JENNY HOLZER: Protect, Protect

In a moment of blind luck, I was invited to preview Jenny Holzer's largest retrospective in fifteen years, "Protect Protect" at the Whitney last week. Running til May 31st, the show is immaculately curated, a winding journey favoring a lot of Holzer's more contemporary works and then ending in a darkened room with her trademarked neon flashing messages.

A brief glimpse of Jenny Holzer: She gained recognition in the 70s with her "Truisims" which were a type of "Escatological Laundry List" that she posted everywhere. She began to project onto buildings, using phrases and sentences that were aggressive, usually dealing with war or sex. Dark, critical and deliciously masochistic, her work then continued with "Lustmorde," which was a depiction of rape from the view of the perpetrator, victim and viewer. Today she is working on "Redactions," which takes "unclassified" documents detailing the Iraq war detainee treatments and quite literally blows them up to be examined.

Because her work is unapologetic and inflammatory, there is something adolescent in a lot of what she does - magnifying words or difficult speech and then making the viewer swallow the often painful imagery. One of the suits from the Whitney was explaining, almost apologetically, that "with Jenny Holzer, its not just the words that she is depicting, but the actual visualization of the words." While it is true that the flashing marquees and neon lights are fairly beautiful, I totally disagree: It IS the words that are so moving. Simple, unhinged language being ignited like a billboard is incredibly and irresistably powerful. A lot of her work challenges the viewer as being passive - by reading this you are passively accepting the world - but then encourages a different course - RUIN YOURSELF BEFORE THEY RUIN YOU. This dichotomy, this tension, is what draws me to her work. She is both the accuser and the accomplice.





It takes a while before you can step over intert bodies and go ahead with what you were trying to do.

Some days you wake and immediately start to worry. Nothing in particular is wrong it's just the suspicion that forces are aligning quietly and there will be trouble.



Some Redactions.



A confession from a soldier admitting to killing a child. The hand written note and the fact that it was on a wall by itself was simply impactful.




The physical presence of the confessions.



Jenny giving us a tour.



Massive handprints of torture victims.



Some of her neon structures.





Lustmorde. This is my favorite of her works. She took human bones and bound them with metal that was engraved with her work. The statements themselves are nauseating and powerful. I was physically shaking at the pure physicality of her imagery. You can see more here.

I feel who you are, and it does me no good at all.


The simplicity of her language and presentation is so vehement.

May 31st at the Whitney.

Twitter? But, I just met 'er?!

You can follow me now.

http://twitter.com/leilaclaire

If you had been following earlier, you could have witnessed my traipse around Washington Square Park to locate the elusive Topshop truck.

I promise you it will be good fun.

L

TENOVERSIX Private Line

The lovely ladies over at Is Mental always talk about how amazing TenOverSix is - with good reason. The LA-based retailer is a bit of LA's response to, say, Opening Ceremony (besides, er, Opening Ceremony) or something a little more quirky. And, for FW 09, the gals have created their own capsule collection, made of lovely coats, bags and even a couple pieces of jewelry.

Actually, the laptop bags are quite cool - I really have been noticing a lot of paint dipped things recently and I like that you can actually discern a where the paint stops.

Oh, and two-toned shoes are always amazing, and are apparently made by Kristen Lee, whom I've been following secretly since Surface did its big LA thing.










Is there something happening in a Navajo-print, native inspired way here? Can I get a poncho?

Where The Wild Things Are

Massively uplifting news today. The dream project "Where The Wild Things Are" is not only in production, but trailers are being released this weekend and stills have finally hit the interweb. Possibly one of the best adaptations of all time (except for Jodorowsky's ill-fated Dune, perhaps, or Terry Gilliam's Watchmen). If you haven't heard, this is like, a fortuitous alignment of impossible forces: The story is apparently very faithful to Sendak's 1963 children's masterpiece, it's directed by Spike Jonze, written by Dave Eggers and starring Catherine Keener and Forrest Whittaker.

And the test footage was so heart-warming it almost melted my ice-encrusted soul:

where the wild things are video
Uploaded by masalladeorion

The pictures that surfaced on USA Today look amazing. Max is irritated instead of cute, the movie looks thoughtful instead of oafish and there is a general sense of expanse and melancholy.








