Relentless

Tessa Farmer - the conjurer of demonic fairies.

She calls it ‘a bid to reignite childlike curiosity’. It seems, then, that the old adage is true. Kids do the nastiest things. Tessa Farmer is a hugely talented British artist, she makes fairies out of roots and insect carcasses. Her creations cleverly expose the darker side of childhood experimentation, she constructs fantasy worlds of mutilation, torture, predators and prey. Tinkerbell this is not.

 Be sure to visit the main site http://www.relentlessenergy.co.uk for the full updated profiles on the Relentless crew. So much more to come from these talented guys as the year unfolds ... watch this space!

A forthcoming exhibition will reveal the brilliance of the Baroque.

The Baroque: an era of artistic excess and brilliance; an age of pornography, sex and violence, of Caravaggio, Bernini and Rubens. This April, the V&A in London launches its spring show, Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence, a no-holds-barred assault which should befit the complexity and grandeur of this great period in history.

It kicks off on April 4th and will run until July. For more information, follow the link below.

Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence

Banks Violette provides a snapshot of the human psyche in situ.

In light of our own Rev recently going live, we wanted to share some points of reference of the project. The Rev is an abstraction of a complex idea, as much as it is a dynamic portrait of anybody's favourite music.

Analysing the evolutionary changes that condition our perception of Art.

The Royal Institution of Great Britain offers an event that aims to shed light on cognitive neuroscience and the processes that allow our brains to create and appreciate art.

It does look a bit like The REV, but that's all in your mind. And that's a fact.

This is a microscopy (photo taken through a microscope) of what lies at the core of all art - a neuron. A more elaborated explanation of art and the developmental process that has shaped our minds to undersrtand and create art is provided by the Royal Institution of Great Britain in collaboration with the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. The event takes place on 17th March 2009 and is part of the Brain Awareness Week. More here and here.

Forget about glitterballs. It is all about Chrome Hoof these days.

The sonic thunderbolt that is Chrome Hoof - one of the artists we featured in the first issue of This Is The Order - is descending upon London in a glorious two-tier format.

A double dose of death disco delivered with mathematical precision is on its way. One show takes place at the ICA this Friday, 6 February, followed by another at Koko in Camden on 12 February.

For academics interested in light retraction in the presence of a serious groove, or simply  people that swear by the No Half Measures rule, we recommend you see both.

ICA
KOKO
Chrome Hoof

The Renaissance's master technologist.

It has taken us nearly 400 years to start coming to grips that one of Renaissansce's great masters may have been using an early form of photography to inform his sketches.

Image-capturing devices are nowadays more than just cameras - they help us communicate, feel secure and often entertain us. As a result, we have such a high level of visual awareness, that we often take the technology for granted or we ironise it. The roots of photography, however go much farther than we might have imagined.
 
According to Roberta Lapucci from the prestigious Studio Art Centers International in Florence, the artist used a spotlight that would illuminate his subject and react with light-sensitive substances that he applied to his canvases. Taking into consideration the craftmanship that becomes immediately evident when confronted with one of his masterpieces, it actually comes a bit as no surprise. 

He just strikes us like the kind of person that would invent photography, if he had to.

A convergence of literary genius and 21st Century technology.

In the first issue of This Is The Order, we featured a pair of young artists re-imagining Dante Alghieri’s epic journey through the three realms of the dead. ‘The Divine Comedy’ is a true literary colossus, so vast in scope that few would dare attempt recreate it today...

But Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders did it last year with a book that held up the the first stage of Dante’s voyage, Inferno - his route through hell - as a tweaked mirror to their own familiar world. It showed a dystopian California engulfed in what can only be called pure Armageddon - an infernal landscape of traffic jams, collapsed bridges, smouldering rivers, sulphurous sunsets and fire. Lots of fire. Now EA - behemoths of the video game - plan to bring Inferno to the gaming community. How will they fare? Well, if a recently released trailer created by design studio Psyop is anything to go by, pretty damn well.

