Kozyndan

Octopus!

Courting

 It has been an utter nightmare trying to decide which images to put up to accompany this post for Kozyndan. Every place I looked there was just more and more astounding work, at one point I genuinely had six images uploaded, but obviously that's a bit much so, here we are, the two images I like the most as of this minute. By the time I finsh writing I'll probably want three other images.

Kozyndan are a husband and wife dynamic duo, where Kouze would sketch the outline then Dan would follow up with their patented colour. It is this colour use that is quintessentially Japanese: big and flat. This kind of colouration that makes me think of a diving pool full of paint of one colour, it has that richness and deep strong hue that looks like you could swim in it and drink it.

Ach and the detail too! I can almost feel the water spraying my face when I look at the bottom image!

I sincerely love everything Kozyndan have done, I even have had their work as my background on my laptop for months on end.

Check out their great and comprehensive website, it has EVERYTHING, AND IT'S GREAT: HERE

Hey, buy prints HERE

Updates, Connection Problems and Lucien Freud Exhibition

So, how bloody annoying  is it when your laptop that perfectly works for two years suddenly decides that the internet connection it's been perfectly connecting to for two years isn't there anymore?

Yeah. So, until I sort that out I am very much afraid (((Hyperpower))) may sit still for a few more days.

Anyway, UPDATES!!

I've progressed exceedingly well with the Zine, out of 16 pages I have 14, and am thinking about upping the content to 20 pages, but printing costs have to be considered too. I have several contributions from some very cool people and am waiting on some more. I think it's going to turn out pretty cool. When I can, I'll post some photos of the process.

Today, I went to the Lucien Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and believe if you get the chance, go. Freud's portraits are astounding in their intensity of attention to detail and I would think, though not meaning to be photographic, obviously, in many cases better than a photograph. Freud seems to capture the sitter, in his very laborious and time consuming process - apparently David Hockney's portrait took 130 hours! - and the sitter's essence. They're not only time invested in to the painting but emotionally invested too as Freud talks to them.

The exhibition is so good and it'll be on until the 27th May so definitely check it out. Here's the website HERE

Mike Wohlberg

So, from igneous giant that is Anish Kapoor to the rocky boulder that is Mike Wohlberg (I really don't mean to sound condescending, honestly). Wohlberg is actually a very new to me by name, I discovered his being through this exciting announcement by metal news website Metal Sucks about their South by South West showcase for this year, and it appears Wohlberg did the poster for them. And boy it looks swell, swell enough for me to check him out and indeed good enough to write this blithering post about him.

I like his dirty graffiti design style and after some digging around it seems he's been designing merch and posters for some hefty hitters in the metal scene for a while, I spy Today Is The Day, Burnt By The Sun and Pelican among others.

I enjoy speculating about the imagery that is ingrained within music scenes, and it's importance in our new digital instantaneous living. Is the art accompanying the music as important as it once was? There are many arguments to say record art is losing its place, especially considering growing digital downloads and the tiny image file attached of the artwork. However, that is to exclude the other avenues within the music industry for artwork, the artwork that actually receives notice like the posters and merchandise, merchandise actually being the biggest emergent as integral for a musicians revenue.

And so the merchandise has to look good with good artwork otherwise it won't sell, and this is where artists like Mike Wohlberg come in. #tangentover

Anyway, every time I've typed Mike Wohlberg I've battled with myself to not type Mark Wahlberg.

Really all over the place today.

But really, Mike Wohlberg is super great and you should check out his website: HERE

Anish Kapoor

Orbit

Cloud Gate

Leviathan

I will confess now and say I still get a little bit giddy when I think of Anish Kapoor... and his art! (He is dreamy, though, right??)

His work, in some cases especially, is astronomical, it explores possibly not outer space but atmospheric space, it enhances the space, it shows that it's not a vacancy of air but a thing of itself. This is most apparent with his Leviathan piece which astounds me in its scope and sheer size.

The Turner Prize-winning artist isn't, actually shouldn't, really new to anyone, he's been one of the most prolific and enchanting artists in our modern era, but sometimes it is nice to take a step back and really appreciate what he's achieved. For me, Cloud Gate is stunning. It's like a piece of heaven molded in to this smooth, conclave, edible shape.

Here in Britain we're in the process of the building of our Olympic Tower, known as Orbit to Kapoor, and I for one am entirely in love with its architecture, it swoons, it dives and it surges high with skeletal refinement. I can not wait to see it finished and gleaming in the backdrop of panoramas the BBC will most certainly utilise during the Olympic coverage this summer.

