Photography by Scarlett Hooft Graafland

Dutch photographer Scarlett Hooft Graafland transforms inhospitable terrain into new surreal spaces. For My White Night, Graafland’s canvas is the vast white space of Igloolik, a tiny Inuit village in Nunavut, Canada. Mixing elements of photography, performance, and sculpture, the work addresses topics such as climate change and generational gaps. Allowing the landscape to “dictate the work,” Graafland creates “visual question marks without giving answers.” Inspired to work in such remote conditions because of her “nostalgia for regions that are still completely natural,” Graafland chose Igloolik because of its “traditional Inuit life and cultural activities.” What she found, however, was a land “captured between traditional life and westernized equipment.”
     With over half of the population under the age of 16, most of the youth know nothing of the traditional ways of Inuit life and are completely Westernized — “going to school, learning how to use the computer, consuming Western food and drinks like soda and juices.” Addressing this disconnect is “Lemonade Igloo”. For it, Graafland fashioned lemonade ice blocks out of water and lemonade powder, and then had the elderly Inuit men use the blocks to build an igloo. When it was all finished, Graafland invited the Inuit children inside to drink orange juice.
     Other works illustrate the vastly differing seasonal weather conditions characteristic of arctic environments, as well as the devastating effects of climate change.
(more…)

Photography by Ulrika Krynitz

It’s been great to see a growing number of eco-lodges offering a more sustainable holiday alternative surface over the last years. As much as they all deserve recognition for their environmental awareness it’s hard not to get excited when stumbling upon one with that little bit of extra. One like The Wood Hermitage, located in the leafy Holaved forest in the south of Sweden. The Hermitage — surrounded by lakes and the mountain Omberg — has welcomed guests to its spartan facilities since May 2007. Offering simple luxury, the lodge mixes traditional Swedish craftsmanship with Japanese-influenced interior design. The small handcrafted wooden huts and cabins — some of them with grass covered roofs — work in harmony with the surrounding environment. All houses except for the main cabin were built using trees felled by the storms Gudrun and Per in 2005 and 2006. The use of electricity is sparse — there is only enough for running a single 15W light bulb in the kitchen and the solar panel in the bathing house. Both the sauna and the wooden bathtub are wood-fired. On top of such a cozy living space, The Wood Hermitage also embraces the local food trend, with all the food coming from their own garden or nearby farmers.
(more…)

ATP Recordings

I’m not sure any record review can do more justice to Fuck Buttons’ music than the description on their MySpace page: “sounds like: the universe.” The Bristol duo’s second album, Tarot Sport, could easily be the evidence and result of “close encounters”: an alien creation that seems beyond human description or control. Even the song titles make it clear we’re beyond the earth’s atmosphere from “Surf Solar” to “Space Mountain”. In this realm, noise and non-musical sounds have as much value as instrumentation, reminiscent of ’90s Aphex Twin, and no doubt owing to the production of stalwart DJ Andrew Weatherall. “Phantom Limb” sounds like what would happen if ecstacy was distributed at the Star Wars cantina. “Surf Solar” (streamed below) deconstructs the vocals with a strobing effect, where something’s being said but it’s not clear what language or life form it’s coming from. But it’s the 9-plus-minute closer “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” that really captures the imagination: a Martian fertility dance of tribal percussion and expansive guitar work that recalls the Edge. There are possibly only two things that underlie Fuck Buttons’ musical intent — the attempt to put you in a trance and, in doing so, transporting you to somewhere otherworldly.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy this at iTunes.

For those looking for an eco-friendly way to get around the city, without actually having to exert extra energy en route, there’s P.U.M.A. Designed by Segway — the company who developed the Segway— and General Motors, P.U.M.A., which stands for Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility, may just be the solution for eco-conscious urbanites everywhere. Like the Segway, the P.U.M.A. features advanced sensing and dynamic stabilization with a zero turning radius. Unlike its older brother, it includes a domed weatherproof roof and seating for two. Suitable for both city roads and bike lanes, the P.U.M.A. can travel between 25 and 35 mph for twenty-five to thirty-five miles on a single battery charge — which take five to eight hours — making it an ideal vehicle for short commutes. Costing, approximately sixty cents in electricity per charge, and estimated to cost less than most current small cars, the P.U.M.A. is also highly cost-effective. With only one prototype in existence, and no plans to start selling the P.U.M.A. anytime soon, our hopes of owning the perfect clean transportation vehicle will just have to wait. In the meantime, you could always get a bike. We still think those are awesome.

