portrait of tracy

to be someone's tracy //

flybuttaaaaaaaaaaa

"SEISMIC CALLIGRAPHY"

Todd Selby x Christine Sun Kim on Nowness.com.

Cult photographer and filmmaker Todd Selby's latest short is a revealing portrait of performance artist Christine Sun Kim. Deaf from birth, Kim turned to using sound as a medium during an artist residency in Berlin in 2008, and has since developed a practice of lo-fi experimentation that aims to re-appropriate sound by translating it into movement and vision. "It's a lot more interesting to explore a medium that I don't have direct access to and yet has the most direct connection to society at large," says the artist. "Social norms surrounding sound are so deeply ingrained that, in a sense, our identities cannot be complete without it." Selby filmed an exclusive performance from Kim in a Brooklyn studio as the artist played with field recordings of the street sounds of her Chinatown neighborhood, feedback and helium balloons, and made “seismic calligraphy” drawings from ink- and powder-drenched quills, nails and cogs dancing across paper to the vibrations of subwoofers beneath. Working with sound designer Arrow Kleeman, Selby carefully choreographed the film's ambient score to reveal the Orange County native's unique relationship with sound. "Her work deals with reclaiming sound because it's a foreign world to her and one she's not comfortable in," explains Selby. "I wanted the film to act as an artistic conduit for her to tell her story to the world.”

Meet Ilona Royce Smithkin

yohji

YOHJI YAMAMOTO: THIS IS MY DREAM from Huge Conglomerate on Vimeo.

Ethnic Minority Textiles - Miao of Guizhou, China

I'm just going to put this here for now. Some information about the Miao, from Minnesota Institute of Art's flickr page:

The Miao are one of several ethnic minorities living in the
subtropical mountainous areas of southwestern China. Different groups
include the Dong, Yi, Yao, Shui, Bouyi, Li, Gejia, and Bai among many
others. For thousands of years, these migrating peoples have developed
rich, cultural traditions and they are increasingly being recognized
for their extraordinary handcrafted textiles and silver jewelry. It is
the area of costume where mythology, technical skill, and cultural
identity coalesce in vivid aesthetic expression. Until recently, most
of these remote, ethnic villages were relatively isolated from the
majority Han Chinese population. China’s rapid modernization, however,
has penetrated even the minority districts of Guizhou, Yunnan,
Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces. The resultant economic, educational,
and social changes have already begun to erode the look and use of
traditional festive costumes worn by the Miao and other ethnic groups.

I'm thinking about making a new blog on textiles and design but I'm still researching/trying to think of better things to blog about. so keep an eye out for that.

I Hate My Collection

I Hate My Collection - 1st TEASER from Markus Nylaander on Vimeo.

let's make this film happen. more on it here.