kayl parker

this piece was, in a round about way, inspired by the documentary deep water about a sailing race around the world and the fate of donald crowhurst. a sentence that caught my attention was that reporters referred to him as “a weekend sailor,” meaning, of course, that he did not belong in a serious sailing competition.

i started building off of that, trying to find a word that fit with his personality at sea. i settled on the idea of an estuary, a body of water that neither belongs inland or at sea, just as crowhurst was displaced. estuary, brackish; i began to try and create imagery that would act as a definition for these two words. what i came up with is this edition of 25 screen prints with acrylic hand-painted areas.

for those of you in the chicago area, i’m selling them for $10. for anyone else, $20. let me know via e-mail if you’re interested: kparke4@saic.edu; there are twenty-three left in the edition.

whether people or places, stefan ruiz maintains a distance from his subjects. each photo, though amazingly different in content shows a minimalist approach to image making. i’m not sure i would refer to his stance as deadpan, but it is definitely the work of a neutral photographer.(above: ouarzazate, morocco, 2001; below: egypt, 2003)

rene vallejo psychiatric hospital, camaguey, cuba, 2001 (above)

ruiz uses the presence of debris and construction to make his photographs less glamorous, but slightly more surreal. they also hint at the idea of containment and commercialism which displace the viewer for a few moments when we first begin to take in the photographs. ruiz also utilizes negative space to make the viewer feel like they are in a less palpable reality. (above: corazones al limite, televisa studios, mexico city, mexico, 2004)

left: cairo, egypt, 2003; right: palace of justice, bogotá, columbia, 2007

amarte es mi pecado, televisa studios, mexico city, mexico, 2003

left: pan americana highway, peru, 2005; right: halifax, canada, 2006

bogotá, columbia, 2007

ivan and silvia darkin, rene vallejo psychiatric hospital , camaguey, cuba, 2001

silverton, usa, 2006

left: andrew hernandez, fresno, usa, 2005; right: selena ulch, miss rodeo nevada, las vegas usa, 2004

left: emergency room, chu de rouen, rouen, france, 2006; right: kamila sulnatova, almaty, kazakhstan, 2006

don jose, nezahualcoyotl, mexico, 2003

altiplano, chile, 2001

lukole refugee camp, ngara, tanzania, 2000

balu deshak, madhaya pradesh, india, 2002

left: alexandra ansanelli, new york city ballet, usa, 2005 right: marat kozhagaliev, almaty, kazakhstan, 2006

emergency room, chu de rouen, rouen, france, 2006

note: some of the diptychs were created by me, not the artist

so, even though i’ve only been living on my own for about a year and a half, i’m already notorious for killing every plant i think to buy. maybe if i become more invested, i’ll be able to keep them alive for longer (though morgan says i should just buy fakes). i started doing research on plants that are fairly easy to raise and recently bought two large plants. (apparently, i can’t grow my own herbs; i only kept my oregano plant alive for two months, my basil plant alive for three.)

plants:

the two “low maintenance” indoor plants i purchased were from lowes: snake plant (sansevieria) for $5 and anita plant (anita draceana pleomele reflexa) for $11.

they are both currently living in my room without potters, but with (i think) the right amount of light and water. i’ll keep you updated on your survival.

planters:

with a little help from google and notcot, i found some beautifully planters that i would love to look into buying. the first (above) is from woolly pockets and is made of breathable fabric to help keep your soil happy (i think this is a good thing). the woolly pockets come in three different types: wally, meadow and islands. wally of course hangs; the meadows are for gardens with multiple plants, and the islands are for inside your home. there are, of course, different sizes to suit your type of plant, but the pockets can get pretty pricey. (the one pictured, above, is a medium (“lana”) size for $39 in camel hair).

another planter i found is the box planter by michael koenig for flora. this is quite a turn around from the softness provided by the woolly planters. this is a contemporary, minimal planters that begs to be co pared to its cardboard rivals. it comes in many sizes and colors; my favorites being the slate grey and white boxes (the white actually look like little cardboard look-a-likes). 

accessories:

shane powers glass dome ($19 for small base, $49 for glass dome) from west elm, vintage garden markers ($28 for set of three) from anthropologie, monty’s liquid plant food ($9) from nybg shop in the garden, water while you’re away ($3) from better homes and gardens

future:

eventually i would love to own a few air plants and cacti. not only are they very tolerant of neglect (uh hmm), but they are also quite beautiful (and offer a range of decorating options).

air plant wall tiles by pigeon toe ceramics, succulent cube garden (set of three, $79) from viva terra, shane powers hanging glass: bubble collection ($9-$24) from west elm

succulent wreath ($98), needs to be “watered” once every three to ten weeks (wish they were more specific), classic cactus garden ($55), grapevine air plant garden ($29-$39); all from viva terra.

photography has long been haled for its ability to capture realism. however, photographic imagery is everything but reality. some photographers know how to stress this medium’s non-realist qualities. philipp schaerer is one of those artists.

schaerer is a little sketchy when describing his process of creating images on his website. it is understood that he manipulates his imagery (though he doesn’t so much as hint how it is done). beautiful deadpan pictures of natural and man-made structures (such as stone walls or green hills) are molded into highly geometric architectural forms. the result are beautiful, seemingly three-dimensional images.

