During the summer, I had the chance to visit -once again- 'La Capilla del Hombre' -The Chapel of Man- back in my hometown, Quito. This place is a beautiful museum built by one my favorite artists, Oswaldo Guayasamin -Ecuadorian painter and sculptor- to display his work of over 50 years. Guayasamin had indigenous origins and his family was really poor so his work has a social character and it was strongly influenced by the figure of his mother, he also explored different techniques and styles that most of artists at that time didn't dare to experiment. The background and inspiration for his work was so unique and refreshing that he quickly became one of the most renowned artists in Ecuador and later on he gained a lot of popularity abroad, especially due to his close friendship with icons of the artistic medium like poet Pablo Neruda or political figures like the -back in the day- French first lady Danielle Mitterrand. Although his tematics are the kind of concepts that I usually try to avoid as much as possible, his paintings are way too touching and meaningful to be ignored. For Ecuadorians, Guayasamin doesn't represent a painter solely, he's the biggest proof of the infamous 'hard work pays off' so I always feel connected to his work, especially because the 'Chapel' is located in the north of the city -coincidentally quite close to my house- therefore the place holds a lot of emotional memories and I feel somehow attached to it. Among his work, one of my favorite collections 'Huacayñan' or 'The Path of Tears' depicts the vision of miscegenation in Latin America, specially in the Andean Region. I'd spent hours talking about why I like these paintings so much but I better give you a glimpse of Guayasamín's art:
Capilla del Hombre- Coleccion Manos 'Hands Collection'
Las Manos de la Protesta- The claiming hands
Capilla del Hombre, indoor sight of the dome
Mural Capilla del Hombre. Translation 'I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a kid with no feet'
In days like today, when I feel homesick, I wish I could go over the 'Chapel' and take pictures, there's an amazing view of my Quito from there, because well, my city too is a big inspiration for me when it comes to my creative process and, of course, I can't help but longing to be there...
The Chapel of Man, as seen from the workshop building of Oswaldo Guayasamin.
And of course as in the spirit of being back home, some music from Latin American groups that totally fit my mood now:
Finally
I managed to get my hands on a copy of L'Officiel Hommes Korea from April 2013.
To be honest the main reason why I wanted this magazine was that one of my
favorite groups was featuring in one of the editorials and as expected I was curious about
the concept.
Since
I was young I had a fixation over fashion from the 80s and 90’s, or to be more specific fashion
from TV shows of early 90s like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or Saved by the
Bell and singers like New Kids on the Block (specially from their late 80’s era) so I must admit I nearly died once I checked the whole
photo-shoot Teen Top made, I’m aware many people would hate the hairstyles and
even the clothes, but for me such shapes, prints and ambience take me directly
to the period I’ve always dreamed living in –in a very platonic way of course-.
I
might be wrong with the references that inspired this fashion spread but when I
look at it closely it has a late 80s feeling very ‘New Kids on the Block’ style
in the music video for ‘I’ll be loving you forever’ combined with a troublesome
guy of the 90’s –sorry this is completely random but I was thinking maybe
Gangsta's Paradise would be the perfect soundtrack-
Anyhow,
thumbs to the stylist of L’Officiel, the pictures came out pretty nice -and now
I’ve officially founded the Korean Stylists' Fan club- their work is outstanding;
it’s always a pleasure to have a look at Korean magazines, the pictures are never disappointing! usually presenting striking concepts with fresh fashion, cool sets
and overall amazing visuals. Once you’ve laid your eyes on the photoshoots
Korean fashion magazines have you will never ever find again pleasure on checking
the plain and overused concepts editorials in western magazines tend to display.
Scans from L'Officiel Homme Korea 'Boys on Top' April 2013
Teen Top Official Facebook
And in the spirit of the period some musical inspiration! seems like ages since I last listened all these songs.
Working on my collection, organizing files and erasing stuff I don't need anymore I tripped over one of my forever favorite poems, I'm not so much of a 'romantic' person but I must accept I love the books of surrealist poet Robert Desnos, he might be one of the few poets whose work I really enjoy, although my fave poem of his might be 'If you knew', 'I've dreamed of you so much' -see the image above- is worthy to be read. Inspiration suddenly seems to come whenever I find one of those 'old treasures' in my computer.
In the search of
inspiration for the current collection I'm working on for school I found myself thinking
a lot about the possible reasons why I hate yarns so much, after much reasoning
and self analysis I came to the conclusion of yarns giving me the idea of
chaotic and messy, for instance when you knit there always comes a time when the yarns get all tangled and you feel like you're going to die out of pure frustration -I'm exaggerating but you get my point, don't you?-
So back to the research, I -being the shameless fan of Korean pop music I am- immediately
made a connection with a music video from last year’s sensation artist Lee Hi. The sets in 'Rose' are incredibly neat and the overall video is so rich visually, it simply gives me more reasons to add to my list of why I love Korean 'over produced' music so heartedly.
The whole symbolism part is rather nice and of course when you understand the lyrics of the song, the picture above with the tangled dry stalks of roses trapping the girl make a lot more sense but I'm not planning to talk about it in this entry, the point was just to find something related to my visual research so I can progress a little bit more and find some themes to develop deeper.
Lee Hi's Rose gave me millions of things to think about, although honestly I dislike her voice and I sincerely can't stand her, this song
is probably one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard and I totally
consider that every person in the world should listen at it at least once in its lifetime
regardless of being or not being able to understand what on Earth she's singing, but just a clue, the girl is in fact telling her lover to leave her because just like a rose she 'might be beautiful but her thorns will only end by hurting him'. Nice, isn't it?
