We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Ghanaian movie posters are known for being rad. There have been plenty of blogs, books and art shows devoted to appreciating the creative beauty evident in these utilitarian, yet strikingly original, marketing tools. It’s always nice to see something bland and familiar, like a generic American action film, reinterpreted through fresh artistic eyes. Ephemera Assemblyman’s collection of mind-blowing Ghanaian movie posters is quite impressive.

In the 1980s video cassette technology made it possible for “mobile cinema” operators in Ghana to travel from town to town and village to village creating temporary cinemas. The touring film group would create a theatre by hooking up a TV and VCR onto a portable generator and playing the films for the people to see.

In order to promote these showings, artists were hired to paint large posters of the films (usually on used canvas flour sacks). The artists were given the artistic freedom to paint the posters as they desired – often adding elements that weren’t in the actual films, or without even having seen the movies.

No one will deny that there’s pleasure in buying stuff. Along with life and liberty, the delight of consuming unnecessary goods is one of the guiding principles of our dear country.

But there’s an equal pleasure, albeit subtler, in finding clever ways to repurpose old goods. And whether it happens by choice or necessity (or a confluence of both), we’re going to see a lot more of this in the coming decade.

A recent stellar example comes courtesy of Tokyo design firm Dentsu, who designed a wrapping paper for vegetable vendors by printing old newspapers with colorful dots and stripes. The resulting paper is an attractive, low-cost option for vendors who desire both the practical qualities of newspaper (its moisture retention keeps vegetables fresh) and the visual flair of a decorated material.

Did Dentsu’s project work? Vegetable vendors who used the printed paper saw their sales grow by 20%, and the firm won an Art Director Club award for their work. Not bad.

Former child model and current renowned photographer Cara Phillips is behind an eerily alluring series of portraits called Ultraviolet Beauties. Shot using the same invisible skin damage-revealing technique that cosmetics corporations have employed in recent years to scare consumers about the long-term effects of sun exposure, the subjects in Phillips’ portraits (chosen at random on the streets of Manhattan) appear to be caught in pious moments of tranquility. These everyday people seem momentarily unaware of the invisible scars that overwhelm their own faces, while the viewer is treated to a voyeuristic sneak peek into an array of seemingly malignant prognoses. From her project statement:

As an artist, I am fascinated by a technology that allows me to see inside of my subject, to see deeper than what a normal camera lens can record. To me it is in the subject’s vulnerability, where I find a beauty that transcends the flawed and damaged surface.