Ocularpation: Wall Street

Inspired as much by the comic genius Andy Kaufman as he is with the philosophies of John Cage, the Zefrey Throwell is no stranger to controversy, and has become an expert at getting people to pay attention. Whether through paint, film, or performance pieces, the New York-based artist has spent his career drumming up wildly ambitious projects that deliberately try to turn heads as a means of sparking up conversation. His work has been displayed at MoMA, the Whitney, and Lincoln Center, but he prefers the street to the confines of the gallery.

In the past year he’s “painted” with the garbage-riddled pavement of New York by dressing up in a white jumpsuit and dragging his belly across Union Square; in November he organized and participated in a seven day strip poker game as a means of exploring contrasting economic models, and, in an adventurous project titled “Midtown Games,” had 100 people take part in a 250 meter run through Times Square at morning rush hour. In another, titled “Why Not Take All Of Me New York?”, Throwell lived with complete strangers in a different borough of New Year each month for an entire year. The idea was conceived as an attempt to break his commuting habits—to break free from the constraints of routine—and it worked well. For him, there is nothing more uncomfortable than contentment.

But these days he’s best known for his work in the financial sector. This August, he and 50 volunteers acted out what he calls “a Freudian nightmare” and marched down to Wall Street dressed as businessmen, vendors, street sweepers, and prostitutes, took off their clothes, and proceeded to do their “jobs” for five minutes completely naked. Three people were arrested. Onlookers, many themselves on their way to work, were both amused and baffled. The press, meanwhile, went wild, and the event was covered by major media outlets around the world. The aim of Ocularpation: Wall Street was, in his words, to “bring a sense of transparency to one of the most mysterious streets in the world…and draw attention to the absurdity of the modern economic model.” The performance brought a much-needed media focus back to the financial district, two months before the Occupy movement took over Zuccotti Park and captured the world’s attention.

I spoke with Zefrey at his Ocularpation: Wall Street exhibit, which runs through February 11th at Gasser and Grunert on 19th Street. In addition to video footage from the performance, the exhibition features paintings and generic mass-market objects (phones, coffee cups and Yankee hats, to name a few) uniformly coated in artificial gold spray paint. After Ocularpation, Zefrey will head to California for his next project, Entropy Symphony: Movement III, a 1000 car horn performance that will take place on highways throughout the Los Angeles area during rush hour on February 15th.

Make sure you won’t miss Lane Koivu’s interview of Zefrey Throwell next week.

Guest Interview n° 34: Jimmy Wahlsteen

Despite the raw winter weather in Scandinavia, the soulful compositions by Stockholm based guitar player Jimmy Wahlsteen make you feel anything but cold. With his sights zeroed in on acoustic, he delivers evocative and innovative tracks that make us – normally lovers of lyrics – forget that there aren’t any, and soaks us up in the sound!

We caught up with Jimmy at the beginning of the new year to talk about his second album All Time High, the recording process, his relationship to fashion and also found out he has his sights set on a Grammy…

First of all; Happy New Year! Any New Year resolutions?
Happy New Year to you too! My only new year resolution is to get back in shape. I haven’t had any time to go to the gym continuously for a while now and I really miss the old me when I see myself in the mirror.

You recently released your second album. Have you done anything differently this time around?
This time I had every song finished before I started recording. I wanted to try everything live before I went into the recording process so I could choose the songs that got the best response from my listeners.
I also moved my studio to my country house where I did most of the acoustic guitar recordings. I then finalized the songs with some new co-producers back in Stockholm. I used the same mixing and mastering people as I did on 181st songs (Jimmy’s first album, editors note) though. It sounds just like I wanted it.

You’re using a playing style called hybrid picking, which means you’re using both a plectrum and fingers in the same time. What does it do for your sound?
The hybrid picking technique enables a very fluid way of playing. It effects my sound in terms of song writing and allows me to bring in some of the rock elements that influenced me a lot when I started playing guitar. It’s not really a deliberate choice to play the way I do. It’s just how I always did it and what brings out the best of my abilities.

Do you ever find it challenging to create music that captures the listener without any lyrics?
Song writing is always challenging and I take it extremely seriously. I wouldn’t say it’s more difficult because it’s instrumental, though. It’s always the matter of catching the listeners ear and do what you do best. If I would have been a lyricist I probably wouldn’t have bothered writing instrumental music. I just focus on what I do best.

