Claudio Parentela

Crazy, crazy, crazy... Amazing artwork, dancing on the edge between peace and madness. Claudio Parentela was born in 1962 in Catanzaro, Italy. He believes using a range of different mediums gives him “endless possibilities.”

              

<<Claudio is part of that energetic squadron of creative Italians that live in the province and are more appreciated abroad than in their homeland.>> 

<<I draw mostly in black and white using a lot of black indian ink on paperthe reason is that I like strong feelings ,strong contradictions and the best contradiction,and the stronger contradiction is the contradiction and the eternal war between the black and the white>>

<<To draw is a wayto know myself?...I dont know if its soI draw&I draw all the time becauseI like this strange work Ive created for my many Claudio in myself.>>  

 

 

My art is my freedom – it’s been difficult to arrive here but now I feel so free, I can create freely. My artwork represents all of me – my natural madness, my dreams. my love for the world of fashion and all my 10,000 knots.

Sources: http://www.lanciatrendvisions.com/en/article/collages-from-the-underground 
                http://www.saatchionline.com/ClaudioParentela
                http://www.hungertv.com/art-culture/feature/claudio-parentela/

You can also try to check his website, but I honestly closed the tab because it was too bright and too flashy.

Oxfam: Grow

I really enjoyed the Oxfam's Grow campaign advert, thought it was very good in terms of visualisation of ideas and very easy-going (if I can say that).

Lawrence Weiner

Elephant #10, Spring 2012

This is Real Art

Have you ever heard of the This is Real Art agency, based in Old Street in London? I've been chicking it out for the past couple of days and this is what I think:

• impressive list of clients
• always clean and confident design
• good spacing
• diversity in things they do and a range of styles

However, I find some of the projects repeating each other, but maybe it's a good thing, because a client would know what to expect; and I just disagree with their obsessive use of Helvetica. It really does drive me crazy.

Check out their website here.

  

 

                                     

 

 

Phil Hansen

I am absolutely blown away by the American artist Phil Hansen. Creative thinking, constant refreshment of the mind, and, most importantly, sharing the experience and knowledge- all that is him. 

The best thing about his work- he records everything! I really enjoyed looking through his work. Here are a couple of projects I liked from his philinthecircle.com site:

When I thought I had a look at everything he had, I realized there was a link to his philinthewhaaat.com site, and this is where fun started. Phil, God bless you, talks about his work, explains and SHOWS how to do stuff! 

                                          

                                          

So I think Phil Hansen's art is craft, taken to another level, where interaction is placed first and where only the process of creating matters. Think about it: stensils, printing and PREPARATION is where he lets his imagination flow, but the final outcome is not relevant somehow, is it? Although his political work is very touching and mature. Well done, Phil, wishing you luck and can't wait for new videos!!

Single Saudi Women

I stumbled upon this photographic series by Wasma Mansour, a Saudi born LCC PhD Photography student. She has been working on the project for the past four years, meeting and documenting single Saudi Arabian ladies, who (mostly) live in the UK. 

“It’s incredible! The first thing people say when you mention Saudi women is the veil-unveil thing,” she says. “At first I thought it was depressing and annoying. Now I find it 
hilarious… and a bit lazy,” says Mansour.

Wasma says the subject is of her own interest. She says the single Saudi woman is to be "placed under two categories: she is either passive, docile and therefore in crisis, or defiant, rebellious and consequently liberated. The women I’ve met and photographed revealed a complex set of negotiations made to reconcile with their identities and assert their sense of individualism. My work interrogates these two polar existences by showing that the participants exist and function in a wide area between them." Mansour managed to explore the subject matter by giving the opportunity to discuss and reveal the participants' identities through their narratives, spaces and their things.

 
 

                       

                         

 

                                      

I think this is a very complex and quite personal but very open photography journal. To me, the subject matter is very intimate and subtle because it reveiles something I am very careful to think of and imagine, as Arabic women seem to be open mostly to their compatriots and this whole world of their stays unclear and blurred for an outsider. The project is supported by the fact it's about single women, something that, again, to me is very unstable as one would always imagine a strong and powerful man next to a fragile Arabian lady. Well done and keep going!

Wasma's website and this amazing tumblr workinprogress page , which I found very useful. Even the layout and the colour of the web pages feel and look Arabic, I really did get a Jeddah kind of feeling somehow.