We’d like to extend our thanks to Parkour Generations for their role in the photographic feature in the latest issue of This Is The Order. Their team includes some of the original and most experienced practitioners of this modern art of movement, so if you want to learn to see the city their way, get in touch with them. They’re keeping the spirit of Parkour alive...

Parkour Generations

Christian Fennesz's nautical music soundscapes.

With spring ripe in the northern hemisphere, time comes to align our music library to something more representative of the impending long days.

Austrian ambient artist Fennesz is quite possibly the most fittingly appropriate example of spring music. And even though his work ticks all the right boxes for a pop musician, its delivery does not fit many popular music conventions.

Fennesz's music is minimal, but the result is quite the opposite. He amplifies the minutae of feedback and seemingly arbitrary noise occurrences into a loud, organic aesthetic. ??His legendary 2001 album Endless Summer is one of few examples, where the work's title has a direct relationship with its content. It is an album that is a veritable modern classic - an enduring example of an artist picking up vernacular sounds and converting them into something that is as far away from the ordinary as it gets. A masterful ebb and flow of textures, incrementally layered patterns that supercede some of the most colossal rock riffs ever written.??

Fennesz’s nautical aesthetic is further accentuated in his most recent outing - Black Sea which it is out now on Touch, and is equally remarkable. You can also catch Fennesz at the Southbank Centre’s Ether Talk on April 20, or live the following day.?

Jane Austen's Regency romance is getting the gore treatment.

Jane Austen's legendary Pride and Prejudice gets quite spectacularly resuscitated by the Los Angeles-based film and television writer Seth Grahame-Smith in what he proclaims would become the advent of 'murder-lit.'
 

Claiming the mash-up nature of pop music as inspiration, the author suggested that the novel was already an easy target. The 1813 classic is conveniently out of copyright, and if you look at it with the critical eye of a film connoisseur you begin to see all the buiding blocks of classic horror bonanza - a country estate, heroines in distress and the misleadingly idyllic landscapes of Longbourn and Meryton, with a gaping lack of gore.

??Going into more detail will probably not be doing any justice to this suspenseful stylistic marriage. At the moment, however, it is subject to a ferocious Hollywood bid, in which we are sure it will make a killing.

Pun absolutely intended.

The book is currently out in the United States, with a UK edition in the works.

High wire maestro Eskil Ronningsbakken steps into some shoes left by an extraordinary man.

Eskil Ronningsbakken, a 29 year-old Norwegian, is like a 49 year-old Frenchman. The latter, Philippe Petit, tightrope-walked between the Twin Towers in 1974; the other, Ronningsbakken, recently biked upside down 1000ft above the Norwegian Fjords in harsh winds. Both are Artists.

As Petit wound down a career in soul-stirring performances, he left a hole. There was no natural successor, no one to grip us like Petit had, no one to hold humanity in his thrall. But now we have Ronningsbakke and his arsenal of extraordinary feats:

"What I do is draw a picture with vulnerable human beings and their bodies in the surroundings of mother earth. That's the balance between life and death, and that is where life is."

Such a poetic approach aligns him far more closely with the school of Petit than it does with less considered stunts underwritten by the safety harnesses we, the public, can’t see. In 2007 Ronningsbakken balanced on a single ice cube 65cm by 35cm in size suspended on two ropes 1000ft over Dovrefjell National Park, in Norway. He also balanced on a trapeze upside down beneath a hot air balloon.

Artist Brian Dettner's take on a medium that to many begins to feel obsolete.

We recently had a look at a postmodern adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic Regency romance Pride and Prejudice, which brings to mind another closely related, and similarly bizarre personage - Brian Dettner.

?Artist Brian Dettner’s medium of choice is once again literary, but his approach and reinterpretations take a different form. He intervenes in a rather more physical way, and the result is fittingly striking.

Simon Schubert’s art puts perspective to paper.

