Hot Dogs: This strange yet interesting ‘IDK about these Hotdogs’ series, created by an anonymous photographer from New York, captures simple hot dogs in the most unusual situations and places, leaving the door open to the most absurd and funny interpretations. Mmmm delicious – Happy Friday! 🙂
Martin Roller: We love this selection of twisted yet intriguing hybrid objects by German artist Martin Roller, who hijacks everyday items to create fun mash-ups including some improbable and delirious compositions between a tyre and a birthday cake, a banana and laces or a shoe and various cold cuts. Shot with a polished, commercial aesthetic, the mash-ups are instantly appealing. But beyond their eye-catching qualities, the compositions speak to the malleable properties of identity. Sure, you’re a banana one day, but who says you have to be a fruit all your life? In Martin Roller’s imagination, a banana can easily become a shoe and that’s what is so great about art in general – it has the power to transform and transcend. Perhaps the most impressive part about Roller’s images, however, are the fact that they are not digitally created. In fact, Martin Roller blends each object together by hand, meaning that the objects do exist in real life and because digital technology is so pervasive and accessible, Roller challenges himself by using real-life sources to make his collages. Fantastic work! 🙂
Coffee crazies: “Some people use coffee as a drug, and some people use it as a joy,” says filmmaker and Swallow Magazine founder James Casey. “I went from being the former – needing it when I was tired or as a digestif – to learning that, more than just a beverage, it’s a culture.” Casey’s rousing film captures the frenetic pace of caffeinated New York, featuring a cast of obsessives like Jesse Kahn of roasters and educators Counter Culture, and Oliver Strand, the pre-eminent New York Times coffee writer, as well as more casual sippers such as Nancy Whang, formerly of LCD Soundsystem, and Mission Chinese Food’s Angela Dimayuga. Coffee cultivation first took place in Southern Arabia; the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. In the Horn of Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in local religious ceremonies. Coffee plants are cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, India and Africa. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and more hardy robusta. “Coffee culture was far more prevalent in places like San Francisco, and there’s no defining aspect to coffee in New York because it is so broad,” explains Casey. “There’s everything from Scandinavian-style coffee in parts of Brooklyn to a prevalence for blue collar, dark roasted Italian coffee. I also learned that it is not just about taste, but that there’s a qualitative aspect with regards to the ethical question of coffee, fair trade, and what you are willing to support.” While I love great coffee, I have been known to settle for rubbish just to get a hIt of the black magic – I can not even contemplate my day until I’ve had a cup of coffee and I wouldn’t be giving it up for anything or anyone. Life is just way too short.
And then there was ‘Banana Art’: So it would seem many artists are inspired by fruit these days including Dutch artist Stephan Brusche who continues to find creative ways of turning bananas into works of art via his new series of banana art entitled Banana Doodles. The artist first began by doodling directly onto the banana’s surface a few years back as a way of showcasing his creativity on Instagram. Since then, Brusche has incorporated the fruit’s shape and skin (through carving and peeling), continuing to find new ways to reimagine the same space over and over again. The 37-year-old graphic designer turns humble bananas into iconic characters such as Marilyn Monroe and Homer Simpson as well as animals and famous artworks and although the Dutch artist hadn’t expected his banana art to be so popular, positive feedback has lead him to release his very first book, Fruitdoodles, which documents his initial 50 banana art creations. He also has his own Fruitdoodle calendar with a different creation for each month of the year. Although Stephan has now found his banana art to be rather lucrative, the designer says that his famous fruit had very humble beginnings. ‘I took a ballpoint pen and just started drawing. I was pretty amazed how pleasant a banana peel is to draw on.’ Ba nah nah na indeed.
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Available from Gorge Ohwell