You’re one of Sweden’s most booked guitarists and been appearing both on television and on tour with international artists. What’s the biggest difference in touring as an instrumental artist as opposed to with a band?
The differences are quite huge I would say. Being alone on stage is much more demanding and I find it very inspiring. I got to a point in my career where I stopped practicing and played it safe when I toured with artists. Now I practice for hours before every solo show and it has had a very positive effect on the work I do as a session player as well. To communicate directly with the audience is a wonderful experience but it’s also challenging and I realize the enormous press the artists I used to tour with have been under. I’m enjoying music and performing more than ever.

Your ultimate, dream gig?
I always set up new goals. It’s very important to keep developing as a musician. I think I reached my dream gig in November 2011 when I performed before a sold out La Cigale in Paris. Now I need to come up with a new goal. The Grammy Awards perhaps…

When do you feel the most inspired? Can you sit down and decide “today I’m gonna write a song” or is your creative process a bit more erratic?
I’d say it’s pretty random. In hotel rooms I usually manage to combine time and inspiration so that’s where most of my ideas pop up. Very few of the riffs I write makes it to the actual recording session but once I come up with stuff I really like I tend to sit with it for hours just to get it perfect.

You have a YouTube channel (which been awarded the “Most viewed award” by YouTube back in 2009!), a Twitter account and a Facebook page. What are your thoughts on the current social media trend?
I really appreciate that all artists today get the opportunity to be heard. Money isn’t all that counts when it comes to marketing nowadays. It’s more about being devoted to your sound and to be creative enough to attract listeners. YouTube has played a huge role in getting me where I am today.

You’re from Stockholm, the home of many prominent, contemporary designers. How is your relation to fashion?
Stockholm is a good place for shopping if you don’t look at the prices. I used to be pretty thorough about what brands I wore but at the moment I find it more fun to find stuff here and there on the few shopping rounds I do. I try to keep an eye open for cool things to wear and lately it’s been a lot of cardigans and scarfs.

Which was the first song you ever learned to play? Is there any song from your younger years that helped shape your style today?
First song I learned really well on an acoustic was the classic “Streets of London”. One song that really shaped my way of composing is “Feelin’ Groovy” by Simon & Garfunkel. Everything Paul Simon does is just great.

Thank you for your time, Jimmy!
It’s been a pleasure.

The Plant Journal / Winter 2012

Thursday night Artwords Bookshop on east London’s Broadway Market played host to the launch of the second issue of The Plant Journal. The cozy little hotspot was packed with fine faces from the London creative scene, including 2DM’s Ricardo Fumanal (who has a lovely illustration entitled “Monstera Deliciosa” in the issue), and photographers Paul Barbera and Roberta Ridolfi. The cause for the occasion, of course, was the sophomore issue of a lovely little journal that we had yet to get our hands on. Last night was the first time we’d seen one in person, and it is a welcome and down-to-earth entry into the rarified niche of very fashionable un-fashion magazines that includes the likes of Apartamento and other instant classics.

The magazine drips heavy with film photography, and is entirely about plants. Yes, just plants. But not in the Better Homes and Gardens vain. Lovely plants in cozy settings that make us wish for an urban terrace that’s just an itty bit bigger. Contributors to this most recent issue include 2DM’s Nacho Alegre, Ángeles Peña, Ari and Patricia Feld, Elein Fleiss, Misaki Kawai, Xabier Mendiola and several others. Inside, read about orchards in northern Minnesota, learn to make macramé plant hangers, cook along with delicious still-lives and peruse interviews with the likes of Simon Petrovich and Piet Oudolf.

The art direction is straightforward, with jumbo serifs and a rather adventurous use of rainbow script fonts and well selected art. It’s nice work from Cristina and Isabel Merino – who are also lovely hosts – and their crew that makes us yearn for springtime… We look forward to the next issue and will be warming up our green thumbs in the meantime.

Novembre Issue 4

If you ask the founders of the fabulous Swiss-based magazine dedicated to fashion and contemporary art: ‘Why Novembre?’, they will probably answer you that it is a non-title: “a title that looks like it means something, but does not”. Actually, as readers, we would say that for us it means a lot. It is synonymous of creativity, forward-looking and quality of contents – texts, which worth to be read and eclectic images that strike, together with a fresh and contemporary lay out.

The fourth issue of Novembre is out and now officially distributed worldwide. Written by polyglot, bi-national editors in trilingual version (French, German, English) for globalized people, the magazine, published twice a year, proving itself as an international source of inspiration. The list of contributors is excellent as in the previous issues and doesn’t let the readers down. Special guests, such as Fabrice Stroun, the recently made director of the Kunsthalle Bern board and Haider Ackermann, one of the greatest demanded designers of the fashion system, along with the conceptual artist Hans Peter Feldman and the Swiss performance artist, painter, sculptor, critic, and curator John Armleder, enrich the pages of the magazine with their visions. Last but not least, the versatile contemporary artist Peter Sutherland’s cover, featuring work from his show “Secrets of the Valley”.

