beyond magazine

Now that's a big baby.

                            

Untitled (Head of a Baby)
Ron Mueck

I took these while visiting the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Since then the gallery has added another piece by Mueck called "A Girl".

More Mueck works here.

Can you tell we're thinking "Body" for the next issue?

Paul Rand Tribute

"Art is an idea that has found its perfect form."
Paul Rand, American graphic designer

via Veer

Persepolis and change we can work for.

Doug Cummings of Film Journey, the blog, and Film Journey, the Beyond magazine feature writes about the strange decisions of large entertainment companies:

The estimable Animation World Magazine offers an excellent article on Persepolis' lack of exposure from Sony. The author doesn't make any points that a lot of us haven't been making for years, but it's great to see more articles like this in popular industry trades/sites. It's also well written, offering gems such as this:

 

"On the other hand, audiences are treated (on two screens at most multiplexes) to the lowest examples of swill dished out by Hollywood. While Persepolis struggles to be shown in the smallest of art film houses, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets is smeared like celluloid scum across thousands of screens, insulting the intellect of millions. Oh, this film is good enough if one is willing to profess ignorance of American history and government, European history, Native American history, archeology, geology and geography. This is not to mention ignoring at least three major plot holes that could envelop Mount Rushmore, but why indeed go on? This misbegotten mishmash is presently sitting on a box office gross of $187,000,000, which should be enough to launch a third sequel (possibly subtitled Yankee Doodle Dimwits)."

And, yeah, I thought the whole point of the Oscars was repackaging films and boosting ad campaigns? Why doesn't Sony release Persepolis in the multiplexes with full-page ads that read "Oscar (TM) Nominated for Best Animated Feature of the Year"?

Yet I also appreciate the author's productive optimism:

 

"In the final reckoning, this column is not about Persepolis alone. My rant concerns countless instances of fine animated films, many of them good enough to contend for and win major awards, going unseen. It is impossible to ascertain who deserves the greater share of blame for this, but let's put that aspect aside for the moment and consider this instead: It really doesn't have to be that way. If we want change, we can work for it."

Working away...

Also check out Doug's review of Persepolis here.

Engage.

Well, we haven't been here in a while. We're turning a little stack of index cards, into a little paper filled with tiny thumbnail views of what will soon be another 68 pages of goodness. Coming as soon as we raise the money for the next print bill, Issue 16: Small. Feel free to subscribe, donate, or jump in at the face and the book to give us your content and fundraising ideas.

View the The Shatner Show trailer.

We want to give a galaxy sized "Hurray!" to Beyond designer Janine Vangool and the Uppercase Gallery. This Friday marks the opening of The Shatner Show , "a book and exhibition of artwork depicting William Shatner by artists and illustrators from Canada and the US."

We have seen previews and are overcome with much Shatner joy. We are beaming in that "Beam me up Scotty!" way. This is a beautiful piece of work. We hope this is only the beginning of many Uppercase books to come.

Go ahead and buy a copy before they all disappear. If you can still get a thrill from whooshing of the bridge doors, you must own this wonderful book.

The Captain's Blog is the place for all things Shatner this week. Follow along and pick out your favorite Shatner-ati while singing "ahhhh, ahhhhh, ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhh's" at the top of your lungs.

WK Interact

WK Interact, the French urban artist based in NYC, has a new book out. Featuring his street, studio and commissioned work from the last 10 years, the book also includes some shots that reveal the depth of his creative process. Famous for his black and white painted murals of skaters, kung-fu masters boxers and mountain climbers, all of his work incorporates a unique and often eerie sense of motion. If you can't make it to downtown Manhattan to experience his murals first person, this book is a must have. Actually, it's a great one for the library regardless.

via coolhunting

Hatch Show Print

It's that time of the year again. Today, the Stampede Parade kicked off Calgary's all-cowboy all-the-time festival. For the next ten days, you can eat breakfast for free everyday and put a cowboy hat on just about anything.

In the middle of all the faux-western chic, Calgary's Uppercase Gallery has launched an exhibition of Hatch Show Print's:

"Since the late 19th century, Hatch Show Print has been an American institution, providing their bold, colourful and unique graphics to entertainers of all sorts. While their first clients consisted of vaudeville, circus, and minstrel shows, they helped to define the look of country music, designing posters for such country music Hall of Famers as Bill Munroe, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams. But their influence stretch far beyond the borders of any one genre, as they also developed posters for Elvis Presley, Duke Ellington, and BB King."

If you can't visit Calgary, read Uppercase's writeup on Hatch prints.

Anime a day, keeps the...

If you'd like to know a bit more about manga and Japanese Anime, take a listen to NPR's Day to Day with Charles Solomon, a review of three new DVD releases,  and Talk of the Nation: Manga, Anime and Japanese Culture in America.

If you're in Calgary on February 3 to 5, plan to attend eko dance projects presentation of As I AM - a series of reflections on the nature of embodiment. A good friend of Beyond is involved in the production of this event:

AS I AM explores our self-perception, identity and body image through choreographed movement incorporating a multi-generational core of professional dance artists spanning a 50-year age range and representing a variety of shapes and sizes.

Through a series of very personal movement self-portraits and mediated image, AS I AM delves into the very vulnerable topic of how we inhabit our bodies. Challenging ideas of beauty, AS I AM  becomes a mirror which reflects, projects and reveals changing viewpoints between the self and the other. At times intense and dark, AS I AM exposes the poignant, and often humorous, interplay between the mental picture of physical appearance and the attitudes placed on it by the self and society.

Tickets available through Ticketmaster.ca. (The brochure for this event states that a 1999 survey indicated that girls were more afraid of being fat than they were of cancer, nuclear war, or losing their parents. Wow.)

CBC Archives

While looking up information on Carol Shields, I stumbled across the CBC Television and Radio Archives. It's a fantastic resource and I am at a loss to know where to begin. Should I listen to Lawren Harris talk about the Group of Seven at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1952? How about artist Bill Reid documenting the transport of Haida totems in a television clip from 1959? Or watch Barbara Frum interviewing opera singer Maureen Forrester about the death of Glenn Gould in 1982? And that's just the Arts section.

You can search the archives by year or category or you can consult a calendar and find out what happened on that day in history. Wonderful.