Kimsooja’s breathtakingly beautiful photo, video and installation work bring movement to meditation and meditation to daily life.  Grounded in a nomadic work philosophy based on life experience, her work reflects a Buddhist way of life - ”detachment from both affection and materialism.”  However, her work also reflects a unique sensuality. The detachment of the enlightened mind of the Buddha loses none of its ability to witness beauty, it merely loses its external craving for beauty as a means to experience or hold onto pleasure.  How does the enlightened mind do this? Through contemplation and the ultimate realization that that same beauty it seeks outside dwells within each human being. They are one and the same.

(Image: Kimsooja, Bottari Truck – Migrateurs, 2007, Single Channel Video, 10:01, Silent, Courtesy of MAC/VAL, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne and the Artist.)

The principles of harmony and oneness are also reflected in Kimsooja’s installation Lotus Zone of Zero, 2008, currently housed at Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels through January 18, 2009.  The site specific installation consists of approximately 2000 lanterns shaped as lotus flowers.  The visual is accompanied by sound in the form of Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants that merge in the center of the space.  Honoring a vision of peace, the work embodies the dance between individuality and universality, yin and yang, and a potential future for planet earth.

(Image: Kimsooja, Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein, Brussels, Approx. 2000 lotus lanterns, Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chants, Steel structure and cables.  Photo by Mikäel Falke.  Courtesy of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, first exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium, ©Kimsooja.)

From a visual standpoint, Kimsooja’s work uses composition, color and form to cleary convey individuality while simultaneously capturing vibrant harmony through these same principles. The imagination is tempted to hear the repetitive movement of transport in Bottari Truck – Migrateurs and  Mumbai: A Laundry Field. A movement with the potential to inspire a trancelike state leading to deep meditation or pleasurable inner bliss.  Lotus: Zone of Zero inspires a similar sensation through an imagined flickering of lantern flames leading to moments of zen, fleeting or otherwise.  In the end, or rather beginning, there is an underlying dialogue between the senses and Buddhism within Kimsooja’s work.  A conversation on how we can experience pleasure without suffering?

(Image: Kimsooja, Mumbai: A Laundry Field, 2008, Photograph from the Four Channel Video Project, 32 x 25-6/16 inches, Courtesy of the Artist)

Visit Kimsooja’s website or view selected exhibitions/events:

  11th International Cairo Biennale
  Opening: December 20th, 2008

  Mumbai: A Laundry Field
  Galeria Continua, Beijing
  September 4th, 2008 – December 27th, 2008

  Street Art, Street Life
  The Bronx Museum of the Arts
  September 14th, 2008 – January 25, 2009

(Image: Kimsooja, Lotus: Zone of Zero (work in progress), 2008, Kimsooja – Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein, Brussels, Approx. 2000 lotus lanterns, Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chants, Steel structure and cables.  Photo by Fabrice Kada.  Courtesy of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, first exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium, ©Kimsooja.)

Music…art…sound…perhaps?  Electronic music composer, Sven Van Hees hears color – a condition known as Synesthesia that effects 1 in 25,000 people (mostly women and those with left handed persuasions).  Van Hees sees instruments as colors (strings/yellow, bass/red) and creates sonic color paintings as a result.  Turns out this YouTube video riff by Bergen1982, of one of Hees’ early songs (Emotional Rehabilitation, 1991), flips Hees’ sonic art into video art.  It’s been said that much of Hees’ later work, sometimes categorized as downtempo, could give viagra a run for its money.

Watch the Bergen1982 video riff…Visit the Sven Van Hees website…Or YouTube him to hear more tracks.

(Image, concept and design: Black Milk-Tronic, album cover art by Fatbeats A&R Bill Sharp, Black Milk and Skinny Boys Graphix.)

What ever happened to album art? It’s around, but goes mostly unnoticed.  Not only is the new Black Milk album, Tronic, a contender for the transformation of new millenium hip-hop to higher ground – its artwork makes you go hmmmm.  The concept and design are simplistic but somehow speak to the world’s transitional state.  One of movement and potential liberation from historical baggage to the future self-actualization of the planet. Like the album, the artwork is a bit old school. But, there’s something that takes you into the future that you can’t quite put your finger on. The albums special hologram cover might just make you want to own the hard copy and save the download for later.

