The Smoking Gun reports that a hacker going by the alias of "Guccifer" has gotten into a few e-mail accounts associated with the Bush family. He uncovered a trove of personal information including cell phone numbers, family pictures, and what appear to be self-portraits of George W. Bush in the shower and tub, which were sent by the former President to his sister. Are they any good? Doesn't really matter. These two weapons of mass introspection remind us of Al Gore's post-election weird beard and the Romney gas-pumping media frenzy. We didn't think it was possible to have much empathy for the man, and yet, here we are. It's strangely comforting to think of the little guy just looking at his wet, shriveled body in the mirror wondering, "Who am I?"
Even if Trevor Crump's photos didn't twitch and shake in animated GIF form, they'd still be impressive compositions. His Tumblr boasts GIFs of bands like Ty Segall, White Lung, and Yo La Tengo slightly moving mid-performance, and charmingly goofy backstage portraits of Bleached and Widowspeak and a ton of others. The limited movement in the GIFs works to Crump's advantage: the stereoscopic format doesn't distract from the photos, and gives the images some tasteful depth.
Follow Trevor Crump on Tumblr.
Kirra Jamison's modern paintings might seem a bit random, like cast-offs from a Matisse cut-out broken up, but they're actually created through a more intricate, inspired process. Jamison began with scraps of vinyl on the floor of her studio, arranged them into abstract collages and then screenprinted over them for the series "Total Control." For "Locomotor," she took the smaller prints and recreated them in acrylic. The effect is strangely pleasing to the eye even if it isn't even obvious that her creations are drawing from the material world.
"Tenon Cargo"
"Mortise"
"Hum 2012"
"Arch" from "Total Control"
It takes approximately 200 trucks worth of dirt to build a two-acre field of wheat in lower Manhattan. And if farmed correctly, those two acres can grow about 1,000 pounds of healthy, edible wheat.
Those figures are not an estimate. In 1982, directly adjacent to the World Trade Center, artist Agnes Denes planted and farmed two acres of golden wheat as part of an installation called "Wheatfield - A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan." The confrontation she describes isn't limited to the visual strangeness of seeing a farmer ride a tractor in front of a city skyline. Instead, the project also speaks to the confrontation of farming wheat on land valued at $4.5 billion, and bigger issues of mismanagement leading to world hunger and food waste.
After the harvest, Denes took the grain to 28 cities and distributed the seeds for planting in a number of countries.
Photos from Confrontation are on exhibit at MoMa's Ps1 in Queens as part of their #Expo1 series.
Veering away from the highly embellished pieces that have been shown the past few seasons, SS2013's metal jewelry trend opts for boldness of shape and suggests an understated sophistication. Designers such as Pamela Love, Bliss Lau, and Balenciaga combine the sleekness of metal with interesting geometrical qualities, tribal influences, and cut-outs. Gold, silver, rose-gold are all fair game in this future primitive style and make an excellent companion to any warm weather ensemble.
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