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La La Monday Creative Sharings: Inspire and be Inspired
2010-07-27 11:14:47
Welcome back to our second La La Monday! Here are the inspirations from our fellow daydreamers this week!La La Monday 2 : 26th July, 2010
This month, we all embarked on the creative assignment of making our own DAYDREAM NATION doll from bits and pieces around us... Here is CURTIS and his leather replica.
DU
'I filled the orange peel with resin to form a mirror. I stuck two photos of myself inside the orange, one looking in the mirror and the other is the reflection. Fruits don’t grow overnight, they are products of a long process.'
INA
'Daydream Nation looks like this in my imagination. Daydreamers are like warriors. When we put on our glasses we are ready for the battle.'
INA: 'Inside the rabbit’s head are the three ‘weapons’ of Daydream Nation: brainstorming of ideas represented by the bolt, music represented by the note and...US ♥'
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CARLOS
'When I was young I didn’t have a lot of playmates so I had always wanted to create a playmate for myself. I was bullied by my elder brother as a child and I wanted to build something that would be under my control.'
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JING and the breathing plastic bag.
CHRISTINA and Mr. Soctopus.
1 glove, 2 push-up pads, lots of old socks. We have Mr. Soctopus!
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VINCY
'Horses are symbols of wild and untamed freedom. And their mystical relative, unicorns, represents a daring quest for dreams.
If we all head towards where our dreams are, ‘unicorns [will] become possible again’. (Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickles Received from a Friend Called Felicity by John Tobias.)'
KRISTA
'I have been teaching children at my church. Through them I see a perspective of uncontaminated innocence. They have instant and original interpretations to their surroundings. I remember asking the group of kids, ‘why did God choose Maria amongst all the other girls to be Jesus’ mother?’ One of them answered, ‘because Maria’s surname is Ma (in the Chinese translation Ma-Lei-A and ‘horse’ in Chinese is also pronounced as Ma). Jesus was born in a manger and His mother’s surname is Ma. God must like horses!’
Children have an awareness to their surroundings and therefore the exclamation mark the rabbit's right shoulder. The question mark on the other shoulder is the children’s curiousity. This rabbit reminds me of the scene when children would drag the rabbit by its ear and knock on their parents’ door in the dead of the night.'
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Some of us had some favourite books, bands and artists to share as well...
JINGRadiohead is an English alternative rock band from Oxfordshire formed in 1985. Experimenting with rock made the band the pioneer of alternative rock as well as earned respect from thousands of music lovers. Lead vocalist Thom Yorke said upon the release of the band’s third album ‘OK Computer’,
“You should be constantly becoming someone else.”
A craftsman may be dexterous with his skills but what defines a true artist from a craftsman is his willingness to challenge, to break out from what he is used to doing.
KAY
Alexey Brodovich was a Russian-born photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.
'I guessed that most of today’s fashion magazines have been influenced by Brodovich’s aesthetic sense. The use of space, his attention to typesetting on magazine pages and beauty in general made him an Avant Garde of his time.'
See Yourself
You cannot see yourself whole, you cannot know what picture you present, until you see yourself three ways:
1. See yourself as a mirror sees you. A long mirror, before which you stand, turn, walk. not in vanity, but as an education and a discipline. to learn your anatomy honestly and fearlessly - not piecemeal, but as a related whole.
2. See yourself as others see you. That chance reflection in a shop window, the amateur movie, even the snapshot...all reveal unexpected charms, unexpected shocks. The surprising way you hold your head slightly tilted, your expressive gestures, your severe expression when caught unaware - you, the stranger, as you unconsciously project yourself to the world.
3. See yourself with vision. Visualise yourself, and exactly what it is you are trying to project. This is awareness.
- Elinor Guthrie McVickar, then-editor of Harper’s Bazaar
Recommended: Alexey Brodovitch (Portfolio (Assouline)) by Alexey Brodovitch and Gabriel Bauret
VINCY
Vincy recommends two books by renowned fashion photographers Scott Schuman (a.k.a. The Satorialist) and Yvan Rodic (a.k.a. The Facehunter).