Enlarge

Chris Scarborough is an artist known for his preoccupation with mixing, morphing, and combining things in improbable ways. And he always does so with impeccable drafting precision, so that the finished works, while unusual and often surreal, appear to have an element of truth to them, as though they are right in some unknown way — even though the objects and figures he creates don’t look that way in the “real” world. An artist with such tendencies seemed like a good choice to provide an EARTH BY image, and his contribution (no. 24 in our ongoing series) is every bit as enigmatic and thought provoking as we would have imagined. “It explores an environment,” he says, “that exists after some global event — the big bang if you will. But we are not sure what kind of bang it was, and the world we now experience is similar to the one we knew, but some things are now askew.” Having received his BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2000, Scarborough is off to an impressive start in his art career. He has been included in New American Paintings and covered in ArtPapers Magazine, High Fructose, and PLANET among others. He exhibited at Foley Gallery in New York City in 2008 and has an upcoming show in December at Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta. He currently lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the immortal words of Albert Einstein, “in order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.” We’re not too keen on blindly assembling into anybody’s fashion flock, but in the case of the North Circular Knitwear Company, the English woolies brand “knit by grannies and supported by supermodels,” we could be persuaded to wear a bit of sheep, if not become one ourselves.
     At the end of October, North Circular will launch a collection of handmade knits fashioned entirely of rescued Wensleydale wool, available on a made-to-order basis via their website, where not only can you meet the handsome Wensleydale flock, but select the color, size and style of your lovingly woven garment. The Wensleydale sheep — along with the entire British wool industry — have fallen on hard times as of late, and brand founders Lily Cole, Katherine Poulton, Alice Ashby, and Isobel Davies made the downtrodden breed’s improved well-being the main concern of their stylish business venture.
(more…)

With her Cannes-award-winning turn in Lars von Trier’s sinister thriller Antichrist hitting theaters next week, Charlotte Gainsbourg has just released the title track of her new album IRM (due out in January 2010), capping off what promises to be a big month (and year) for the singer-thespian. Produced by Beck, the song sets Gainsbourg’s spoken-word vocals over mechanical whirs that evolve, in very Beck fashion, from a claustrophobic dream-haze into a mesmerizing dance-beat. Both the album title and industrial aesthetic hark back to Gainsbourg’s scary hospital experiences and numerous MRIs, amid her September 2007 surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage. Two years later, we’re glad to see she’s not only healthy once more but back to producing amazing work for both the eyes and ears.

The track, “IRM”, is available for download at charlottegainsbourg.com. As a bonus, check out this video featuring Beck and Gainsbourg discussing the song.

Noriko Ambe for MAD Paper Ball

Paper is traditionally the gift for a first anniversary and, if all is well with the young union, a quiet night out at a fine restaurant, white wine, and an evening between the sheets are in order. For the first anniversary of the Museum of Art and Design, however, paper may be the theme, but the festivities will be anything but quiet. Already a growing destination for lovers of chic, finely crafted objects, the new location of the Museum of Arts and Design — it’s housed in the revamped 2 Columbus Circle, once deemed the “ugliest building in New York” — will play host to the MAD Paperball, a charity event benefiting the institution and marking the opening of the new exhibit, Slash: Paper Under The Knife. In keeping with the general two-dimensional motif, the exhibit features works crafted of paper using laser etching, burning, and myriad other techniques by artists such as Kara Walker, Olafur Eliasson, and Pietro Ruffo. That’s all well and good, but back to the party — hosts Coco Rocha, actor Bryan Batt, Harley Viera-Newton, Cassie Coane, Leo Fitzpatrick, and the ever-present Paul Sevigny will set the mood as attendees bid on paper-based works by Frank Tell, Jeffery Monteiro, Greg Lauren, Issey Miyake, and many more. Naturally Jean-George will provide the nibbles and all are invited to partake. Bring your wallet from 6pm to midnight and get ready to tear the roof off the place (just try not to rip the artwork while you’re at it).

The MAD Paperball is tonight at The Museum of Arts and Design. For tickets click here

Houses of the Holy Eric White, 2009. 12″ x 12″ oil on panel 2009

Pity the poor album cover. Once the artistic and marketing doorway to many great (and less than great) musical experiences, and the site of many a rolled joint, the old 12”x12” canvas has now been reduced to a little collection of pixels on your iPod screen. Seeing classic covers in their full size, from Houses of the Holy to Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is no longer part of our day-to-day musical experience, but part of our collective past.
     That’s where Eric White’s latest exhibition, LP, comes in. Grabbing the classic covers of his childhood, the Brooklyn-based painter has taken the totemic images of classic covers, such as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, and rendered them in oil paint, mutating and twisting the familiar with a modern eye. Harry Belafonte’s Belafonte, a mainstay of baby-boomer collections, features a melted portrait of the singer, his mouth — his instrument — now gone, and the title reprinted in Arabic. Similarly the made-for-radio faces of The Knack are now swirls of paint and the title of their Get the Knack is now “Too Much Content”. And there, over these twisted faces, is the greatest clue to the mystery of LP.
(more…)

Lefse Records

Thank Alan Palomo for not taking acid. If he had, then Neon Indian, the lo-fi pop duo consisting of the VEGA lead singer and Brooklyn-based video artist, Alicia Scardetta, would never have come to fruition. Started with the song, “Should Have Taken Acid With You” — which Palomo had written as a humorous apology to Scardetta after their plans on taking LSD together fell through — the project soon manifested itself into a full-fledged multimedia collaboration. Hazy lyrics and synth sequences give songs like “Terminally Chill” and “Mind, Drips” a sound reminiscent of lazy, strung-out summer days. With the debut LP Psychic Chasms out this week and gigs lined up through January, the ambitious 21-year-old took some time out of his busy schedule to speak with PLANET° about blogs, Ecco the Dolphin, and a heated exchange with a similar “Neon” band.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Buy this at Other Music or iTunes.
(more…)