Columns, Scratching Canvases On my bedroom wall hangs a Grand, Price and Co. water-color advertisement for Haig Whisky geared at the British colonised populace of Hong Kong during the 1930’s. In a large, brown Edwardian leather chair sits a quirky yet sophisticated Chinese…
Columns, Scratching Canvases To the typical North American mind, the word Asia strikes up images of deep peace through Buddhist mediations, Japanese simplicity and an over-populated world that lives in constrained, yet harmonious circumstances. The Confucius ideals fostered throughout the last 800 years,…
Columns, Scratching Canvases At summer’s end, after being overworked from that summer camp where you had to deal with all those snot-faced hyperactive kids, nothing was more rewarding than going to the camp director and getting your paycheck. Then you could purchase whatever…
Columns, Scratching Canvases Once upon a time, during a typical shopping Sunday in a typical shopping mall, typical couples and their children roamed the premises like bobble-head dolls. The afternoon glare of the sun mixed in with the drowning fluorescent lights of the…
Columns, Scratching Canvases After a long day at the office, one puts on a rubber mask of a random American president, goes to the local pub to scream obscenities in an alcoholic frenzy to a topless woman with glowing devil horns, and gorges…
Columns, Scratching Canvases An orange squeezer that looks like a spider getting ready to race away; a footstool that looks like a giant crown from a child’s cartoon; a traditional sofa collection suited for the outdoors. These are just a few of the achievements of Philippe Starck, the brilliant Parisian creator and contemporary artist. His mission: to demonstrate that what you see isn’t necessarily what you get — nor is it what you think it should be.
Re-evaluating and destroying the conventional wisdom and
Columns, Scratching Canvases During the Second World War, established artists from all around Europe such as Picasso congregated in Paris and created the Absurdist movement in reaction to the War and German occupation. This movement went on to influence the beatnik generation in North America, which motivated Warhol to create his famous Factory atelier in New York City. These movements, outspoken in nature, were very powerful awakening tools for many groups and individuals to fight against corrupted institutions, questionable war plans and human injustice. However, in this day in age of oil and nuclear wars and terror threats, these great ideas and art forms from the second half of the 20th century have died out with the plastic and comfortably commercial Macintosh generation. Where are our influential artistic groups to foster insightfulness and innovation in our minds?
Of course, there will always be individuals who,
