Cool Hunting
| 23 June 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Girls Rock, The Movie
by Ami Kealoha
Most reviews of the 2007 documentary "Girls Rock," might mention it's a tearjerker (it is) or praise it for being uplifting (also true), but none so far mention the overwhelming urge you will get to take out your checkbook to support the cause. Arne Johnson and Shane King (two seasoned SF-based documentarians and longtime pals) tell the story of four girls, all dealing with their own struggles in adolescence and gender, over the course of their time at Portland, OR's Rock Camp for Girls. The film deftly relates their struggles and giggles, unapologetically delving into the issues without preaching and with surprising honesty.
Liz Canning's cut-and-paste style animation make statistics and facts entertaining while a soundtrack—loaded with the indie faves you'd expect including Bikini Kill, Sonic Youth, The Blow, Rainier Maria, The Donnas, Low and many more—drives the point home. With a mix of verité footage, intimate interviews and performances, the filmmaking style is loose and a little raw (in a good way). What it might lack in polish (which is not much), it makes up for with solid editing.
We highly recommend you check it out for yourself. To find out screening dates and locations, check out their site. (You may want to check their blog also as it seems to be updated more regularly.) Also, donate!
Lowercase Scarf
by Letizia Rossi
With its intricate laser-cut pattern, the Lowercase Scarf is a stylish way to express a love of typography. Made from 100% microfiber suede by Hong Kong-based design firm Little Factory, the scarves are available in both black and off-white.
The lowercase scarf features neat rows of random letters with English words like "people," "today" and "magnet" scattered throughout like a wearable word search puzzle. Alternate versions, the and Numbers scarves are designed with jumbles of characters which seem to be dripping off the scarf.
They're available online from Little Factory for $52 each.
via Core77
Noa Nahari: Side Walk
by Doug Black
Entering the latest installation at the Jerusalem Artists' House is an exercise in sensory confusion. After parting the heavy drape covering the threshold, the room's minimal lighting creates a momentary blackout before the eyes adjust. Even when your vision returns, there's not much to see. The small gallery space is empty, and the floor is covered wall-to-wall with seemingly unremarkable gray cinder blocks. The first step onto them, however, is a whole different type of disorientation. Underneath the cement floor is a subsurface of a spongy material that gives a few inches under your weight. The result is like walking on a concrete trampoline. To maintain equilibrium, the viewer needs to pay constant attention to balance.
The cinder blocks used in the installation are the same kind employed in the urgent construction of Israeli and Palestinian settlements in places like the West Bank. The all-too-familiar material's unlikely behavior succeeds in shaking the viewer's perception. Hushed voices are piped through the room and hover at the point of audibility. One of the walls has a film projection showing human forms in motion. The video's foreground has black silhouettes that appear as though someone is walking through the light beam. As I was the only visitor at the time, it added to a general mood of uneasiness.
Noa Nahari is a graduate of the School of Arts and Technology, Tel Aviv. "Side Walk" is her first solo exhibition, which an Artists' House employee mentioned would make its way to the 2009 Venice Biennale.
The Jerusalem Artists' House is located in an elegant, 19th-century Ottoman Turkish building. Since 1965, they've shown the work of both local and international artists. The building has five gallery rooms, a restaurant and shop (pictured), which is littered with work collected from the the hundreds of artists to come through. They are sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli state, and represent more than 500 juried Israeli artists. They show both upcoming and established artists, as evidenced by their other current exhibitions: a career retrospective of Yitzhak Greenfield and photographs from Arnon Toussia-Cohen.
"Side Walk"
Through 19 July 2008
Jerusalem Artists' House
Shmuel Hanagid 12
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel. +972 2–6253653