“the main focus of my interest lies in the creation of images which try to reflect a built exaggerated reality. today, digital image editing allows the creation of images which are nearly impossible to distinguish from a photograph. but what other image strategies and aesthetics can be pursued with the help of digital image techniques - image strategies which are not only aimed at the most exact realization of photographic rendition? working with images, i am interested in the creation of images which in fact are based of a photographic language, but which can be abstract, model-like and exaggerated and try to reformulate the question of the differentiation between reality and image.”

kp

so, cody made himself an “ultimate christmas list,” prompting me to make my own. here’s my dream list, made up of items i will not find under the christmas tree, but that i would like santa to consider anyway (if just for a little laugh).

item #1: swatch’s white rebel watch, $65//why it’s unreasonable: not only do i not care about the watch for its value of time, i also would probably forget to wear it more often than not. though it isn’t unreasonably priced, this water-resistant silicone watch would sit in my jewelry basket for the majority of it’s two-year battery life. the minimalist design and beautiful color (yeah, color) begs for my attention, especially when you notice the minute details, such as the inclusion of the date and the beautiful dissecting lines the overlap of the hands creates. i’ll save it on my list for that time in my life where a mere $65 can be thrown at some eye candy.

item #2: black swan: the original motion picture soundtrack//so this isn’t exactly what you would call a far-fetched request, but it is when you saw the movie and fell in love with the soundtrack five days before christmas. i’m not even sure santa sends regards to requests made that late. depending on where purchased, the soundtrack costs around $10-$15 and includes the likes of traditional ballet pieces, dramatic contemporary compositions was scored by clint mansell and takes on a complete life of its own. very capable of writing its own story as a stand alone piece, this soundtrack has the high potential to become memorized for every fermata, adagio and modulation.

item #3: laurent corio’s shokki cooking vessels// who wouldn’t want a few of these to cook/serve/microwave in? the problem? not only are the website mostly in french, they are also too confusing to navigate. the question remains; where do i buy them? so, not knowing how much they run for, let alone where to direct the buyer, i cannot add them to any particularly serious list i have. the outside of each vessels is crafted using clay found in the burgundy region of france; rough, colorless and matte. but when the dish is opened, a flash of color of gloss is seen (in the area of the dish used for the food itself). not only are they beautiful, each vessel is highly utilitarian, transforming seamlessly from a cooking pot to a stand alone bowl.

item #4: vík prjónsdóttir’s snow blanket// why it’s unreasonable: its $210. enough said. granted, it’s made from 100% icelandic wool and is unbelievably adorable. so yes, i do want one. it’s a (glorified) minimalist snuggie, basically, for people with a huge amount of money and a lot of taste.

item #5: small antler hook, $90// i want maybe three of these, to hang right by the door, maybe for coats but mostly because they’re pretty.

now for the stuff i asked for (and hope to receive).

item #6: various photography books (including alec soth’s niagra, $65 and uta barth’s , $45)//why i want them: it is very rare that i become enamored with an artist’s entire body of work. soth has a way of photography mundane foreign ideas and transforming them from the arbitrary to the relevant. he lives and inhabits space among the things he photographs, maybe this is why he is so successful. but i can literally say i love each of his pictures. similarly, uta barth knows about arbitrary, but she is also attracted to it. her minimalist conceptual backgrounds for her picture making also create a highly successful and stylistically beautiful body of work. i want the books not only as coffee table decorations, but also so i can own a piece of their work, if only in the printed form of a bound object. (other books i asked for include charlotte cotton’s the photograph as contemporary art and(monoliths), as well as books by mcginley, luigi ghirri and alec soth (dog days: bogoda and sleeping by the mississippi).

item #7: webb glasses by warby parker// i’ve been asking for these for a while, but really, it’s a great deal. first off, they’re cheap (at $95, free shipping, rx included), and secondly, when you buy a pair, warby parker gives away a pair to someone in need. what better way to spread holiday cheer?

but really guys, have a merry christmas!

a few days ago i was contacted by tris hutchinson photography. though he was contacting me, i was excited to find his images quietly alluring. with subtle coloring and selective lighting, hutchinson produces photographs that are both successful and muffled, communicating to the viewer a complete pre-existing narrative. i am very hopeful that he continues to update his website, as well as keep in touch. thanks tris!

kp

how cute is this? i want one in white (of course). a+r store presents a fascinatingly minimal hand cranked paper shredder. about $45.