Irina Werning Takes Us Back to the Future

La Negra in 1980 and 2010, Buenos Aires

Porteña photographer Irina Werning has her subjects reenact moments from much earlier in their lives. In replicating these fuzzy yet candid memories, she has attended well to their placement, clothing, the sort and source of the lighting, and photo quality. It also looks like her subjects had a lot of fun too. Only a few of my favorites here, visit the artist for the full, on-going project.

A Staged Sunday on La Grande Jatte

At the time Georges Seurat (1859-1891) decided to memorialize it, La Grande Jatte was considered a good place to get away from the stresses of filthy, crowded Paris living. Seurat was a big fan of the island and used it as the setting for many of his sketches and paintings. According to a comment on its StumbleUpon page, this staging of Seurat's humongozoidal masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte took place in Belwoit, Wisconsin - perhaps way, way the hell farther out of Paris than Seurat wanted to go. I can't seem to find any information about the staging; it's not perfect or anything, but I'm really impressed they got the dog and sailboat in place. And, of course, by the desire to do it at all.

A little about Seurat:

A key post-impressionist painter, Georges Seurat moved away from the apparent spontaneity and rapidity of impressionism and developed a structured, more monumental art to depict modern urban life. For several of his large compositions, Seurat painted many small studies.

Seurat studied avant-garde painting techniques, especially impressionism and the latest scientific theories pertaining to light and color. From 1885 to 1886 he developed the divisionist technique. This new style, which consisted of systematically applied small touches of unmodulated color, was based on contemporary optical theories of color relationships.

Two years after his first neo-impressionist work was shown at the Salon des Indépendants, Seurat exhibited A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1886, The Art Institute of Chicago) at the eighth and final impressionist group show in 1886. His disciplined technique exerted a considerable influence over neo-impressionist artists such as Camille Pissarro, Henri Edmond Cross, and Paul Signac.

Sources:
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Wiki

Update [5/17/11]: ...with the cast of The Office

25 Fuzzy Memories

This is the first installment of my list of 100 memories and a rare venture into the realm of the deeply personal. I hesitated to present such a post, but seeing as how it's my blog, and what with mindless self indulgence and all, I can find no reason not to include a bit more of myself on good ol' HC. After all, life is more than bright colors, flashy tech, and cute animals. It's also dealing with the random shit that has happened- ups and downs, strikes and gutters.

I first learned about lists of 100 and thought, psh, I'd never make it that far into a list- I can barely commit to writing a blog at all! But then, I figured, it's a brand new year (and the last one sucked...) so why not try something new. Why not make a good, long list of some of the more colorful moments I've had in my time. There are a few from this past year, but most are from far better years-gone-by. Enjoy my reverie as I drag you into it.

La Planète Sauvage AKA Fantastic Planet (1973)

IMDb • Wiki • Rotten Tomatoes • Youtube

A movie whose English subtitles are worth hunting down (as opposed to trusting a dub). The animated La Planète Sauvage concerns an intensely psychedelic future world where humans, known as Oms (a pun on hommes, men), are kept as pets or hunted like pests. Their masters, the gigantic Traags (those blue guys), never forget what they learn, live for centuries (one Traag season is 5 years) and have the ability to influence their surroundings through meditation- wickedly trippy meditation.

Like this.

An Om narrator, named Terr, is orphaned as an infant when his mother is killed by Traag youths. Terr grows up alongside his doting Traag owner and eventually learns French from her. Benefitting from the knowledge of his mind-blowingly colorful and melty captors, Terr is able to escape to and ingratiate himself with a society of wild humans. A series of bizzare creatures dreamed up for Terr's journey reinforces the film's feral whimsy.

E-Z Hipster Art Recipe

A meme, made by Tumblr user marioandre.
Follow its example and be the good little dead-ends-of-western-civilization you are.

The Meticulous Photo Work of JF Rauzier

"Bibliothèque Idéale"
Artist: Jean François Rauzier

One of many hyperphotos hand patched in photoshop.

Ideal Cities in amazing detail (2.5 Gigapixels or so).