BEAUTY: Art--Nicolas Kuligowski

I have been struggling to summarize Nicolas Kuligowski's work. There is clearly an urban reference in his images (scaffolding, heaps of tires, a cellphone tower) as well as the addition of a classic urban art tool: spray paint. Yet his imagery also seems to include a sense of the suburbs and interior domesticity. Interesting juxtaposition. Whatever is going on his head, it is clear that he focuses on a single object whether a chair, a house, or an embracing couple. In this way, he is almost using a kind of semaphore language with each of these objects acting as a signifier. The feeling of encountering a language one cannot possibly understand (in this case a personal visual language) can sometimes be deliciously satisfying: one is forced to live with an enigma. And that is a nice reminder...

http://www.nicolaskuligowski.com/

BEAUTY: Photography--Julien Mauve

Parisian photographer Julien Mauve's series "After Lights Out" imagines an eerie world of perpetual darkness. I have often had the daydream of "what if we lived on a planet that was always night, what would that look like?" but the answer I am sure would be that we would have adapted to the dark and would not need light at all. Mauve's dark world sees a lone light source as a beacon of comfort and hope...something longed for but elusive. The images are haunting... especially the one with a light burning inside a crypt (sixth image down).

http://www.julienmauve.com/

Woodkid: WOW!

French video director-turned recording artist Woodkid (Yoann Lemoine) makes robust, powerful music. These two debut videos, "Iron" and "Run Boy Run," directed by him are simply thrilling! The second one picks up where the first one leaves off...

http://www.woodkid.com/

Ice Rider

Matthieu Paley, a French photographer (who has shot for the likes of National Geographic, Geo, Newsweek, Time, Outside, and Discovery and others) living in Turkey, took this breathtaking photo he calls Ice Rider, showing a man on horseback crossing Lake Baikal in Siberia.

Paley describes the image on his website: "A bird's eye view of Lake Baikal, the world's largest fresh water lake. During winter the ice is up to 1.5 metres thick, allowing trucks and animals to cross safely. The white lines are cracks in the ice and as temperatures change these emit loud shuddering noises, reinforcing the eerie atmosphere."

http://www.paleyphoto.com/
http://www.paleyphoto.blogspot.com/