We know Kanye the man – opinionated. Kanye the rapper / producer – mad talented. Now Kanye the ‘artist’ is spreading his creative wings to make his first short film – Runaway.
The film is indeed a creative and innovative way of telling the story of his new album ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’. The art direction of Runaway is simply beautiful. Visual narratives, textures and colours reminiscent of glossy fashion mags editorials come to life with a touch of Mad Men aesthetic production values.
Just like the majority of video art the narrative of the film isn’t a 100% clear, leaving the viewer to make up their own interpretation. It seemsKanye West’s intentions have been to push the boundaries and expectations of his work and for that I give him the salute. He’s one of the protagonists of ‘mainstream’ Hip-Hop that saves it from being dull as dirty dishwater (but hey, that’s a whole another debate). However, I was left a little disappointed that after having come so far to create a piece of outstanding visual work, the conceptual thinking didn’t permeate the values of the whole production.
The film features Selita Ebanks and since viewing the video I’ve subsequently found out that Selita is a Victoria Secret model, which brings me onto my point. As beautiful and interesting as the work maybe, the film still relies on the same basic premise that 99% of Hip-Hop videos do and that my dears is what they call T&A in the biz.
Selita does a stella job in the video but in the end still remains a vehicle of ‘objectification’ rather than the central character whose story is pivotal to the piece.
Maybe one fine day, women will appear in a Hip-Hop / R&B videos by male artists and actually contribute to the whole narrative rather than just be the pretty thing to look at. This I feel was an opportunity that the controversial Mr West missed. By taking it that step further he would have really made his crossover to ‘artist’ just that more creditable.
A collection of Japanese advertisements for drinks and smokes (1894-1954) that for all their traditional visual styling, showcase a very dryyyyy sense of humour.
But of course a horse with a cigarette in his mouth makes sense.
Thomas Shahan provides us with an astonishing close up of the insect world, proving that many aspects of life are stranger that fiction.
A nice chap who I met on my travels recently thought that some of Shahan’s photographs were actually 3D renders, once again proving that many aspects of li…
So where do I start. The question is where did he start? Stephen Walter must have walked down every street, worn out a lot of shoes and even more pencils in the creation of his work, which isn’t confined to the wonderful insanity of the London Series.
At first glance it appears to be nothing more than a complicated, incomprehensible map. On second and third glance the work showcases more detailed, humorous street knowledge than an army of London cabbies could muster.
Eska Mtungwazi is quite simply one of the most supreme musical talents around. If you know of her then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If you have no idea then you can get to know at Poejazzi this Sunday 17th, where Eska will be headlining.
Soho Theatre is the place. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7.15pm. Tickets are £8 and you can buy them here.
If we haven’t managed to thank you personally, then allow us to thank you virtually in blog form.It was an immense effort by all involved to pull the whole thing together, but with the support of so many the UpRise team did it.
So whether you got wet, managed to stay dry or just plain old got your skank on, we’d like to say thankyou. This is just the beginning…
Phil Bowker’s already cult comedy PhoneShop begins tonight on E4. For the eager beavers, the show has been available to watch for a couple of weeks on 4oD, with a sign-up process the only caveat.
When it comes to understanding the demographic make-up of such cutting edge programming, data capture like this is essential when trying to learn more about those learned early adopters.
Not to say I fall into that category, but I’ve already caught my initial slice of the pie. The verdict: a bright PhoneShop future starts today.
The problem with mediated representation is that it’s invariably designed to benefit the traditional media outlet while rarely serving the interests of those allegedly represented.It takes a clever person to invert that traditional process, but a clever person Russell Brand most certainly is.