Oh, and to top it all off, the boy who PLAYS Max is actually NAMED Max as well. I can't wait til October.

CROSSING LINES and CAMILLE ALTAY

Very exciting news that I wanted to draw the general attention to. Camille Altay, who you might recognize from such roles as My Best Friend 4Ever, just got accepted into her first real-live jurored show. Located at the fairly large and reputable Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Camille is one of several artists located all over the east coast to be featured in a show that "engages latitiude, limits and attitudes with boundaries either upheld or transgressed."

Camille's work has always been fascinated with geometry and placement: things meld, morph and merge in often cartoonish, overtly sexual ways. Abstract notions feel somewhat tangible - and there is always something a little threatening but also precocious lurking beneath the surface (like a child offender...?). I think this show has a theme that is very much in line with her work, and it sounds like it's quite a good fit for her. Rumor has it she is going to apply for a solo show. And, it's Delaware, which is quite fancy.

Here are some lovely, line-featuring works of Camille's:





I believe that the "Universal Events" series is the piece that made it in the show, but I can't find a digitial representation of the specific work.


Anyway, if anyone heads to Delaware in the next few weeks (the show is up til the end of April), check it out, take some pics and I would totally post them.

Want More Leila??

You can always stalk me over at Interview. Just check the fashion blog, or here.

Amazon in the Mood

Hello.

Since when did Amazon.com start getting amazing shoes at absurd prices? Why didn't I know about this? Why are they so cheap? And, is it wrong to like how well Jessica Simpson rips off of Balenciaga? Has this been going on for a while? Can someone talk to me about this?







Guess "Maeve" Boots for $60.85




Botkier Jamie Boot for $168.73 (marked down from $460...)




Camper Twin bootie, $58.00 (marked down from $200)




ALL BLACK cut out bootie, $58.00 (marked down from $170)




Oh dear. Jessica Simpson taking a page out from Nicolas Ghesquiére for these heels. Quite nice - at $104.00


Nine West Nistka lace-up, $50.00 (marked down from $150). It's ok to like Nine West. High quality, most of their ideas are not their own. It's okay, I promise...




Killer 'bats from Seychelles, $72.00




Diesel Prairie boots, $79.00 (marked down from $238)






Perhaps you can't tell, but I'm not quite ready to let go of winter, because my footwear options run dry. But boots and shorts, as we all know, is probably the best combination since chocolate milkshakes and fries.

(ALMOST) Spoiler-Free Review of WATCHMEN

I had a chat with the impossibly lucky and incredibly well-versed Matt Harper over at MTV. He is the resident comic nerd over there, and with a degree in Cultural Studies, he actually has a fair amount to say about movies. So, of course, his opinion is pretty valid when it comes to comic book cinema, so I bugged him about his experience having a super-secret peak at the highly anticipated Watchmen movie out next month.

Ok - quick rundown: Watchmen is written by Alan Moore and is a graphic novel, and it kind of exploded a lot of ideas about comic books being about tits and guns. It takes place on the eve of a Soviet attack on the US, and a bunch of half-washed up "costumed adventurers" dealing with the problem of not being wanted anymore. There are no superpowers, except for Dr. Manhattan, who is a literal Atom Man, further deepening our nuclear-age anxiety, and Dr. Manhattan is the US's greatest protection against invasion. And costumed adventurer and war hero The Comedian is dead, so schizo/moral-upholder Rorschrach investigates if someone is wiping out heroes to cover-up something much larger than Soviets.

Zack Snyder, of the divisive "300", has undertaken the movie - and clearly the Soviet anxiety will bring up comparisons to 9/11, etc. Fans are torn: this is like filming "War and Peace" for Russian Lit enthusiasts, "Neuromancer" for hackers or even The Bible. Really.

So I gave Matt a few questions, and he had more than insightful answers, so here is a first glimpse from a real authority:


Battledroid: Zack Snyder is gratuitous, slick and overly produced. Does this help Watchmen, or does it take away from Alan Moore's grittiness?

