I am not usually into fantastical images. I tend to be drawn to portraits and documentary(ish) photography. It’s not that such work is any less valuable, I just don’t like it.

That all went out the window this weekend when I was introduced to the work of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.

Behold.

Reclaimation

Low Tide

Garden of Selves

More at the ParkHarrison website and at Masters of Fine Art Photography.

I am loving Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Book Project:

The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves

I just got around to reading Jonathan Lethem’s truly inspired piece entitled The Ecstasy of Influence in the February Issue of Harpers Magazine. The piece explores plagiarism and influence in art. It is a must read. I really like what Lethem is doing with his own art. He isn’t merely philosophizing on copyright, he is walking the walk. Check out his Promiscuous Materials project where he has given non-exclusive rights to various stories and music lyrics for a dollar. He also recently decided to give a free option to the film rights for his latest book You don’t love me yet to one lucky filmaker.

If you are in Los Angeles this weekend get over to see British street artist Banksy’s newest gallery show entitled Barely Legal. The New York Times published a piece on the show yesterday.

It comes complete with a live elephant painted red and decorated with gold fleurs-de-lis that matches the wallpaper. As Edward Wyatt of the New York Times notes:

As a metaphor for problems that people are uncomfortable talking about, “the elephant in the room” is not the most original. But then, few people actually put the elephant in the room, paint it red and adorn it with gold fleurs-de-lis to match the brocade wallpaper, and then dare viewers not to talk about it.

Banksy’s other stunts include installing four of his works into the the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in broad daylight.

Interestingly, this is not Banksy’s first foray into art involving an elephant. He once snuck into an elephant pen in the London Zoo and bombed the pen from the point of view of the elephant: “I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.”

I recently experienced Julian Montague’s Stray Shopping Cart Project at a gallery in Chelsea (the name of said gallery escapes me). Montague’s project is both beautiful and hilarious. Montague has developed a sophisticated classification system for identifying shopping carts in the environments in which they are found. There are eleven types of Class A: False Strays, including the A/2 Plaza Drift and the A/3 Bus Stop Discard. There are twenty-two Class B: True Strays including the B/7 Transient Imposter, the B/21 Naturalization (a cart resituated by natural forces), and the B/10 Plow Crush.

My personal favorite is the B/13 Complex Vandalism, which can be differentiated from Simple Vandalism by the degree of complexity and effort required to resituate the cart (in his example you can see a shopping cart inside an empty pool that is enclosed within a fence).

In addition to the entire classification system, Montague includes photographs of 160 specimens on the project website. Each is, of course, properly classified.

I am not sure which part of Montague’s project was more enjoyable - the informational graphics and photographs or the accompanying text. Something tells me it is the perfect balance of the two that made this work so memorable.

Update: Montague has a special Site Study: Cleveland and Environs Winter 2005 section. Yeah, I know. That is only of interest to me.

From Sesame Street

The photo below is from a book entitled Plans For Other Days, a book by Janfamily. Janfamily was founded by Royal College of Art graduates Nina Jan Beier and Marie Jan Lund. They were then joined by Daniel Jan Mair, Chosil Jan Kil, and Makin Jan Ma. Based in London, the group creates art projects that take such varied forms as songs, clothes, photography, and film.

I haven’t bought the book, but loved this image

via Youngna Park

If you find yourself in Midtown today or tomorrow between 3:00 in the afternoon and 9:00 at night, stop by Alexander Berg’s temporary photography studio at 112 West 44th Street. He is shooting portraits of the public, for free, for his newest photo exhibit called One Shot. According to Alex’s website here is how it works:

You come to the studio, look at exhibited work from the last session, chat with Alex and Hugo about what you want, and have your portrait taken… in one frame, one shot. He shoots Polaroid/negative film. Alex keeps the negative, and you’ll walk away with a one-of-a-kind 4×5 image. If you choose, you can also title your photograph, and leave a few words of wisdom to accompany your image. Past sessions have been a blast… come in and see for yourself!

One Shot will become a book and will be exhibited at DKNY’s flagship store on Madison Avenue this spring as part of the WHITNEY MUSEUM’s “Where Fashion Meets Art” fundraising event.

Update: Get there early! We showed up at 5:00 and they weren’t taking any more people on the list for the day.

And it begins.� I have been wondering for some months how long it would take law enforcementy types to realize that they could use social networks like MySpace and Flickr to track down graffiti and streetartists and the evidence (or leads to the evidence) they would need to bring a case. Users add fresh pictures of their latest escapades near daily. While I hoped that the Police would never get wise, it appears that the Boston Police just used MySpace to catch some kids (to the tune of $75,000 in damages).

Bill Waterson is releasing The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, a 1,456-page behemoth containing every panel ever published. It is three volumes. I must have it.

Calvin and Hobbes was magnificent, however, the Boondocks is sublime.

Update:

The Comic-Strip Revolution Will Be Televised Write up about Boondocks, the animated series, in the New York Times.