Top 10 April 16

Inspiration served on digital platter.

Enjoy.

/ Mr. J

1. Adam Normandin

Adam Normandin:

“In my work, I seek to emphasize the beauty and relevance of unobserved details.Everyday things may not be recognized by most as beautiful, yet the ordinary canbe compelling, truthful and soulful.

At the core, my work focuses on the commitment and persistence required tounderstand and ultimately master this art form. I rarely choose my subjects, instead they draw me to them. Recently freight trains and industrial machineryfascinate me. Years of use and exposure to the elements imprint a sense of tirelessduty onto these objects. They are purely functional and have a “no- nonsense”existence that resonates with my own way of working. 

Freight trains are particularly intriguing to me because they are travelers, relentlesslymoving from one place to the next, year after year. Many have been in operation forseveral decades, without rest. All the layers of rust, numeric codes and graffiti givethe surface of each train a unique character. Accumulated details reveal truthful andcompelling stories, transforming an ordinary object’s nature into something full ofhistory and inherent beauty. If something mundane and functional can communicatesuch richness and complexity then perhaps we can find meaning within the mostordinary aspects of our own lives as well.”

2. Chen Wei

The photography/installation works of 31-year old artist Chen Wei illustrate an intricate imagination fascinated with the eccentric and fanciful pursuits of early science, mathematics, alchemy, philosophers and madmen. Taxidermy, broken mirrors, melted wax, bats, bees, deserted bedrooms, and found objects become the artist’s tableau. With a meticulous attention to details, Chen Wei creates mesmerizing scenes that leave the viewer puzzled by their intricate narrative, fantastic visual impact and odd beauty. In some of the works, the sole human subject resembles an absorbed mad scientist or passionate poet, adding feelings of isolation or estrangement to an already bizarre scene.

Chen Wei’s creative and contemplative process consists of searching for and compiling myriad fragments of personal memories, and incorporating inspiration and objects from childhood or fantasies imagined juxtaposed with realities found in modern China. Most of the works are sketched and created on location in the artist’s studio and then photographed, with the end result being less about the camera process as it is about the assembly of the elaborate elements that are captured in his works. The spirit and style of Chen Wei’s photography works also point towards a new generation of emerging Chinese artists born in the 1980’s who are less focused on political history or obvious social criticisms than personal and intellectual freedoms and the individual’s place in a now modern and developed China. History for them has been obscured by economic and social reforms, and the speed and scale of development is the contemporary China they have witnessed.

3. Girls going wild in red light district

So you think you will dance? Sometimes things are not what they seem. Men, women and children are trafficked - tricked, forced and exploited in the sex industry. Awareness campaign created by Duval Guillaume Modem and produced by monodot in support of STOP THE TRAFFIK. Visithttp://www.stopthetraffik.org/ to get involved. Music: a-shja by Raveyards vs. DJ Uinkxxx

4. Henrik Aarrestad Uldalen

Henrik Aarrestad Uldalen (1986) is a self-taught artist whose creative production revolves around classic figurative painting, presented in a contemporary manner. The atmosphere in his subject matter is often depict in a limbo or dream-like state. Despite his realistic approach, photographic accuracy is not what he seeks to achieve.

5. Lauren Gibbes

Lauren Gibbes

BORN 1979, South Carolina, USA

EDUCATION
B.F.A . Painting, University of North Carolina at Asheville

AWARDS
Academic Scholarships 2001-2002
Tucker Cooke Scholarship for Excellence in Painting 2001
True Blue Art Award 2000

6. Caine's Arcade

A 9 year old boy who built an elaborate cardboard arcade in his dad's used auto parts store is about to have the best day of his life. Help Caine's Scholarship Fund: http://CainesArcade.com

Caine's Arcade online:
http://twitter.com/cainesarcade
http://facebook.com/cainesarcade

Credits:
Directed by Nirvan Mullick:
http://twitter.com/nirvan
http://www.nirvan.com

Produced by Interconnected
http://interconnected.is
http://facebook.com/interconnected.is
http://twitter.com/interconnectd

Music:
"Caines Arcade" by Juli Crockett:
http://twitter.com/julicrockett

7. Bonsoir Paris - Duramen

 

DURAMEN is a series of handmade wooden sculptures. Born of a simple impulse, the one to break with conventional ways of exhibiting, Bonsoir Paris and its team have imagined a series of frames so strongly mistreated that they have become unrecognizable. Their wish is to break the properties of the compound, a form of compromise as minimal and it is efficient. They found a subtle twist while remaining faithful to a primitive form of revolt, without getting lost in vain styles effects. The choice of noble materials (Oak, Fir, Wenge, Pear, Linden) and the quest for finesse, enables them – with the DURAMEN series – to position themselves on the razor’s edge between two opposites, that of the deformed and that of the elegant, instinctive and thoughtful.

ART DIRECTION / DESIGN Bonsoir Paris
SCULPTURE Adrien Corroler
CABINET Kwantiq
DESIGN / ACHIEVEMENT Jules Cairon
PHOTOGRAPHER Davina Muller
POST-PRODUCTION Cédric Hugonnet @ Studio Collet

8. Bruno 9Li

Mythological, spiritual, pantheistic: the first adjectives to define the metaphysical world of Bruno 9li, one of the most interesting artist within Brazilian artistic panorama. 9li (pseudonym/abbreviation of Bruno Novelli, 1980) synthetizes his artistic production into several dichotomies and contradictions of the Brazilian world: metropolitan, ephemeral and technological.

In his works, animals seem to spring out of the diaries and bestiaries of the first European explorations of the "New World", epic heroes strongly impose themselves to spectator's attention, through an immersion in a supernatural and ancestral world. A return to the origins, a lost Golden Era permeated by symbology, where you can clearly notice references to pop culture, comix and science fiction films.

With his frantic and saturated line, Bruno 9li draws a chaotically arranged world, ruled by a mysterious alchemy that controls, between past and future, death and resurrection, fantastic metamorphosis and genetic mutations of beasts and paladins into demigods and androids.

Despite of being young, Bruno 9li has been recognized worldwide for his solo exhibitions in Europe, North America and the Far East.

/ Lorenzo Gatti

9. A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square

To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text "Push to add drama" invited people to use the button. And then we waited... Discover here what happened or visit http://www.tnt-tv.be for more info.

10. Liz Clements

Tattoo illustrations by Liz Clements. Liz is Freelance artist/illustrator based in London, UK.