Once more 2DM’s talents have the pleasure to collaborate with this unique publication. The photo sections of the last issue this time hosts the shoots by Tung Walsh, accompanied by the stylist Tamara Cincik, and the ones by Bruna Kazinoti. Don’t miss it!

Monica Lombardi – with special thanks to Maxime Beuchi – images courtesy of 2DM / Management

In Conversation with – Howitzweissbach

Eva Howitz and Frieder Weissbach are the inventive and intriguing fashion designers, who founded – together with their manager, Marcus Pester – Howitzweissbach, the young German label established in Leipzig.

Both the Howitzweissbach creative thinkers are strongly convinced of the importance of being able to go behind the garments, following all the production steps and grasping their ‘soul’. There is always a story, a concept behind their collections. Howitz and Weissbach’s unconventional and unique approach comes from a mix of regional traditions – all the products are realised in the Saxony area – and takes its inspiration mainly from art. Howitzweissbach pieces of clothing are based on quality and paid attention to details like the choice of patterns and fabrics or the use of French sewing, to give suits a pure and clean look, inside and out.

The brand doesn’t follow the trends and keeps aside the fashion industry to create its own style, recognizable thanks to an artistic and unusual taste, which communicates the founders’ values. The designers’ love for fashion and proximity to their audience made them feel the need of building up a second, affordable line named Freund (Friend), which “is not for everybody, it’s especially for friends”. Joining the online project Make your mess – the first experimental move of Howitzweissbach Freund online shop – people can buy a plain white piece and take part in a performance during which it will be splashed with colours. The result will be a one-of-a-kind item that reminds the works by the German contemporary artist Katharina Grosse, one of the members of the ‘Howitzweissbach own cosmos’.

Suitsupply Landed in Milano

Deconstruct a Suitsupply garment piece by piece, and the label’s truly uncompromising ethos comes quickly into sharp focus. The brand is resolute, intelligent. And the quality of its finery isn’t just a fleeting impression: a respect for craftsmanship is entrenched through and through in its DNA. Seams are manually-sewn by skilled hands, cuts are meticulously researched, tailoring is superb. The marque’s garments speak of a finesse and refinement that may just as well have come from a Savile Row atelier.

Today, quality is all-too-often compromised in the face of fashion. Men’s style has become on the one hand fast and disposable and on the other too-precious and rarified: it’s either attainable yet ephemeral or haughty and unwelcoming. But Suitsupply manages to defy the system to create garments that are enduring, fashion-forward, rigorously made and surprisingly affordable. As a result, it is a brand that is both resolutely bespoke and pleasingly democratic. Its workmanship is of the finest calibre, and its pieces are up to snuff among even the finest names in menswear. Its materials are sourced from exactly the same stock as others whose asking price is dramatically more, and its excellence is every bit their equal.

Suitsupply is smart sartorial. It’s enough to examine the curves and textures of one of the label’s classic, enduring designs or to run your fingers over the fine stitching to understand. In an age when it is not merely pretty clothes that make the man, but rather that which is behind the clothes, Suitsupply is a well-rounded erudite, worthy of consideration from even the most discerning. It is ambition. Careful consideration. Power. Savvy. And a bellwether for the modern man.

Tag Christof – photo courtesy of 2DM Management

Pitti Uomo 81

The sun shone upon Florence during the 81st edition of Pitti Uomo Fall/Winter 2012-2013. Despite the economic climate that has engulfed the past few seasons, a bright optimism pervaded the renaissance city, which took stock of the men’s fashion just before the Milan fashion week (January 14 – 17). At the Fortezza da Basso, the 16th century fort which plays host to the best of ‘Made in Italy’ and international fashion, we joined the chorus of tastemakers who had all invaded the city for the same reason: to get a taste of the vanguard of men’s style in the new year.

Having precious little time to visit, we made sure to mark a few favourites on our map. In the central pavilion nestled in amongst numerous brands, we stopped at Jeckerson, where high colour trousers – all made with organic fabrics and low water vegetable dyes – seemed to fight against the monotony of a monochromatic look. Meanwhile on the ground floor, Manuel Ritz presented perfectly tailored jackets with bright details that looked both comfortable and versatile.

The retro style of Vintage 55 attracted our attention in the Cortile della Ghiaia, while the Lyceum – the area committed to the emerging metropolitan expressions of international creativity – gave us a look at the Parisian brand Bleu de Paname, which uses only French materials and Japanese denim to produce its sober yet original collections. A high standard of quality and functionality set apart Digel, the classic German label, with its clever “iSuit” featuring an integrated smartphone charger. Handy!

