Stylee Fridays: Africa is the Future
- story Chioma Nnadi
Statement tees aren’t items of clothing we usually cover, but there’s something about the urgency of French photographer Nicolas Premier and his Africa is the Future project that’s just too deafening to tune out. Premier visited Africa for the first time back in 2001. Having been raised by a French mother and a Congolese father, the Parisian artist was shocked to find the captial of his father’s homeland, Brazzaville, in a crumpled post-civil war heap. The bullet-ridden walls, he explains, were even more difficult to look at given the fact that France had played a role in the conflict.
On his return to Paris Premier took part in a group art exhibit and made up a one-off shirt inspired by his trip for the show—what he calls his cri du coeur. It wasn’t long before his friends were asking for their own shirts, and he was forced to pull in a business partner to help keep up with the demand. Premier has documented the progress of AITF in images on the website for the past year and a half, but there are also some thought-provoking photo essays like Mathilde Chapuis’ “Nevada Paradox” up there too. For Premier, the T-shirts are about sparking healthy debate around the continent—it’s why he refuses to put the slogan on fliers or stickers or anything that can’t be worn on the body. The T-shirts, he insists, are walking conversation pieces after all.
Itemized: The Birkenstock Silver Sparta Sandal
- story Chioma Nnadi
Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Chioma Nnadi writes about the Birkenstock Liquid Silver Sparta Sandal.
A-Ron and the Off Bowery x Altamont Videos
- story Chioma Nnadi
The press preview for Off Bowery x Altamont was back in the spring, so we’ve had a few months to mull over the much anticipated A-Ron-curated collection. Two videos featuring the don appeared on the Altamont website yesterday, but it’s the second clip that sheds some light on his inspiration for the collaboration, including the post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear Mad Max vibes that are all over it. A-Ron lists a bunch of co-creatives on the projects but it’s unclear between Weirdo Dave of Fuck This life and Seaman Sperms which of these artists actually factually exists and which ones are crazy Hell’s Angel types living in backyard of A-Ron’s mind. A-Ron had wanted to include a spike helmet in collection but the production logistics were—much to our chagrin—far too bonkers to get around. His Gang Bang leather vest is probably closer to the look we’re going for right now anyway.
Yinka Shonibare MBE Takes Brooklyn
- story Chioma Nnadi
Yinka Shonibare’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum opened last week and was bound to be epic, we just weren’t sure how epically naughty the London-based artist would go with it. Shonibare’s work has always toyed with historical themes—more specifically colonialism—and the artist is known for his ghostly headless mannequins dressed in the traditional Dutch wax fabric that’s worn across Africa. Scramble for Africa, his famous roundtable re-enactment of the slicing and dicing of the continent, is in the exhibit as well as some of his flirtier, more erm, backbending pieces. Check out the exhibit for free this Saturday between 5pm-11pm and head out to the museum parking lot where Cosmo Baker will be spinning between 9pm-11pm.
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posted on Jul 2, 2009 in ART+CULTURE NEWS tags Add new tag, Brooklyn museum, Cosmo Baker, Yinka Shonibare
