Dior tackles critics head-on with all-black fashion show
32 MINS AGO - Menswear designer Kim Jones shines spotlight on Ghana in tie-up with painter Amoako BoafoAs luxury Expand
32 MINS AGO - Menswear designer Kim Jones shines spotlight on Ghana in tie-up with painter Amoako BoafoAs luxury fashion tries to adapt to the coronavirus crisis with a run of digital events, the Dior men’s collection showed another timely shift as it confronted the issue of diversity on the catwalk.One week after the brand was criticised for casting an all-white ensemble of models for its womenswear couture presentation, the artistic director of menswear, Kim Jones, featured only black models in his spring/summer 2021 collection, which was designed in collaboration with the acclaimed Ghanaian portrait painter Amoako Boafo. Continue reading... Collapse
Kodak Paper and Chemistry Business Sold to Chinese Company: Report
3 HRS AGO - The Kodak paper and photochemical business is reportedly being sold to a Chinese company. Inside Expand
3 HRS AGO - The Kodak paper and photochemical business is reportedly being sold to a Chinese company. Inside Imaging reports that an announcement of the proposed sale to Sino Promise Holdings was made internally on July 7th by Kodak Alaris, the British company that shares ownership of the Kodak brand name with the US-based Eastman Kodak Company. After […] Collapse
Why is Andromeda waiting for her man? The great British art quiz
11 HRS AGO - Wolverhampton Art Gallery hosts today’s quiz, setting questions that explore art collections of Expand
11 HRS AGO - Wolverhampton Art Gallery hosts today’s quiz, setting questions that explore art collections of museums closed due to coronavirusThis quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues, by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.Today, our questions are set by Wolverhampton Art Gallery. The gallery has more than 18,000 items in its collection, ranging from objects reflecting the history and geology of the Black Country to artworks and decorative objects from across the centuries. It is particularly known for its British and American pop art, its Northern Ireland collection and artwork linked to the British black arts movement. Continue reading... Collapse
Gilbert and George quit Royal Academy over dashed hopes for major exhibition
1 DAY AGO - The artists stood down as academicians after the gallery said it would not be hosting the show Expand
1 DAY AGO - The artists stood down as academicians after the gallery said it would not be hosting the show they had plannedArtists Gilbert and George, unpredictable celebrities of the British avant garde, have perplexed the art world together for more than five decades. Their provocative murals, posters, photographs and videos have surprised and often unsettled fans. But now the artists, who revel in a joint reputation “as horrid people”, have fallen out with one of Britain’s most prestigious cultural institutions – the Royal Academy of Art.The two artists have taken the dramatic step of resigning from the RA in reaction to a decision not to go ahead with an exhibition they had been planning to stage in the academy’s Piccadilly galleries. Continue reading... Collapse
Hagia Sophia is too complex for Erdoğan's cleansing | Kenan Malik
1 DAY AGO - The president’s decision to turn Istanbul’s Byzantine cathedral back into a mosque seeks to erase Expand
1 DAY AGO - The president’s decision to turn Istanbul’s Byzantine cathedral back into a mosque seeks to erase the past“Solomon, I have outdone thee.” So remarked Justinian, the Roman emperor who commissioned Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral at the heart of Constantinople, now Istanbul. Throughout its history it has been a source of wonder and debate. Now, the decision by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to turn it back into a mosque has reawakened many of the historical and religious ghosts that haunt its sublime spaces.Completed in 537, Hagia Sophia was at once the culminating architectural achievement of late antiquity and the first Byzantine masterpiece. Most remarkable was the huge dome at the heart of the building. “It seems not to be founded on solid masonry, but to be suspended from heaven,” wrote the great historian Procopius. A millennium later, the Ottoman historian Tursun Beg was equally awestruck: “What a dome, that vies in rank with the nine spheres of heaven!” Continue Collapse
Blueprint is going out of print, but its glory days are not over yet
2 DAYS AGO - In its magazine format it lasted 37 years, criticising architecture and design with true energy. Expand
2 DAYS AGO - In its magazine format it lasted 37 years, criticising architecture and design with true energy. Now it is online onlyBlueprint, aged 37, the architecture and design magazine on which I cut my journalistic teeth, has announced that it will now be online only. This has prompted a certain amount of reminiscing about the glory days of print that is slightly at odds with my memories of its permanently precarious existence in a tumbledown Marylebone building shared with both future movers and shakers in the cultural world and a number of rats, and subject to occasional visits from angry creditors. In the leanest times, we put out 48-page editions: 24 of editorial, 24 of advertising. The magazine’s most recent and final issue ran to 240. The difference perhaps was the impact that could be made by those hard-won pages in the much smaller media space available. This was something that Blueprint’s founders triumphantly did, bringing a graphic and verbal energy to the discussion of Collapse
Wasteful, damaging and outmoded: is it time to stop building skyscrapers?
