Art

Someone has posted the entirety of Rupert Goold's version of Macbeth to Youtube. It is... something else, and well worth your time.

This is from the Youtube description:

Macbeth is a 2010 television film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was broadcast on BBC Four on 12 December 2010. In the United States, it aired on PBS' Great Performances. Rupert Goold directed it from his stage adaptation for the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2007. Patrick Stewart is featured in the title role, with Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth.

The film is a more modern re-imagining of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It evokes the atmosphere of Romania in the 1960s, with parallels between Ceaușescu and Macbeth in their equally brutal quests for power. The Three Witches likewise receive an update in keeping with the 20th-century aesthetics, appearing as hospital nurses. Their presence is pervasive throughout the film, punctuating the horror of Macbeth's murderous reign.

Watch it here:

Via Metafilter.

In November, I received copies of two books by writer and walker Craig Mod. I've been a fan of his for many years, but these are the first of his books I've purchased. Shipping from Japan to Canada, on top of the cost of the books, was what had always stopped me in the past, but I do my best to support artists directly when I can so decided now was the time.

If you're not familiar with Mod, he's mostly known for his work in the book world. He also has a wonderful podcast on bookmaking called On Margins, though he might have killed that as it's been a long time since he's put out an episode. It's well worth listening to if you're into creating things.

Since Craig is a walker and a writer, these books are about walking.

Craig describes Kissa by Kissa as "a book about walking 1,000+km of the countryside of Japan along the ancient Nakasendō highway, the culture of pizza toast (pizza toast!), and mid-twentieth century Japanese cafés called kissaten."

Craig's books are gorgeous. Cloth-bound with debossed covers. The paper is lovely to touch and the photos and essays are wonderful:

Things Become Other Things is Craig's latest book. He describes it as "a 30 day walk in Japan. A memoir. Fishermen, foul-mouthed kids, and terrible miserable wonderful coffee."

You can purchase the fifth edition of Kissa by Kissa here. The first edition of TBOT is here. Both titles are cheaper for members of Craig's Special Projects. Those memberships are how Craig makes his living.

If you'd like a better overview of Craig's work, you can find it here.

Anecdote Alert

These books are the kinds of things I used to bring in for customers of my shop, Volver — beautiful items that I personally own and can recommend — before I stopped carrying non-records. This was an effort to spread awareness and get better prices for my customers by eliminating the cost of shipping.

I did this most successfully, book-wise, with Wendy Erskine's Dance Move, a brilliant collection of short stories which still hasn't been published in Canada. I can't recall how many copies I brought in (20 or so), but they all sold out and still no other shop in the city took it upon themselves to import copies.

I have no idea if Craig would be into this (offering me bulk, wholesale pricing), but I'd consider approaching him if enough Bell Ringers wanted me to try.

Love these Rolling Pin Paintings by Daniel Eatock.

Looks like he also had an unusual Black Friday Sale where he offered up paintings via barter for items he would send you links to. I love unorthodox approaches to commerce. I missed out on them but am quite taken with this one from that series:

Many more on Eatock's site.

Love this shot of an eagle devouring a fish.

Matsubara also has some terrific landscape and moon shots on his site.

London-based painter Ian Robinson focuses on music, books, and collections.

More on Robinson's site.

Viera Babecova describes herself as a "Flower lover & arbitrary colourist & Vincent van Gogh's fan."

More of her stunning work can be seen on her Behance site.

The World of Wearable Art is something I was completely unfamiliar with. Here's their official description:

WOW is a world renowned wearable art experience, where an annual design competition culminates in a spectacular show combining theatre, art, fashion, music, & performance.

Much more on the official WOW Site, including an indepth Archive.

Liza Lou's Trailer is a walk-in sculpture made in and of a 1949 Spartan Royal Mansion mobile trailer. Themes within are masculinity, noir, stereotypes — all made with beads.

The video has Lou and curators discussing the piece and its transportation and installation at the Brooklyn Museum.

Here's the museum's official page on the piece and here's Liza Lou's official website.

Anecdote Alert

The piece reminds me of a friend's home in DTLA. He owns a 13,000sf building that consists of two floors. The top floor is his living space and the main floor has had rotating purposes in the 15 or so years I've known him.

For much of it, filmmaker Nirvan Mullick lived there, but for another era, they brought in an Airstream trailer and tarted it up into a nice living space, complete with lawn and picket fence. They would rent that out on AirBnB. It was quite interesting to be staying in a trailer and outside your door was a lawn, complete with outdoor furniture and such but then beyond your fence you were in a loft and outside those doors was downtown Los Angeles.

I mentioned the building in my post on Lem Dobbs as it appears in the film The Limey. I spent many nights in this building and I have grand associations of it with DTLA as it and Skid Row were all I knew about the area for many years.

J.A. Young (b. 1986) is a queer photographer / multi-media artist based in the American South. Their work draws on a range of influences, including cultural anthropology, world mysticism, the occult, and paranormal phenomena. Using both personal photographs and public domain archival images as raw materials, Young employs various methods (e.g., spontaneous print manipulation, dramatic recomposition, collage, and rephotography) to transform subtle feelings into tangible visual expressions.

More on their site.

Today, I read a fascinating long-form piece in White Fungus: Modern Marco Polos — The Global Travels of Nicolaï Michoutouchkine and Aloï Pilioko.

For decades, the two men were lovers and travelers. They shared their own and collected Oceanic Art in galleries and "pop-ups" in over 40 countries. The scrapbooks and journals of their adventures, highlighted in the article, look like fascinating pieces. I wish I had known of them before my visit. I'd have inquired about seeing them...

Anecdote Alert

In early 2020, before returning to Toronto and the Covid lockdown, I visited Esnaar, the South Pacific home of the artists on Efate island. The house was in severe disrepair due to the advanced age of its caretaker, Pilioko (Michoutouchkine passed in 2010).

Near the property entrance, visitors had left their details scrawled on pieces of wood instead of a traditional guestbook. It was a striking first impression that didn't prepare me for what lay beyond the front gate.

Inside, I found Pilioki napping. But he quickly rose to welcome me and my companions and let us explore the property, happily answering our questions. He seemed energized by our presence.

The property was covered in art. The walls, doors, grounds, rooftops... Pilioko seemed to recently become fascinated with one particular shade of yellow, and many items I saw that day were that color.

I was taken with one painting in particular — of female Ni-Vans water drumming. If you're not familiar with the artform, see it demonstrated here:

I regret not buying the piece, though it would have stood out in my place, where most paintings are abstract.

After reading the White Fungus piece, I searched and found that Pilioko died in October 2020. No cause of death is listed in his obituary, and I wonder if Covid was involved or if the pandemic-induced loneliness (no travel to the island for over a year) affected the artist.

It's been over four years since his death, and I'm curious about the museum's fate. Was there a foundation or trust to keep it open, or has it fallen to developers eager to build on the south lagoon shore? Googling turns up no answers.

A few days after meeting Pilioki, I was having dinner at a friend's place on Mele Bay. My host has an original Michoutouchkine on his wall, and I mentioned my visit to Esnaar. His brother fetched a book on Oceanic Art, which had a chapter on the two artists, emphasizing their significance and foundational role in South Pacific art. My friend has had a home in Vanuatu for years and has decorated it beautifully with local art. Most expats I met in Vanuatu have left, but my friend still has a home there. I make a mental note to check if he knows what happened to the bizarre live-in gallery, Esnaar.