite quotes, lyrics or just a witty remark to brighten up your day. If you're anything like me the chalk paint stairs could be your ultimate daily to do list message board.

The Writing's On The Walls

Though many people like to hang art on their walls I mostly just want to paint, draw and write on mine. I already have a habit to leaving post-its with memos all over the house so why not take it a step further and paint notes and reminders where I did them most. Why should drawing on the walls be something that only children get to enjoy?

Images via Studded Hearts, Jaymug, Boards of Hanburg

Exxit - Crawford College of Art and Design Degree Show

Last night I attended the opening of Exxit, the Crawford College of Art and Design BA in Fine Art & Ceramics Degree Show Art Exhibition at Sharman Crawford Street, Cork. It runs June 15th-23rd, open Monday - Saturday 11am - 6pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm until June 23rd. There will be guided tours at 1pm daily and admission free. I was there to support my friend John Kent (images 4 and 5) and was blown away by the amount of talent that lays here in our City. Well done to all involved!

A sample of the work featured at Exxit.

Outfit;

Army shirt: ssh its my brother's

Dress: Kate Moss for Topshop

Bag: Vintage Aer Lingus

If your work is pictured above please let me know your details so I can credit your creation!

Blau x

Black & White

I know this video is fifteen minutes long but it most definitely worth a watch. Its serves as an arresting example of Jiri Kylian's style and fully justifies his reputation as one of the most inventive and daring choreographers on today's dance world. Much of his work is  set to musical rhythms and patterns mixed in a synthesizer to produce a layered effect in some sections; the result of this a more energetic, sometimes frenzied sound that the dancers match in a very physical dance. This dance stands as a prime example of how ballet and modern dance can intertwine to creative a masterpiece of elegant and contemporary beauty. Set to a simple and  an almost tribally raw beat the choreography is both mesmerising and haunting, it's rhythm and symmetry acting as powerful and captivating forces on the audience.

Blau x

Retro Prints

The darling Eliza J recently introduced me to the wonderful work of Claudia Varosio; quirky illustrated posters, paper dolls and retro prints. These prints ship worldwide from London. Here's a collection of some of my favourites;

Blau x

Rhythm 10

Marina Abramović, New York-based Serbian performance artist, began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Rhythm 10, 1973.

"I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night till I was 29 years old. All the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in the firestar, everything was done before 10 in the evening."

In her first performance Abramović explored elements of ritual and gesture. Making use of twenty knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of her hand. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of twenty she had set up, and record the operation. After cutting herself twenty times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging together past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing, the double sounds from the history and from the replication. With this piece, Abramović began to consider the state of consciousness of the performer. “Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do.”

Blau x

The Silver Factory

We love a good tee here at Hostess HQ so naturally we're delighted to hear that the wonderful Shutterbug is to stock a collection of fierce t-shirts by Kilkenny-based young desigener Cameron from The Silver Factory. Cameron designs and screen prints these t-shirts himself . Every single t-shirt that goes out is handprinted thats right;from the cutting of the stencil to the actual screen printing making these little wearable peices of art.

Available from the 10th of August from Shutterbug and online.
Blau x

Eye Candy; For Your Commute

Here lies my current favorite bit of street art from my walk to work . My favorite thing about street art and graffiti is how fragile it is, there one day and gone or completely changed the next. Its amazing how people take to the streets with their art and people add to it and take away from it. I've taken hundreds of photos of them. Some are still here and some are a distant memory.

Forget Me

A trip to the Tate Modern lead to the discovery of my new favourite artist; Julião Sarmento. This Portuguese artist, a bliever that 'the subject is what is not there' fuses the art of media with universal themes of memory, mortality, duality, sexuality and transgression. "His work is characterised by a concise vocabulary of images and motifs through which he explores states of ambiguity, ruptured narratives and the nature of desire." I'm an avid fan of  the combination of collage and sketched images, and popular culture references and I'm utterly drawn to the fragmented aspect of his work. My personal favourite piece is entitled Dublin-Trieste 2 December 2009 and is based on excerpts from a love letter written by James Joyce to his wife Nora (I spend some time just standing in front of this in the Tate Modern before beckoning Ezara over). This is a series of photo-and-sketch-based work inspired by select lines from Joyce's letter, I found it quite stirring.

"...there is also a wild beast-like craving for every inch of your body, for every secret and shameful part of it, for every odour and act of it..."


I do love a recurrent motif.
Blau x