'Facehunter’s shots are more urban but I prefer the Satorialist. Schuman doesn’t only take pictures of young, chic people but sometimes the aged. He’s a storyteller who focuses not only on fashion but also the style and the air of elegance of “real people”, the ordinary.'
'Scott doesn’t just take pictures, he captures emotion. he is not just a photographer. He’s a historian marking the feelings of this generation one photo at a time.'
- Kanye WestCURTIS
Lucy Orta is a British comtemporary visual artist and fashion designer. She produces controversial artwork that deals with societal problems like homelessness and refugees.
'Identity has been the subject of my research for over fifteen years. The bodies of works Refuge Wear, Identity + Refuge, Body Architecture, Nexus Architecture have all explored the individual and his or her relationships with the collective structures of society these have resulted in performances, interventions and whole series of objects.' - Lucy Orta
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La La Monday Creative Sharings: Inspire and be Inspired
2010-07-22 00:00:00
Welcome to the launch of La La Mondays! Every week, on that special day, fellow daydreamers gather in our studio to share their any inspirations or random thoughts they’ve stumbled across that week. We want to share these goodies with you too!
La La Monday 1: 19th July, 2010
Jing
JING is currently reading Design as Art by Bruno Munari, a book which takes the readers back to the origin and fundamental purpose of design.
‘[A designer] is a planner with an aesthetic sense.’
‘A leaf is beautiful not because it is stylish but because it is natural, created in its exact for by its exact function.’
Recommended: Design as Art by Bruno Munari
Krista
Iris Apfel, an interior-designer turned textile company owner, is a bold and creativestyle icons. And she is 88 years old.
‘[Apfel] reminds me of Coco Chanel. Both are independent females who are daring and have unique perspectives on aesthetics.
I recall passing by a lady when I was on the way home. I guess she was over 65 but I loved her sense of style. Pairing a navy blue Qipao (traditional Chinese costume) and a pair of beige leggings made her a piece of walking artwork.’Du
‘I’m experimenting a way of treating newspaper with Resin. After a chemical reaction, the newspaper print should appear as if it’s printed on a transparent surface.’
Recommended: Jewellry Techniques by Anastasia Young
Christina
‘Sometimes we underestimate the negativity brought by the ‘but’s and second thoughts. They become barriers to realising our dreams. It's not enough to want something, you have to really see it, believe it, act as if you have already achieved it." - Christina
Peter Callesen is a Danish artist who is known for his paper-cutting skills. He uses his skills and the interaction between positive and negative space to tell stories.
"A large part of my work is made from A4 sheets of paper. It is probably the most common and consumed media used for carrying information today. This is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning. The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works." - Peter Callesen
Kay
‘I have been very pre-occupied with work recently, so this weekend I made time for ‘‘life’s little lovelies’’, like playing my guitar and watching movies.’
Recommended: 非常完美、九降風
Curtis
'Yesterday, I performed at a concert held by my church. I felt the strong urge to perform before I got on the stage. It was a long-lost and memorable feeling of having butterflies in my stomach. This feeling should be in everything we do because it is what drives us forward.’
Vincy
‘What you wear on your head shows who you want to be perceived as; what you wear on your feet shows who you really are.’
‘Inspired by this quote and the series of LOVE magazine covers. I’ve been planning my next art project, a photoshoot of different people wearing nothing but headpieces and shoes. The world has expectations on who we should be. But is that really who we are?
I wrote a song for my Chinese assignment based on a short story titled “Toys” by Xi Xi (西西). My interpretation of the story is that people tend to lean on reality and forget about beautiful, short-lived romanticism in life because we grow out of our imagination as we grow up.’ -
AW10 Collaboration T-Shirt by - Tore Cheung
2010-05-04 04:50:15