At a glance, Simon Schubert’s art appears completely ordinary, simply because paper rarely manifests itself as white, pristine, and uncrumpled. And when it does, we are probably staring, rather than looking at a blank page, in preparation to work on it.

And this is exactly why the artist’s work succeeds - he very skilfully confronts our past experiences. The amount of detail that he achieves by simply folding and creasing is almost incomprehensible. This is further compounded by the pure surprise at just how expressive a sheet of paper can be, without having ever had contact with a brush.

“Insects have always fascinated me. These tiny little self-contained mechanisms that can walk up walls, fly, and jump 20 times their own height. They inspire me and at the same time remind me of how primitive our own technological advancements appear when compared to nature.”

Check out more of Christopher’s work here.

A series of subversive readings of Disney’s animated fairy tales.

Fairy tales have traditionally had a tremendous task on their shoulders. They have to function as a moral corrective, a convincing emotional vignette, and more than often lull their audience into slumber.

Adhering to the “happily ever after” principle and all its prerequisites is the tried and tested way of softening the narrative crescendos to a palatable final line, in order to cue our audience to rest.

Disney’s modern interpretations of the classical Grimm narratives are the dominant form of the traditional fairy tale. The multi-million dollar animated features have essentially idealized a lot of what was at first cautionary tales - rife with betrayal, peril and often an ominous conclusion. The resulting product created a misbalance with both reality and the original creative edge of fairy tales.

Buildings aren’t supposed to produce sounds, are they? David Byrne begs to differ.

Surely if a building makes a sound, it’s either a sign of something going wrong, or in the case of the Roundhouse, it is being used as a musical instrument.

David Byrne, lead Talking Head and one of the most courageously eccentric figures of the post-punk movement has seen it all. He helped the Talking Heads sneak in their musical agenda onto the pop radar in a convincing, Trojan horse of a musical format – a loose-limbed blend of post-punk, afrobeat and new wave.

And whilst the Talking Heads stood for a tasteful balance of eccentricity and experimentation, David Byrne consistently sought out other creative outlets to nurture some of the most more game-changing sounds of the 1980’s along with Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.

Here is a video of Les Paul introducing the Les Pulveriser - further proof (if any is really needed) of his incredibly infectious enthusiasm. Makes Steve Jobs look like a complete hack.

More on Les Paul can be found in the upcoming Sound Issue of This Is The Order, which can be obtained by signing up for The Order. We will also be running an exclusive competition for members of The Order to win a custom Gibson Les Paul, so be quick or be denied.
 

The highly-commended documentary will be an exclusively screened tonight, and followed by Q&A with the man himself, for those who manage to muster the strength to confront him with a question.

For more info:

The ICA London
Martin Strel

The evidence surrounding the action.

We are suitably fixated with the nature of sports - the drama, drive, tension, the often animalistic competition all play an indellible part of our infatuation with spectator sports.

Our fascination is well-documented. There are books, studies, and a matter of thousands of years of human history that position sports as a central element to our cultural move forward.

American photographer Howard Shatz has taken things to a completely different level, far more peripheral to the concept of sports. In an astounding series of boxing portaits he compares side by side before and after images of fighters. The vivid, almost forensic approach,allows for a sober perspective on what is otherwise a testosterone-driven and intensely brutal spectacle.

Photos: World Press Photo
http://www.howardschatz.com/

Kseniya displays incredible skill in her sand animation interpretation of Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. The audiences emotive reaction is of no surprise - the story is just as powerful as is the skill with which it is delivered.

http://www.kseniyasimonova.com/

Viale's monuments to the absurd.

David’s arms covered in Russian tattoos, and The Big Bang in the form of a Popcorn kernel, expertly carved Styrofoam marble. Magic.

Fabio Viale’s sculptural work makes a very special kind of a statement. A typical example of the Italian artist’s subdued irrevence is how he has manipulated the quiet magnificence of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ into a disquieting statement of manhood – he takes what is famously under-represented, and magnifies it to absurd proportions.

How blending in can help you stand out.

Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin really makes one wonder just how much Photoshop actually achieves.

