Name: Julien Ulvoas
Age: 30
Occupation: Artist
Inspiration: Eudardo Recife, Thomas Schostok, Paul B. Drohan, Xtrapop and CD sleeves from the 90s

On first seeing Julien’s work, I was intrigued by the way seemingly distant subjects with their obscured faces appear to radiate off the page. The face is often thought of as the most emotionally-telling part of the body, but the face’s absence from Julien’s works reveals the importance of the body itself, posture, in the conveyance of feeling.

Helped along by its collage medium, the back-facing, red-coated girl is not merely standing with her back to the viewer. Standing upon what looks like a cheesy chicken burger wrapped in newspaper; standing next to the handwritten words, “It Always Happens”, there is much more to the red-coated girl than first assumed, and all without facial expression. Julien’s work is fascinating, and the man behind the collages proves to be just as interesting.

How did you get into art?

Since my parents bought me pens and paper when I was a kid, I guess. One day, my nurse said to me something like "You will be the best drawer ever". But she was crazy, one night she locked me in a cupboard. True Story.

Describe your style in three words.

Dusty, melancholic but 'funny'

A lot of your work seems to feature obscured faces. Why is that?

A lot of people of people think 'Twin Peaks' is the scariest drama ever but the show is full of humour. I was actually watching 'Wilfred' with the guy (Elijah Wood) who plays Frodo in 'The Lord Of The Ring'. I know that TV show (Wilfred) is a comedy, and of course it's funny. But seriously, this guy talks to a fake-dog just to have a date with his neighbour. [It] isn't sad or obscure, but it still funny.

Describe some of the concepts and ideas behind 'These burgers are crazy'?

'These burgers are crazy' is a song by The Moldy Peaches. My winamp was playing their album when I was passing a girl (who originally came from a vintage ad about headaches) on a burger. I got 1 go of ads about headaches and vintage food, and I was thinking this girl look crazy. I never understood the lyrics of the original song.

Are there any works or projects you are working on at the moment?

There are future projects, always. But I don't like to talk about them until they're done, [because] it attracts misfortune. BUT I'm also a musician as 'u-point', and still trying to make my new record since 2 years now.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

I had a neighbour who's studying psychology. One day she told me to never talk about or write your dreams because you take the risk of forgetting them. So, I’ll finish on "Free Pizza Until'I Die". That's my dream.

Website: Ju-ulvoas.net 

When we discuss photographs, we often find ourselves attributing atmosphere to them. But what exactly do we mean? Can we define this notion, this quality, in a more rigorous way?
 
Take the work of Dirk Wuestenhagen. This is exactly the kind of image that we would say possesses atmosphere. But from the outset, let us not confuse the object of our investigation with the sublime. Dirk’s photography does not seek absolute limits; it focuses on neither the infinitely large nor the infinitesimal. Still it consists of an abstract substance, and that we call atmosphere.
 
Consider the nature of the photograph. It is necessarily bounded, a part of reality siphoned off from the rest and mixed up with another context. This is why Susan Sontag believes that photographs are natively surreal: their duplication, their ‘reality in the second degree’, is sufficient to generate surreal effects. Maybe we can make the case that atmosphere somehow reinstates the original context. After all, when something is atmospheric, we feel as though we are there: we smell things, feel things, hear things, even though our only sensory cue is an image. In other words, we replace what was lost.
 
How can these fragmentary objects, photographs, help us reimagine their original settings without depicting them, when the only available representative mode is visual? It relies on the viewer’s prior knowledge of the space depicted. But I suspect it is also something to do with beautiful simplicity, such as we find in Dirk’s photographs. These are uncomplicated but stimulating versions of the world, drawing us deep into the fabric of their mysteries.
 
Website: Wuestenhagen-imagery.photoshelter.com

The highly prestigious MA Textiles course at Central Saint Martins is producing a whole new generation of talent who are pushing boundaries in textiles. Said to be producing 'dynamic designers who can propose and realise intelligent, responsible innovation drawing on strategic thinking and personal vision', Laerke Hooge Andersen is a graduate who fits these credentials. Originally from Copenhagen, a city known for creating impressive design talent, Andersen moved to London to complete her MA at the esteemed school. There, she challenged herself and honed her skills, developing a really impressive, conceptual aesthetic.
           
