Celeste Coetzee gave The Gallery at Grande Provence in Franschhoek a little more than they’d agreed on last week. Her Unisa Final Year Student Exhibition was axed from The Gallery after she went a bit too far by posing nude and tearing pages from a Bible.
The ramifications for forcing through the Protection of Information Bill as it stands have been far and wide. International media sniggered, and local media took their grievances to new levels. Now, world-renowned Apartheid photographer, David Goldblatt, has decided to denounce a top South African award in protest against the bill in an open letter to President Zuma.
It’s the Year of Setsuden in Japan, which Google tells me means “saving electricity'”; this means that the lavish Christmas illuminations that Tokyo usually sets up are a little hard to justify. Minna no Illumi has found a pretty neat solution to the problem, though, with an entirely biodiesel-powered display.
This afternoon, Nairobi commuters sitting in their cars on their way home from work will notice thousands of yellow balloons floating over the Kenyan capital city. The objective of the spectacle? Simply to put a smile on locals’ faces following two recent grenade attacks in Nairobi. Cool idea.
Lately, Google has been having a great deal of fun with their doodles. They have decided to wish us all a happy Halloween by creating a short time-lapse video of some of their employees carving out six particularly large pumpkins at their headquarters in Mountain View, California.
I’m almost certain that when Jeff Hindman found the 50-kilo exact toy replica, floating in knee-deep water he probably thought someone had spiked his sun cream with liquid acid. Fortunately, it was just part of a creepy Dutch artist’s experiment, for what I’m not exactly sure.
If you’re still searching for a costume, in the hopes that you’ll win that bartab for best dressed this Halloween, you’d better hope this guy doesn’t rock up to the same party. Not only does it look like a DSLR, it’s fully functional as well. It actually snaps a photo, accompanied by a flash, and displays the image at the back.
A pregnant American performance artist is planning to have her baby in an art gallery in front of an audience as part of a piece examining childbirth. She will also live in the gallery until the baby arrives. Her “artwork” is called “The Birth of Baby X”.
One can understand the anger of Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson), Julia Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) when Fox Television explained that they would be receiving a 45% pay cut. The broadcasting network claims they can’t afford production costs and, if the actors won’t budge, they’ll pull the plug. I think I speak for everyone when I say: Fox you, Fox.
Coca-Cola Australia has launched an innovative campaign called “Share a Coke”, by replacing its brand name on its bottles and cans with 150 different ordinary names in the run up to Christmas. They’re hoping it will go “viral”. “Cool”.
Google and Israel’s national museum, the Israel Museum, have come together to place a number of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls online for the first time. The project is the first of many hoping to showcase some of the manuscripts that make up what many consider the most important archaeological find of the 20th century.
As you know, two naked people together in a photograph (okay, sometimes three or four) is called pornography. But 1 000 naked people snapped together equates to “art”. And Spencer Tunick has made an entire career out of doing just that. His latest picture features 1 000 naked Israelis posing in the Dead Sea – the ocean where everything floats…
A limited-edition 18-carat gold phone aimed at Moscow’s fashion-forward elite has just been designed by Danish retailer, Aesir. It’s price tag? $57,400. The phone, which took three years to develop, doesn’t boast email, games, a camera or even GPS, it only boasts solid goldness. Or does that not satisfy you? The company founder, Thomas Jensen, subtly calls it ‘not a play thing’.
This coming Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the attacks by al-Qaeda on the United States of America, and New York especially. Many iconic images depicting the terror of that day sit steadfast in all of our minds, but what is wrong with a photographer portraying a different kind of moment on that day?
I know, I know; can you really steal art from somebody as dangerous and transgressive as Banksy? Two of his pieces, put together during his 2007 project on the West Bank, Bethlehem Santa’s Ghetto, have popped up in a show called Banksy: Original Street Works, at the Keszler Gallery. In the Hamptons.
