Skin in the game

There aren’t many major companies that don’t call on an artist from time to time to give their brands an upward spin. Nike has just called on Martino Gamper, a regular exhibitor in NZ with Francis Upritchard, and he's answered the call. Gamper used one of Nike's new high-tech knit materials to fit out some drum kits with Nike skins. Who knows what they sound like?(well Nike probably do) but they look sharp and Gamper has added his own touches to the drum sides. You can see more here.

Other art brand combos from OTN
Jeff Koons and Dom Pérignon
Ralph Hotere and Westpac
Damien Hirst and Alexander McQueen
Gilbert and George and Comme des Garçons
Cindy Sherman and MAC
Salvador Dali and Chupa Chups
Jenny Holtzer and Keds

One day in the TV studio

Director: Here’s your script, Mr. Dali

Dali: (reads) First it dissolves. Happy bubbles but devoted bubbles. The Alka-Seltzer shoots into the stomach. Here it neutralises the bad excess acid. Meanwhile this specially popular aspirin is speeding into your blood stream and places of pain so those beautiful places will feel beautiful again. Alka-Seltzer is a work of art. Truly one of a kind.

Director: OK?

Dali: Yes, it is good. I will make only one small change.

And he did.

Watching the fur fly

There’s an old saying that you don’t get a great picture without upending a couple of cats. In photographer Philippe Halsman’s case that meant throwing two or three of them at artist Salvador Dali 28 times before this famous image was captured.

Image: Top one of the outtakes. Bottom, the classic image printed in the Autumn 1950 issue of Photography Workshop

Sliced and diced

In between the time we found a video of some guy creating the Last Supper out of Rubik's Cubes and posted it, the whole catastrophe was removed from YouTube because of copyright violation. So here instead is a picture of Dali looking at a Rhino.
Image: Philippe Halsman, Dali and Rhinoceros 1956

2D

Dali fever has hit Melbourne with the exhibition Liquid Desire. If you like Dali and want to see some great works by the erratic master, now is the time to do it. You have a couple of months before the show closes on 4 October. We have posted on Dali and his excursions into film and television before but here’s a great one: the recently discovered update of a 1946 project Dali began with Walt Disney. The outcome was to have been a short film called Destino but the project was dropped with only an 18-minute test in the can when Disney ran into financial trouble. It was picked up again by Roy Disney in 1999 to be incorporated into Fantasia 2000. That movie was finished but the Dali/ Disney tale of two tortoises didn’t even make it to the final cut. In the US anyway Destino’s fate was to appear as a short to the animated feature The Triplets of Belleville. Surprising that Disney has allowed this clip to stay on YouTube, so enjoy it while you can. If the link is broken try typing Destino Disney into the YouTube search box

Artists in Ad Land

A quick follow up on our post revealing Salvador Dali as the designer of the Chuppa Chups logo. Here's the artist with a sweet tooth for advertising coming out for Lanvin Chocolate

Art in the movies

Not such a big surprise that when the two big art entertainment D’s of the 1940s, Dali and Disney, got together they reached for a D word and called their animation Destino. It is based on a song by another D guy, Mexican Armando Dominguez, who also did the music. The war and financial difficulties in the Disney business stopped production which was revived by Roy Disney in 1999. The six minute version of Destino was first shown in 2003 at the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France. This film clip is only a trailer but still gives a good idea of Dali's contribution.

Fizz

For everyone who had a tough Friday night on the town - Dali for Alka-Seltzer.

Dream on

Another great Dali moment from YouTube. This time it’s the dream sequence Dali designed for Hitchcock’s movie Spellbound in 1942. Hitchcock outsourced the job to a B Grade movie company Monogram. The initial version was not up to it as far as über producer David O. Selznick was concerned. "It is not Dali's fault, for his work is much finer and much better for the purpose than I ever thought it would be. It is the photography, set-ups, lighting, et cetera, all of which is about what you would expect from Monogram." The final version was created by the great silent film director William Cameron Menzies. Never one for subtlety, Dali makes a blatant reference to Un Chien Andalou with a large pair of scissors cutting an eye shape painted on a curtain. For a full on Dali film festival, YouTube style, go here.