Matt Harper: Ok, you kind of guessed one of my criticisms...some of the gritty realism of 1980's New York is lost in the slick translation. That being said, i have to give Snyder tons of credit for not holding back with the dark tone of the movie. It is 100% a hard 'R'...lots of gory violence and graphic sex. (Note: there is one particular violent scene that is missing...I’m sure many people fans will notice and complain about its absence, but Snyder has promised that it had to be cut for time, and will be in the director's cut)


Courtesy of MTV

Battledroid: Give me a brief plot outline:

MH: Dont be lazy! Read the book. There's your plot outline. Seriously. (There is one main divergence, and a few small omissions, but generally they all make sense...)

Battledroid: What actors did an incredible job? Who shined? Who was hard to take and why?

MH: Jackie Earle Haley was amazing - its jarring to hear Rorschach speak for the first time...but you get used to it quickly. And there is one particularly line in the prison that Jackie Earle Haley “nails” (and interestingly, is not spoken by Rorschach directly in the book). Malin Ackerman is a bit weak, but a lot of her scenes are with a CGI character...although, I should also mention that I find the Laurie’s character completely annoying in the book, and i think some of the changes they made to her were an improvement character wise anyways.

Battledroid: The genius of Watchmen is the self-referential glorification of comic book history and the tension between Golden/Silver/Modern age ideals. How did the movie deal with flashbacks? Was it effective? Did the comic book-ness lose out on the big screen, or were you still able to make those connections between the comic book archetypes and the movie? Or did they characters become "action heroes"?

MH: Obviously some of the flashbacks had to be cut for time...the character that suffered the most in this respect was Nite Owl...BUT where Zack Snyder really succeeded was in creating a totally believable and immerse world/history. There is so much detail in every shot. So yes, Dr. Malcolm Long has a much smaller, and less interesting role, but he's still there at least.

As far as whether they become "action heroes"...Snyder has embellished a lot of the action sequences...but I understand his reasoning for this. But I think he's managed to keep a lot of the realism, pathos, and moral ambiguity of the characters, so in this respect, they are never *fully* glorified as heroes...if anything they are small, narrow-minded, and ultimately ineffective - exactly as they should be. (My one caveat is that I cant fathom how Silk Spectre is such a good fighter...even after being retired for a decade, and wearing high heels...but that was a problem I had with the book as well, so whatever [BD NOTE: Laurie doesn’t smoke in the movie!!!])

Courtesy of MTV

Battldroid: Rorschrach: Was he portrayed as a good guy or a bad guy? Hollywood needs one, and Rorschrach is neither...

MH: I *kind* of agree with that statement...but Hollywood also loves a badass. Rorschach is portrayed exactly as he is in the book. He sees himself as a morally superior avenger, others see him as a psychopathic vigilante. What I’ve always loved about Moore’s book is that every character has a different moral outlook on the world...yet all of their outlooks are flawed. And thankfully this is something that Snyder hasn’t
Messed with.

On that note though, I think this movie is going to be very hard for non-watchmen fans to relate to simply for that reason - there really is no character for the audience to identify with...

Battledroid: How awesome was Bubastis? Seriously.

MH: Seriously? Um, good I guess, but not in very many scenes at all. Ozymandias still kills him though!

Courtesy of MTV

Battledroid: My favorite interaction in the whole series is between the kid and the newspaper vendor. Did that happen?

MH: Yes, but no. It was shot, but is not in the movie (though you can see them in a few shots). Snyder has promised that in the fall, a super-long edition (3:30 I think) of the film will be released, which will include those scenes with Bernie and Bernard, as well as the Tales of the Black Freighter interstitial.



Battledroid: Can you talk in depth about one really wonderful, exhilarating sequence, i.e. the highlight of the movie? Where did it drag?

MH: Hmmm. Its hard to pick out just one moment, really. I guess the origin flashback for Dr. Manhattan - but I think that's mostly just because I love the character, and i think they pretty much nailed him. I guess its not the highlight of the movie, but it stands out in my mind at this moment

Also, the title sequence is “amazing” and perfect.

[NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Aaaand, I guess the scene that drags is the conversation between dr. Manhattan and laurie on mars...mostly because this is a long conversation, and Malin Akerman isn’t that great. (although I should mention that they cut down the conversation noticeably...including my favorite line from the whole convo [NOTE: The line about everyone being a puppet on strings, Manhattan is only able to see his]). Oh also related to that scene, her realization that the comedian is her father is kind of lame in the movie...

