Glamour of the Gods

Two days ago, I went to see Glamour of Gods exhibition at National Portrait Gallery in London. The show is the collection of photographs and portraits of Hollywood stars from 1920s to 1960s. Personally, I absolutely adore that period in American Cinema, this was the time when magic, mystery, sophistication, beauty and, after all, glamour was still alive in Hollywood films. So, I went in with an intention to feel all the mentioned above. However, what came as a great disappointment were not the prints itself (even though I was not entirely satisfied with the sizes) but the curating strategy of the exhibition! The space was cramped, the lighting was poor and the pastel blue-greenish colour of the walls in the room did not make any justice to the prints. All together, it looked utterly dull and unexciting. There was no hint of Glamour. I left feeling like I have just wasted my time and money.

'Glamour of the Gods', 'More stars than there are in heaven' - those are the hook lines NPG use. So, if that was also an intended feel of the exhibition, I'd say it failed big time.

City A | Short film.

Ok, so this is my new film, produced together with lovely Beatriz Cebas. I want to thank our team and everyone who has supported us. Will not add more.

Let The Wind Carry Me. | To the places unknown...

I haven't been posting here for a while. On the other hand, my other blog ts. is quite busy at the moment. I have made a rule not to write much descriptions or any personal thoughts on the things I am uploading there. For some odd reason, I really like it that way - keeps my eyes busy and head clear.

So, as a quick update on what I've been up too, I can confirm that this is probably the busiest time I have even been in my entire life. I am freelancing at FST again and working on couple of personal projects (one of which includes a psychological short film). This will be followed up by a new documentary project. Here we go, and this is just a small part of a bigger picture.

I also have a long list of films I want to watch, one of which is Let The Wind Carry Me, a stunning looking documentary on legendary Mark Lee, a cinematographer who worked with beasts like Wong Kar-Wai, Tran Anh Hung, Hirokazu Koreeda and Hsiao-Hsien Hou. Grand man, Grand talent, Grand films.

ts. | one more.

Okay, so I have a tumblr too now. I am not promising it to be something specific. One thing for sure, I am still going to be quite selective over what I post. For now just think of this blog as a letter and the 'ts.' as a post scriptum. I always enjoyed post scriptum in letters, they like a small final touch, that gives a closure or a new start to the sense. So, here we go - click here to follow...

ts. I have no idea why I chose the image of Takeshi Kaneshiro and Michelle Reis from Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels for that post. It's juts, for some reason I find it quite suitable.

Nobuyoshi Araki | Love and Death. ... And sex of course.

'People nowadays neglect the act of touching. They all try to keep a distance. They don’t connect with the city, with women, they don’t even feel with their eyes...' - Nobuyoshi Araki

The book 'Araki - Love and Death' has just came out. You can find it in Magma stores.

Read the full Vice' interview by Tomokazu Kosuga here
Image taken from Tokyo Dandy.

This is my dream | Yohji Yamamoto

"Beautiful things are disappearing every day. I want to keep it back. I want to say don't go too much, too far, too easy...' - Yohji Yamamoto

I have spent about half an hour talking about Yohji Yamamoto with a friend today. Trying to pin point why I admire him so much... as a man, as a dressmaker. There are a lot of reasons, but if I had to put it all in one short sentence? Because I prefer meaning to triviality and dignity to vulgarism.

Yohji Yamamoto's new documentary is coming out Spring this year. Watch the trailer here.

Street Art... Whatever. | Short documentary.

So, this is one of the reasons why I haven't been posting much recently. I've been busy working on this street art documentary piece. Enjoy.

Produced and directed by: Tess Savina, Beatriz Cebas, Alica Paskova, Yuting Zhu

Artists: Pure Evil, Stik, Nathan Bowen, Macay

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me... | ノルウェイの森

On Tuesday 1st of March I went to a talk organised by Asia House with Norwegian Wood's director Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya, Cyclo) and the lead actress Rinko Kikuchi (Babel). It was a last minute decision to go there and what can I tell you - it was probably the best decision i've made in a while, since the talk was extremely interesting and educational.

Tran Anh Hung... well I've been a fan of his work for a while and now after meeting him, he made me realise some things that I probably wouldn't come to realising myself. So, after exchange of smiles and few words I had to thank him for my fast 'brain crash' course and also thank him for making Norwegian Wood happen. I know that some people out there thought sceptical about letting the legendary Japanese Novel to be put on screen by a non-Japanese guy. However, in my opinion, I cannot see anyone else who would fit that project better than him.

