Olly Moss : Paper Cuts

Paper Cuts is british illustrator/designer Olly Moss's latest show, which opened on May 7th, 2011, and will run for the next two weeks at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.

The show consists of approximately 350 pieces of cut-out silhouettes of the artist's favorite pop culture icons over the years. Excruciatingly detailed cut-outs of Kermit the frog, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, the gang from Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and the Simpsons are some of the characters featured in the show.

I am posting this not only because I would love to see the show, but because I am wondering how come he's allowed to sell the pieces, since they're so directly based on someone else's work. I am asking this out of genuine curiosity and interest, and not to accuse Mr Moss of anything. I've also started working on a series of posters based on some of my favorite relics from the past (and was trying to figure out how to and if I am allowed to sell them) and when I saw this I just had to know. (Anyone?)

Electro Rush: Tareq Souleiman

Photo: Nikos Katsaros

I stumbled on Tareq Souleiman on twitter, I can't even remember how, but I'm happy I did nevertheless. Tareq is a half Jordanian, half Greek musician born and raised in Thessaloniki and, now, based in Athens. 

I was always a fan of the Greek Electronica scene, (two of my favorite electro albums are the obscure Universal releases: Greek Electro & Greek Electro 2). I think Tareq's body of work is such an awesome addition to the Greek Electro scene, if not exactly what was missing from it. In addition to his own great pieces, he also produces crisp atmospheric remixes for Casey Spooner and Marsheaux, to name the two that fascinated me the most. 

Cocoon is his first solo album, in one of the top slots on my wishlist, containing a great deal of collaborations, but Cold (video below) and Feel Me with Natassa Bofiliou (a very pleasant surprise) are my favorites this period.

Do You Talk Brand?

I won't say much, though I am itching and squirming to do so. IPWT is working on a pair of soft launches in the next few weeks, one of them requires people to do some... talking to us... 

Just make sure you're around in the following days...

Update on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 12:56 PM by Artémis Psathas

We are preparing for the launch of our Brandlift Initiative Project, called "BrandTalk". Think of it as a facelift for companies & brands! If anyone would like to be part of it, they can just throw us a line at contact(at)ipwtcs.com or brandtalk(at)italkbrand.com and tell us about their brand/company/business' image challenges.

Androniki 2011

Androniki is the brand name of Androniki Yeratziotou's jewelry line consisting of pieces made from wood, plastic and foil-covered acrylic. We recently worked together on a promo-shoot for Androniki, which will go online with the launch of their website, and on the IPWT website as well, as soon as it's completed.

Instantly Lusted

There's this preconception about VW Beetles here, at least the New Beetles introduced to the market in 1998, that they're just for women. Maybe it is, maybe people are just stupid to think so, but I think the 2012 model shatters that preconception.

I love how they redesigned and refined this classic into what seems to be a new classic, added some sharpened edges suggesting a more masculine, more sports car culture side of the Beetle. It's official, I want one.

Is it me, or is the way VW updates their designs sort of reminiscent of the redesign approach Apple has on their product line... afterall, there was this rumor going around about the VW+Apple-powered iCar.

Updates Updates Updates

No, this time I actually didn't fall into the pit of blog-restricting procrastination. I was actually CSS-wrestling with the new website to get it to where I wanted it to be. I set this up in Cargo Collective but had to go and alter a zillion of pieces of code (lots and lots of trial&error went on here) but it's a process I forgot I liked so much. 

Projects are being added as they happen and I'm still putting together some more work to put on in the next few weeks. Feel free to stop by and say hi.

The Rant About: Good Pop Music & Bad Videos

Updated on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 9:44 PM by Artémis Psathas

Superimposed: Helena Paparizou, Paola & Chiara | A. Ps.

Being musically "omnivorous", for the most part, I've declared my adoration of the blatantly pop, (in addition to many other genres of music) many times over the timeline of my course as a blogger. I am far from being apologetic about my infatuation with "pop" and that's why I decided to go ahead and write my thoughts on how great pop songs are ruined by the inadequacy and inconsistency of their videos. Long post ahead!

To be honest, what pushed me to write this post was my reaction to Helena Paparizou's new video for "Baby It's Over". Paparizou has been, apparently, collaborating with the wrong people when it comes to her videos. Unlike her music collaborators (which are doing a very good job), the people who handle her image and videos (not just this one) are maybe on a different agenda, or have not been on the same page with the rest of the great stuff that has been going on with Helena Paparizou's act.

Instead of making a sleek video for "Baby It's Over" which in my opinion is one of her best tracks and has the potential of exploding into the rest of Europe as well, she (or her record label, or her manager, or I don't know who) went with something that looks like a bad experimental college student project. A project which would urge an instructor to ask the student to reconsider his college major, nonetheless.

I understand that we're going through times of severe frugality, but there's a huge gap between "low budget" and "low caliber". 

Click to read more ...

Ray Ban Tomatina Ad

Awesome how you don't know what the ad is about until the very last second. (Unless someone spoils it for you by posting the product name in the post title)

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Re-Possessed

Last night I went to the opening of Re-Possessed which is a thematic segment in this year's Cyprus Film Festival: "Cyprus Film Days 2011", curated by Dr Markos Hadjioannou (film theorist) and Loizos Olympios (visual artist).

This segment explores the concept of possession in contemporary cinema from a variety of aspects, spanning from that which occurs by the supernatural, to the possession by one's passion and desire. 

Last night's screenings were Peter Tscherkassky's 1999 short film Outer Space (impressively disturbing if I may say) and Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem from 2006. 

The video above was created by Ioannis Papaloizou. For more info on Re-Possessed go to the official event page.

Tiny Apartment in NYC

And when I say tiny, I mean tiny. Felice Cohen, a NY-based writer and artist, lives in this tiny 90-square-foot (27 sq. meters!!!) apartment. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it. At one point when she went into her bed, (more like sandwiched herself between the ceiling and the mattress) I gasped deeply for air just by watching that. I know New York is New York, and I would do anything to be able to be there, but really being squished in this apartment and paying $700 for it, is going a bit too far...

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