culturalboundaries

Venus 2010: Panel Three – The “Hottentot Venus” in Art and Film from NYU Photography and Imaging on Vimeo.

This was an excellent Symposium and now you can checkout all those inspirational presenters online: Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot,” An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Sarah Baartman.
The event was a great success and we were honored to host such amazing presenters and attendees.
For information, photos, and video from the March 27th symposium, please visit our website at: http://photo.tisch.nyu.edu/object/photo_venusgallery.html
If you would like to purchase or find more information about the accompanying book,
Black Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot” please visit the Temple University Press website at: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1440_reg.html

Venus 2010: A Poem for Sarah Baartman by Diana Ferrus from NYU Photography and Imaging on Vimeo.

I could not resist posting this amazing Graphic Design biennial featuring some of the most prolific international designers. Check out the poster design it’s an excellent example of the use of symbolism merging two cultures (Chinese and German).

The First Graphic Design Biennial Germany–China will open in Offenbach, Germany om May 12, 2010. More than 300 contemporary posters and 150 books, as well as numerous animations will be shown in the Am alten Schlachthof exhibition hall.
The best communication designers of China are coming to Germany to attend the opening. Amongst them will be Min Wang, designer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games graphic identity, and many world famous poster and book designers. Furthermore they will give lectures and presentations at the HfG Offenbach from May 10 to 12. The presenters include Bi Xuefeng (Shenzhen), Chen Shaohua (Shenzhen), Chen Zhengda (Hangzhou), Yang Liu (Berlin), Lü Jingren (Beijing), Sascha Lobe (Stuttgart), Eike König (Berlin), Song Xiewei (Beijing) and Wang Min (Beijing).
Additional information can be found on the official website www.biennale-decn.com

Below examples of Poster in Chinese and German

The AIGA/XCD is promoting “Design Is Not Justice,” they are asking designers to become more socially aware of what it means when countries sentence people to death. If you believe that “death” is wrong, then make your voice heard with your design.

Posterfortomorrow.org call for entries launches:

Call for Entries!
Death is not Justice.
October the 10th 2010 (10/10/10) is the World Day against the Death Penalty.
Poster for Tomorrow is holding its second annual poster exhibition featuring 100 exhibitions in 100 cities.
This year’s theme calls for the universal abolition of the death sentence, in the spirit of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

We’re working with Amnesty International, the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders, the World coalition against the Death Penalty and Bianca Jagger to raise awareness of our cause.

In 2009, countries with the highest number of executions were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. In China information regarding the death penalty remains secret, but estimates indicate that China probably executes more people than the rest of the world combined.*

There is hope – executions around the world are apparently on the decline. In December 2010, the United Nations is scheduled to deliberate on a universal moratorium on the death penalty.

To respond to our call for entries, please visit the Poster for Tomorrow’s website. Be sure to register and create an account in order to properly submit your work. Call for entries closes on July 18, 2010 at Noon, Pacific Standard Time. There is no entry fee.

Selected winners of the Poster for Tomorrow (as selected by the jury) will be included in 100 locations worldwide on October 10, 2010. Their entries will become part of the permanent collection of selected design museums worldwide, and published in the exhibition catalogue.
For more information about the awards, please contact:
Setareh Farsi, press office manager
T: +331 5341 4161, E: setareh@posterfortomorrow.org
*source Amnesty International

Hibakusha Stories Film Festival

Witness to Hiroshima is a short documentary by my good friend Kathy Sloane a photojournalist from Oakland, California.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, so bring your Mom, friends or anti-nuclear family too!

Hibakusha Stories and Maysles Cinema present:
Docs on Nukes — nuclear narratives through the art of film
Maysles Cinema
343 Lenox Avenue
(Malcolm X Boulevard)
New York, NY, 10027
Between 127th and 128th
2,3,4,5,6, A,B,C,D subways to 125th street
212-582-6050

Witness to Hiroshima
Directed by Kathy Sloane, 2010
Running Time: 15:56 minutes

Japanese citizen Keiji Tsuchiya, using his 12 powerful watercolors, recounts his experiences in Hiroshima as a 17-year-old soldier immediately following the dropping of the atomic bomb, and relates those experiences to his subsequent life-long commitment to saving the Japanese horseshoe crab and its habitat. http://www.witnesstohiroshima.com
Witness to Hiroshina Trailer

Post screening panel discussion with filmmakers, Kathy Sloane and M.T. Silvia and Kathleen Sullivan, PhD, Program Director of Hibakusha Stories.And Special Sneak Preview
Atomic Mom
Directed by M.T. Silvia, 2010
Running Time: 87 minutes