At the Arsenal, a vintage flavour dominated SOHO’s showcase, and the boxes housed the brilliantly made t-shirts of Japanese purveyor Riding High, the brand made in Japan devoted to crafts and simplicity as its “standmate” The Superior Labor.

Despite the fact that they were facing one another Swiss Chriss and Masons offered two totally different takes on style: the former was minimalist and high-style while the latter was set up as an old-fashioned food market with with real and fragrant cold cuts and vegetables. Next, in New Beat(s) we discovered colourful sneakers inspired by the silhouette of the desert boot from Denmark’s House of Montague, on their first outing ever at Pitti. In Urban Panorama, we met Uniform and its rockin’ vintage 80’s atmosphere, complete with its bold ‘U’ logo.

Last but not least, we had just enough time to get to the Sale della Ronda, the rooms whose pavilions were dedicated to ‘touch’ and everything visceral. The project collected pieces that marry traditional garments with unconventional and more contemporary approaches. Here we found Department Five and Peter Non that presented its collection of hand-made shoes enriched by wool tapestries created by designer Renata Bonfanti. We also came across the experimental and unique vision of London’s Savile Row b store, which draws inspiration from musical icons such as David Bowie and Joy Division. Also in this area we found Pedaled perfectly suited to active people, who live their lives in the open air.

Continuing its process of renewal process, Pitti Uomo 81 focused on high quality in craftsmanship and took no umbrage at paying more attention to the needs of the most demanding niche of customers. In this way, ‘made-to-measure’ and personalisation seem to be the key ideas menswear labels are using to fight conformism and homologation.

Our tour (de force) at Pitti came to an end a little too soon, but before leaving Florence we couldn’t miss the live Waterproof performance arranged by Pirelli. The event, to celebrate the Pirelli PZero raincoat, took place in the Tepidarium, a glass house from the late 19th century. The evocative scene included a rainbow of colourful balloons suspended over guests, tall mannequins dressed in PZero raincoats and huge umbrellas with video projections and bowlers – which recall men the style of Magritte’s men. Electronic music and excellent food accompanied a nice end to our time at Pitti.

Lola Montes Schnabel / Carte Blanche

Last month she made a splash at The Hole in New York’s Bowery. And for Milan Men’s Fashion Week, we’ll see her in a decidedly more comfortable state here in Milan. Lola Montes Schnabel, the multitalented and pedigreed artist, has conceived a fantastic new capsule collection together with Sportmax for the third edition of its Carte Blanche series, whose previous headliners were Kim Gordon and Christophe Brunnquell. The initiative is art in motion, and a surprisingly direct injection of art into fashion.

The collection of 1,000 numbered pieces will include 3 foulards, a top and a shopping tote. All present an interesting twist on classic watercolor technique, as the originals were all painted on paper explicitly destined for diplomas. (Smart fashion?) The effect looks to be stunning – one of the foulards in particular looks like a mini reproduction of one of her massive canvases art critics drooled over in New York. Of the pieces the says, “my designs come from the unconscious, sometimes I watch them grow without knowing where they’ll end up…”

The collection will be presented the 16th of January at Sportmax’s flagship store on Via della Spiga, from 5:30pm, and Montes Schnabel herself will be in attendance.

Sandra Suy / Elle Netherlands

2DM’s Sandra Suy mined the constellations for a look at our prospects for 2012 for Elle Netherlands January issue. And despite the ups and downs the year will inevitably bring, our outlooks on love, luck, and money at least all look pretty hot thanks to Sandra’s penchant for pretty. Signs become accessories, total looks. And don’t they all sound great in Dutch? Schorpioen! Maagd! Leeuw!

And Elle Netherlands itself is looking pretty good lately: its art director Tara van Munster having just won the honor of Mercur 2011 Art Director of the Year. Well deserved.

And as a nice bonus, we’ll see each of these illustrations once again in each of the coming issues of Elle this year: each will be spotlighted in its own month, starting with Aquarius (Waterman in Dutch. Nice.) in the just-hit-newsstands February issue. 2012 is already looking pretty nice! It’s written in the stars!

Dank je wel, Sandra!

