Painting from film stills extracted from sources of popular culture, McReynolds explores how an image can be broken down through multiple layers of appropriation, from film to video to digital media to paint. Depicting group activities such as party scenes, sun bathing and show-boat performances, McReynolds magnifies the contrast between the immediacy of spectacle and the slow reveal of an event’s details. His imagery lingers in the in-between depicting moments in transition. Relishing this space between cause and effect, McReynolds bestows the mundane activities of a self-congratulating American culture with a sense of seduction, violence, intrigue and suspense.

“[My work] comes from the desire to find a balance between something that is staged and intuitive, original and reproduced, familiar and unexpected, digital and analog, comic and tragic… I’m drawn to moments that exist between genesis and resolve. Something so fleeting and anonymous it’s impossible to see without the aid of technology.”

For more information on McReynolds’ work, please visit his website.

In the fall of 2009 I left for Pakistan to start a project around acid and kerosene oil burn victims. I worked with a non-governmental foundation called Depilex Smile Again Foundation which helps burned women with reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and therapy. There are currently over 400 women waiting for reconstructive surgery after acid attacks in Lahore, Pakistan.

Through the foundation I met one woman – Saira – who stood out in particular. Saira was attacked with acid by her husband after refusing to move in with him. After multiple operations, her face still wears horrific scars and will mark the way people see her for the rest of her life. My aim with this project is to follow these women … while they rebuild their faces through surgery [and] the courage, acceptance and self-esteem to continue go on living with a disfigured face.

Until today there has not been one single case that has brought any of the attackers to justice.

It is International Women’s Day today. While it is a day to celebrate the ‘economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future,’ we must not forget the inequality that women still face in certain parts of the world: rape victims who stand to face death at the hands of their very own male siblings should they come forth to file a report, spousal abuse victims who suffer in silence because their husbands have a better social standing by virtue of being male… Though, I wonder, how barbaric can one be, regardless of gender, to subject another life to such heinous acts, as these women suffer? How did we come to this?

For more information on Demavlys’ work, please visit her website.

I have never been to Iceland, but I always imagined that it laid untainted by the hand of man. I know it is wishful thinking. Gentrification comes with at the expense of nature. We set up camp and greedily lay claim to more land with every passing day. Thomsen’s photographs of the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project in the Icelandic highlands exposes the effects of our unending quest for development – the scars left by our various machinery. Depicted in a rather documentary manner, albeit infinitely majestic, Thomsen leaves you to come to your own conclusion. But just how barbaric are we to subdue wilderness to the extent that we have? When will it stop? Will it ever?

Please visit Pétur Thomsen’s website to view more of his work.

I had good penmanship. My handwriting, regardless of style I adopted, was neat, uniform and highly legible. Sadly, without the opportunity to practice, I have now lost much of this skill. Just the other day, when I picked up a pencil to write for an extended period of time, I was horrified at the unevenness of every alphabet, in every word. Right at that moment, I realised that I have also forfeited my skills in painting, calligraphy, and various other “manual labour”. It got me thinking – how would my life have unfold without the computer, and by extension – the Internet? Would I be able to build a simple stool to sit on? Would I be able to knit myself a sweater?

Perhaps this is why Mary Putman’s paintings depicting various barns and fields so compelling. With technology, we have lost touch of our roots: we know very little about “manual labour”. I would like to start using my hands again…

The 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver has now come to an end. In the short span of 17 days, I have experienced sheer joy, profound respect and unbridled pride. Other than Shane Koyczan’s poem at the opening ceremony,I can think of no other words to define my emotions accurately:

We can stand here today
filled with all the hope people have
When they say things like “someday”
Someday we’ll be great
Someday we’ll be this
or that
Someday we’ll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
And all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
And still they say someday
we will reach the goals we set…

…We are the true north
Strong and free
And what’s more
is that we didn’t just say it
we made it be.

Images sourced from Life.

… I turned around and looked back at where I came from. I like to venture into the hibernating woods, bare though it is at this time of the year, and feel the serenity. Under the canopy of snow, the ground glows. The snow crackled lightly under my weight with every step. The stillness all around me never fails to inspire awe. The crisp morning air, the quietness – they let me recalibrate my senses, right there in the caresses of late winter…

Photographs by Alexander Gronsky.

I rarely look into the eyes of my conversation companions. When I do, it is a perfunctory glance, shrouded behind a veil, performed reluctantly to satisfy the basic customs of holding a conversation. I attribute my tremendous difficulty in maintaining eye contact to my lack of self-confidence. Vain as this may sound, I fixate on every single physical flaw of mine. I do not want them to see my defects. I do not want them to come in close proximity. I do not want them to judge me as I do them…

Yes I have resigned myself to a life in solitary.

Portraits by Pierre Gonnord.

This is the only known picture of the first Canadian Olympic team:

[In 1908], for the first time, the Canadian Olympic team was named based on results from Olympic Trials and were primarily funded by the government. All team members proudly wore the maple leaf. This was the first time that the Olympic Motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster, Higher, Stronger) was used. [The following year], the Canadian Olympic Committee was formed from the Central Olympic Committee to select Olympic teams and secure finances for travel to the Olympic Games. The Canadian Olympic Committee was a part of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada.

It is now 2010. The 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony will begin shortly.

GO, CANADA, GO!

We are animals observing animals:

The series is entitled The Institute of Critical Zoologists, which is the first interdisciplinary scholarly center dedicated to promoting scholarly dialogue and research on the principles and practices of animal spectatorship, animal advocacy, animal killings and animal-related polices in the fields of social sciences, entertainment, commerce, aesthetics, culture and ecology…

My projects in the Institute of Critical Zoologists produce forms and ideas about the zoological gaze. They concern themselves with the institutionalization, the archive and the mediation of the zoological gaze. The inspiration for my works comes from trends in conservation and zoological research. These trends and events include how economic incentives shapes the appreciation of zoology and its preservation, and the critical debates about the feigned objectivity of zoology as a science; they prompt me to question the ambivalence of these measures and push them to their logical extremes.

Please visit Institute of Critical Zoologists to learn more. Please visit Zhao Renhui’s site to view more of his work.

… I stood at the feet of the structure and looked up into the sky. The sun rays filtered every crevice, obscuring the topmost in a flare of light. I felt small, humbled by the quietly imposing presence the structured commanded. I reached out and touched its skin, a rough hide laboriously wrought of sand and stone. Its energy coursed through my veins – excited, as I venture into the depths of its abdominal cavity…

[Joel Micah Miller's] Monumental project deals with events that occur in famous places. Photographed in metropolises in Europe and the United States, Monumental analyzes what happens or could happen in a popular space over a short period of time. The high profile locations are selected for their nearly iconic level of recognition and number of eager visitors. By seamlessly combining multiple exposures taken over the span of approximately one hour, each detail is carefully selected to construct a dynamic lighthearted image.

Please visit Joel Miller’s site to view more of his work. Additional text sourced from Artist Statement.