evacuatewithstyle » art crit

Stars in my eyes

Amy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:22:05 +0000

In a few days, it’ll be October 1, 2009 and that day will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The preparation going on right now leading to the celebrations that will take place on that day are INSANE and I for one can’t wait to see what festivities are going to take place.

The reason that the 60th birthday is so important is that in Chinese custom, a 60th is probably the most important birthday after actually being born. 60 years constitutes a cycle in traditional custom, so a lot of the elders say that once a person reaches 60 years in his/her life, he’s back to being a child. So technically, an adult that’s 60 should be able to enjoy life again and do none of the actual “adult” stuff anymore like working, earning money, etcetera.

But anyway, the stars in my eyes are not because I’m just so excited for China’s 60th (although I am just because it’s a really big deal), but for this editorial from Vogue China that was inspired by the 60th anniversary. From the October 2009 issue of Vogue China, “60 Memorable Fashion Moments,” chronicling the sixty years of fashion in the PRC:

I actually have a huge gripe with whoever put this editorial together layout-wise because it’s so distracting and takes so much away from the images of the editorial itself. I love the idea and the concept (minus the fact that it’s inaccurately titled; there aren’t actually 60 moments in this, there are only 60 years of fashion) but the little graphics around the editorial itself are distracting. The 1969-1979 spread is particularly messy because it’s two images on two pages and it would’ve been perfect seeing it as a full spread, but instead there’s that junk on the bottom.

I think the perfect way to have executed this was to have the entire spread run its course on a full 12 pages, and then explained the fashion in the pages after. Maybe even after that can be an article written by some fashion editor/celebrity/historian of relevance with his/her thoughts.

And because I am a person who does things she shouldn’t be doing during the time that she doesn’t have, I redid the pages:

Larger images behind the cut. (...)
Read the rest of Stars in my eyes (8 words)

© Amy for evacuatewithstyle, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art crit, Du Juan, fashion spreads, Vogue China

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people

Amy — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:48:59 +0000

I can’t find a bigger version of this picture but this is the best I’ve found; it’s a photo taken by Robert Capa during 1944 where a French woman (center) was punished by having to shave her head because of a disgraceful affair with a German man that resulted in the child she was holding. The picture is freaking amazing in the kind of astounding hostility it shows. Basically, humans suck. The swarms of women who are crowding around her turning their heads to look at the woman in the center. You can’t see very clearly, but the group of people behind the front line stretches very far to the back and almost all of them have their heads turned to the woman up front with her baby. Most of the people in the crowd are wearing gleeful smiles like they’re amused at the fate of the woman who had a baby with the German soldier.

Looking at the picture stresses the eff out of me because people can be so incredibly close-minded about things they don’t know or don’t bother to understand. And also, kudos to Robert Capa for snapping this amazing photo.

Here’s a closer-up version of the center:

I came across the photo via today’s edition of the NY Times, in an article called “Tracing Roots Fostered by War, Severed by Shame.” (Great title, ain’t it?)

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Q&A book covers

Amy — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:34:51 +0000

Am writing a paper on Slumdog Millionaire and in my quest for info, found that there were multiple book covers for the book Q&A, the story written by Vikas Swarup from which the movie is based. Look at these beautiful covers:

And then of course, the version in wide-release in the US has this cover:

The cover is straight from the SINFULLY ugly movie poster. Who the hell is the graphic designer who thought that that was an okay movie poster? A first day user of Photoshop could blend two obvious pictures better than that graphic artist did. And the font? ARE YOU JOKING ME? You couldn’t buy a better font to use?!

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MYK & “Mad World,” participatory culture

Amy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:58:58 +0000

I wish I could embed, but I can’t so go here:

MYK playing and singing “Mad World”

MYK remixing “Mad World”

I’ve been studying participatory culture non-stop lately, so I appreciate what MYK’s doing and am really keen on the whole creative process that goes behind the reinterpretation of something. Participatory culture basically is the culture of the, loosely put, remix. Not just the standard idea you have in mind of a song remix, but it ranges from reinterpreting popular media to creating something new altogether from something you’re given.

Some excellent examples of participatory culture:

“The Shining,” recut

“Scary Mary”

DJ Dangermouse’s “Grey Album” project (mashups of songs from The Beatles’ “White Album” and Jay Z’s “Black Album”)

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“Don’t Forget”

Amy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:45:24 +0000

It hurts me how good this is. Love the scenes used, loved the coloring, love the transitions, GOOD SONG, and everything that the actual show was not. Oh man, am still trying to wrap my head around why such a seriously flawed drama like Boys Over Flowers had so much of the drama watching world captivated. Maybe if the scene in the drama was presented in the way it was the fanvid I would’ve liked it more?

