First off-

So the latest book I've read for my friends book recommend project is,

The Jade Peony

                                               Wayson Choy

                                               Douglas and McIntyre 

                                               1995

Andrew Testa Our Family

The Jade Peony is a novel by Wayson Choy. The novel features stories told by three siblings, Jook-Liang, Jung-Sum and Sek-Lung or Sekky. Each child tells their own unique story, revealing their personal flaws and differences.

Set in Vancouver's Chinatown, the novel takes place during the 1930s and 1940s and among other events, explores the ways in which the Chinese and majority of Canadians once viewed the Japanese, especially during Japan's occupation of China during the Second World War and in the events following Pearl Harbor.

Other issues dealt with in this novel include the sense of belonging to a nation, and how young children of immigrants felt at this time, trying to find their identity when they were alien residents in Canada, but were not born in the same country as their parents were. They are working to find their identity as Chinese Canadians, and find either embrace being Canadian, or keep the Old China ways alive. This issue becomes especially important in the wake of their grandmother (called Poh-Poh or the Old One)'s death.

Wikipedia

The Jade Peony was the story of three children, growing up with a choice between a North American identity, or choosing their family and historical identity. It was all about the process of being consumed by your family, which makes these photos by Zhang Huan very applicable.

http://www.zhanghuan.com/

Maleonn- one of my favorite photographers, has some images that visually remind me of the idenities of the kids in the book.

 http://www.maleonn.com/

If you want to read more books along this line, I would recommend The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry, and The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan.

TOKYO SLO-MODE from Alex Lee & Kyle Wightman (BRTHR) on Vimeo.

Just found these guys the other day and I am definitely digging them. Their films, music and style- super lovely.

White Nights from Oh Land Music on Vimeo.

http://www.ohlandmusic.com/

he ol' fairytales. Those creepy, creepy stories told to children to prevent them from doing bad things. Somehow yet still so lovely, especially when re-interpreted by people like fashion photographer Tim Walker.

BIG BAD WOLVES from Rajneel Singh on Vimeo.

Tim Walker

The Candy Shop from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

Good morning. Listen to music and look at pretty things. :)

Keane 'Disconnected' from CANADA on Vimeo.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Trouble from The General Assembly on Vimeo.

ALAN WILKIS - "Shadow (feat. Lyrics Born and White Hinterland)" [Music Video] from Lucky Branded Entertainment on Vimeo.

Amon Tobin // Esther's from Charles De Meyer on Vimeo.

So, I've had a terrible time with my images from the Siren project so far. The company I process film with Lozeau, ended up giving my film away to another client that came in. An individual without my film tags, without my name, and he got to walk away with my performance images. It's been a couple weeks, and they still haven't figured out where they are, and they don't seem too worried about it either. *sigh*

But, here are a couple more images from the two films I did get back, as well as some more images as they slowly trickle in from the photographers, Hunter Plamondon and Kerry Rae. The initial images I posted earlier are here.

120mm film

I'm definitely still more in favor of the Holga shots, especially that very last one. They feel more like memory and a little less produced. But the photographers did get some lovely ones as well. 

By Hunter Plamondon

By Kerry Rae

We'll see where this project ends up. Who knows, it may very well be purely research that leads me onto another project and doesn't resolve itself. 

But for now it's just another long night in the studio, figuring out the directions I'm heading in, a good 'ol Friday night... 

Right now I'm working on a new piece dealing with the choosing of your own non-biological family. I'm starting to catalogue all of my close friends on microscope slides. It so far has been an extremely beautiful and intimate experience. We'll see where this one leads. 

And, what I'm listening to as I work- 

Yup, weird day. May have something to do with the fact that I started working with bodily matter in my studio, who knows. I'll post images of that later.

Federico Bebber

Black Black Hills - "The Celebration" from Blac Ionica on Vimeo.

Now that Halloween week is officially over, I can finally go back to my normal life and make some "real artwork" instead of costumes. But I thought I could show you what fun could be had on my favorite of all seasons! All things made by scratch by me.

Costume 1:
For during the day on Halloween, a clown from the book The Night Circus. A beautifully written book that is all black, white and red themed.

With, of course, the mad hatter.

Costume 2: For Rocky Horror Picture Show, always an important event around this time of year.

