Superslice 30: Best of 2011
It’s been a dense inaugural year for our cultural online magazine and site known as The Superslice™. With the close of 2011, we present our favorite featured posts that have highlighted a great year. Here is the ‘Super 30’:
1. Marco Brambilla: The Dark Lining @ SMMoA
A marvelous commingling of art, technology, and popular culture. It was great seeing this display first hand and in person. These were optical mash-ups and visual remixes of the highest order. Some pieces were clever and curious, some were beautiful and hypnotic, most were superbly interesting; this work was innovative, richly packed and mind-blowing.
2. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
Needless to say, it was a brilliant and stunning collection of mind-obliterating work that was coupled with an appropriately expert level of curation. Just awesome and amazing. There is not enough hyperbole to describe this showing. This was one of the best displays I have seen this part of the decade. It was almost overwhelming taking in this intricate tableau; I would have shed a tear if I was in the exhibit for another minute. Alexander McQueen is and was a fashion deity.
3. Odd Future Sessions / BBNG x Tyler
Tyler, The Creator pays a visit to Canada and collaborates with the Toronto-based jazz trio, Bad Bad Not Good. Pure, organic, raw, and beautiful stuff.
4. Iron / Woodkid (Yoann Lemoine)
This is probably the best music video of the year. Minimalist and stark, yet epic and thunderous. Medieval and modern all at once. It is gorgeous and conceptually solid; a perfectly executed strand of moving images set to a haunting track.
5. Tyler, The Creator: Misunderstood Artist or Hateful Scourge?
Culturally, Tyler and his Odd Future crew are onto something. I have not seen this type of Gesamtkunstwerk since Kurt Cobain, Nirvana and the Northwest grunge movement. I mean, Odd Future has yet to be a mainstream household name, but they were underground critical darlings that broke out in 2011.
6. Daft Punk Helmet Fabrication / Volpin Props
Incorporating various skills and techniques, (without plans or instructions) Volpin Props painstakingly puts together immaculate replicas. Harrison Krix incorporates sculpting, shaping, cutting, sawing, drilling, molding, casting, fiberglassing, gluing, vacuum forming, milling, electronic wiring, painting; not to mention the hours upon hours of hand-sanding that he has to do. His reproductions are one-of-a-kind and plainly gorgeous.
A nod, a salute, proper respect should go toward to both architects and developers for sticking to their guns on this one. Not to mention, that the respect that is due for the immaculate execution that was displayed; it is a challenge to decipher between the initial renderings and the real-life photos of this project. Like the High Line itself, the HL23 reasserts and reestablishes the City of New York on the global stage for architectural modernity.
An impressive and artful music video that is composed of more than 2,000 hand-painted stills. It is painstakingly crafted, gorgeous and an instant classic. Analog reigns supreme. New favorite.
9. Hydroelectric Power Station (Wasserkraftwerk) / Becker Architekten
German firm, Becker Architects, might have created the most beautiful hydroelectricpower station ever created.
Wall mounted bas-reliefs made from salvaged and reclaimed timber; which are then colored by a mosaic of veneers, producing a technique that looks painterly and rendered. The usual subjects stem from the industrial, mechanical and the pop cultural. Van der Ende flattens and projects the subjects into an axonometric, which tweaks the perspective, producing an impressive three-dimensional effect. The work is unique; one of the more memorable sculptors featured.
Axonometric Array 2008 (7m50 x 3m50 x 25cm)
I have been obsessed with his body of work for awhile. His process is meticulous and rigorous. It is obvious that Geddes is disciplined about detail, light and tonality. I think he is the closest our generation might have to a modern-day John Singer Sargent. I say this without hyperbole, his work is awesome. The Cosmonaut has been a prominent theme in this current, narrativeless series. This Cosmonaut anti-hero, is always seemingly lost in oblivion, floating without datum. These pieces are beautiful, haunting and hypnotic.
12. Tel Aviv Museum of Art / Preston Scott Cohen
One of the latest built projects of progressive building designer, Preston Scott Cohen. Scott Cohen is known for his interest in pushing formal geometry into built space. Using computer modeling, he will work with, for example, self-intersecting surfaces, Möbius strips, formal torsions to attempt to create architecture out of these complex formal models. Dynamic spaces result in his fascination with the parameters of geometry and the built surface.
13. Infrared Warzone / Richard Mosse
The eastern region of The Democratic Republic of Congo has been involved in a deadly civil wall for over a decade now. Many have died and thousands have suffered from the conflict. Photographer Richard Mosse traveled to the battlefield and documented the strife with infrared film (made for camouflage detection). The results are creepy, bizarre, gorgeous and powerful.
Logorama is an absolute pleasure to watch, visually stimulating and funny. Set in a stylized Los Angeles, the entire film is painted in logotypes we have all become familiar with. Corporate identities such as Ronald McDonald, Mr.Pringle and the Michelin Man all come to life in this fabricated world. Car chases, hostage situations, and potty mouth dialogue unfold in the world of Logorama.
15. Lecture: DOOM (Madrid 2011) / (100 mins interview)
Master underground MC and Supervillain, Daniel Dumile aka DOOM, sat down with Red Bull Music Academy at Matadero Madrid for this rare one hour and forty minute interview and lecture. Priceless stuff. The conversation was in-depth, slightly awkward and clunky, interesting and insightful (kinda like DOOM himself); a treat if you’re a DOOM fanboy.