Norwegian Wood opens Pan-Asia Film Festival at BAFTA today and then takes off country wide on March 11th. おめでとう!

Based on Haruki Murakami's novel.

Director: Tran Anh Hung

Main Leads: Rinko Kikuchi, Kenichi Matsuyama, Kiko Mizuhara

Music Composer: Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead)

'I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.' - Dali | Anton Tantsev

I've just realized a funny thing. I have never, not once, had a fine art entry on this blog (as in paintings, sculpture and anything along those lines). What is even more funny is the fact that I actually come from a fine art background - pure classic art: drawings, oil paintings etc etc... that's how I started. I guess doing design for the past five years or so, I have pushed myself away from the fine art as far as I possibly could. Oh well. Life takes turns. So I would like to take this opportunity and fill in some gaps here.

This post is dedicated to Anton Tantsev, an extremely talented young Russian artist and a very close friend of mine, who is now working his way up the ladder. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to his first solo exhibition, which opened couple of weeks ago, but I am hoping to make it for the second one this summer. Anton and I pretty much started at the same spot, and even though he had his own good share in graphic design, he has made a decision to push it all aside and just do what he believes in the most. Admirable much - I have to say. So, on my behalf, I wish him future luck in what he's doing, because he really is very good at it.

Few words I can describe his work with are (he may disagree with some of them, but that's my understanding of it after all) - inventive, unorthodox, brave, sexual, at times violent, Dali inspired, visionary... That should do it.

Check out his tumblr for more paintings and some really interesting sculpture pieces.

Yohji Yamamoto at V&A

Just a little bit too excited about Yohji Yamamoto exhibition at V&A Museum, which is going to take off on 12th of March this year.

Image by Ronald Stoops

YUKIASH

Can't help it but some really great things come from Japan indeed.

Take a peek HERE and HERE.

KM & M | video.

I've been looking into videos a lot lately. Here are some lovely pieces taken from iDEAL (a really good blog). Both videos are very different, but both have the exact feel that I am always looking for - a sense of a place, cities and lifes, a beautiful harmony, puzzles and hints, curiosity, a story that someone has begun to tell but left for you to finish.

Kiko Mizuhara by René Habermacher for L'UOMO VOGUE.

Maria by Mara Desipris.

P.S. I recommend watching these without sound.

AnOther and Lina Scheynius | creative block?

I really admire Lina Scheynius work, really. I always thought she was brilliant. So, that is why I am so puzzled. I mean, what the hell is going on here? Both series were shot for AnOther magazine: Kiko Mizuhara for the latest issue of the magazine and Mariacarla Boscono for the Spring 2009 one. So... yeh, basically, I think I will refrain from further comments.

Gareth Pugh | Fashion.

Just to top up the post below... with the best thing that ever happened to English Fashion. I have no intention of giving any detailed descriptions. There is just no need.

Future Beauty | Fashion.

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion is the first exhibition in Europe to comprehensively survey avant-garde Japanese fashion, from the early 1980s to the present.

Now. I am quite late with this post, but I was away from London for almost two months, therefore you have to give me a credit. So, now I am back and I'm trying to catch up on all the events and exhibitions and generally anything interesting that was/is happening in this gloomy city.

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition really got me well excited since I love Japanese fashion. Why? The answer might seem a bit odd, but nevertheless, I have to say it. For me, it has a 'brain'. It is not only aesthetically but also 'mentally pleasing'. I really think that Japanese designers are quite unique and I guess the key to that uniqueness is the ability to treat clothes as an independent being, to make it dimensional (almost architectural) rather than decorative and what's more to have that rare gift of understanding the simplicity and how beautiful it can be. I can go on talking about it for ages, but this may turn it into a very long post that won't make much sense, so let's just leave it at this.

To the business. I was mostly impressed with Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo' early work. As well as Issey Miyake's 132 5, which is really quite brilliant. Below are the images that might give you some sort of idea or taste of the exhibition, although for those who live in London - please, just go and see it.

Koji Tatsuno A/W 93-94 Golden Brown Nylon Dress

Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons (from 1990s)

Issey Miyake's 132 5. More here.

There was a lot of work from few young designers displayed at the exhibitions, which I found really quite inventive and interesting. My only thought was that you really have to try hard to take it one step further and try even harder to make sure you don't take it one step too far. I hope I am making myself clear here.

Below is a short film edited by Julian Roberts inspired by the various pieces and images displayed at the exhibition.

Tokyo.

Are you ready to have your brain slightly shaken? Personally, I cannot wait.