2 DAYS AGO - Tall buildings are still deemed desirable, even glamorous, but experts are drawing attention to Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Tall buildings are still deemed desirable, even glamorous, but experts are drawing attention to the high environmental cost of building themIf no one ever built a skyscraper ever again, anywhere, who would truly miss them? I ask, because the engineer Tim Snelson, of the design consultancy Arup, has just blown a hole in any claim they might have had to be environmentally sustainable. Writing in this month’s issue of the architecture magazine Domus, he points out that a typical skyscraper will have at least double the carbon footprint of a 10-storey building of the same floor area.He is talking about the resources that go into building it, what is called its “embodied” energy. Tall buildings are more structurally demanding than lower ones – it takes a lot of effort, for example, to stop them swaying – and so require more steel and concrete. In London, which is mostly built on clay as opposed to Manhattan’s rock, they require ample foundations. Snelson also mentions “in-use” energy Collapse
French lessons: a family apartment in Paris
2 DAYS AGO - A grand Parisian apartment is a family home to four active children and a collection of vintage Expand
2 DAYS AGO - A grand Parisian apartment is a family home to four active children and a collection of vintage designsWhen Géraldine Octernaud was 18, she swapped a pair of vintage trainers for a red Eames rocking chair. She had never heard of Charles or Ray Eames before, but it marked the start of a new obsession, becoming the first piece in her ever-evolving collection of vintage design.That collection – which spans the second half of the 20th century – is seen here in Octernaud’s Art Deco apartment in the 7th arrondissement in Paris. She moved into the apartment six years ago with her husband, Stephen, and three children (the couple now have four, aged between five and 13). Continue reading... Collapse
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Canon: Orders for the EOS R5 and R6 ‘Exceed Expectations,’ Expect Delays
52 MINS AGO - Canon Japan has just issued a statement that many of us probably saw coming: pre-orders for the Expand
52 MINS AGO - Canon Japan has just issued a statement that many of us probably saw coming: pre-orders for the new Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6—as well as some accessories—have “exceeded expectations,” and prospective owners should expect delays in shipping. The statement/apology was originally published just one day after the cameras were announced, and can be seen […] Collapse
Grenfell architect clashed with council over fire prevention
3 HRS AGO - Building control officers insisted on fire barriers in the wall structure, inquiry hearsOne of the Expand
3 HRS AGO - Building control officers insisted on fire barriers in the wall structure, inquiry hearsOne of the Grenfell Tower architects said they were “miffed” at demands from a building safety officer aimed at preventing fire spreading up the tower and complained it was causing cost increases and delays.Emails disclosed to the public inquiry into the June 2017 disaster, which killed 72 people, showed the architect clashed with the council building control department over how to prevent fire jumping between floors through the new cladding system. Continue reading... Collapse
Helsinki photo festival – in pictures
12 HRS AGO - The Helsinki photo festival, open until 30 September, will attract visitors to exhibitions of 58 Expand
12 HRS AGO - The Helsinki photo festival, open until 30 September, will attract visitors to exhibitions of 58 international and Nordic photographers displayed in venues across the city. The overall theme for the festival is trust, and an exhibition of work on that subject is at the Balcony Gallery until 30 August Continue reading... Collapse
Your pictures: share your photos on the theme of ‘drift’
1 DAY AGO - Wherever you are in the world, this week we’d like to see your pictures on the theme ‘drift’The Expand
1 DAY AGO - Wherever you are in the world, this week we’d like to see your pictures on the theme ‘drift’The next theme for our weekly photography assignment, published in print in the Observer New Review is ‘drift’.Share your photos of what drift means to you – and tell us about your image in the description box. Continue reading... Collapse
The big picture: a shuttered seafront at sunset
1 DAY AGO - Max Miechowski’s shot of a closed-up ice‑cream parlour alludes to the precarity of seaside Expand
1 DAY AGO - Max Miechowski’s shot of a closed-up ice‑cream parlour alludes to the precarity of seaside townsLast summer, the photographer Max Miechowski set out to travel the east coast of England, starting in Felixstowe and heading up toward Hartlepool and beyond. Miechowski, 30, grew up a few miles outside Lincoln, and day trips and holidays were mainly to the seaside towns of Yorkshire or Norfolk, so he knew some of the places already. This picture was taken in Skegness, in the early evening, just after the ice-cream parlour had shut up for the day. It has, he suggests, taken on an added poignancy with the events of the past months – the uncertainty of closure set against the hope for brighter months ahead.Many of Miechowski’s pictures – of fishermen on beaches set against the silhouette of steel works, or sunbathers near the Sizewell nuclear plant – carry a similar kind of ambiguous romance. He was drawn to the contrasts of the coastline, from the gentrified sea-fronts of Suffolk, to the Collapse
This week's best culture, from the Proms to Nick Cave, the Almeida to Drowntown
1 DAY AGO - The Observer’s critics recommend the best in film, dance, art, theatre, music and moreBBC PromsThe Expand
1 DAY AGO - The Observer’s critics recommend the best in film, dance, art, theatre, music and moreBBC PromsThe 125th anniversary of the Proms opens with the BBC Grand Virtual Orchestra: 350 musicians from the BBC orchestras and choirs performing Iain Farrington’s new arrangement of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. The opening weekend continues with the best archive concerts from the past 25 years, headed by Igor Levit, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Leila Josefowicz. Friday, 7pm, Radio 3; and on BBC Four from Sunday 19 July. Fiona Maddocks Continue reading... Collapse
Does Micro Four Thirds Have a Future in Photography?