Listen to Black Milk’s TRONIC…

Its been said before history is often his story.  Those who control the means of production get to create the master narrative.  As the democratization of media unfolds in the 21st century more and more stories are accessible to larger and larger audiences.  Two stories with rich local histories, global implications and misrepresentation in mainstream media are the stories of Palestine and Graffiti. The book Subjective Atlas of Palestine, a project by Dutch designer Annelys de Vet, includes artwork about Palestine from the perspective of the countries own artists, designers and photographers.  Its premise being – “Sublime landscapes, tranquil urban scenes, frolicking children; who would associate these images with Palestine? All too often the Western media shows the country’s gloomy side, and Palestinians as aggressors. It is this that makes identifying with them virtually impossible. If we are to relate to the Palestinians other images are needed, images seen from a cultural and more human vantage point.”

(Image: New Flags for Palestine, p.244-245, Subjective Atlas of Palestine)

Visual art and all forms of media have a significant role to play as negotiation, communication and collaboration become the new cornerstones of power relations on a global scale.  The humor and creativity housed in Subjective Atlas of Palestine makes a huge contribution to this effort and has continually received recognition and awards since its publication in October of 2007. Click here for more info on the project or to purchase the book.

(Subjective Atlas of Palestine, Edited and Designed by Annelys de Vet. Cover image: Yazan Khalili, Colour Correction.)

Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s Urban Underground, by Greg Snyder, is also poised to make a contribution from an insider’s viewpoint.  However, in this case on the topic of the often misunderstood world of graffiti.  Snyder, trained as a sociologist, spent over 10 years in the world of graffiti as a fan, occasional graf writer, photographer and scholar. His experiences, insights and exploration of graffiti culture in New York City take readers through streets and subway tunnels; to high end galleries, corporate design, marketing and publishing firms; and, on a mind trip through art, style and commerce.  Along the way Snyder captured the skillz of the writers he encountered in his own Graffiti Lives “blackbook” - a quintessential component of newer generations of graf writers.  The implications of crime, practice and sought after skillz that can eventually land writers in the “legit” capitalist marketplace are laid out for public consumption, consideration and awe.  Graffiti Lives’ release date is January 2009.

(Image from the Graffiti Lives “blackbook“. Click here for more…)

Purchase the book!  Watch the trailer!

In 2008 artist Diana Schmertz, founder of PERFECT8 magazine, launched the PERFECT8 Magazine Stand Project. PERFECT8 magazine is dedicated to the de-objectification of human beings and seeks to replace objectification with a pardigm of empathy. During a one year period throughout 2008-9 the PERFECT8 Stand will be appearing on the streets of New York City presenting the “Revised Men’s and Women’s Interest Sections” to the general public.

(Image: Diana Schmertz and Roni Mocan, Perfect8 Booth at Broadway and Dyckman Ave., 2008)

After researching the top selling Men’s and Women’s Interest magazines Diana Schmertz created their revisal via the publication of PERFECT8. Created in reaction to her disbelief that the primary interest of men is porn, and that women’s main interests are getting married and finding ways to look prettier for men, the Revised Men’s and Women’s Interest Sections present an alternative to the interest magazines currently offered to the public. For the PERFECT8 Magazine Stand project, Diana Schmertz created an actual magazine stand fashioned after newsstands seen throughout the streets of New York City. Via its insertion into the urban landscape the project seeks to raise awareness and provide a different choice to the current offerings found at the local newsstand.  The PERFECT8 Stand appeared on Dyckman and Broadway in New York City in September 2008 and is scheduled for its Times Square debut this month (see beow)!

(Image: Diana Schmertz and Roni Mocan, Perfect8 Booth at Broadway and Dyckman Ave., 2008)

NEXT INSTALLATION
PERFECT 8 Magazine Stand
Installataion 12pm-2pm, December 13, 2008
Times Square: SW Corner of 40th Street and 8th Avenue
In event of bad weather, please check website for rain date.

Visit the Perfect8 website.

View photos from the Dyckman & Broadway installation.