THE MIRROR OF DREAMS: BLIND PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVGEN BAVCAR

Writer: Gracie Leavitt

The Slovenian photographer was born in a small town near Venice in 1946 and was a wild young thing immersed in books and devices. Suffering two separate accidents in childhood, Bavcar slowly lost his sight. He stole away from our shared visual world, taking care to collect icons and senses along the way. When the lights did finally go out, the artist’s mind was full. With a team of assistants, Bavcar now makes photographs. “I measure the distance with my hands and the rest is done by my internal desire for images,” he explains in the notes accompanying his online exhibition, The Mirror of Dreams, hosted at ZoneZero. In a way, Bavcar becomes the thinking camera.

KIOSK: DESIGN SHOP IN SOHO, NEW YORK CITY

Writer: Paul Taylor

Located on the trendy Spring Street in Soho, the kiosk could easily be mistaken for a low-rent drug den entrance. As I arrived at the address, I still wasn’t sure that I was at the right place. Sandwiched between two glitzy new shops that looked like homecoming queens was this geek, the kind who looks odd at first, but on deeper inspection reveals an inner, quaint beauty and quirkiness that quickly fascinates you, making you want to discover more.

ROJO MONOGRAPHIC BOOKS

Writer: Tuija Seipell

It seems there’s no cure for the disease of art-book addiction. You’re happy about having survived an entire weekend without a bookstore fix, and the next thing you know, you’re faced with yet another website flogging yet another series of tempting masterpieces. So be forewarned: If you are attempting art-book withdrawal, you should not continue reading this.

For the rest of us, the website of the Barcelona-based publishing and production enterprise ROJO, is a veritable treasure trove. ROJO has just released the latest four in its expanding series of limited-edition, monographic books on illustrators. The latest four tomes-Schmock by Eboy, Rubber Roulette by Veljko Onjin, Magic Beans by Robert Hardgrave and work by the Clayton Brothers (coming in August) -can be pre-ordered now and will ship in September.

Another recent book in the series is Vectorfunk by my favourite, the prolific, Boston-based designer, illustrator, and artist MWM (aka Matt W. Moore), who just finished a solo art show (also produced by ROJO) in Barcelona. Also out recently are Color Cloud Seeding by Meomi, Stay Awake by Heiko Muller, and Hibridum Bestiarium by Marcel.lí Antúnez. The entire series has now grown to more than 30, but several are already sold out. Better get yours now.

FEATURED ARTIST: ROB HANN, PHOTOGRAPHER

Writer: Orange Life Staff

Photographer: ROB HANN

www.robhann.com

MUSE TO MANY: L’INCONNUE DE LA SEINE

Writer: Gracie Leavitt

Meet the legend, the mannequin, the most kissed of all time. I was the kind of child who, had I known the whole story, would have thought myself fully capable of resuscitating the long dead L’Inconnue de la Seine. The story traces back to the turn of the 20th century, when sociologist Émile Durkheim, and subsequently the French Surrealists, pondered suicide as a fin de siècle phenomenon and an important philosophical question. Ever more curious about such deaths, the public was particularly entranced by a young woman drowned in the River Seine, convinced her demise was a lovesick suicide.

Bodies pulled out from the river were not so uncommon, but the lady’s beauty, it is said, was just that. A Parisian morgue worker, captivated by her delicate, Mona Lisa-like smile or simply hoping to identify her, cast a death mask later copied and circulated about the city.