(sources unknown)

(source unknown)

A few that stand out… (sources unknown).

Glasgow, Scotland

SWING was created from discarded items of clothing collected from the back alleys and bin areas of tenements in Glasgow. The clothes were then laundered and dried, cut into strips, and woven together to fashion ropes, to which parts of chairs (also found on the streets) were attached to form swings. These were hung from the guardrails on the Botanic Gardens Bridge that crosses the river Kelvin and forms part of the busy Kelvin Walkway.

The clothes that were collected and used for this project were imbued with a personality and invoked very powerfully notions of the abject, each piece telling a story of sorts, albeit ambiguously, about its previous owners and their lives and experiences. The cutting and braiding together of these items seemed almost like weaving together small fragments of narratives from the lives of a myriad of unknown people, creating an object that at once juxtaposes these fragments while creating a new narrative of its own.

A project by Jen Grant—I like it!

(found at Wooster Collective)

Lisbon, Portugal

Anyone working in a creative field knows the challenge of bringing a good idea to fruition. Some days it feels like you’re battling a veritable conspiracy of idea-killers—diminishing budgets, focus groups, the client’s legal department, etc., etc. The depiction of good ideas and their respective enemies was the premise of these clever illustrations (lots more here) done by Scott Campbell as part of a Portuguese ad campaign promoting the film company Show Off! View the full ads here.

Thanks for the link Gregor.

Wherever…

These photos (among many others not posted here in the interest of a modicum of discretion) came in from my dear Belgian friend Guy today… while I must admit to taking a certain passive-aggressive (which is sooo Canadian) pleasure in these, they do carry a cautionary message—when in the limelight, do make sure to keep your guard up… and also be aware of those around you!

Kudos to the perceptive photographers—unknown to me at the time of this post I’m afraid (though I’d be more than happy to credit you, if you should come across this blog entry).

As the story goes…

A wealthy man commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint a portrait of his wife. Startled by the non-representational image on the final canvas, the woman’s husband complained to the artist, “This isn’t how she really looks.”

When asked by the great painter how she really looked, the man produced a photograph from his wallet. Returning the photograph, Pablo observed, “Small, isn’t she?”

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Images by Picasso: Self Portrait, 1907; Jacqueline, 1954.

Be careful, Jack… after all, it’s Friday the 13th—

of real concern to triskaidekapaphobics and paraskevidekatriaphobics.