Javier Mariscal

I went to the Design Museum in London the other day, and there was an exhibition on Javier Mariscal. Admittedly I had never heard of him before but I loved his work! Its so vibrant and happy and it makes me smile!


Mariscal is Spanish and moved to Barcelona in the 70s. He first started work as an underground comic artist. A lot of his work, even the 3D work has a very comic-esque vibe to it. He has mostly taught himself and is a jack of all trades. He's designed furniture, jewellery, bars, hotels, clothes, textiles, ceramics, and has even ventured into performance and film-making.

(Above) This is the room in which you enter the exhibition, called the shower tunnel, and these drawings are hanging from the ceiling. The room is black and quite dark so you don't get the full effect from this picture. On the other side of the paper were drawings of cartoon characters, alphabets, and more.

These are some little Trompe l'Oeil pieces he made which were clever. The background is a film with the heads of two cartoon characters chatting away.

Mariscal also made 3D pieces. Above is a moped made of corrugated cardboard stuck together. Below is a little stucture of a living room and his animations playing on the telly.

No matter what he works with, he manages to make everything in his own unique style, its easily recognisable and very wacky.

If you aren't familiar with this work, you may recognise his branding for Barcelona, and in particular his typographic work, below.

Woody Allen

During the past couple of weeks I've managed to watch 2 Woody Allen films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point, which was on BBC1 the other day.

If you don't want to read about any spoilers dont read the blue paragraphs!


Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a story about 2 women, Vicky and Cristina, who travel to Barcelona for the summer. Cristina is an adventurous free spirit with no certain direction in her life, whereas Vicky is more cautious, studying Catalan Identity, and engaged to Doug.
During an outing they meet Juan Antonio. He invites them to spend the weekend with him. They accept and travel to the town of Oviedo. Whilst there, Cristina and Juan get cosy but she falls ill and has to spend the weekend in bed. This leaves Juan entertaining Vicky, who after a night of wining and dining, end it together in bed. Vicky never tells Cristina, and leaves them to meet with Doug and plan a Spanish wedding.
Cristina and Juan eventually move in together, and all is fine until one day Juan receives a call about temperamental ex wife, Maria Elena, who just tried to kill herself. Maria moves in and the three of them eventually form a polygamous relationship. Vicky is secretly jealous of their unconventional love and realises she still has feelings for Juan. The three are happy until Cristina becomes unsettled and decides to move away. Both are upset and once Cristina is gone, they split up too.
Vicky decides to have lunch at Juan's house where she falls for him when suddenly Maria Elena charges in with a gun and accidentally shoots Vicky in the hand. Vicky understandably gets angry and leaves.
Once Cristina comes back, Vicky confesses all to her and they get back to the lives they had before Barcelona.


What I found a bit strange straight away was the narrator. It sounded a lot like an audiobook which I eventually got used to. It was an interesting story and I thought Penelope Cruz as Maria Elena was excellent. I don't think I've seen a Woody Allen film before and this is what I thought his films would be like, a bit quirky and unconventional. Overall I would recommend it.

Match Point was completely different. The story centres on Chris Wilson, an ex-pro tennis player who falls for the mysterious Nola who just so happens to be his friends, Tom, fiancee. Funnily enough Chris gets engaged to Toms sister Chloe, but has a moment with Nola during a family weekend away. Chris wants things to go further but Nola refuses. Chris and Nola eventually get married. Meanwhile Tom and Nola split up. Chris has the urge to find Nola and one day bumps into her in the Tate Modern. They begin a passionate affair, but things get complicated and Chris has to choose between Chloe and her family fortune, and the struggling actress Nola.

After seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I found this film was a lot more serious, gritty, and in my opinion not quite as good but it was still watchable. It didn't have the quirks of VCB although it did make me want to see what happened next.

As I have only seen two Woody Allen films to my knowledge, I can only compare these, so I don't know whether he has a certain style like a lot of directors, or if he tends to mix it up a bit. I also noticed Scarlett Johansson was in both films, and I read she was in another one too. I wonder if she was/is Woody Allen's muse?

The Hirshorn Museum and Art Gallery is situated in Washington D.C. and a while back they held a competiton in which the only rule was competitors had to create something out of one piece of paper alone. Some of the entries are below, and they are amazing!

Julien Taylor

Julien Taylor is a French photographer with a difference. He takes hundreds of photos and pastes them altogether to for a photo collage of a scene. The outcome is similar to that of a fish eye lense but more artistic, Taylor sees it as a fusion of cinema and photography.

"I photograph as if I were making a film, then assemble the instants that permit me to tell a story in a single fixed image. This creates a new world halfway between reality and fantasy, playing with time and space to produce a fiction out of fragments of reality. "

http://www.julientaylor.com/

Taylor made a project about the Parisian nightlife, through his warped lense, which is also quite interesting.

http://nyctaloop.free.fr/

Samsung Advert

Brilliant advert for the new digital camera by Samsung. Enjoy!

Polish Posters

Here are a few Polish posters, some from the Cold War era. They are very recognisable and were praised and admired in their heyday. Many of the social surrealist posters came across as very violent to me, the one above makes me cringe! The artists who create the posters during the early 1900s and onwards became known as the Polish Poster School. During those tough Communist years, the artists used their work as a voice for their thoughts on the state of their country, whilst trying to sneak through the strict censorship policy.

Mario Testino - Let Me In!

A photography book by acclaimed fashion photographer Mario Testino. The book contains photos of celebrities "behind the scenes".

The images were taken during and after professional shoots, capturing intimate and unstaged moments.