WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » Vision

David Bailey | We’ll take Manhattan

W&V — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:30:04 +0000

Recently filmmaker John McKay revisited David Bailey’s legendary 1962 trip to New York in the BBC film We’ll take Manhattan. During this trip Bailey had to shoot the photo’s for an editorial which was published in the April 1962 edition of British Vogue. He agreed to do the shoot only if the, at that time still unknown, Jean Shrimpton was his model. Bailey and Shrimpton where instructed to shoot mid-priced British fashions against the elegant landmarks and modern architectonic cityscape of Upper Manhattan. Instead of doing this David Bailey and his model Jean Shrimpton travelled with no hair or makeup artist and just his camera and an old teddy bear as prop through the more unpolished side of Manhattan. The shots he made melted raw and realistic street photography with fashion and high art and resulted in a legendary iconic series which captured the new liberated spirit of the decade.The photo’s of this shoot are later published in David Bailey: NYJSDB62 (Steidl, 2007). The film by John McKay explores the hedonistic love affair between the iconic photographer and the Sixties supermodel during this British Vogue fashion shoot.

Read more about David Bailey in this W&V blog post.

Photos by: David Bailey | David Bailey website | Photo 2 and 6 by: BBC | John McKay website

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Aristotle on art, conceptual layers and inner value

W&V — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:30:16 +0000

Quote about art from Greek philosopher Aristotle which can especially be considered as an early statement about conceptual art and design as it addresses directly the core principle of a conceptual design approach and the resulting physical product and its inner value, meaning and significance.

The Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle was a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoölogy. Together with Plato and Plato’s teacher Socrates, Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

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Tokujin Yoshioka | Snow

W&V — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:17:29 +0000

Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer and artist who has worked under Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake and established his ow studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000.
He created the installation called The Snow as part of the exhibition Sensing Nature at the Tokyo Mori Art museum last year. This spatial design made from artificial materials gives the viewer the sensation of experiencing light, snow, storms and other phenomena. Tokujin Yoshioka explores the potential future of design and how it will incorporate natural principles, effects and by integrating natural science technologies. His installation is similar to looking at or walking through a snowstorm. It is an expanded version of the original ‘snow’ which was exhibited in 1997.

Photos and video: Tokujin Yoshioka | Tokujin Yoshioka inc. website |

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Luc Braquet | Backstage

W&V — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:57:13 +0000

Backstage is a recently shot series by the French photographer Luc Braquet with a strong and interesting documentary quality. Read more about him in an earlier posted article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog and see for the full series his portfolio website.

Photos by Luc Braquet | Luc Braquet portfolio website |

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Skate 1.0 | Conceptual art installation

W&V — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:30:43 +0000

Skate 1.0 is a conceptual sound and light installation by Electroland. Space, movement, context and virtual locations are the key words for this interesting installation. Skate 1.0 puts the viewer into an abstract virtual skateboard park. Skater sounds travel above, below, around and through the viewers and serve as a kind of portal for them. The sounds are a recognisable and approachable door for the audience, a door through which they can travel into the abstract conceptual layers of this work. The light links to both sides. It registers the virtual movement of the skaters and at the same time pushes the viewer beyond.

Videos and Photos by: Electroland | Electroland website

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Tsang Kin-wah | The Seven Seals

W&V — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:02:02 +0000

“The Seven Seals” is a work by Chinese contemporary artist Tsang Kin-Wah. It is a fascinating ongoing series of seven conceptual digital video art installations using texts and computer technology to show Tsang’s thoughts on various issues of the day. “The Seven Seals” draws its reference from various sources such as: existentialism, metaphysics and politics. With this work Tsang Kin-wah attempt to articulate the complex situation of the world and the dilemmas that people are facing while approaching “the end of the world”.

Animated phrases and short sentences appear, move and float, sometimes, like a murmur and sometimes like an admonition that reveals the nature of human beings and the changes of our emotions. Without a clear beginning or end, each installation in the “The Seven Seals” creates different cycles of text on continuous loops that appear to repeat without end; echoing the concept of “eternal recurrence” whereby all the issues and dilemmas of daily existence are seen perpetually recurring for an infinite number of fleeting instances, even though we recognize and are aware of them for a longer time.

Photos and videos from the The Fifth Seal installation which is part of the Seven Seals project.

Videos and Photos by: Tsang Kin-wah | Tsang Kin-wah website | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

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Hiroshi Sugimoto | Colors of Shadow

W&V — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:27:08 +0000

Colors of Shadow is the first conceptual photo series which artist Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed in color and it shows his continuous interrogation of photography’s intrinsic nature; of light entering into a darkened or “dimmed chamber”, however, the light source remains out of view. The work is minimalist in nature. The photographic field is emptied of any superfluous detail, allowing stillness for meditation.
Colors of Shadow seems also to mirror the white cube, the gallery space, in its perpetual rhythm to lay bare its white walls to receive the work of art. Here the works reflect its surroundings; the detail is focused on what the viewer’s eye does not generally pay attention to. Brought into focus are the corners of the space, its ceiling and walls with different hues of whites due to the slightest alteration in lighting, and their cast shadows.