16. NIKE releases the MAG / Marty McFly
The Nike MAG became a reality. Nike auctioned off 1,500 pairs of the MAG with all net proceeds going directly to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Years of hype and speculation led up to this marquee moment. We had hints, glimpses and tastes along the way. For sneakerheads and pop culture addicts, this was a dream come true. We were officially speechless for this release. Radical stuff. Great Scott, indeed.
17. Book Carvings: Landscapes / Guy Laramée
Laramée creations are something original and rich. He immaculately carves out miniature, idyllically pastoral, natural landscapes from old books and compendiums. They are gorgeous, beautiful, intricate pieces.
18. Losing My Religion: Becoming Spiritualized at Coachella
“Untitled”, the collaborative installation architecturally designed by emerging outfit, Undisclosable, was the installation of the Festival. It was immersive and transported you; a product of intelligent conceptualization that was coupled with rigorous execution. An impressive level of layering and symbolism existed throughout the experiential walk-through. Simply stated, it was an intricately layered container and placeholder for people watching. Half the fun was watching inhabitants have their mini-epiphanies along the way.
19. Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre Pavilion (Tverrfjellhytta) / Snøhetta
A progressive yet serene architecural marvel by Norway’s Snøhetta.
20. Teshima Art Museum / Ryue Nishizawa
The Teshima Art Museum was designed by Tokyo architect Ryue Nishizawa for the 2010 Setouchi International Art Festival in the Takamatsu Port area of Japan. The open gallery is enclosed by a concrete shell, less than 10 inches thick, with two elliptical entrances that are exposed to its natural context. Just a sublime space, an example of minimalism at its best.
Lasserre’s sculptures explore the unexpected potential of the everyday through allegories of value, expectation, and utility. Elements of nostalgia, accident, humor, and the macabre are incorporated into the work that induce a strangeness in the familiar, and provoke uncertainty in the expected.
Korean artist and sculptor, Yong Ho Ji, creates amazing sculptures out of recycled rubber tires. His extensive collection of animals and animal-human hybrids are creepy, dark and beautiful all at once.
23. LIT Bangkok / VaSLab Architecture
An articulate architectural space that coexists with the ability to attract the passersby but yet secludes itself away from the outer chaos and encloses them again with warmth and comfort. A sleek, progressive and contemporary hospitality building.
24. Tori Tori Restaurant / Rojkind Arquitectos + Esrawe Studio
The premier Japanese restaurant in Polanco, Mexico City, Tori Tori, was recently completed. It was a collaboration between Rojkind Arquitectos and Esrawe Studio. It is a futuristic and innovative nest.
As long time fans of Diplo and Mad Decent, we quickly gravitated towards Heroes x Villains. Heroes x Villains has steadfastly put themselves on the map with their vigorous combination of dubstep, house, trap music and electro, laced with dirty south hip-hop. They are also influenced by the chopped and screwed genre, a sect of hip hop that introduces the technique of slowing down hip-hop tracks and then mixing them up with scratching and beat juggling. Probably one of the greatest Mad Decent mixes to date is the Heroes x Villains / We Off That Mixtape. This epic mix featured some elite dirty south hip-hop artists.
The video for Nap On The Bow by Canadian future-pop duo New Look. The music video was entirely shot using one of the most interesting hacked pieces of technologies of the year, the Xbox Kinect Camera. The music video is Innovative, beautiful and delicate.
TrustoCorp is a mysterious and subversive street artist (collective?) based in New York City. “Their” hilarious and satirical work takes jabs at corporations, the media, politics, religion, and our ridiculous society as a whole. TrustoCorp’s pieces have popped up all over, in cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Miami. Reminiscent of FAILE, “they’re” also a regular chip off of the ol’ Banksy block. TrustoCorp serves up an eff-you and middle finger, to the public, with a wink and a smile.
28. Everything is a Remix, Parts 1-3
Everything is a Remix is a four-part video series produced by Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker. The series discusses how the folk art of remixing and the techniques (copying (collecting material), transforming, combining) used are vital in any creative process. His thesis posits that, in the end, everything is a remix. A truly enlightening and entertaining film project.
29. Kingston Story / Vybz Kartel
The undisputed king of dancehall, released a new album, Kingston Story. It is refreshing to see a full length album from a dancehall artist that normally does rapid fire releases of singles. The album has received rave reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone, NY Times and Fader. The album was produced by Brooklyn based Dre Skull and released on Kartel’s independent record label, Mixpak Records.
30. Thinking About You / Frank Ocean / High5Collective
All of the charmingly-awkward, mixtape-freestyle, improv-y RNB rambling at the beginning of this track is all a setup to the silky smooth, disciplined falsettos. It’s a track that is grounded in the honesty, of not only the performance, but the display of crafting a heartfelt love song. Therein lay the magic of this track, the throwback honest-to-goodness concept of an old-fashion love song. This young gun reminded me of having crushes and recalls how beautiful and hypnotic that one single and ideal lady can be. It is an unrequited love letter that we can identify with. Good saccharine stuff, one of the favorite soulful tracks of this past summer. Frank Ocean must be the future.
The short film and music video provided some unpredictable and contrasting moving imagery to one of Frank Ocean’s best songs. We aren’t really sure what is going on, but we dig the alternating imagery and the intertwining storylines. There is something to be said about the concept of time, the afterlife, and this notion of spirit or spirituality; this video is life affirming. It is substantial without being maudlin or mawkish. I would have never came up with this treatment or directed this type of video. It was original and unpredictable. A great job by High5Collective.
So that rounds out the ‘Super 30’. Be sure to check out our compiled lists of the Most Visited content on this site.
Have a productive and prosperous 2012, Slicers. See ya next year…
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