Seen here with the famous "Rocktopus." 

Costume 3: One of the monster creatures from Tsutomu Nihei's Abara.

With, of course, a steampunk spaceship captain.

Costume 4: Our course I had to wear out my Siren costume to a party. Maybe I was playing at being the artist, Jodi Sharp.

Nothing like costuming to clear the soul.  

Vermibus - 7th Berlin Biennale from Vermibus on Vimeo.

Vermibus. I guess you could call him a graffiti artist, although his work looks nothing like traditional graffiti. Based out of Berlin, he steals advertisements, changes them with gasoline, thinner and acetone. He then places them back on the street leaving for the public haunting and beautiful images which question advertising culture, gender and public art.

Vermibus Process from Open Walls on Vimeo.

Vermibus

So wonderful.

And, what I'm listening to as I work today-

The Type Writer from Impactist on Vimeo.

Keira Rathbone

APZoo - Awake from Javi Devitt on Vimeo.

Tyler Knott Gregson

Quad Time from The Joy of Box on Vimeo.

PICNIC HD from PAUL VESTER on Vimeo.

Because Halloween is my favorite time of year, I feel justified doing more than a couple posts of costume inspirations. Especially since my partner found a whole ton of vintage Halloween photos for me today! So lovely.

X ON A MAP from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

It's that time of year again when we adults are "allowed" to dress up in public....

LONDON BURLESQUE WEEK 2011 from Bo on Vimeo.

The incredible manga work of Tsutomu Nihei

MASS from Henning M. Lederer on Vimeo.

The illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley

Man Man, Banana Ghost - Redux from Jeremy Mayhew on Vimeo.

USAWALTZ from Asami Ike on Vimeo.

So, some of my images from my Siren Project performance are starting to come in! I don't have everything yet, but I'm starting to work with some of what I have.

I was working with photographers and Kerry Rae and Hunter Plamondon, which was the first time I worked with professional photographers while doing a performance. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. Normally when I perform, I'm by myself, or I have a silent stand in who I entirely direct and who doesn't really move for the whole performance. Real photographers are NOT like that, so it was very different experience. 

Normally when I perform I go somewhere mentally, a place that is not me, and when I return from there the real me has learned something applicable. I had a really hard time reaching that place while I was performing with people interacting. But I still  learned some things and now when I'm looking back over the photographs, I am still able to grasp essences of what the performance was supposed to be about. I especially love the shots we took on my Holga 120mm film camera. They came out a lot less clear and more memory-like then than their digital counterparts.

The project is dealing with the dichotomy between male and female. The Sirens, women confined to their island and cursed (or blessed, depending on the legend) with wings, are the bringers of immortality through death. All men who sail too close to their island are so enraptured by their song of knowledge that they sail too close and dash their boats on the rocks. But the traditions predict that, as with the Sphinx, they would not survive the first man to resist them. Defeated, they would be seised by a self-destructive force powerful enough to have them commit suicide. 

An interesting tale. The women offer the men knowledge with possible devastation, and if a man were to resist, the woman would then be worthless and fit for death. 

Taking this concept I chose to reenact the situation of the myth. Building a nest, I wait for a male presence, and being resisted, I begin to self-deprecate and flagulate. Eventually my scene ends in death, but it is death with a hope.  

According to Plutarch, there is a direct relation between the greek works to die and to be initiated. In most of the Eleusinian mysteries in fact, death was ritually invoked with a miming of the event, inevitably followed by cathartic rebirth. Possessing the secrets of the eternity, the initiated- as Sophocles explains- were freed of al anxiety.

These Holga shots are definitely verging on the feeling I was going for. I still have two more roles that have to come back from the lab, and I can't wait to see what they produce.

The digital images from Kerry Rae's camera have a very different feeling, but some of them I am definitely interested in working with. 

http://www.kerryrae.com/

I'm definitely interested in what else will come out of the images I get back! Exciting first steps. 

And, what I'm listening to as I work today-

So, animal ears that you can CONTROL WITH YOUR BRAIN! Technology, you blow my mind, and ravers, only you would use it for something like this. Love it.

