Insert your own “dust in the wind” joke here…

We gotta admit it, we’re big fans of dust art. From the ubiquitous “Wash Me” signs to the “Dusty Willie” masterpiece you see here by an anonymous dust painter in AUSTIN last week. What better excuse is there not to wash the whip?

Digital artist LENA GIESEKE has created an incredibly captivating 3D video model of PICASSO’s masterpiece 1937 painting “Guernica.” Says the artist of her inspiration: “The idea of creating a 3D version of an influential artwork came out of doing jigsaw puzzles of famous paintings. When you assemble a jigsaw, you study a painting in great detail and you become aware of the very lines, shapes and colors that the painting is composed of and how these elements merge to create a unified expression. Through the puzzle, you explore the artwork, examining details your eye might not have caught otherwise.” For those needing a bit of historical backend, “Guernica” was Picasso’s commentary on the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest pieces of modern art ever produced whose relevance still seems more timely than ever…

Coincidentally, recent examination of “Guernica” by expert art conservators has determined that the painting is in “serious but stable condition” in its current home at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and can not afford to undergo any further restorations. The painting’s most serious (and damaging) restoration was undertaken in 1974 when superstar art dealer/actor TONY SHAFRAZI spray-painted the words “KILL LIES ALL” across the work in what can best be described as a cheap fame grab that subsequently catapulted him to the highest echelons of the international art world. Funny how things work, innit? Read more HERE…

In their ongoing graphics collaboration for ORIGINAL FAKE, Supertouch homies MARK DEAN VECA and Mr KAWS have again teamed up to bring you this hyperdetailed Veca-penned rendering of XX-eyed mastermind’s classic Blitz bomb character. Look for it on T-shirts in Fall 2008. As for the original, you’ll have to get an invitation to KAWS’ house to see it on his wall…

Supertouch blogger ERIC WHITE is digging NY MAGAZINE’s new video interview with one of Manhattan’s most innovative “street artists,” JOSHUA ALLEN HARRIS, who creates his incredibly temporary sidewalk installations using found materials and the power of the city’s ever-present subway air ventilation grates. SEE MORE: Read the rest of this entry »

The new holy grail of vinyl toydom. He’s laughing at how much you’re going to pay… 

Yeah, that thing’s real. It’s a special collaborative figure made by KAWS and Chinese art phenomenon YUE MINJUN for a special show of vinyl toys designed by Chinese artists called “Art For The Masses” at Taipei’s MUSEUM OF TOMORROW that opened tonite (through July 27th). Featuring new sculpts by  ZHOU TIEN HAI, LIU YE, JING YU, ZHOU CHUN YA, and YUE MINJUN (with KAWS), the show is the first to address the genre for a Chinese audience incorporating domestic modern artists. All figures have been produced in runs of 500 pieces for sale at the museum and are not being distributed domestically. Translation: keep your eyes on eBay and your PayPal account locked & loaded. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

The sound of the future. Two speakers are officially deader than an Ed Hardy T-shirt…

Yeah, MP3s and their bastard half-brother & sister formats sound like shite compared to the full stereo image vinyl provides, but with the new stunningly beautiful PHONOFONE iPOD SPEAKER (that’s right, “speaker” as in one) at least no one will be paying attention to the actual sound coming out of the speaker. Created individually by hand in Toronto by innovative concept lab SCIENCE AND SONS, each signed and numbered miniature gramophone amplifies iPod sound without external power or batteries by exploiting the virtues of horn acoustics to boost the audio output of standard earphones to up to 55 decibels (roughly the maximum volume of laptop speakers). Crazy as it may sound, upon connecting active earphones to the Phonofone base their trebly buzzing is instantly and profoundly transformed into a warm, rich sound that totally eclipses the low-fi source file. Impossible as it may seem this tiny porcelain unit sounds nearly as loud and rich as a premium iPod dock and only after playing with this little beauty for the better part of an hour during which we fed it a wide variety of input from the Bad Brains to Debussy did we believe it for ourselves. At $850 USD this little beauty is a connoisseur’s plaything, but the looks on the stunned faces of your audiophile buddies at your next party will make it worth every cent. Until it shatters on the floor after said drunk audiophile buddy bumps into it, that is. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »