Image of the Day

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Visionaire 61: LARGER THAN LIFE, the biggest magazine ever produced ever. The cover image is Lady Gaga by Inez & Vinoodh but I'm mainly posting it because I love the type. Click here for a preview video and if you're in NY, stop by 11 Mercer to look through the issue in person.

Art, Fashion, Beekeeping

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Horacio Silva of the New York Times interviews Cecilia Dean, co-founder of Visionaire.

On the Move

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Artist Tauba Auerbach (center) with Ohne Titel designers Alexa Adams and Flora Gill

MOVE! is a two-day event this coming weekend at PS1 merging art and fashion through collaborations between designers and artists. Organized by Visionaire co-founder/editor Cecilia Dean and journalist David Colman, the two-day event features collaborations by Tauba Auerbach and Ohne Titel, Kalup Linzy and Diane Von Furstenberg, Rob Pruitt and Marc Jacobs, Terence Koh and Italo Zucchelli (Calvin Klein Collection), Brody Condon and Rodarte, Rashaad Newsome and Alexander Wang, Dan Colen and Proenza Schouler, David Blaine and Adam Kimmel, and Jonah Bokaer and Narciso Rodriguez, among others. Here's a preview of a collaboration between Olaf Breuning and Cynthia Rowley:



MOVE! runs October 30 and 31st at PS1 in Long Island City (NYC). Visit PS1.org for info.

Impresarios, Take Note

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The latest issue of Acne Paper has a great interview with the lovely Cecilia Dean (whose singular aesthetic has long made her one of my few personal style icons).

Cecilia Dean with Baroness, Lady Bunny, and James Kaliardos
at the launch party for Visionaire 18. Fashion Special,
held at Mr. Chow in NYC (1996).

Here, Cecilia talks about the conception behind, and evolution of, Visionaire's legendary launch parties – and describes how their design and curation has played an important role in the creative life of the multi-format publication she helped found. Having attended a few of these with Strath when we lived in New York, I can attest to the fact that Cecilia throws a fabulous and memorable get-together. Read and learn.

...And as always, much, much more to enjoy between the current (party-themed) issue's covers.

Acne Paper is available at fine newsstands everywhere (in Seattle, check Bulldog News in the U-District).

Image of the Day

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Satin and metallic brocade cover for Visionaire 58 SPIRIT, a tribute to Lee Alexander McQueen, with contributions from Nick Knight, Mario Sorrenti, Steven Meisel, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, David Sims, and Mario Testino, among others. The paper in the issue is embedded with wildflower seeds.

Info at visionaireworld.com

Rising Sun

Visionaire 56 SOLAR uses an innovative printing technique that transforms black & white images to color when they're exposed to direct sunlight. Some samples:

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin

Richard Burbridge

Alex Katz's painting of my former Visionaire cohort and buddy Kyra Griffin

Looks cool, I'm excited to see it in person. Other contributors include Yoko Ono, M/M (Paris), David Sims, Olaf Breuning, Glen Luchford, Mario Sorrenti, Ryan McGinley, Peter Lindbergh, and more. Go here for more images/info and to pre-order a copy.

The Weekend in Pictures

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We decided to be tourists in our own city this weekend. Our sentry, Mr. Littlejeans (aka Fang; Mr. Science), was none too pleased when everyone up and left the house Saturday morning.

First stop was our favorite brunch spot in the city, the Great Jones Café.

After brunch we went to Other Music so I could use up a credit. I love it that most records now come with a code so you can download the MP3s for free—it makes CDs a totally outdated technology. Here's what I got (clockwise from top left: Grand Archives, Gutter Twins, Throw Me the Statue, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks).

Next up we went to the Michel Gondry "Be Kind Rewind" exhibition at Deitch Projects.

There are a bunch of different sets and people can make their own little movies in the gallery.

We also went to the Visionaire Gallery for the Sound exhibition that I've been talking about.

Then I got some more records. I kind of went nuts this weekend because I haven't bought records for awhile. I'll post some MP3s later.

By then it was late afternoon and we decided to go to D.B.A. for a beer, and then to the Cherry Tavern for some more. Tracey took good care of us and they have Straight Outta Compton on the juke so we were quite content.

Next we grabbed a slice at the old East Village standby, Two Boots. It's by no means the city's best pizza (John's wins that battle), but it's unique and delicious nonetheless.

We ended up at Arrow (formerly known as The Rook), where my brother Sky bartends once or twice a week. That's his friend and fellow firefighter Ed on the right.

On Sunday we took a long walk to Newtown Creek, the border between Brooklyn and Queens. It's about five miles from our house in Fort Greene but there's tons of cool things to see on the way.

Kent Avenue, which runs along the East River, is like one big gallery—there's an ever-changing display of a paste-ups, graffiti, and little installations all over the place. This venus fly-trap is painted wood that has been epoxied to the side of a building. More pics from the neighborhood on my Flickr page.