Want to pledge? They're on kickstarter-

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emoki

This weekend- Upcoming show of a photographer friend of mine Jamie Janx Johnston. An exhibit where he is taking the photographs from the Montreal streets and putting them back in the street where they are truly accessible to the public.

"Forget the typical white wall, black frame exhibit, the photography world has seen again and again. Very much like his Paris 2010 exhibit, Jamie places the viewer directly in the setting. MTL 2012 is a collection of images on display in Burner’s Alley on October 13 & 14. This collection of urban landscapes brings out the colors, textures & beauty of the city. His unique approach of multiple exposures, movements and points of view, shows you common sites, streets, alleys and parks, as you’ve never seen them before." (Artist event page, October 10)

Come check him out- vernissage on October 13th at 7:00pm, in the alleyway between Hotel DeVille and Laval, South of Napoleon. 

Jamie Janx Johnston

Lots of dreams of death, aggression, morphing and people self- harming. Sometimes, I just don't know what goes through my brain.

Wolf Tells

High meadow mind, I am

scree-slope, dreaming. I pulse

and the hidden population of rodents

sleeps to this rhythm.

There is no note- no whiff- here, 

of flesh opened. I hunt

this negative, it's why

I came, to pulse through

this new, dead stillness and take 

it down. Rip it.

Town, metallic herd. Storm of sound with

those shapes of heat lazing

upright in the grey.

Their young sleep, naked

bundles of meat-scent under vanishing

moon, curved bellies wanting; unguarded

and wanting-

I hunt this

negative. Love

of my lapping where their warmth ours

out. Leave my green

jaw poised perfect in the grey-

Ken Babstock

(Mean

House of Anansi Press Ltd.

1999)

Sleeping Together

In my dream you have become 

a fisherman. You are going fishing

in my sleep.

"Sharks come to light and blood," 

you whisper, as if you have always been

a fisherman. A shark surfaces beside me;

still I cannot stop dreaming.

In your dream I am a bird,

I am trapped inside your house.

I flap my wings, beat on the windows.

"My house has no roof," you say.

Still I cannot get out.

You touch me, very gently.

You want to make me happy.

You say so, over and over. 

You want me to stop dreaming.

In your dream I am dead. 

You have made sure of that.

Still I am stronger than you

and more confident.

My hand does not tremble as yours does

when you twist, again, the knife. 

In my dream you have become an 

undertaker. You are siphoning my blood

under a cold light.

"Sharks come to light and blood,"

you whisper, as if you have always been 

an undertaker. Still I go on dreaming.

You touch me, very gently.

You want to make me happy.

You want me to stop dreaming.

You say so, over and over. 

A shark is swimming towards us;

still, we sleep.

"Stop dreaming," you whisper; he surfaces 

beside me.

"Stop dreaming," you shiver; he nudges your

blind windows. The shark has become a bird,

like me. Trapped inside your house we are 

flying, flying. 

"My house has no roof," you cry,

but the shark, too, is dreaming. 

Like me, he does not want to stop dreaming.

He does not want to stop dreaming.

Susan Musgrave

(Tarts and Muggers

McCelland and Stewart Limited,

1982)

Daikichi Amano

It has felt SO GOOD to be in the studio for a few days. I've been preparing for a performance on Friday that is dealing with some of the stuff I'm interested in surrounding female sexuality. I've been particularly interested in the greek myths about Sirens.

According to Seduction and the Secret Power of Women by Meri Lao, the Sirens are a hybrid human, half woman, half animal; irrational entities, proactive and disturbing. In the greek myths they live on an island in the middle of the sea. If any ship gets to close the Sirens will sing to the men on the ship, causing the men to be overwhelmed by promises of the greater things of life. The men will head straight  towards the sound, dashing themselves against the rocks. 

"The Sirens do not pursue. Their territory is well defined- an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Anthemoessa, a flowering field near the entrance to the otherworld. The Sirens wait. It is up to men to approach this garden, Eden, paradise. But like the territory inhabited by the Sphinx, it appears strewn with corpses. It is up to men to keep their distance." (Seduction and the Secret Power of Women, Pg 18)

I'm going to write more about this later, but right now I'm happy with the direction my costume is heading for this performance, so I thought I would post some pictures. 

And, what I'm listening to as I work today-

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs 'Garden' from Lily Smith on Vimeo.