Portraits of Friends: Round II

Emma. New York, October 2011

Cassius. New York, October 2011

Shane. Malibu, July 2011

Liz. Venice Beach, July 2011

Sarah & Charlie. Los Angeles, August 2011

Allison. Los Angeles, August 2011.

Sebastian. Malibu, July 2011

Claudia. Williamsburg, September 2011

Nathan. Los Angeles, August 2011

Victor. Paris, May 2011

Laura. Los Angeles, July 2011

Rachel. New York, March 2011

Claire & Carl. New York, March 2011

All photographs by Annabel Graham

Matthew Barney: DJED

Matthew Barney, the ever-controversial art-world darling perhaps best known for his Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002), a collection of highly provocative performance-art films made over a period of eight years, presents his new solo exhibition,“DJED," at New York's Gladstone Gallery. In the exhibition, Barney reworks ancient tropes with a modern hand. The eponymous sculpture on the first floor of the gallery is a sprawling floor installation, much like a hardened black lake, crafted from poured molten cast iron and graphite and containing the actual remains of a 1967 Chrysler Imperial that Barney salvaged from a lake in his Detroit performance piece "KHU.” Secret Name, which resides upstairs in the gallery, includes a slab of rusted copper, a thick winding rope, and a seemingly calcified fragment of what appears to be a door that has been underwater for years, recalling in an eerie and nostalgic manner the remains of a shipwreck. Canopic Chest, a large-scale installation piece of weathered cast bronze that also contains actual automobile parts, mingles the visual elements of a car wreck and an industrial worksite. These relics of accidents, as they appear, are presented individually within a stark, sweeping white room—the silent, still and vaguely apocalyptic counterparts to Barney’s intensely visceral KHU. DJED is named after an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with the god Osiris, whose body was cut into pieces before it was retrieved and reassembled. If KHU parallels the cutting-up of Osiris’ body, DJED is the retrieving and reassembling of those parts—a ghostly panoply of mayhem and destruction. The pieces are primitive yet utterly modern, making the ancient Egyptian themes of the afterlife and mummification relevant within the landscape of an industrial wasteland. Below, a few pictures from the exhibition:

Canopic Chest

Secret Name

DJED is on view until October 22nd at Gladstone Gallery, 520 W. 21st St, New York.

The Poetry of Mistakes: Miroslav Tichý

"If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world."

--Miroslav Tichý

From the early 1960s through 1985, the eccentric, reclusive Miroslav Tichý took hundreds of surreptitious photographs of the women of Kyjov, his hometown in the Czech Republic. His unconventional method involved the use of homemade cameras with crude telephoto lenses constructed from cardboard tubes, tin cans, toothpaste, sandpaper and other found materials. Though his soft-focus, black-and-white images were generally taken through fences or peepholes and are blurred, scratched, under- or over-exposed, stained, spotted and skewed, they exude a profoundly voyeuristic yet tender eroticism.

His images of women bathing, waiting for the bus, arranging their hair and performing other trivial activities, unaware of the photographer, are intensely personal, somehow imbued with an acute sense of rarity and exceptionality. Art critic Allan Doyle writes that Tichý's photographs “evidence a paradoxical coupling of intention and accident.”

Tichý, who was trained as a classical painter but left the academy after the Communist takeover forced artists to focus on socialist subjects, was known as somewhat of a pariah who wandered around Kyjov in ragged, disheveled suits with unkempt long hair and a beard. He disregarded societal standards and painted, drew and photographed purely for his own personal satisfaction. Tichý remained relatively unknown to the art world until 2004, when his first exhibition was held. He printed each negative only once, and his works were untitled, unnumbered and undated. He died in April 2011 in Kyjov, Czech Republic.

"A mistake. That's what makes the poetry."

Tichý with one of his homemade cameras

Miroslav Tichý: Sun Screen, a solo photography exhibition, was on view until September 10, 2011 at Horton Gallery; 504 West 22nd St., New York.

http://www.tichyocean.com/

Summer's Almost Gone: Can I Borrow Your Mixtape? #7

Photo by Sebastian Spader. Los Angeles, August 2011.

Once again, Los Angeles has surprised me, mischievous & lovable drag queen that she is. I'm going to miss the city I always thought I'd never miss. Here's to an incredible end of summer/beginning of fall... and to the next chapter, wherever it may lead... here's some of what I'll be listening to on my plane ride back to New York:

Can I Borrow Your Mixtape? #7

Stay tuned for my photos & article/interview with Active Child on Pas Un Autre!

Tumblin' Around like a Tumbleweed....?

Photo by Sebastian Spader. Marion, MA. July 2011.

Hey guys... I've made a Tumblr, which explains my lack of posting as of late. Just a place to post my photos and other photos/videos/songs/writings that inspire me. Check it out (and follow me if you have a Tumblr!):

COUP DE FEU

Portraits of Friends

Pierre & Christian. Paris, May 2011.

Vanessa. Asnières-sur-Seine, May 2011.

Catherine. Paris, May 2011.

Olivia. New York, April 2011.

Matt. New York, January 2011.

Carl. New York, February 2011.

Claudia. New York, April 2011.

Paul. Asnières-sur-Seine, May 2011.

Charles. New York, February 2011.

Melissa. Santa Barbara, December 2010.

Kathleen & Jane. New York, May 2011.

Alexandra. Los Angeles, March 2011.

Nassim. New York, January 2011.

Connie. New York, March 2011.

Kit. Los Angeles, March 2011.

Cecelia. New York, March 2011.

Nicholl. New York, May 2011.

Meagan. Los Angeles, December 2010.

Nina. Asnières-sur-Seine, May 2011.

Thor. New York, May 2011.

Ariel. Paris, May 2011.

Sebastian (1 & 2). Los Angeles, December 2010/ January 2011.

Maya. Mojave, January 2011.

All original photos, shot in & around the three cities I've been spending most of my time in.