2 DAYS AGO - The photography industry has been shrinking and the COVID-19 pandemic has not made things any Expand
2 DAYS AGO - The photography industry has been shrinking and the COVID-19 pandemic has not made things any better. This smaller market is being shared by the same number of companies, which could mean some huge changes for the industry. As formats go, Micro Four Thirds isn’t looking strong through this time. Every so often we tend to […] Collapse
Vintage portraits updated for the age of coronavirus – in pictures
2 DAYS AGO - Artist Han Cao lives in Orange County, California, and has spent lockdown hand-embroidering floral Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Artist Han Cao lives in Orange County, California, and has spent lockdown hand-embroidering floral masks on vintage photographs from the 1900s-1940s, “as a reminder of how other generations have weathered storms like these”. “Embroidery is almost meditative,” she says. “It makes me slow down and be present – something we always forget to do in this digital age.” Continue reading... Collapse
‘When we can, we’d love to throw a party to show it off’: designers on their lockdown DIY
2 DAYS AGO - What do you do if you are an artist confined mainly to your home? Transform the place, of courseI Expand
2 DAYS AGO - What do you do if you are an artist confined mainly to your home? Transform the place, of courseI have spent lockdown with my partner, Luke Morgan, and my dog, Elvis, in our live-work building in London. We moved here in 2005: I had done so much work on my previous house, I couldn’t face another project, so painted the walls white and lived with it. That changed in lockdown; most of my commissions were cancelled, and I was finally able to get going. We don’t have children, my parents are no longer alive and Luke’s parents are shielding in Bristol, so we don’t have the same commitments as many people. Continue reading... Collapse
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Vogue Slammed for Hiring Annie Leibovitz for Simone Biles Cover Instead of Black Photographer
1 HR AGO - Fashion magazine Vogue has come under fire over the cover of its August issue. The magazine Expand
1 HR AGO - Fashion magazine Vogue has come under fire over the cover of its August issue. The magazine featured world-renowned gymnast Simone Biles, and critics are upset at both the style of the images and the fact that Biles was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and not a Black photographer. The profile of Biles was published four days […] Collapse
Michael Glickman obituary
4 HRS AGO - Architect who researched and wrote about the mathematical sophistication of crop circlesFor the Expand
4 HRS AGO - Architect who researched and wrote about the mathematical sophistication of crop circlesFor the last three decades of his life, Michael Glickman, who has died aged 78, was fascinated by crop circles, the patterns that appear unobserved and apparently spontaneously in farmers’ fields. His previous experience as an architect, industrial designer and inventor equipped him to appreciate their intricate craft, and to enjoy them as art. He systematically analysed them, drew them with great precision, and wrote about them, most notably in Crop Circles: The Bones of God (2009), with a blend of seriousness and dry wit. Continue reading... Collapse
Eight go mad in Arizona: how a lockdown experiment went horribly wrong
13 HRS AGO - In the 1990s, a troupe of hippies spent two years sealed inside a dome called Biosphere 2. They Expand
13 HRS AGO - In the 1990s, a troupe of hippies spent two years sealed inside a dome called Biosphere 2. They ended up starving and gasping for breath. As a new documentary Spaceship Earth tells their story, we meet the ‘biospherians’It sounds like a sci-fi movie, or the weirdest series of Big Brother ever. Eight volunteers wearing snazzy red jumpsuits seal themselves into a hi-tech glasshouse that’s meant to perfectly replicate Earth’s ecosystems. They end up starving, gasping for air and at each other’s throats – while the world’s media looks on.But the Biosphere 2 experiment really did happen. Running from 1991 to 1993, it is remembered as a failure, if it is remembered at all – a hubristic, pseudo-scientific experiment that was never going to accomplish its mission. However, as the new documentary Spaceship Earth shows, the escapade is a cautionary tale, now that the outside world – Biosphere 1, if you prefer – is itself coming to resemble an apocalyptic sci-fi world. Looking back, it’s Collapse
