Hasta La Ideas

In 2004, Merle Becker quit her corporate television job at MTV to pursue a growing fascination with rock posters. Soon, she was traveling across the country interviewing artists such as Stanley Mouse, Art Chantry, and Tara McPherson. “My initial intent was to find out why so many artists are drawn to doing rock posters,” says Becker. “I also wanted to tell a clear story of the history of the art form.” The result is American Artifact, a documentary that has been making the festival rounds and premieres tonight in New York at the Royal Flush Festival.

The film chronicles the rise of American rock poster art, from the skeleton and roses posters created for the Grateful Dead and the birth of silk-screening to grunge and the off-kilter whimsy associated with contemporary bands. “It is my hope that this film causes people to see ‘lowbrow’ art in a different way,” notes Becker, “as beautiful pieces of art that are also valid statements about the cultural changes that America has seen throughout the years.”

Always a huge music fan, Becker was inspired to make American Artifact after encountering Paul Grushkin and Dennis King‘s coffee table tome Art of Modern Rock. “I was not only blown away by the artwork, but I was also surprised that nobody had done a film about its history and the current rock poster art movement,” Becker tells us. “I really had no idea that modern rock posters were being done, and until that book, I thought that the ’60s rock poster art had marked the end of that medium.” She soon found her way to GigPosters.com, “and the rest is history.”

Read on for more from our interview with Becker.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

(Photos: Susie Montagna)

Never underestimate the power of a Post-it. Event designer David Stark and his team used hundreds of the little yellow notes to ensure that the theme of the recent New Yorkers for Children fall gala stuck with guests. “Make It Happen” was spelled out in a sunny wall of yellow and black Post-its that welcomed attendees and flanked the dining space, while a “giving tree” in the cocktail area invited attendees to scribble their thoughts on Post-it “leaves.” More Post-its covered the reverse of the entry wall, tweaking the message to ask “How do you make it happen?” Guests arrived to their tables to find personalized Post-it pads marking their places, along with napkins embroidered with a psuedo-Post-it designed by Stark. As for those eyelet table linens, they were custom made by Ankasa in—you guessed it—Post-it yellow.

Previously on UnBeige:

To celebrate their 70th anniversary, Danish product company Vipp, which produced the original steel-cylinder trash can with rubber foot pedal, has asked a ton of designers of all stripes to devise trash can designs for a charity auction done in conjunction with Design Within Reach. Proceeds will benefit DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS.

The unusual line-up contains the likes of Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Yoko Ono, Yves Behar, and others. The public viewing of the resultant trash cans opens today in New York, and the designs will be auctioned off at the end of this month.

via metropolis

(more…)

An exhibition of new work by Atelier Van Lieshout is on show at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London this week. (more…)

by Julie Wolfson

Full of glamorous young girls wearing sparkly dresses, elaborate hairstyles, and copious makeup, the images in Susan Anderson‘s book “High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants” (also the subject of an upcoming gallery show, see below) document the phenomenon. Asking each of pint-sized queens to style their own photo, some of the portraits reveal eerily mature poses and intensely sultry stares. One girl holds a feather boa to match her fuchsia and black costume complete with fishnets, while white ruffles consume another girls who cradles a tiny chihuahua.

Anderson, based in Los Angeles since 2001, has taken portraits of Neko Case, They Might be Giants, Fred Armisen, Laura Knightlinger and Rose McGowan. She also took the photos for the humorous book “Porn for Women.”

High Glitz
24 October-24 December 2009
Kopeikin Gallery
8830 West Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069 map
tel. +1 310 385 5894