Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anarchism, ☭☭☭, collective amnesia, doris salcedo, el otro lado, eyal weizman, gentrification, green scare, istanbul biennial, postco, postracial scars, property not people, racism, RAF, rupture reveals structure, sds, seattle, shibboleth, violence, weather underground, western freedoms
A lot of things can happen between the gaps, and down little alleyways and other narrow spaces between one building and the next. Like this installation by Doris Salcedo at the 2003 Istanbul Biennial, which fills a gap between buildings by lowering in 1600 chairs. Or this ridiculous house in Seattle, found by Kyle Gabouer. He says that it was owned and inhabited by an elderly woman, who “was so insistent on living her last days in the home that no matter the price, she refused to sell it in order to make way for construction. The contractors decided they’d build around her. I heard that she recently passed, and the building isn’t even finished yet…” Something to think about with “Manhttanville”, perhaps?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: edina tokodi, green scare, guerilla gardening, moss art greenarchic, seed bomb
So, unsurprisingly I don’t exacctly have a proverbial green thumb. Guerrilla gardening, though sounds kind of amazing. There’s ’seed bombing’, described by Planet Green as
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And some more tips here. Pics from Heavy Petal
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As the pic shows, guerilla gardening can transform a Mercedes symbol (one rather associated with the Holocaust, for some) to one of peace. Sunflowers in a city grate. And there’s moss art -or as artist Edina Tokodi puts it, green graffiti too. I’m somewhat reminded of the 17th century anarch@-primitivists, the Diggers, who were pretty balling for their time. And the sweet green-anarchic English folkish band, the Levellers. What’s the term for that anyway (those repping the green and black diagonals). Green anarchism? Greenarchism? ‘Eco-terrorist’ or fashionably greenarchic? You decide.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: body hair, feminism, green scare, greenarchic, guerilla gardening, lucy and bart, seed bombs
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I came across this excellent collaboration some time ago, (via style bubble), which describes itself as
an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.
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While the silicone injection and augmentations and steroid pumping is pretty sweet, I especially love the commentary on body hair, which is such a strange/touchy subject for women – especially now that summer’s here. The bestocking-ed one is wonderfully titled ‘Office Legs’. I’ve known ladies who will proudly grow leg and/or underarm hair out (replete with measuring contests?) but still perfectly tweeze and manicure their eyebrows. Others use it as a canvas, even shaving messages into their leg, much like the way people are drawn to tagging and drawing on a dusty car. Still others – probably the trained majority prefer to take it all off. |
And yeah, the focus on hairlessness is undeniably a byproduct of society’s fetishisation of the prepubescent little girl, propagated practically everywhere, from porn to “how to get the PERFECT summer legs!!!”. It’s not just the ladies, though. I have a friend who shaves at least 2-3+ times on a daily basis, maybe more if he’s going out. He says that it makes him feel like this. I don’t know if this is the norm in the gay community – perhaps someone can enlighten me on this?
Lucy and Bart also did this (presumably) series, ‘Germination’. I can’t help but think of Mr Potato head , which would sport grassy hair when it was watered daily (before going traumatisingly – for a little girl whose plants all also died in the blistering desert head – mouldy). Seriously, I think the only thing I’ve ever successfully grown is a sprouted bean plant. In a jar of water. Others I know appear to be spending their summers doing organic farming in places like Mexico and Sweden; yet others have flourishing compost heaps and indoor gardens. Huh. Here’s (so far) Days 1 and 8, anyway.
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ps: a really interesting post that further discusses the politics of body hair.
Filed under: eco, fashion, media | Tags: anna, elle, eric mcdavid, fbi, green scare
THIS made me incredibly angry at first. And super surprised that something like ELLE would dip into this to begin with, never mind issue a retraction. To be fair to the writer though, she appears to have made a decent stab at the issue. What the article fails to note though, is that “Anna” was paid -by most accounts- over $75 000 for the entrapment. There’s another look here.Eric McDavid has been meanwhile sentenced to 19 years and 7 months, More info on how to support Eric.
edit: it seems the retraction stickers were a hoax, despite being pretty widespread. I’m no Crimethinc (or even ELF for that matter) fan, but this is excellent. To quote from Ecorazzi,
“Following consultation with federal agencies, we at Elle wish to retract this article. Not because of the stream of factual inaccuracies beginning in the second sentence (there has never been a CrimethInc. convergence in Athens, Georgia), but because in the current political climate it is irresponsible to even pretend to give a fair hearing to radical anti-capitalists. Even if Anna’s story is a cut-and-dried case of entrapment, we have to understand this as a necessary defense of our free market freedoms. Not to say that we are not concerned about the environment at Elle. On the contrary, the global environmental crisis offers unprecedented opportunities to promote sustainable fashions (p. 98), give the meat industry a makeover (p. 245), and renew faith in this country’s discredited electoral process (p. 104); even the color green itself is making a comeback (p. 72). Consumer capitalism may be threatening life on earth, but there’s simply no other option—that is, not unless you’re willing to join the ranks of the eco-terrorists.”
Otherwise, Im back in NYC though have spent the last two days migraining in a darkened room (as promised, the doors are shockingly pepto-bismol pink. I kind of love it.
