We like everything the lovely Portuguese company Serrote produces, from their special notebooks to the crate with a selection of blue and white products they released last year, and with their latest addition to their catalogue they have created yet again another elegant and beautiful product which we love. Last month Nuno Neves and Susana Viela of Serrote presented the truly beautiful Sky Chart. It is an interpretive map of the night sky, where you can find the constellations and major stars visible from the Northern Hemisphere, throughout the year. The star Polaris, in the constellation Ursa Minor, is in the center of the chart. As this star is aligned with the axis of rotation of the earth passing through the poles, it remains motionless in the sky during the night, while the other stars appear to rotate around it. [ Continue reading ]
We really like the latest by the Lisbon-based publisher Pierre von Kleist editions. The book named 'Japan Drug' by António Júlio Duarte features moody, grainy black and white photographs portraying urban Japan in a very anonymous and isolated fashion. The images were taken 17 years ago when the Portuguese photographer visited Japan all by himself. It was a time, with the insecurities evoked by the new millennium ahead becoming apparent, but above all a period in time in which both economical and technological perspectives seemed endless. Looking back a lot has changed over the years that have past, with sentiments all over the globe becoming more and more sombre. A sombreness which already speaks through the imagery of António Júlio Duarte as if the photographer then already felt that times wouldn't stay the same, and therefore the right time to share his images was right now. [ Continue reading ]
We highly recommend the inspirational exhibition 'Dries Van Noten Inspirations' in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris after visiting it last weekend. It is the very first exhibition devoted to the artist’s work and the broad field of inspirational sources for the designer of the Antwerp Six, making it an multidisciplinary feast for the senses. Dries Van Noten takes the spectator on an intimate journey into his artistic universe, revealing the singularity of his creative process which he illustrates with his various and numerous sources of inspiration. One receives an eye opening experience into the space within van Noten's mind or rather soul, bringing together the designer's men’s and women’s collections with iconic pieces from the museum’s fashion and textile collection. The show also includes photographs and videos, film clips, musical references, as well as artworks by renowned artists, from public and private collections, that have triggered the designer’s imagination throughout his life and career, making it one of the more extraordinary fashion exhibitions created till date. [ Continue reading ]
On the 8th of May the Toronto-based gallery Narwhal opened an extensive solo exhition of The Godfather of Japanese Eroticism, Toshio Saeki. His beautiful but at the same time sometimes repulsive artwork draws from the basement of a collective subconscious, depicting universal taboos through surreal narratives and dark humor. Filtering imagery from his photographic memory and childhood experiences through imagination and dreams, Saeki splits open a universally erotic world where iconic characters subject themselves to grotesque behaviors staged within traditional Japanese environments. [ Continue reading ]
On the 10th of May the second solo exhibition of the greatly talented, and one of our favorites at this moment, photographic artist Adam Jeppesen opened at the Brussels-based Galerie van der Mieden. As with his earlier series 'The Flatlands Camp Project', the series named 'X' is also based on his journeys around the world, in which the Danish photographers takes the traditions of travel photography to new grounds. In his new series Jeppesen has worked with photogravure, wanting to explore the possibilities of further evolving this graphic side of his work. The motives in this series of photogravures stay completely anonymous, every context of place and time is stripped by the artist. Deserted landscapes that are neutral and empty, cold mountains and desserts, located somewhere between documentary and dream, which makes it possible for the viewer to create a personal imagination about the place. Jeppesen’s very private journeys become potentially universal. [ Continue reading ]
We really appreciate Process Journal Edition Ten, which was released at the end of last month. Taking on the same revised format of the previous Edition, the tenth Edition is the first issue which solely revolves around one particular city, and what better city there is to start with than New York City. Shortly after the team commenced its research, the fundament of every edition, quickly realization grew that they were in the process of making something pretty special. New York with its incredible range of talent, work and diversity, basically serving as a melting pot of the most talented people worldwide, the choices between contributors for the issue were endless, resulting in a magazine which serves its readers an excellent string of inspirational stories. [ Continue reading ]
We proudly present the second installment of our Another Collection Illustrated. This time we collaborated with the very talented Tavan Maneetapho, who created four beautiful illustrations based on several Boro cloths we have in our collection. Tavan is an animator and illustrator currently finishing up her third year at Kingston University, London. She combines traditional and digital techniques and tends to draw inspiration from her Asian background. The culture and symbolism in Thailand can often be mystical and alluring and definitely filters through to her work. She tries to communicate these ideas using imagery only and hopes that they are thus understood universally. The good things in life for her are reading a good comic in the sun, drawing with ink, drawing girls, longboarding and books by Douglas Coopland. We are extremely happy with her beautiful and slightly creepy interpretations of the Japanese cloths, which in our eyes are the perfect hybrid of pure craftsmanship and utmost aesthetica.
— As published in Journal de Nîmes No 10 — [ Continue reading ]