Great New Videos
July 4, 2008
Toejam video for Brighton Port Authority, production company: Streetgang. Director: Keith Schofield
Here’s a selection of brilliant new music videos for your viewing pleasure. First up is the video for the first single from Norman Cook’s new venture, Brighton Port Authority, which features guest vocals from David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. Directed by Keith Schofield (who also directed the excellent promo for Supergrass track Bad Blood), the cheeky video shows how you can put censorship bars to good use. Quicktime here.
Ting Tings, Shut Up and Let Me Go making of video, production company: Factory Films. Directors: Alex and Liane
Directors Alex and Liane are behind this fine video for the Ting Tings’ latest, Shut Up and Let Me Go. There are shades of Alex and Martin’s promo for The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army here, but it’s still lovely stuff. I couldn’t find a YouTube version that I could embed, so here’s the making of - view the finished video here.
No Age, Eraser, director: Andy Bruntel
Andy Bruntel has directed this great vid for No Age track, Eraser. Quicktime here.
Muscles, The Lake, production company: Rokkit. Director: Jaron Albertin
Next up is another beautifully shot promo from director Jaron Albertin, for Muscles track The Lake. Quicktime here.
James Yuill, No Pins Allowed, production company: Robot Badger. Director: Alex Yuill
This video for James Yuill’s track No Pins Allowed was created entirely with high-res stills by director Alex Yuill (a relative perchance?).
CSS, Rat is Dead, production company: Partizan, director: Nima Nourizadeh
Cool performance video from director Nima Nourizadeh for CSS. Quicktime here.
Primal Scream, Can’t Go Back, production company: Academy. Director: Kim Gehrig
Kim Gehrig is behind Primal Scream’s latest vid, for track Can’t Go Back. Quicktime here.
Food For Animals, ‘Tween My Lips, Director: Martin Sulzer
Finally, we end on an anatomical note with director Martin Sulzer’s video for US hip hop band Food For Animals. Talking about the video, Sulzer explained that “belly is the new booty”, and we couldn’t agree more.
eBay to Pay $61.6M to French Retailers for Counterfeit Auction Goods
July 3, 2008
A French court has ruled in favor of Louis Vuitton Malletier and Christian Dior Couture in a case against eBay, which stood accused for auctions of counterfeit luxury goods by its members.
eBay owes…
CheckMEND Protects Retailers, Consumers from Stolen/Deceptive Item Auctions
July 3, 2008
Leveraging recent news that eBay was ordered to pay $61 million for auctions of counterfeit goods, a company called CheckMEND is offering its services to users of online retailers and auction…
Cadbury North America Puts Media Account Up for Review
July 3, 2008
Cadbury North America has put its media-buying and planning account under review. Media spend for both the US and Canada is estimated at about $100 million, said Advertising Age.
The Cadbury label…
Montreal’s Sid Lee Named Agency of Record for Adidas Originals
July 3, 2008
Adidas named Montreal-based Sid Lee its global creative agency of record for the Adidas Originals label.
Adidas Originals is a contemporary interpretation of the Adidas parent. It bears affiliations…
Grass Art
July 3, 2008
Wimbledon artwork by Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey for HSBC. Ad agency: JWT London. Exec Creative director: Russell Ramsey. Creative director: Axel Chaldecott. Art director: Mark Norcutt. Copywriter: Laurence Quinn
Following on from the blog post on Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls in New York, we have some more nature-based art for you, this time by UK artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey. They have created this artwork, their first piece to be used in a commercial context, for HSBC as part of the bank’s partnership with the 2008 Wimbledon Tennis Championships, which, in case you haven’t been paying attention, are currently taking place. JWT London is the agency behind the campaign.
The artists essentially use grass as a form of photographic paper, projecting a black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows in a dark room, and using the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs. As Wimbledon is the only remaining Grand Slam tennis tournament that takes place on grass, it was a natural fit for Ackroyd & Harvey’s work, which has also appeared on the National Theatre Lyttleton flytower and Dilston Grove in Bermondsey. For this work, they photographed three people at Wimbledon prior to the tournament, and displayed the resulting grass versions of the photos on three large panels in Merton Park, where the tennis fans have been camping and then queuing for tickets this year. The three people featured are: Tara Moore, competing in the qualifying tournament; Eddie Seaward, head groundsman at Wimbledon for the last 15 years; and Lizzie May, a coach for the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative.
The images during creation in a dark room
“When grass gets plenty of sunlight, it produces chlorophyll and therefore turns green – but the less light it receives, the more yellow the colour is,” explains JWT art director Mark Norcutt of the process used to make the work. “Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey discovered that by projecting a bright black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows (in an otherwise dark room), they can use the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs. From a distance it looks like any other monochrome photograph (albeit with a slightly unusual tint); up close, it looks like perfectly ordinary grass. But even individual blades sometimes have a range of hues, as any given cell can respond to the amount of light it receives.”
During installation at Merton Park
“Ackroyd and Harvey stumbled onto this technique after producing an installation that involved covering an indoor wall with living grass,” he continues. “A ladder was leaning against the wall, and the artists noticed that even after it was removed, a faint outline of the ladder remained on the grass. They set about experimenting with ways of enhancing this effect, and soon they were using a slide projector as an artificial light source for growing their unique photographs. A typical exposure time is just over a week, with the image projected for 12 hours a day.”
Tennis fans enjoy the artwork while they queue for tickets
Part of what interests Ackroyd and Harvey about using grass is its ephemeral qualities, with the images they create often melting away soon after the grass is exposed to natural light and begins to grow. In galleries the artists have used light control to prolong the life of a work, but, before you rush to SW19 to see the HSBC piece for yourselves, this work lasted only as long as the Wimbledon crowds, and now that we have settled into the final stages of the competition has already pretty much disappeared.
New York Waterfalls
July 3, 2008
Governers Island Waterfall by Olafur Eliasson, Photo: © Bernstein Photography
After wowing audiences at the Tate Modern in 2004 with his epic installation, The Weather Project, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has turned his attention to New York, where he continues his interest in natural phenomena in this series of four enormous waterfalls that he has created across the city.
Brooklyn Bridge Falls, Photo: © Art Fund
Funded by the Public Art Project, the waterfalls are located at the Brooklyn Anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge; between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn, adjacent to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; on Pier 35 in Manhattan, north of the Manhattan Bridge; and on the north shore of Governors Island. What is perhaps not fully evident from these pics is the sheer scale of the falls, which range from between 90-120 feet tall.
Brooklyn Piers Falls, Photo: © Bernstein Photography
Importantly, considering that Eliasson is interested in making art that explores our environment, the Falls are environmentally sound with all electricity used offset by ‘green power’ electricity generated from renewable resources, and special filters and pumps used to protect aquatic life.
Installation of the waterfall on Pier 35. Photo: © Bernstein Photography
Pier 35 Falls, Photo: © Bernstein Photography
The Falls will be on display across New York until October 13.