[/SPOILERS]

Battledroid: Will fans love this movie? Will the general populace? How does it compare next to 300? If you were Grumpy Old Crazy Alan Moore, what would you think?

MH: If they are reasonable, yes. It’s really hard to imagine anyone doing a better job adapting this book. So if a fan isn’t happy with this movie, chances are that they wont be satisfied by *any* adaptation. Will the general populace?…Doubtful. I saw the movie with a few people who were unfamiliar with the book, and they hated it. Its really hard to approached if you don’t know what you're getting in to. Which is sad, because it really is a pretty good adaptation.

And as for crazy old Alan Moore? He would probably hate it too...not because it disrespects, or does disservice to his masterpiece, but because watchmen was written by him *specifically* for the printed page...so much of the book's storytelling techniques exploits the printed medium, so ultimately a lot of genius of the book cannot be completely and faithfully translated to any other format. (And also because Alan Moore really is a crazy old man at this point...read some of his recent work if you don’t believe me)

Again though, Zack Snyder has done as good a job as is humanly possible. I think people should think of the movie as a monument to the book...or a companion piece. What is accomplished by the film is amazing and breathtaking, but is not meant to, nor does it, replace the book by any means.

I should add that overall, Watchmen is the most faithful comic book adaptation i have EVER seen...there were so many moments that i literally felt like panels had come to life...[NOTE: He also said this about “300”]

Again, like I said, I think people should judge it somewhat separate from Moore's work...keeping in mind that there are some things that are just impossible to translate from the printed page.

Indeed Matt Harper, indeed.

Minimarket + Agent V (aka, The Swedish Thing)

Because of my continuing obsession (and stalking) of poor Henrik Vibskov, I've cozied up to his press agency Agent V, which is based in Germany. Immediately, I realized they are a bit like People's Revolution in the US (who rep, like, everyone cool). So I poked around their website and I found possibly my favorite new designers of things I would actually wear.

Minimarket is a group of three cute Swedish girls (seriously, can that country do no wrong?) who make clothing that looks like Topshop meets a fantasy and is kissed by ladybugs. I would probably wear every look from their SS09 collection. I actually think its because I don't hate their usage of color. Perhaps I even actually want to (gulp) wear some of it...I'm debating writing their PR person and begging to translate their site for me so I can order some of their clothing, but I don't think I'd be able to settle on one item.














I would look pretty awesome in that pleated white shirt and that Bordeaux skirt. Really. Something must be done.

TAG YOURRIT

Without having any prior knowledge of this blog game, lovely Amanda over at Is Mental just informed me that I was tagged in her blog. What this means is that I need to post a picture, on her command - and I'm not going to argue with her.

Here's the deal:

::go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures
::pick the 4th picture in that folder
::explain the picture
::tag 4 people to do the same



So, this is a horrendous picture of myself and my roommate Georgia at a party last summer in Williamsburg. It's about two AM and the cops are about to bust the place and we are both sweating buckets. I ended up wearing the same AA dress as my friend Jill (the dangers of American Apparel), but it looked pretty great in that disheveled-cracked-out-drunk-2AM American Apparel way...and the only reason I didn't toss this is because rarely do my cheekbones get the photographic credit they deserve.

Ok, I tag Michael, Meagan, Camille and Mary Reilly

Wee!

McQueen for Target

Ok, let's get this straight. This isn't actually Alexander McQueen, it's McQ, his diffusion line that is a helluva lot less. It's not as leather-and-studs, dominazi as is regular stuff - it's like, McQueen for Americans. So not only is this a for-Target line, but its a diffusion line's for-Target line. Which probably means ole Alex didn't touch, see or think about any of these designs.

That being said, they aren't that bad. And Target knows that people will buy, so the average piece is about $50-60 (which is a bit much - these Target lines have the staying power of a season). I got the lookbook today and chose a few of my favorite looks for you, my lovely readers. And this is pretty new. There is some benefit, I suppose, in using your job to better your blog.















What I really like are the shoes - which I don't think are a part of the collection. I totally dig the vest/shirts with the halters, and I've been looking for a good tux coat.

Further proof that when even the King of Rock Fashion needs cash nowadays, we are in a very dire predicament.