Lebensader: a little girl finds the whole world in a leaf

This is a luscious trip into a parallel microcosmos where colours, sounds and mystical beings all abound and swirl together. Lebensader is a short film with a sweetness, innocence and curious wonder about it that will stay with you for a long time afterwards. It was created in 2009 by animator Angela Stefffen who worksContinue reading “Lebensader: a little girl finds the whole world in a leaf”

Film Review: Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey (2016) Terrence Malick

The other night Terrence Malick’s new film Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey screened at the New Zealand International Film Festival Autumn events in Auckland. Although I’ve found Malick’s films a little too long and ponderous, this one I enjoyed more than his others because of its sparseness and its lack of human narrative and human characters.Continue reading “Film Review: Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey (2016) Terrence Malick”

Flying Nun Records: The Chills

Haling from Dunedin, The Chills are a 80’s and 90’s band with aural stories that recall childlike wonder and a free-wheeling and expansive youth in the South Island of New Zealand. There’s a happy-go-lucky psychadelic pop and folk sound that (possibly) found its way into the sound of Split Enz and Crowded House later on. TheContinue reading “Flying Nun Records: The Chills”

Drew Leshko’s dollhouse replicas of vanishing Philadelphia streets

Drew Leshko is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based artist who creates micro, 1:12 anatomically correct architectural pieces of his own neighbourhood, replete with grime and imperfections. This is the rarely glimpsed side of Philadelphia, one that is slowly dissappearing as economic progress spurs forth more modern streetscapes, agreeable to modern design conventions. Leshko’s three dimensional archive ofContinue reading “Drew Leshko’s dollhouse replicas of vanishing Philadelphia streets”

Book Review: ‘Les Diners de Gala’ Salvadore Dali’s delectable and twisted psychedelic cook-book

Salvador Dalí isn’t generally remembered for his culinary prowess. Although he was a secret admirer of gastronomy for all of its transformative and monstrous properties. In his rare and 1973 cookbook Les Diners de Gala, just reissued by Taschen. the late iconic artist celebrates dream-like and surreal flavour combinations. Chapter titles include Prime Lilliputian malaises’ (meat)Continue reading “Book Review: ‘Les Diners de Gala’ Salvadore Dali’s delectable and twisted psychedelic cook-book”

Federico Babina: Famous fairytales reimagined as buildings

Insanely creative Italian architect and illustrator Federico Babina has immortalised artists, musicians, films and even countries as mid-century buildings, but he has turned his hand towards fairytales in this collection. The fairytale universe is reinvented to incorporate elements of timeless 50’s and 60’s building design so that it imparts personality and new dimension to theContinue reading “Federico Babina: Famous fairytales reimagined as buildings”

Book Review: Today, Tomorrow and Everyday by M.H. Clark

You know how you sometimes have those days, or even weeks or months when you feel un-moored to the shoreline and adrift in a lost world, floating aimlessly, feeling sad or morose? This is the kind of book every woman needs to feel found again. It’s that miraculous book that brings you right back toContinue reading “Book Review: Today, Tomorrow and Everyday by M.H. Clark”

Matchbloc: Czechoslovakian matchbox art from the mid 20th century

The design and aesthetic of Eastern Europe was really beautiful. Product  labels and film posters of the mid-20th Century, like these fruit box labels of Australia are optimistic, bright and speak volumes about the artistry of the people who made them. The modernist and colourful aesthetic is incredibly timeless. Subject matter for posters and product labelsContinue reading “Matchbloc: Czechoslovakian matchbox art from the mid 20th century”

Tilda Swinton is an iconoclast, rebel and an alien of the best kind

In 2014, actress actress Tilda Swinton was awarded with the Rothko Chapel Visionary Award at the The Rothko Chapel, which is home to fourteen of Mark Rothko’s paintings. This luminous chapel is a spiritual and human rights center whose mission is “to inspire people to action through art and contemplation, to nurture reverence for the highest aspirationsContinue reading “Tilda Swinton is an iconoclast, rebel and an alien of the best kind”