Atomic Mom is a documentary about two women, both mothers, who have opposite experiences of the atomic bomb. After decades of silence, a daughter’s quest for truth leads to the exchange of an olive branch between an American Scientist and a Hiroshima Survivor.
http://www.atomicmom.org

As reported in Vogue Magazine

“I’ve always done too much,” Sarah Lewis says in a tone that falls somewhere between self-mockery and pride. Thirty years old and whiplash fit, with honors degrees from Harvard and Oxford under her belt and on the verge of a Ph.D. from Yale, she has two books nearing completion, and is co-curating the SITE Santa Fe biennial, the closely watched art show, which opens next month. Rocco Landesman, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wants to create a special initiative for her at the NEA in Washington, D.C. She has become a young woman to watch. As her friend Agnes Gund, MoMA’s president emerita, said the other day, “You don’t know what she’ll end up doing—there are so many possibilities.”

Read the rest of the article about Lewis in the May 2010 issue of Vogue at the link above.
Read more about the Biennial here.

The GAP tees are now in stores. After a few delivery issues snafus from their factory, they finally arrived.  I want to thank all of you for your patience and support.
Gap (RED) is featuring a few artworks by Len Davis for their Limited Artist Edition Spring/Summer line. One of the three t-shirt designs are in Gap stores today.  The other two designs will be in stores on May 10th.
Look for the in-store signage for Gap (RED) Limited Artist Edition tees.
All proceeds go to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa. http://www.joinred.com/Learn/HowRedWorks.aspx

I have a knack for meeting incredible people and quickly adopting them as lifelong friends. Archie Boston, a Los Angeles-based designer, author and educator is one of those people. Recently, I was talking to one of my fellow design critters, Alan Rapp, when I noticed a book on his desk, Fly in the Buttermilk by Archie Boston. Alan told me he had just finished writing Archie’s profile for the upcoming “Design Journey” Exhibit that opens on May, 19th at the AIGA headquarters in NYC. Then he told me that another fellow design critter, Mike Neal, was one of Archie’s students at California State University Long Beach. I approached Mike at the end of the Crossing the Line: The 2010 D-Crit Conference this past Friday told him we share a close friend Archie Boston. His face lit up like a Christmas tree, as he ranted about his thrill at having had Archie as a design teacher, and that he viewed him as a mentor and father figure.

Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Videos or Art (Law & Order: Cr Videos

A few weeks ago Archie sent me an email with a post announcing his retirement from teaching after 30 years, and included a video of his last lecture. (See this remarkable man at work). I’ve know him for almost twenty years, we met when former graphic designer Fo Wilson and I co-curated an exhibition “21: African American Designers Challenge Modern Stereotypes,” held at Parsons School of Design in NYC, in 1991. The show featured his work and since that time we have remained design friends. Here’s a few samples of Archie’s work from his self-published book. And check out Archie’s award-winning designs, plus his videos clips from his DVD, “20 Los Angeles Designer”.

Contact: Archie Boston to order his book and his DVD’s.

Email: bostona@earthlink.net

Proceeds from Archie’s booksigning will be donated to the VCDA Student Group at CSULB.
Proceeds from this FU lecture DVD will be donated to the Archie Boston Graphic Design Scholarship Fund at California State University, Long Beach.

As reported by The National Design Museum

“Ted Muehling Selects” is the 10th in a series of small one-gallery exhibitions in the Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery. The museum invites guest curators from all around the world to create exhibitions and installations interpreted in their own voice from works in the museum’s permanent collection.

Check out Ted Muehling’s splendid retail shop located in Soho.

If you ever thought paper dolls were just for little girls, think again! Instead of Ilisha Helfman recycling the pile of Sunday Times Magazines that litter her house, this Graphic Designer and toy maker has created an exuberantly colorful line of paper dolls that function like puppets with moving parts. These dolls are made from the award-winning NY TIMES covers designed by Design Director Arem Duplessis. I’m sure Arem would be pleased to know his cover designs have found another use. Crafitinista Ilisah Helfman’s paper doll kits are sold at Leafpdx, a store she owns with her husband, Joe Freedman. Check out these wonderfully crafted interactive paper dolls. Before you throw out your Sunday Times, maybe you too will find another use for it besides fodder for the landfills.

Apparently French Vogue has  featured Dutch supermodel Lara Stone in Blackface in the fashion spreads . While Marc Jacob’s Spring collection for Louis Vuitton has shown his models sporting huge Afros styled wigs like political activist Angela Davis, and blaxploitation film actor Pam Grier on this springs Paris Fashion runways. What’s up with all this appropriation of black culture? And blackface haven’t we passed this or does the presence of white models in blackface makeup underscore the lack of black models on the runway? Or is this some fantasy being played out by fashions designers just to call attention to this seasons fashions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zandile-blay/black-face-in-italian-vog_b_320328.html