To remind yourself of more of Kapoor's work hit up HERE

Truly impressive.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children'

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an illustrious writer who's won the Nobel Prize in Literature and has written classics like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and is well known for popularizing the magical realism style.

I don't know why I haven't thought of this before, but there seems to be a great resource of online versions of classic short stories and I think it'll be cool to repost them here on (((Hyperpower))), so yeah this Marquez short story gets the honour of going first. Also, it's a personal favourite of mine. Check it out after the jump....

Anders Petersen

Rain Dogs cover image

Holy shit, did I just learn how to make images big? And it's taken me how fucking long? Jesus Willy Christ. What a break through. And what a better time to start, at the top is the very famous Tom Waits cover everyone recognises from his classic record Rain Dogs, but before it existed with that honour, it is a part of a series done by Anders Petersen in the now-famous bar in Hamburg's red light district Cafe Lehmitz.

What I like about Petersen is the studied grittiness in his documentary photography, everything is heaped in dirt, that under-the-nail grime that belongs to the under-classes. It's enthralling to be able stare in to a subjects eyes who is burnt out on the inside and have lost all notions of inhibition. But they're not actually miserable, indeed it's joyful imagery, like making the most of a dour situation.... by hanging out with prostitutes and drinking lots. Cool. That's what I would do.

Anyway, hit up Anders Petersen's website, it's got a great archive and it's where I began: HERE

Stacey Rozich and Earth pt. II

Yep, I've already spoken about Stacey Rozich before and her fascinating line drawings of her mythical creatures with oriental flair, and I love it, obviously. Yet, I'm here again just to post about the new artwork she's done for Earth's second Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light records, and I think it's pretty cool.

As you could before, check out her work HERE

And here's some new Earth, enjoy...

                                                 

Josh Graham

Josh Graham is the visual artist for the band Neurosis which is how I found out about him, but he also does artwork for records and whatnot for bands like A Storm of light and Red Sparrows all of whom are very cool.

The landscapes Graham digitally produces are phenomenal, huge expanses of rich detail and awesome colour, colour that you can dive into on the physical format. His work explores ecological themes and man-made product's interaction with nature when they're disposed of, and animals inhabiting places of the most strange nature.

His work is eery, unrestrained and textured. I haven't seen Neurosis live but I imagine it's a whole encompassing audio and visual experience that drowns you in senses.

Check out more of Josh Graham HERE

And I would recommend to check out Neurosis too if you haven't HERE

Zine Progress!

Yeah, this isn't very exciting , it's just I have the layout and format of the 'zine sorted out the other day and I thought I should document it on here. I've actually gotten to the point now where I've started to design individual pages and the cover and back cover designs and asking for contributors, so yeah I've been busy in this mini-hiatus from the flurry of posts of recent. Hopefully normal service will resume soonish...

Richard Avedon

I do confuse myself sometimes. Portraiture in painting bores the crap out of me, but portraiture in photography, done well mind, is so enthralling. I imagine being asked to be a subject for a portrait means you either have loads of wrinkles, look whacky or both.

Richard Avedon had been prolific in his portraiture, photographing big, influential figures from all the arts, literature, film, music, dance and artists and fellow photographers. His work is captivating in its intimacy.

The top image has the privilege of being my favourite portrait photograph ever. It sparked off an interest in Ezra Pound, the image's subject, that later affected an essay I was writing at the time. He appeared to be a wholly complex character, knowing many other affluent figures in literature and art, dealing with unsavoury characters like Wyndham Lewis, and personal heroes like Ernest Hemingway (even though many consider he was unsavoury too, I don't I think was he was cool).

The bottom image is of much-acclaimed and well-lauded director John Ford who Avedon captured immaculately his seeming impatience and stubbornness, which portrays Ford's personality wonderfully.

I'd recommend you to head to this website where you can see whole portfolios that are uncomparable: HERE

Thomas Moran

From yesterday's John Martin I've taken stock of what I know of landscape artists and realised Thomas Moran must receive some deserved attention.

His blazing colours and expressive form breathes movement into the earth and freezes the sea, perfectly capturing the elements. Like Martin, he also does seem to enjoy a good craggy cliff-top, and I think we all love a good craggy cliff-top every now and then, and this hits the spot.

I found out about Thomas Moran a while ago through asking some friends of who their favourite artists are, and it's sometime easy to forget in this internet age that your friends can provide some answers the Internet can not.

Then again, the Internet is pretty great too. I now capitalise the Internet because it's my friend too.

Check out this rather inventive website for more stuff HERE

And this site is another good'un too HERE