Behold the inspirational power of a double dip recession! Except this is actually awesome. This guy has built a luxury home in an American dumpster complete with granite counters, a toilet and hardwood floors. The ‘home’ will make its debut at the 2011 San Francisco Fringe Festival, which runs September 7-18.
Banksy’s put up some new art on his site because all the other well-known people were speaking out about the NewsCorp. hacking scandal, and Banksy didn’t want to be left behind. Which is nice! Because honestly I’d almost forgotten about Murdoch. Way to be relevant, Banksy.
When opening a sex museum in a country where, publicly, sex almost doesn’t exist, you had better make sure that it’s as offensive as possible, since controversy is sure to follow. I’m pretty sure naming it Tochka G, meaning G-spot in Russian, and covering the walls with images of Putin sword-dick-fighting Obama, should do the trick.
In 1951, Sean Connery, at age 21, posed for an art class at the Edinburgh College of Art. There, a student, Robert Webster painted him wearing only a g-string and coyly looking over his left shoulder. Sexy art but still art nonetheless! Webster, being a real bro however, never showed these to pieces the public. But he passed away last month and his family feels differently about the situation.
The Chinese often find ingenious ways of rectifying problems, but they’ve gone too far this time. A badly doctored image of government officials inspecting a new road in Huili, a modest county in a rural corner of south-west China, has produced some exquisite viral images indicating the public’s displeasure with being lied to.
The infamous red leather jacket worn by the deceased king of pop, Michael Jackson, in his renowned Thriller video, has sold this weekend at an auction in California, for $1.8 million. That is a cool R12.4 million at today’s exchange rate. The jacket also boasts Jackson’s signature on the one sleeve.
South Africa’s first ever reality television porn show appears to have gone limp halfway through the auditions because broadcasters are reluctant to ‘excite’ the public. Although South Africans are generally fans of reality television, it’s hardly surprising that the conservative forces have decided to pass on a deal to air the show.
2oceansvibers are renowned for appreciating a bit of creative advertising humour from time to time. And with electioneering currently taking up a rather large amount of media space as we get ready for the local government elections next Wednesday, the ever resourceful Kalahari.net has decided to bless us with some radvertising.
Archaeologists in Florence, Italy, began searching yesterday for the remains of a woman thought to be the model who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. The reason: curiosity.
Videophiles will appreciate the release of the Purple Hearts’ first music video, which was shot in a single take. Gen Akal doubled as the director, and editor of the video, with Tim Henny acting as DP. Between them they managed to capture almost two and a half minutes of uninterrupted footage over the 200 metre route. The entirety of the video was shot on foot, concluding with an elevated shot from a cherry picker. Check out the video after the jump!
Maybe some out there think that the whole “zombie” thing has become a bit passé, but they are, of course, wrong. Now the whole “vampire” thing, that’s passé. That is why when I saw this house, I felt obliged to share it with you, the good readers of 2oceansvibe. Welcome to the world’s first zombie-proof house, a cube of concrete that closes in on itself.
At approximately this time last week, Seth Rotherham, Bruce Good and I were taking in the Royal Wedding at the 2oceansvibe Media Compound when we noticed something odd. What was it? It was Princess Beatrice’s hat of course. SilverStreak has already alluded to its ridiculousness this morning. Now it’s become a Photoshop hit too.
The Tony Awards in America is like the Oscars or Grammys – but for theatre. It’s been an annual event for the last six decades and is pretty much the definitive voice in what’s cutting edge theatre-wise today. Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company was just named a special Tony award winner for this year! Pics of their work inside.
Finally, the average layperson will be able to write and solve invisible ink messages. And not with those funny highlighters that did the rounds in the 90’s either. The CIA has no doubt allowed us all to become privy to this information because they have no need for invisible ink anymore. Data encryption has progressed somewhat.
The recession is serving up another good deal, friends. For about R5,4 million you can buy the historic village of Valle Piola in Italy. It’s surrounded by wild and mountainous terrain, and is set in the heart of one of the country’s biggest national parks, Gran Sasso.