When we got up to Greenpoint we stopped for lunch at this Polish restaurant. Lomzynianka means "girl from Lomza." It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is excellent and it's like eating a meal in someone's home.

The Polish are super-amped for Easter. There are great displays in the gift stores and bakeries on Manhattan Avenue.

Our final destination was the Newtown Creek sewage treatment facility—kind of smelly, yes, but architecturally really impressive and worth the trip.

The plant has been there since mid-century, but was remodeled by the Polshek Partnership, which also designed the Rose Center at the AMNH.

After that, we took the G train home, watched The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (beautiful score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, amazing cinematography, a very solid movie all around—though sometimes it seemed like Brad Pitt was channeling Eric Bana in Chopper, and Bana himself would have been better). Then we watched the final episode of The Wire, and it was great.

The End.

Other Sounds

Other Music, in my opinion NYC's best place to find new records, included a good review of Visionaire 53 SOUND in its weekly update. If you don't get their e-mails, sign up—they're knowledgeable, well-written, and a quick way to stay up on new releases that you might otherwise miss.

Various Artists
Visionaire 53 SOUND
(Visionaire)

Since 1991, Visionaire has provided a forum for famous and up-and-coming artists, fashion designers, photographers, and other interesting and well known personas to contribute their own personal take on a specific theme, each edition's beautiful and unique packaging a work of art in and of itself. For their 53rd issue, the concept is sound, and Visionaire takes the form of a sleek acrylic dome that houses five 12" vinyl picture discs, each side designed by artists like Wim Delvoye, Robert Longo, Raymond Pettibon, Peter Saville, Cindy Sherman, and Mario Sorrenti. Even more impressive is the range of people, numbering over a hundred (a large percentage being of interest to the Other Music customer -- although hearing Antony's voice following a Fergie track did make my day), who contribute sound pieces. Obviously too many to mention in these pages, but here's a partial listing: David Byrne, Cat Power, Adrock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Michael Stipe with Miguel Bose, Yoko Ono, Spank Rock, Dani Siciliano, Vashti Bunyan, Lalo Schifrin, Christian Marclay, Fiery Furnaces, Trevor Jackson, Dntel, Fantastic Plastic Machine, UNKLE, Pet Shop Boys, Fischerspooner, U2, Jose Gonzalez, Dave Eggers, Sunn O))), Gang Gang Dance, DJ Spooky, Christian Fennesz, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon, Courtney Love, Laurie Anderson, Bebel Gilberto, Danger Mouse, Mike Skinner, Miss Kittin, Malcom McLaren, Liars, Dan the Automator, E.A.R., Monolake, the Go! Team, the Knife, Andrew W.K. and Panda Bear, plus fashion icons like Helmut Lang, Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen and more.

You'll also find a MINI Clubman "Vinyl Killer" record player housed inside the Visionaire 53 dome -- a pretty cool portable record player, the battery powered car plays the music as it drives along the groove of the LP -- plus a glossy booklet with artist credits and track info, and two CDs with the audio portion of the set (total running time just over two hours). Limited to 4000, this is a great collectible for that special audiophile in your life who has everything. [Gerald Hammill]

Click here for my previous post on the SOUND exhibition currently at Visionaire Gallery.

Visionaire 53 SOUND is available at Other Music, or may be purchased directly from visionaireworld.com

Picture disc artwork above by Peter Saville and Anna Blessmann

Sound and Vision

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An exhibition of images and tracks from Visionaire 53 SOUND is currently on view at Visionaire Gallery in Soho, NYC (11 Mercer Street at Howard, open Monday–Friday noon–7pm and Saturday noon–6pm).

SOUND took over two years to put together and was the last of nine issues I worked on with Visionaire. I'm really happy with the way it came out. The issue was sponsored by Mini Cooper and consists of five picture discs containing one-minute recordings by more than 100 different musicians, artists and fashion designers. It comes with a special edition Mini Clubman vinyl killer—a toy car with a record needle in the bottom that drives around a record, tracking on the grooves and playing the songs through an internal speaker. (You can see some more images at visionaireworld.com.)

I was actually not that involved in the graphic design of this issue, focusing mostly on sourcing the vinyl killer and the picture discs, and getting musical contributors. Lalo Schifrin, Fiery Furnaces, Miranda July, the Go! Team, Liars, Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon, José Gonzalez, Panda Bear, David Byrne, Michael Stipe, Cat Power, Spank Rock, UNKLE, sunn O))), Dan the Automator, Malcolm McClaren, Karen O, and many others each contributed exclusive one-minute tracks.
Raymond Pettibon (above left), Peter Saville, Robert Longo, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Mario Sorrenti, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott (above right), Nick Knight and others contributed visuals for the picture discs.

The issue is available now from Visionaire for $250, or for $675 you can start a three-issue subscription with this issue. Check the website for more info.

Top, photography by Dan Forbes