The meticulous detail of his camouflage art somehow casts a shadow on all the computer-generated effects in the world, whilst making a powerful political statement. Seeing Liu Bolin blend in with often disquieting images of power, symbols of the state, or the state's notorious neglect - like decrepit ruins, anonymous fields or a prison courtyard, creates a human-shaped void of sorts.

Michael Paulus gets to the heart of the matter.

The brilliant work of Oregonian artist Michael Paulus has a fabulous darkness to it.

He takes famous cartoon characters and adds a rather surreal dimension to their often exaggerated proportions. While quite grim sounding, his autopsycal drawings of Betty Boop, Hello Kitty and the Power Puff girls are more humorous than they are unnerving.

Another element of surprise is how recognizable these characters are even in skeletal form. You can actually own these unique pieces of pop art for some not unreasonable prices, right from the artists' website.

www.michaelpaulus.com

Performance art taken to yet another extreme.

Many a times we have extolled the riveting highs achieved by our Relentless artists. We are suitably proud of them.

'Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.' said the ever-wise Churchill and we couldn't agree more. Understandably, an indelible part of all of these dramatic stories of success is, of course the struggle in getting there.

This most spirited of principles best describes the work of Kerry Skarbakka. The performance artist's portfolio consists of blood-curdling moments of inertia, midway between peril and success. The daredevil artist has made an entire study of ordinary and not-so-ordinary situations of physical collapse, and has somehow managed to create some truly pertrifying photographic work.

For more info see: http://www.skarbakka.com/

Half-data, half-art, wholly fascinating.

Who would have thought infographics existed in such finely ornamented form?

Infographics is the general term for creating a visualisation of qualitative information (i.e. large amounts of data.) This definition of the term is perhaps misleadingly contemporary. Mapping dates back to some of the first-known cave drawings, which consisted mostly of primitive landscapes drawn in charcoal, much like the famous Lascaux cave paintings.

As science progressed, mathematics, physics and the natural sciences began to converge, and called for a better way to record the more abstract, and often little known corners of the world. So more sophisticated ways of visualising information emerged, much like these fabulous Victorian infographics.

Andrew Zuckermann's oddly fascinating bird portraiture.

Andrew Zuckermann is a brave man. It takes a special kind of courage to remain calm and collected, whilst composing a perfect portrait photograph of an emu, staring straight at you.

Emu, for the record is Australia’s largest bird, and just one of tens of bird species that Mr. Zuckermann has photographed for his most recent book, simply titled “Bird.”

On paper (or screen) this sounds utterly unexciting – the subject matter is set against a clean white backdrop and photographed with a state-of-the art camera. Nothing special, until you actually witness the simple, concentrated beauty of these fabulous animals. It’s like staring nature in the eye. Or a big, hairy Emu.

For more high-resolution photos and some behind the scenes action, go to Andrew’s website.

A film on paper and in 3D, and guess what - it’s not Avatar.

How often is it that we see a film turn into a book? It only really appears to work the other way around.

But architect Johan Hybschmann has done his best to reverse this misconception. He drew inspiration the film “The Russian Ark” - a single-camera 90-minute tour of the majestic St. Petersburg Winter Palace in glorious slow motion.

Committing this lengthy, ponderous cinematic affair on paper sounds flatter than an A4, and would demand the literary attention to detail of Nabokov to be put to words. Thankfully, we are spared all of this, because of the creator’s architectural flair. Mr. Hybschmann has rendered the key scenes as lazer cut-outs in the pages of the book. The result is an oddly cinematic take on the original in spectacular detail, a level of simple ingenuity no 3D film technology can achieve.
 

There is beauty everywhere. However, it’s not always present at first glance. The key is persevering when looking for it.

Proof of this is can be seen in photographer Kevin Bauman’s Abandoned Houses Project.

Bauman has taken a series of 100 photos of derelict houses, each one hauntingly beautiful in it’s own right, but each as easy to miss as it is enchanting.

