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Tuesday 20 September 2011

Charles Matton's exhibition - one of the best I've ever seen


If you haven't heard of Charles Matton don't worry, you're not retarded, he is little known, especially when you consider how talented he really was. A French sculptor, painter, photographer, model maker and many other things, his work has been mostly hidden away and only come to light in the few years since his death in 2008. Perhaps he was knocked back and lacked confidence, perhaps he hated self-promotion, perhaps he felt like fame would damage his art, either way I feel it is a shame that the world can only now see these masterpieces.

Charles Matton's exhibition in "All Visual Arts" in Kings Cross is free and contains over 36 of his pieces. In themselves they look like a lifetime's work. First there are the beautifully intricate miniature rooms - every detail constructed with such painstaking care that each book looks readable, each newspaper perfectly printed, each duvet creased and dirtied as if they had been lived in. Matton uses mirrors to create rooms that have depth and space outside his construction. They allow you to pear into adjoining corridors, to believe that the libraries in a single box actually sprawl on forever. The mirrors also play tricks on you. Sometimes you struggle to work out where they are. Sometimes they appear to be in one place when actually it's just wire and symmetrical object arrangements. But the best thing about his rooms is they seem to tell stories. stories of absences, stories of sad lives, stories of decay and neglect as well as collection and even, in one disturbing room - masochism. Even the light is included, lightboxes creating shadows in rooms and light falling from fake windows making patterns on carpets.



Matton's efforts to keep his art works original meant he would produce large paintings only in order to reduce them and hang them in his tiny microcosms. So to produce one piece of model making he's have already created 12 pieces of separate art. In another piece he depicts the room of a sculptor of the human form and fills his room with tiny handmade sculptures.

But that wasn't the end of the process. After all this work he would then photograph or make paintings of the scenes he had created. Each capturing scenes that seem hyper-real.

Here are some of my pictures of the exhibition but the true effect and the feeling of discovery and exploration that you get as you walk around can only be appreciated when you see the exhibition. Do not miss it.


And these are the pictures he took of the models.





For this work matton had to paint every picture in the collector's bedroom. The full sized pictures he painted for this piece are displayed alongside the model. He then reduced them down to use.




This painting was made from one of his bathroom models.



His most disturbing piece is this attic scene from the house of a masochist. He posed for all the degrading images on the wall too. In this and in the bedroom scenes in particular you get the sense of a whole story being told.



This is the most Francis Bacon piece to my mind. His sculpture explores human shapes and forms and their movement and distortion.

Thursday 15 September 2011

NEWS FLASH: Giant baby trashes bar!!!!

I'm really not quite sure what this video is. But it's pretty funny. Baby drinks alcohol (fake I hope) and does what a baby does: cause mayhem. It's also got puppets. I like puppets. Watch and enjoy.


Unleash your fingers: Galaxy SII for France

A pretty nifty new way of representing touchscreen in an advert. Check out this lovely bit of choreography and animation.




Guy is nice to watch too methinks.

Arthur Kannas, one of the founders of Heaven Conseil, who is a specialist in communication and online marketing said: “I watched Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky and I knew right away that this viral video had to feature music. Then the universe of dubstep and urban style popped into my mind. I just had to find an original way to reflect the values promoted by Samsung (…) When I discovered Jay Funk, I knew he was the artist I needed. His dance expressed a language that reminded me of phone handling. The Samsung phone becomes the extension of hands".

Love it when there is a nice poncy arty explanation for the ad too.

Monday 12 September 2011

I'm buying a house, but more exciting than that...

Everyone...I am finally joining the adult world and making a commitment to bricks and mortar. the lucky lucky house will be a little victorian terrace near Greenwich. I will love it and paint it and convert the loft and clean it's skirting boards. I will remove the textured wallpaper from the ceiling and paint over the brightly pine varnished built in cupboards. i will restore the fireplaces and then fill them with crap like candles. oh house I will love you.

...But not as much as I will love the two kittens I will buy as soon as we have a spare £700. After a life of having to convince my parents to buy a pet (they finally got a gorgeous Ragdoll kitten called Maisie who now lives with my Dad) I can get my own at will. And just to celebrate, I'll get two. Because I can. They will keep each other company when I'm out, and keep me company when I'm in. They will snuggle up on my lap to watch X Factor and purrr loudly when I'm trying to sleep. They will annoy me by scratching my new sofa and throw up on my work. And I will love them.

The question is which breed shall I get?

A Ragdoll like Maisie?
A Maine Coon (apparently they aren't lap cats but they are beautiful)
A birman (is it just a not-as -good ragdoll?)
A british blue (my favourite option but now I'm thinking not fluffy enough)
A Norwegian Forest cat - apparently very clever and lively
Or something else?

Friday 9 September 2011

Font fun

Ever doodled words in bubble writing in class? Ever written your name with a sparkler? Well you were probably creating some lovely typography. One of my art director buddies sent me this font website after the words "handwritten" came up a bunch of times (art directors usually look a bit concerned when this idea rears its head).
http://www.handmadefont.com/

There are some seriously inventive ways of writing here - including ones using smoke, flowers, fruit and even poo (that one grossed me out).

And what's better than inventive type? Animated type! Loving this!

Sparkler from Handmadefont on Vimeo.

Friday 2 September 2011

Back to the start - Chipotle and Coldplay by Willie Nelson



This made me feel a little teary. Nostalgia is so strong. For a time when things were simpler and more beautiful. Love this advert.