Tonight at 8pm, two of our favorite institutions, short film DVD magazine Wholphin and the curatorial brain trust that is The Cinefamily, are joining together in glorious harmony for the release party of Wholphin No. 8 at The Silent Movie Theatre in LA.
Established by Where The Wild Things Are scribe Dave Eggers and his McSweeney’s colleague Brent Hoff, Wholphin is a quarterly video magazine that collects a melange of disparate shorts linked only by their quality of excellence and their rarity. Breathing new life to the format, Wholhpin offers a unique venue for films that would otherwise only play in festivals or galleries, where most people might not get a chance to see them. From well-known directors like Steven Soderbergh, Errol Morris, Miranda July and of course, Spike Jonze, to first-time filmmakers, cartoonists, comedians and video artists, Wholphin has hosted some of the most talented artists’ work from across the globe.
For issue eight, Wholphin is presenting shorts directed by brilliant photographer/youth culture documentarian Lauren Greenfield, Interpol bassist Carlos D., British conceptual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, and Dave Eggers himself. Eggers, in one of his first shots at directing, presents a three-part work called The Room Before and After, starring James Franco, comedian Maria Bamford and The Office star Creed Bratton in an animalistic display of primal emotion: they’re each given the rare opportunity to consensually tear apart a room. Check out the preview below:
Mike Mills makes great stuff with his brain. Lots of video things you’ve seen before and have maybe even tried to copy yourself. But also, lots of non-video things. The above picture is of Mike’s latest book of video and non-video things. You know, graphics, posters, films, pictures, music, commercials all around prettiness. Like this dude…
…remember that dude? Bet you wish you created that, huh? Me too. Oh well, thankfully Mike did the job for us, and put it in book form for everyone to see. Cop one here.
I was browsing through USA PHILATELIC, the free magazine for stamp enthusiasts available at post offices nationwide, and I found these unsettling Nutcrackers sandwiched between the Bette Davis and Smoky Mountain stamps.
Kirsten Deirup’s painting style could be described as the genetically-deformed love child of Yves Tanguy and Tod Browning. A native of Berkeley and a Cooper Union graduate, Deirup’s works are dreamlike tableux of monsters, forts, haunted trees, spare interiors, junk and garbage. It’s the sort of work that defies casual viewing–a piece like “Good Times” (above) will stop you in your tracks mid-gallery-stroll.
Dapper seafaring gents, mermen, centaurs, soldiers and saints: these are the anachronistic subjects of Michael C. Hsiung’s curious doodles. Idiosyncratically mixing erudite references to obscure folklore with deadpan humor and unexpected romance, Hsiung’s treatment of epic olde thyme mythology is as sarcastic as it is tender. Fond of accenting his illustrations with long-winded titles like, “A scene in which the street performer with six fingers may or may not need the passerbyer’s help to untangle himself,” and “Whereupon uncertain events befell, the baby angora unicorn mourns the man with the broken neck,” Hsiung provides teasingly brief glimpses through his work to the vast fantasy world that seems to have taken root within his imagination, revealing itself one rad picture at a time.
Check out Hsiung’s latest drawing, “On the levitation of the boy named Peter,” which the artist has generously made available as a free PDF for recession-battered print collectors.
Subscribe to RSS