Take a look for yourself

Look at the above picture. Looks like a nice enough oil painting, right? Wrong. It's actually a photograph of a real life situation with objects, people and places covered in acrylic paint.

Alexa Meade has innovated a Trompe-L’Oeil painting technique that can perceptually compress three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane. Her work is a remarkable fusion of installation, painting, performance, photography and video art, and is a truly unique subversion of a centuries-old formula.

A picture is worth a thousand of them, and apparently actions speak much louder than them, but whatever your thoughts for us at Relentless, when we are searching for inspiration, there is nothing better than a good quote.

Here a few gems we unearthed online earlier.

OK, so it's not a farmyard animal suspended in formaldehyde, and nor is it someone's dirty linen, but it is beautiful — like art used to be. It's a picture, of course, of the volcano in Iceland. It comes courtesy of Nasa, and it takes the breath away.

Why did the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? Although the large ash plume was not unparalleled in its abundance, its location was particularly noticeable because it drifted across such well populated areas. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of small glacier on April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising volcanic plume. Pictured above two days ago, lightning bolts illuminate ash pouring out of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

The short film below is a super slow motion close-up of Apollo 11's launch on 16th July, 1969. It fulfilled the young President's promise and demonstrated to the world just what mankind was capable of. The narration is interesting and informative, yet doesn't detract from the poignancy of the moment: 30 seconds in real world time that amounted to one of the biggest and most remarkable advances in human history — pure artistry, engineered.

Pre-Banksy street art was less about status and more about subversion. It was built on the foundations of graffiti, and its roots were in letting the world know you – the artist – existed, which fast became letting the world know what you – the artist - stood for. Now it has turned into a lucrative commercial opportunity there are many who are init for the fame and very few who are still pushing boundaries and pioneering. This is not true of Skullphone an artist who has persevered working through paste-up posters and spray stencils to something newer, more exciting and digital.

In the pre-Pixar days of making movies, post-production and special effects weren’t done digitally, they were pain-stakingly produced by hand.

Giant gruesome monsters were, in actual fact, beautifully made small models. Models that were made, manipulated, re-made and re-manipulated to make stop-frame animations.

The process was long, laborious and often very very monotonous. However, it often produced something exceptional.

In comparison to today’s blockbusters and big budgets, some of those same effects do look simplistic, clumsy and even unbelievable. But there is something genuine living in those plasticine models; something which is too often missing from today’s pixelated pictures.

The time taken, care and craftsmanship add an analogue warmth which no amount of digital wizardry can re-create.

A master of this lost art was Ray Harryhausen - the man behind the killer skeletons in Jason and The Argonauts and many other pieces of cinematic magic.

With his 90th Birthday approaching, Harryhausen is finally getting the recognition he deserves. The London Film Museum has launched an exhibition in his honour called Myths and Legends.

For more info click here

Tell No One is the blog of London based filmmakers Luke White and Remi Weekes, it’s the home of their Lo-Fi film experiments. All the videos on the site are made with some pretty basic equipment - a camera, a computer and a lot of patience.

They say it is a peek into their creative process and call it an "informal brainstorm". We call it proof that lo-fi doesn’t have to mean low quality when made with love.

To be honest it doesn't matter what it's called, the work is beautiful and worth a moment or two of your time.

See more here

More people now have tattoos than ever before.

What once was a marker of originality is now one of conformity. But, there are tattoos and there are TATTOOS.

At Relentless, when we talk tats, we are not talking about tramp-stamps or your average crotch dwelling cartoon character. We are referring to the latter. TATTOOS.

The type that adorned ancient warriors as symbols of superiority, success and sacrifice.

The type that were administered by hand with a tiny chisel in unsanitary conditions. Ancient markings that meant you have suffered and would suffer for what it is you believe in.

Whether you believe beauty is only skin deep or real only confidence comes from within, there is no arguing with how impressive can be.

We were reminded of this when we found this little gem online. It's a video about Japanese tattoo master, Horiyoshi III.