Andersen's award-winning MA collection, 'The Synthetic Kingdom', explores an abundance of different
textiles and incorporates them in new, innovative ways that are forward-thinking and refreshing. 'The project is a futuristic narrative about the emerging field of synthetics, and how synthetic biology will enable us to create, produce and grow material hybrids, in a cross-disciplinary field of science and art', says Andersen. The idea of exploring material hybrids is fascinating and has the possibility of juxtaposing contrasting textiles, and creating some really interesting effects. Combining the man-made with the natural, technology with traditional, Andersen explores textiles through the ages and develops new exciting textural surfaces. One of the most interesting concepts contrasts sharp black animal-skin-look leather pieces with sketchy
patterns on the arms resembling tattoos. Andersen is also an extremely talented artist with intricate drawings inspiring many of her ideas. She views “synthetic biology as a potential evolutionary tool, for creating new ‘super natural’ materials”, and by pushing boundaries into possibly unexplored territories, Andersen hopes to bring brand new aesthetics to the world of textiles.
           

 
One of the textiles that Andersen explores is the use of hair and although she is not the first to do so, along with the likes of Phoebe English amongst others setting the trend, she explores it in new ways, combining it with technology in fairly bizarre, but definitely innovative ways. She uses it to create lampshades, USB ends and even huge body-covering jewellery, concentrating more on the conceptual aspects than the design aspects as other designers do. Andersen's focus is on making a statement and aiming to be a pioneer in textiles, creating new combinations and ideas that no other designer has tried before.
 
Website: Laerkehoogeanderson.com 
Images: Showtime.arts.ac.uk 

Defacement or enhancement? That is one the more obvious problems that Thomas Robson’s artwork poses. Do we see his modifications as a form of digital vandalism, an avant-garde aggressive on visual high culture, or as a radical but positive reconfiguration of fine art?
 
Robson’s offensive on traditional portraiture is original and striking, undeniably. While sometimes he imitates splashes of gaudy paint across the pictures, these modifications are clearly the product of computer generation, and herein exists the real anxiety. The images exhibit temporal duality. They share ground in tradition and undergo the groundbreaking shocks of the digital age. This complicates interpretation somewhat, and we revert to our earlier question, in an alternate form. Should we approach these works as defaced fine art or as depthless symbols of the postmodern?
 
Note as well the location of these pixelated interventions. Some cover the face; others arch around it. Passing into the domain of art, personal identity becomes ambivalent, itself double-faced. Robson thereby challenges the stability that portraiture was meant to confer on the sitter. The artistic methods likewise prove antithetical. The dextrous and deliberate work required to create accurate portraits seems at odds with the apparently random application of shapes and colours.
 
Rare is it that we find such conflict focused in one artwork. Often we search for unities amidst the disjuncture, harmony among discord, but through the sheer contradiction of these images, Robson sets out a genuine challenge to our interpretative skills.
 
Website: Thomas-r.com 

When is analysis sufficient? For how long must we prolong it before we can put down our pens and feel as though we have truly finished our work? Some proponents of Marxist criticism have argued that analysis should continue until we are able to resolve the contradictions posed within an artistic work. For them, the mere designation of antagonism inside of the art’s total structure is useless. Their political ends depend on the extension of analysis to a point where it becomes socially productive. I propose that we test this Marxist principle against the fascinating, technically adept, and highly nuanced photography of Viktor Gårdsäter.
 
I believe all of the images above display clear structural antitheses. It would be impossible to pick apart the many implications and raise all of these oppositions to synthesis in a single blog, so I will focus singly on the
photograph of the Hötorget metro station in Stockholm. The contradiction impressed on the picture subsists between the dismal man and the hyperbolic advertisement on the wall. The latter encourages, of course, a sort of blind, irrational hedonism, where the sexual appeal of the woman and the suggestion of the sunglasses connote the idyllic and satisfactory ends of flying with that company. The flight attendant reveals her eyes, making contact with Viktor’s camera and with his viewers, and her gaze positively demands that we gaze back. Inversely, the man shields his eyes from the advertisements and the camera, trying to extricate himself from this intrinsically commercial visual exchange; but we might equally associate his use of the metro and his clothing with the capitalism that generates the objectifying power of such a gaze. The act of covering his eyes seems a weak attempt to exonerate himself.
 
The resolution comes in the leftmost third of the photograph. Reflected in the glass, the situation repeats, but with a difference. In this image, the flight attendant bears down on the dismal man, her head placed just over his shoulder. Affixed so, hers is an accusation—a charge on the businesspeople who have reduced people to seductive instruments for their profitable ends. We started at exculpation and here end at clear, unequivocal blame.
 