Subtle play of light and shadow as well as spatial composition are central in this work by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. He explains it as following:

”I’ve learned many things from using my hands. While I’m still not sure about the nature of light—whether it’s waves or particles—I’ve learned something about shadows. Trying to devise a way of observing shadows, this project escalated into a major undertaking, requiring an entire hilltop penthouse in a Tokyo apartment. When surfaces receive light, the light effects vary according to the angle of exposure. Selecting three distinct angles—90°, 55°, and 35°—I had the walls surfaced using traditional Japanese shikkui (plaster finishing), which absorbs and reflects light most evenly. In the morning light, the shadows play freely over the surfaces, now appearing, now vanishing. On rainy days, they take on a deeper, more evocative cast. I’ve only just begun my observations, but already I’ve discovered a sublime variety in shadow hues.”

Photos from top to bottom:
Colors of shadow c1020
Colors of shadow c1031
Colors of shadow c1028
Colors of shadow c1023
Colors of shadow c1019

Photos by: Hiroshi Sugimoto | Hiroshi Sugimoto website | source: Marian Goodman Gallery

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Jesse Kanda | Dutch Wife

W&V — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:10:07 +0000

Dutch Wife is an experimental animated short film by London based graphic and motion designer Jesse Kanda. In this video he experimented with filmed footage of plant remains which floated around in a canal and a combination of various 3D models. The result is a fascinating experiment about distortion, liquid, transformation and the virtual human body.

Video: directed, animated and sountracked by Jesse Kanda | Photos by Jesse Kanda | Jesse Kanda website

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Body Pressure | Conceptual performance art by Bruce Nauman

W&V — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:30:32 +0000

Body Pressure is an art piece by Bruce Nauman from 1974 which basically is a mix between conceptual text art and performance art. The work invites the spectator to become the performer. The physical form of the work is a simple poster which serves more as an igniter as it gives the performers a set of typed out instructions for merging their bodies with an architectural surface. Body Pressure is, aside from the physical experience, also a mental journey which challenges the performers to think about the physical aspects and limitations of their own bodies and travel beyond these limitations in their minds.

Below follows the text of the poster:

Body Pressure

Press as much of the front surface of
your body (palms in or out, left or right cheek)
against the wall as possible.

Press very hard and concentrate.

Form an image of yourself (suppose you
had just stepped forward) on the
opposite side of the wall pressing
back against the wall very hard.

Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.

(the image of pressing very hard)
press your front surface and back surface
toward each other and begin to ignore or
block the thickness of the wall. (remove
the wall)

Think how various parts of your body
press against the wall; which parts
touch and which do not.

Consider the parts of your back which
press against the wall; press hard and
feel how the front and back of your
body press together.

Concentrate on the tension in the muscles,
pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider
body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).

This may become a very erotic exercise.

Work by Bruce Nauman | Photos by Bruce Nauman, top: Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, centre: Jacob Birken

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Sam Samore | conceptual photography

W&V — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:30:29 +0000

Sam Samore creates fascinating large scale conceptual photographs. Appropriative practices, which are established by artists such as Cindy Sherman, are a key element in his works. His photos are an exploration of privacy and myth in contemporary society.

Britany Salsbury (Artforum) about his work:
Samore’s photographs are characterized by open-ended and evocative narrative compositions that are reminiscent of film stills. Through the contrast between the straightforwardness of their artifice and the impossibility of explaining the situations they portray, Samore’s photographs reveal a fragmented and constructed subject that invites interrogation of gender, popular culture, and identity.

Britany Salsbury gives a clear analyse of Sam Samore’s work in the following quote: “The Dark Suspicion#1 (See top photo), for instance, shows a young woman whose vacant stare and decorated femininity (heavy makeup, etc.) make her resemble the subject of a fashion advertisement. The model is only visible, however, through a gap between two other figures, whose showy lipstick and starkly pale skin seem virtually identical to her own. Although it would be easiest to rationalize the two doppelgangers as mirror reflections of the female figure, such a reading is impossible, given their position in the photograph: between the woman and the viewer. This manipulation of space eschews predictable or concrete explanation and frustrates the viewer’s impulse to impose purpose or narrative on figures whose functions might have otherwise seemed clear.”

In the above video by Kiki Allgeier , Sam Samore explains some more about his works. Samore’s role within LM100 (Le Meridien) was to help identify and chronicle the narratives inherent in the guest experience, from his contributions to the stories included in Le Méridien’s 50 Words story collection to his role as an artist behind a series of keys in the Unlock Art collection.

Photos from top to bottom:
The Dark Suspicion #1, 2011
Allegories of Beauty (Incomplete) #108, #44, #63, 1990s
The Dark Suspicion #5, 2011
Allegories of Beauty (Incomplete) #47, #10, #50, #8,1990s

Photos by: Sam Samore | Video by: Kiki Allgeier | Source: Britany Salsbury |

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