Posts Tagged ‘bags’
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Issue #2 of Private Circulation has been released, a “bulletin for proposals” including failed or unrealized artworks.
this second issue includes some scans of my plastic bag archive, the hard drive which contains this project failed last spring before it could be published. the PDF includes a text, ghost-written by “The Editors” (I don’t know them, although I have my suspicions) from some notes of mine I forwarded them.
Issue #2 also includes the first installment of their “Animated GIF Issue Addendum” – I like that wee Lenin guarding over my digital-plastic data!
download: Private Circulation 04-12
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
sometime next week, or later this week, or sometime eventually, I’ll have some sort of interview, Q&A, and images regarding my ‘BAGS’ book that I was hoping would have been published sometime mid-last year.
For those who don’t know, the book had gotten up to around 430 pages, and then the hard drive which stored all of the digital files (high-res 300dpi TIFF files, and converted PDF files, around 50Gigs of data) failed suddenly, just before I left for Budapest last summer. Since then, I haven’t had the funds to recover the data – OnTrack Data Recovery, one of the world’s leading specialists, has quoted me $800, or more than one month’s rent!
But word of the book and my obsessive collections has gotten around, as well as word of the failed hard drive and thus the failed work (for now), and so The Editors of Private Circulation, an e-zine that seems to have just started up, sent me some questions ranging from my archive aspirations to my emotions regarding digital death. Their intentions are stated on their blog:
THE IDEA is to collect and distribute proposals for texts and artworks that, for various reasons, cannot be realized—or were never meant to be.
They requested some new scans of the bags which will hopefully be published in the next issue, alongside some of my answers to their questions. They maintain a blog but don’t publish online, so the only way to receive the bulletin is via email (subscribe here). I’m not sure what to make of it all really, but I like zines, e-zines, PDFs and circulations, oh and it will feature some of my work! I guess that’s worthy of a blog post!
Other bags yet to be realized:
and if you’re interested to help me recover the data from this failed hard drive, so that some day soon I might be able to self-publish this book, I’d be more than happy to accept some donations at this point! I’d go so far as to offer a deduction from the cost of the book equal to the value of your donation! Cmon people I’m desperate for this data already!
donate $5!
donate $20! schweeet!
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
ever read the Magnum Photos blog? neither had I, until today (of course it’s only been around since December 06, but still… why didn’t anyone tell me sooner!)
(photo by Martin Parr, c 2007)
a photo at the top of every post (see above!) sucks you in, and while the posts might number as few as two/month, Magnum have employed nearly 20 of some of their best photographers and photojournalists (and others) to double as bloggers; I found their blog through another post about Martin Parr, an artist and Magnum photographer whose work has managed to both excite me and nearly induce vomiting over the years. his employment of saturation is key to this effect.
although these images (above and below) aren’t typical of his luscious content, there is a slight sinisterism to them that nonetheless arouses one’s suspicion: the many bags abound; the Arab in the traditional white garb talking to the scantily clad high-heeled lady; the logos everywhere; the sunglasses tucked away in the cleavage; the astroturf (?!); and what appears to be a white picket fence in the background?
(photo by Martin Parr, c 2007)
in the first image silver and reflection play a key role to decoding the image, but in both images bags are present, and one immediately becomes aware of the signified: wealth. In the one the lady even has two bags, including one with the official logo of the “DIFC gulf art fair” event on it (she bought something! proper! or was offered something all courtesy-like. and in case you were wondering, that’s Dubai International Financial Centre… yeah, exactly). See the… administrators… of Dubai, are well-aware that in order to compete for title of Cultural Capital it has to establish several markets. It’s already doing pretty good with real estate, what with that whole The World project and all. With architecture they’ve already established some credibility, home to the world’s only ‘seven-star hotel’, the Burj al-Arab and also home to the future tallest everything building. And now with the Louvre and the Guggenheim moving into the neighborhoods, they’re really starting to eat it up. Art, that is.
But don’t get too distracted – let’s bring it back shall we!
The Magnum Photos blog is terrific, and occasionally you’ll even find comment-replies, meaning the photographer-author-bloggers actually check their blogs, which is encouraging. And as is always the juicy content is a little hidden, but some digging in the form of mouse-clicking can land you upon some pretty substantive visual content, my favorite being the work of Simon Wheatley in Blois, France and also E14 London.
Related websites:
Bling bling blog post by Martin Parr which inspired this post
Interview with Simon Wheatley on Magnum Photos blog
Friday, April 27th, 2007
This is perfectly timed! I love it when this cultural overlap happens!
I have no clue who Anya Hindmarch is. I reckon she’s some fancy designer. Some of her bags go for £995, or $1986 at current conversion rates. Either way, her website says:
Sainsbury’s launched I’m Not A Plastic Bag in 450 stores on the 25th April. Due to overwhelming demand all stock has now sold out.
It goes on to say:
The first day, Friday 27 April, will see Sainsbury’s become the first major UK supermarket to stop giving out free disposable carrier bags in its stores.
That’s TODAY people!
Yesterday I just sent off my proof for a book I’m self-publishing, a collection of plastic carrier bags. I’ve been hinting at this work (here, here and here) for many months and finally now it is going to happen!
Sainsbury’s of course, going way back, were one of the first inspirations behind me starting to collect plastic carrier bags (see below, first image, last column, fourth row!), exactly because they had these ‘bags for life’ programs. It got me thinking. I started hording and saving bags without knowing what I would do with them.
Now my bags will be published in a full-color full-bleed book. More details on how to purchase that will come soon, but this book will be a monster, at around 340 pages in the first of hopefully many volumes to come.
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
I could use some of these in my upcoming collection of bags project (no real idea of what this project is yet, just some teasers).
very good use of a usually-ephemeral object like a bag to express our consumptive nature – you grip up there, I’ll grip down here. mine mine minee!!JK!L!!!!!1!
[via Coloribus Blog]
(crikey! quick glance shows I’ve been thinking about bags for some time now! read here and here)
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
it’s in progress.
more coming very very soon. project launch date: early spring.
