Aesthetica Magazine Issue 61

October / November 2014

Issue 61 considers progress and change. There are a few questions around this including how much time needs to pass before something needs to change, or is it simply the case that progress is continuous? The key element is to recognise developments, keeping your eyes and ears open. This is particularly important in the art world because when you start tracking artists and noticing trends, this is when things start to get exciting, especially when those trends are just under the radar.

One of the central ideas in this issue of Aesthetica is the diversity of materials that artists and designers are using to make new works. For example, in The Future of Fashion is Now, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is considering the convergence of fashion and art. This has been explored before, but the museum is looking at the next generation of designers who are playing with form and construction. There is even one designer who creates dissolvable clothing, which redefines possibilities of material, form and function. Much in the same way, Lee Boroson’s Plastic Fantastic show uses scale to uncover the inner and outer-self while renowned artist Olafur Eliasson constructs a new world within the gallery space, which challenges expectations of the man-made and the natural.

Photographers Stephen Shore and Barry Cawston highlight photography’s ultimate power to record and document, but their works remind us that what is not included in the photo is equally as important as what is. Staging and paying homage to Edward Hopper, fine art photographer Richard Tuschman re-creates a time and a place that call upon collective memory. The same theme is continued in Warp Films’s latest release ’71, which looks at historical events in Belfast in the early 1970s while Ida, by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, looks at the definitions of identity. Materials can engage the ordinary and transform it into something spectacular. This issue celebrates materiality and highlights some of the best practitioners in the world who currently imbue this notion.

100 Painters of Tomorrow

100 Painters of Tomorrow overthrows the idea that painting is dead and instead demonstrates why the art form continues to persist, evolve and remain relevant.

Robert Doisneau

This beautifully produced new book, compiled by Jean Claude Gautrand, showcases the array of work produced by Doisneau over his 60-year career.

What We Wore

This unique compendium substitutes glossy editorial spreads for disposable snaps of poster- splattered bedrooms, Kappa-clad holidays and Brixton raves.

Lilting

Lingering amongst the rubble of loss, Hong Khaou’s feature-length debut, Lilting, dwells on the limits of language.

Finding Vivian Maier

When John Maloof bought of a box of negatives in a Chicago auction, little did he expect to uncover one of the 20th century’s most important photographers.

Rachael Dadd

An imaginative cluster of oddball pop that pursues spontaneity and contradiction at the very boundaries of the genre.

Post-Photography: The Artist with a Camera

The artists in this book do not subscribe to a common philosophy of image-making; rather choosing to share social and technological methods of creation.

Hooray For Earth

Racy marks a significant step forward both in terms of sound and creation for Hooray for Earth, a process in which each member has been more actively involved.

Kormac

Dublin-based artist Kormac releases his sophomore album, and achieves both cinematic and genre-hopping intrigue.

Stylish Constructs

Inspired by a dream to become a film director, Polish photographer Daniel Korzewa was drawn to the cinematic glamour of fashion imagery.

Joe

Joe (Nicolas Cage) bonds with Gary, a 15-year-old boy from a broken family with an alcoholic and violent father.

Next Goal Wins

American Samoa is known in footballing history for losing 31-0 to Australia, but they believe that one day they will not only score but also win a match.

Anja Lechner & François Couturier

Combining Anja Lechner’s classical ear with François Couturier’s jazz background, the album makes for a unique listen.

Mystery Road

Set in Australia’s desolate Outback, the brilliantly tense Mystery Road is nothing short of gritty. Bleached colours adorned with a scorched tinge are nestled in amongst a fine cast of actors.

We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks isn’t a band that wants you to listen, it is a band that knows it will effortlessly have your attention.

Alt-J

This Is All Yours is astounding and lives up to the brilliance of the 2012’s Mercury Award-winning An Awesome Wave.

A Painter’s Progress: A Portrait of Lucian Freud

Working with the artist for nearly two decades, Dawson was not only Freud’s constant companion in the studio he was also one of his favourite models.

Watermark

Watermark offers up a warning to mankind from the natural world: don’t throw away this resource and don’t take it for granted.

Considered Perspective

Barry Cawston uncovers the surprising beauty present in the seemingly mundane: his arresting photographs are often of still, silent settings, void of intrusive humanity and bursting with intriguing shapes, shades and angles.

Unassuming Observations

Well known for his neutral, objective and almost indifferent images, Stephen Shore (b. 1947) broke the mould when he made his photographic debut in the 1960s.