Website: Gardsater.se 

Fashion is more and more frequently blurring the lines between the genders, with women designing menswear and men designing fashion for women. This is producing some really interesting collections that throw the stereotypical restraints of gender and fashion out of the window. Both men and women now have the freedom to dress however they choose without fear of judgement, and it is designers who have allowed them to experiment.
           
Faye Oakenfull graduated this year from Manchester Metropolitan University. In her collection at Graduate Fashion Week, her menswear display stood out because it included techniques that are perhaps not typical of menswear. Textured vests, patchwork shirts and oversized knits add feminine touches to a stunning collection in which some pieces are almost unisex. This portfolio celebrates many of the present season’s trends, from oversizing to layering. The concept of layering above-the-knee shorts over leggings provides menswear with a new look, really pushing its boundaries. The oversizing of the jackets and jumpers hide the male form, and the sleeves, almost floor-length, are a particularly interesting feature. “My work is always narrative-led, reflecting the strong sentimental side to my personality. Having always enjoyed listening to people’s stories, my work often uses people’s personal recollections, memory and humour as a starting point,” Oakenfull explains. This emotion-based approach is apparent in her designs, reflected in her use of patchwork, for example, a technique used traditionally for children’s quilts and blankets that the child may even keep into adulthood. The work that has gone into the garments suggests that, similarly, they are designed to be items that are worn and loved for years.
           
“With a strong knitwear focus, I experiment with fabrics often, creating a riot of evocative colour and texture
that give designs a lively, fun and playful aesthetic.” The textured vest is perhaps one of the most interesting designs within the collection. In fairly feminine colours and with a small collar that reflects a major trend in women’s fashions at the moment, and combined with red woollen trousers, the whole outfit brings a fun twist on androgyny to menswear. Oakenfull is clearly a designer who has no fear within fashion and is willing to explore so many pathways – in my opinion this definitely makes her one to watch!
 
Images: Artsthread.com   Google.co.uk 

For a while now I have meant to write a blog about astrophotography, and stumbling across some excellent pictures of the sun this week, I decided that now is as good a time as any to remind myself and my readers about the immense beauty of space. Although such images appear to depart, in subject and scale, from the usual focus of these blogs, we need not approach them with reserve. A picture of the sun is no more or less scientific than one of a flower—yet the domain of ‘fine art’ photography is empty of the former and saturated with the latter. The natural world is not a leafy mass that clusters around humanity and offers up its wonders at once to mildly inquisitive photographers. It extends farther than we can imagine. Sometimes we have to expend a great deal of effort to see it.
 
These images of the extremely large, or the extremely distant, are all attempts to fill that gap in our imagination. They contain value as subjects of both epistemological and aesthetic enquiry. Just because we now associate these images with scientific discovery, it doesn’t mean they are off-limits to artists and critics of culture.
 
That being said, the science behind these photographs is interesting. This is the sun during a coronal mass ejection (CME). A CME occurs when a long filament of solar material erupts into space, travelling at over 900 miles per second. The image blends together photographs of light at 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths. The third image compiles four photographs of the event, taken simultaneously, at 335, 171, 131, and 304 angstrom wavelengths (clockwise). How easy it is to forget that the whole photographic process, as well as informing scientific research, owes much to science for its own existence!
 
Website: Flickr.com
Images: NASA

Name: Marco Puccini
Occupation: Illustrator
Inspiration: David Salle

Born in historical Tuscany and currently residing in modern Milan, it was inevitable that the past and present would come together in the vintage-inspired work of Marco Puccini. Faded colours and fold lines assume a retro aesthetic whilst Marco’s cartoony, graphically-created sausage shaped character brings us firmly back into the present.

Interestingly, Marco is also a fan of long-running US cartoon The Simpsons. Whilst The Simpsons might not be responsible for the retro, vintage aesthetic of Marco’s illustrations, it seems the famous cartoon family have almost certainly influenced the creation of Marco’s cartoon character. His sausage-shaped head could easily be cast off in place of Simpson patriarch Homer. However, the comparison stops there because Marco’s sausage-shaped character is firstly devoid of clothes, and secondly owner of a personality far away from the lazy, donut-eating Homer J. Simpson. Instead, Marco’s creation is a blank canvas from which a range of personas can be identified including a DJ, vintage porn star, and pink-haired monster.