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© Amy for evacuatewithstyle, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art crit, Boys Before Flowers/꽃보다 남자, Korean dramas

Prada SS09

Amy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:08:56 +0000

Shot by Steven Meisel. Not digging these because they feel way too much like Meisel’s work with Dolce & Gabbana. It’s less obvious in his single-model portraits (ie: Sasha Pivovarova’s first campaign with Prada), but Steve M loves group shots of models staring intently at something while laying around collectively. Prada SS09′s campaign feels so blah compared to some of the last few seasons’.

Here’s one of my fave campaigns, also shot by Meisel. Dolce & Gabbana, Fall/Winter 07.

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F4 brawl

Amy — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:38:42 +0000

Upon rewatching this scene for the thousandth time, I realized what was bothering me about it the first 999 times — color scheme.

First, the lighting doesn’t help. The four are in an indoor basketball court with white lights, and they all look pretty ghostly to begin, but the lighting highlights this even more severely. Second, the thing that bothers me most, is that Yi Jung’s damn paisley bandanna matches the walls of the court, and Woobin’s hoodie matches with the dark blue stand of the basketball stand.

Dark blue, dark green, and dark red are all really strong colors by themselves and it’s hard to make them look good together. Granted, I’m fussing about colors on a basketball court, but that in conjunction with Yi Jung’s green bandanna and Woobin’s dark blue hoodie, it’s just too much. It bothers my eyes! And ultimately, Boys Over Flowers has already proved itself to be pretty undependable in terms of artistic merit…

In terms of the acting in this scene, I’m once again asking myself why Lee Minho shines so much more than all the other actors. I think part of it has to do with the obviously more complex character of Jun Pyo, but aside from that, in comparison to Kim Bum’s Yi Jung, Lee Minho’s reactions are a lot less forced. Kim Bum was very loud with his anger and to it didn’t convince me of the logic of Yi Jung getting riled up over this turn of events. Yes, YJ could’ve felt that Jun Pyo was really being a bastard in cutting ties with Jandi, but this isn’t congruent with the way that he’s been acting in the series thus far. He’s been rather vocal about siding with Jun Pyo during Jun Pyo’s quarrel with Ji Hoo, and he’s made several statements about how someone like Geum Jandi could shake up the F4 dynamic. He could’ve changed because of Ga-eul’s implication that he’s scared to fall in love and is thus angry with Jun Pyo for not taking advantage of what he has, but really, I don’t believe this. I guess overall, something about Yi Jung rubs me the wrong way and I’m not inclined to give him benefit of the doubt.

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© Amy for evacuatewithstyle, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art crit, Boys Before Flowers/꽃보다 남자, Korean dramas

Good use of the heart

Amy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:19:42 +0000

Click for larger.

Kanye West’s cover for his single “Love Lockdown” on the left and the cover for his album “808s and Heartbreak.” Both are amazingly simple and effective. My two things to look for in any piece is 1) color scheme and 2) simplicity. Both deliver. The cover on the right of course is more complicated, but it also has adds a nice sense of humor and a comic book feel to it, which belies the emo angst that is this album. (The album starts off well and then progressively gets worse but I still enjoy this album more than his others. I like mellow music?)

Another cover that uses the heart imagery so well:

Click for larger.

Utada Hikaru’s single “HEART STATION/Stay Gold,” which I think was one of the best Jpop singles from this year, and was subsequently included in one of my favorite albums of the year. :)

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Promo for “Iljimae”

Amy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:16:39 +0000

I don’t care about Iljimae or anything related to it, but I just saw the promo poster from over at Dramabeans, and I was so annoyed by the shot that I had to post. (Ah, the habits of an avid blogger.) As someone who is really OCD about typography on a piece, the font and font sized used for the “一枝梅” text bothers the crap out of me, so much so that I want to redo it myself. I don’t think it would take too much to fix it. If I were the graphic artist in charged, I’d change the font to one that looks more hand-written, reduce the size of the text dramatically, and place it closer towards Jung Il Woo on the poster.

Also, I wouldn’t leave the actor so far off the right of the frame, I’d bring him more towards the center as well. The way that the text is placed on the poster really makes you focus on a whole bigass block of text that you may or may not know the meaning of (it says “yi zhi mei,” which is the hanja for “Iljimae”). Yes, it’s important to know that this is going to be called “Iljimae” about the character, but for a large audience that may not be East Asian or know how to read Chinese characters, it’s a basic thing to know that the guy on the right playing the character is most important. Therefore, the text shouldn’t be stressed as much as it should be now.

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