via Justin Cosplay
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Friday, September 5, 2025
Thursday, September 4, 2025
Raquel Van Haver
Art Appreciation
Born in Bogotá in 1989, Raquel Van Haver spent her formative years between Colombia and the Netherlands, where she later completed her fine arts degree at HKU in Utrecht, in 2012. This bicultural upbringing fostered her sense of being an "outsider," a theme she carries into her creative practice.
Since her breakthrough, she has actively deepened her ties to her roots by returning to work and research in Colombia, while also forging connections in places like Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Van Haver's work is known for its tactile complexity -- layered oils on burlap enriched with plaster, tar, coal, resin, chalk, ash, charcoal, hair, party beads, and found objects. She frequently incorporates text, collage, drawings, and sculptural elements like cigarette butts, paper beads, event posters, and even Nollywood (Nigerian film industry) posters to highlight themes of migration, identity, and social justice.
In New York's "Rising Phoenix" series, she added monotypes and paintings created in collaboration with Johannesburg's David Krut Workshop, investigating protection, security, and the symbolism of bared wire halos around figures.
Several of Van Haver's major work stand out, including Mid-Present-50 (diptych), a vast jute-sack painting embedding spray paint, tar, hair, balloons, chalk, candles, and party streamers. Her 2018 Spirits of the Soil exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam featured monumental, multilayered canvases such as Dem Smoke and Blaze under Royal Regime and the immersive 13 x 30 feet mural We Do Not Sleep As We Parade All Through the Night -- a celebratory yet critical tableau reflecting communal life and diaspora connections.
She was also awarded the Dutch Royal Prize for Painting in 2018, further cementing her standing in the contemporary global art scene.
We do Not sleep as we Parade all through the Night, 2018
Mid-Present-50 (Diptych), 2019
Untitled (Purple), 2023
Sources:
https://amlatina.contemporaryand.com/editorial/raquel-van-haver-spirits/
https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/magazine/features/raquel-van-haver-the-outsider-weaves-herself-in/
https://www.artco-gallery.com/akaa-raquel-van-haver/
https://davidkrutprojects.com/69040/rising-phoenix-raquel-van-havers-exploration-of-materialism-security-and-identity
https://davidkrutprojects.com/69040/rising-phoenix-raquel-van-havers-exploration-of-materialism-security-and-identity
https://www.larkindurey.com/artworks/7842-raquel-van-haver-mid-present-50-diptych-2019/
https://amlatina.contemporaryand.com/events/raquel-van-haver-spirits-of-the-soil/
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Hilla Becher
Photography Appreciation
Hilla Wobeser was born on September 2, 1934, in Potsdam, Germany, into a family of photographers; her mother and uncle introduced her to the darkroom early on. She began photography at thirteen using a plate camera and even sold small portrait prints of her high-school teachers.
After being expelled from school, she apprenticed under Walter Eichgrün in Potsdam starting in 1951, studying at a vocational photography school while completing her high-school degree. In 1954, she relocated to West Germany and worked freelance in Hamburg before moving to Düsseldorf in 1958, enrolling in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to study graphic design and printing, she later led darkroom instruction there.
At Düsseldorf, Hilla met Bernd Becher in 1957. They began collaborating by 1959, photographing industrial sites across Europe and later North America. The couple married in 1961 and worked as a team for nearly 15 years, documenting industrial structures -- water towers, blast furnaces, coal tipples, framework houses -- referencing them as "anonymous sculptures." They established the Düsseldorf School of Photography and influenced many students, like Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff.
Hilla and Bernd Becher's hallmark method was serial typologies -- grids or series of black and white images shot in neutral light, with precise framing and large-format cameras. Key works include Framework Houses (1959-1973), featuring timber-framed miner dwellings, and Water Towers (1968-1980), a series of nine-image grids.
Framework Houses, 1959-1973
Water Towers, 1968-1980
Blast Furnaces, Völklingen, Saar District, 1986
Sources:
Wikipedia
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/849258
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/500
https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/bernd-and-hilla-becher
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/group/103KGG
https://www.paulacoopergallery.com/news/james-welling-bernd-hilla-becher
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/what-bernd-and-hilla-becher-saw-in-the-remnants-of-industry
https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/bernd-and-hilla-becher-architectural-photographs/
Monday, September 1, 2025
The White Stripes - I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself
Music Appreciation
On September 1, 2003, American alternative rock band The White Stripes released "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," originally written by songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was the second single released from The White Stripes' album, Elephant.
The White Stripes’ rendition of "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" takes the classic composition and injects it with raw, garage-rock intensity. Jack White strips away the smooth orchestration of earlier versions, replacing it with his signature distorted guitar work and a dynamic, unhinged vocal performance that teeters between desperation and explosive frustration. This version reinterprets the heartbreak of the lyrics through the lens of raw blues-rock, making it one of the most striking covers in The White Stripes' catalog.
The music video, which was directed by Sofia Coppola, features supermodel Kate Moss pole dancing in black underwear. The black and white cinematography transforms the song's restless melancholy into a hypnotic, intimate visual experience. The music video strips away narrative in favor of pure physical expression.
Source:
Wikipedia
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