Marco describes his style as ‘dinky, worrying and squashy’. There is somewhat of a Wallace and Gromit feel about his work, a tactility and cuteness, particularly in the illustrations featuring the black character, which adhere to the loveable 3D charm that the Aardman animators are famous for. The ‘worrying’ element Marco describes may be ascribed to the other more eerie, adult illustrations in his portfolio:

The two images above seem to represent a more sinister side of Marco’s illustrative work. The censorship bar is raised just above the area supposed to be hidden from sight, and out of that bar comes the body of an evil-faced cartoon figure. His works appear to represent the dark side of pornography whilst maintaining the cartoon/vintage-style aesthetic Marco depicts so well.

Much of your work has a distinctly retro feel about it. Was this a conscious choice? If so, why?

‘I like things that have an old smell…just like smelling old books. Like everyone else, I'm obsessed with images that come from my past... That's why I always like to make stuff with a seasoned aspect...I like to mix the taste of the past with [the] taste of the new...’

And, what is your working process from idea to finished product?

‘I always start with a drawing on my sketchbook, first. Then I put the drawing into the computer and make it vector and, at the end, I use Photoshop to finalize all.’

Are there any works/projects you are currently working on?

‘In this period, I'm working almost exclusively with the video. Both videos are very complicated. I'm working on a project for VOGUE Italy with another designer (Nicola Gobbetto ) and for a video mapping to perform in October at the Louvre in Paris.’

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

‘I'd like to find a way to relax myself a little bit and devote full time to making drawings. Until now I have not been able to make this my passion, my first work activities.’

Marco’s illustrations create a world in which the past and present co-exist. The fact it makes for some pretty awesome artwork just adds to their visual effect.

Tumblr: Marcopuccini.tumblr.com 

© Guy Wenborne

© Guy Wenborne

© Guy Wenborne

Barn House was created by architects Cazú Zegers G. It is a perfect replica of the traditional barn, a building used to house livestock or to store agricultural vehicles and equipment. Nowadays, it is more typical that a barn would be built from steel; but Barn House is traditional through and through, faithful to its timber beginnings. Barn conversions were all the rage in the 90s, partly the result of its redundancy in the wake of more modern farming practices; but barns also make for an aesthetic symbol of comfort and a back-to-basics home life. However, this barn , built in Kawelluco, Chile, is not a conversion, but a new-build, created especially to represent the traditional barn model. Its position amongst the trees of Kawelluco affords the barn house a natural, tree-house-like aesthetic: the perfect representation of country living.

The internal design of the building is structured much the same as the traditional barn, open-plan with a mezzanine (intermediate floor or balcony). The simplicity of the interior design, the sparse wooden furniture, white spherical lightshade, and aga cooker, highlights the barn’s former usage, whilst representing its contemporary function as a residential home.

Outside balconies look out on the spectacular views created by the beautiful woodland scenery surrounding the barn. ‘A barn with a view’ was not an expression often heard in the early days of the traditional barn house. Primarily a store house, the barn had no need of windows to look out upon its farm land. As a residential home however, the window is an utmost necessity, not only for the view, but also for light. Due to its traditional design, this barn house has limited windows; but those windows it does have are floor-to-ceiling in size, affording the inside of the house optimum natural light.

Images: Archdaily.com 

Every human is, to a certain degree, an artistic being. In the most limited sense, we each have aesthetic preferences, whether in film, literature, fine art, or other cultural disciplines. But in a grander sense, and especially since the modernist period, we have started to see ourselves as informal producers of art too. Even the most minute and repetitive daily gestures became available for appropriation by artists—and no artist more readily or eagerly accumulates these little facts of reality than the photographer.
 
Angela Smith records the art of painted walls, of road signs, of parked cars. She has a wonderful eye for locating art that has sprung up around towns. Her photographs need no emphasis or modification from Photoshop, and I think digital enhancement could only detract from their beauty and surrealism. I made this argument about the pictures of Mark Giarrusso, and I think the same holds true for Smith. As soon as formal features external to the shot itself are brought to bear on it, we lose something of the sovereignty and purity of the content. I enjoy Smith’s photographs because of what she was able to find lurking in real life, because it is in that sense a celebration of the ubiquity of art, because it doesn’t make the notion of art abstract or exclusive to the few individuals who call themselves ‘artists’.
 
No doubt the most exciting feature of Smith’s work is her juxtaposition of colours. The world she finds is almost utopian, idyllic. It appeals to that intuition many of us hold that the world can be a better and a more beautiful place. Every now and then, in our daily lives, we glimpse it in this ideal state, but it requires the skill of photographers like Smith to recognise those moments and preserve them pictorially.
 
See more of Smith’s work at: Society6.com/angelawsmith