The Editorial: Kodak Filmflam

I can almost hear Paul Simon’s 1973 hit “Kodachrome” blaring away on AM radio like an eerie death knell. Eastman Kodak is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. While the iconic Kodachrome has been dead for a while now, it seems surreal that Kodak itself could soon be extinct – until at least the late 90’s, it was right up there with Coke as one of the world’s prime, ubiquitous, everyday brands. But in the throes of the nasty, nasty recession (depression?) we’ve found ourselves in for the past few years, anything has been possible. There have been many falls from grace, but this one is too massive and sad to believe. Since the early 2000s in photography, we’ve seen titans like Polaroid reduced to sad shells of past glories, while legends like Minolta, Contax, Konica, and Yashica have stopped making cameras altogether. Even scrappy survivors like tough-kid Pentax and serial-innovator Olympus are looking forward to depressingly dim futures…

It’s just business, right? Well, sorta. This grim scenario is clearly a function of a drastically altered social and economic landscape, in which many once-great players in an overcrowded industry were simply beat out by others (Apple, for instance) who were better at anticipating the times. As the paradigm has shifted fully to digital over the past decade, the industry has become a ruthless game of innovate or die. The silver lining is that consumers today have tons of choice of among more stylish, well-made, and inexpensive cameras than ever before. Hell, even the iPhone can be a pretty killer little snapshot machine (and just look at the fantastic work 2DM’s Skye Parrott has done on her BlackBerry).

This isn’t just a tirade against digital: in fact, digital has been a brilliant boon to photography and has expanded not only its definition and applications, but it has opened up the medium to millions of amateur shutterbugs and certainly accelerated our visual culture (see last month’s editorial Instagram Is A Murderer). And at the professional level, high-end digital sensors offer unforetold possibilities in dynamic range, scientific applications and experimental photography. Tons of professional digital work is fantastic, and fine artists, commercial photographers and shutterbugs alike have made tons of excellent of digital work. Cindy Sherman, for instance, went from film activist to digital acolyte.

Film, though, makes emotional, poignant, visceral and sometimes imperfect images. They feel like real life. Film snapshots are always better. Those sleek, functional digital toys pretty much all make pretty junky images by comparison. They’re okay for Facebook, but will never match magic recollective of the works Jakob Holdt or Dennis Hopper made on cheap, basic film cameras. Just like insanely high-fidelity digital audio recordings whose sound simply cannot match the gorgeous, visceral experience of low-tech vinyl, digital simply cannot replicate film. Pixels are not grain. But unlike vinyl’s very apparent technical limitations, large-format film is capable of producing images of superior fidelity. Film’s endangered species status boils down to considerations of cost and convenience conspiring to rob us of choice…

British photographer Richard Nicholson’s haunting series of images of the last surviving professional darkrooms in London is a sobering, almost tragic look at just how much the world of analogue photography has dwindled over the past decade. Many of these labs remain endangered and all need our continued support and patronage.

In any case, what’s most tragic about Kodak’s very possible bankruptcy (just like the “real” Polaroid’s death a few years ago), is that there still exists a very clear demand for analog products! The people want film! The connoisseurs want film! The professionals really, really want film! 2DM wants film! Lomography continues to build its savvy and youthful all analogue empire, and the Impossible Project has set about the noble task of making classic Polaroids possible once again. Ilford does well by offering only monochrome products of the highest quality, and Fujifilm has gone from a classic set of analog products to also making fantastic digital cameras without abandoning its excellent analog products. Go Fujifilm! Kodak on the other hand killed Kodachrome to cut costs, consolidated several of its other lines of film, and concentrated too many resources on unremarkable digital point-and-shoots and cheap-o printing equipment that professionals wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot-pole. As a result, its brand has become an anachronism despite the fact that it still makes some of the best contemporary color film, and has been on the vanguard of some of the most advanced digital sensor technology in existence.

The best outcome we can hope for now is that Kodak can up its innovation game, accept a major downsizing and recognize that its greatest assets are the legions of photographers who love its film (and still spend tons of money on it). Kodak, please ditch the cheap-o, indiscriminating consumers who just want simple, no-fuss devices to take drunken party pictures and crooked tourist snapshots for their social networks: Apple and several others have already blown you way out of the water.

In the spirit of film’s epic struggle, Wonder-Room’s next project is to be a celebration of the fine art of analogue photography. It is a look at process, the art of printing and the magic of long-perfected chemical, mechanical processes. Stay tuned.

Hold on to your Contax G’s and T’s, your Yashicas and Olympus X-A’s, your Minolta CLE’s and Kodak Instamatics and keep making magic with them. And while you’re at it, show your support for camera makers like Voigtländer, Alpa, Carl Zeiss, Fuji, Hasselblad, Leica, Mamiya, and others who still produce lines of excellent film cameras. Dust off that old Polaroid and stuff it with some Impossible or Fuji FP, because the day market pressures finally make film disappear you’ll be left with nothing more than chintzy Instagram filters and some pretty crappy photos. You poseur.

So, sing it with us loudly kids: Oh, mama don’t take my Portra rolls away…