As Colston’s statue lies forlorn in a lock-up, Bristol is working out what its toppling means | David Olusoga
1 DAY AGO - The historian and adopted Bristolian on an exciting and painful month in the cityAt the beginning Expand
1 DAY AGO - The historian and adopted Bristolian on an exciting and painful month in the cityAt the beginning of last month the now infamous statue of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston loomed over the centre of Bristol, as it had for 125 years. Today Colston lies flat on his back across a bed of wooden pallets on the concrete floor of a council lock-up.His fall to earth, and his rough journey across the asphalt to Bristol harbour, into which he was thrown, have left their marks. Colston is now covered in scrapes and scratches. There’s a hole in his left buttock and his walking stick is missing. The Black Lives Matter protesters who toppled Colston also spray-painted his hands and face bright red, signifying the blood of his victims. Continue reading... Collapse
Observer culture quiz: from Die Hard to the price of heroin
1 DAY AGO - Test your arts knowledge with these questions from the Observer’s criticsWhich actor has played Expand
1 DAY AGO - Test your arts knowledge with these questions from the Observer’s criticsWhich actor has played the most comic book characters? Halle BerryJosh BrolinChris EvansWhich of following is true of the 1988 action movie Die Hard? It was Alan Rickman’s feature film debutIt was originally set at EasterIt was banned in GermanyWhich of the following films was Joaquin Phoenix not Oscar-nominated for?The MasterWalk the LineYou Were Never Really HereWhich artist had a semi-circular sculpture room in his Antwerp house, with a round skylight to give perfectly even light?RubensVan DyckRodinWhich painter died after falling from scaffolding while painting a fresco in Cádiz?GoyaMurilloEl GrecoWhich of Gustav Mahler’s nine completed symphonies is the longest?No 2 “Resurrection”No 3No 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” Which one of the following places is not the title of a work by Gustav Holst?HammersmithBrook GreenShepherd’s BushTom Baker, the fourth Doctor, was working part-time on a building site when he Collapse
Architect takes on airport projects despite signing climate manifesto
2 DAYS AGO - Having called for an ‘urgent need for action’ on the environment, Norman Foster’s design firm is Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Having called for an ‘urgent need for action’ on the environment, Norman Foster’s design firm is now involved in two Saudi schemesOne of Britain’s most famous architects is under fire for agreeing to design an airport and terminal in Saudi Arabia despite signing a climate emergency manifesto that called for an “urgent need for action” on climate change.Norman Foster’s design firm, Foster and Partners, was one of the founding signatories of the profession’s Architects Declare manifesto last year. However, The Architects’ Journal last week revealed that several new Foster and Partners projects in Saudi Arabia have caused controversy in the profession over their links to the aviation industry. Continue reading... Collapse
This Guy Wore a Face Camera for a Year and Built a VR Time Machine
2 DAYS AGO - San Francisco-based inventor Lucas Rizzotto spent all of 2019 wearing cameras on his face. He then Expand
2 DAYS AGO - San Francisco-based inventor Lucas Rizzotto spent all of 2019 wearing cameras on his face. He then built a virtual reality time machine that lets him relive any memory from the year by simply punching in a date and time. Rizzotto shows how the project was done in the 28-minute video above, which exaggerates some aspects […] Collapse
The Camera-Obsessed Man Who Lives in a Camera-Shaped House
2 DAYS AGO - In the Indian city of Belgaum, there’s a man who loves cameras so much that he built a Expand
2 DAYS AGO - In the Indian city of Belgaum, there’s a man who loves cameras so much that he built a 3-story camera-shaped house. Not only that, but he also named his three sons Canon, Nikon, and Epson. 49-year-old professional photographer Ravi Hongal spent over $94,000 building his unusual dwelling, which features a lens, flash, film reels, memory […] Collapse
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