A list of upcoming events for Elliott Earls
- DesignInquiry Summer 2010: JOY . June 20-25 2010, Vinalhaven Maine
Elliott Earls interviewed by the French magazine Etapes
| Tuesday, July 6, 2010 12:59 PM |
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I was interviewed by the French magazine Etapes while in Chaumont. The video above is from the event.
Elliott Earls answers questions from Mostra Triennale
| Thursday, June 17, 2010 4:22 PM |
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Elliott Earls in Chaumont France with Karl Martens, Igor Gurovich, Alejandro Magallanes and Christophe Jacquet dit Toffe
| Thursday, June 3, 2010 8:43 AM |
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| Left to right: Alejandro Magallanes(Mexico), Karl Martens (Holland), unidentified, Christophe Jacquet dit Toffe (France) |
I just got back to the studio from Chaumont France. I was a jurist at the 21st Festival International de L'afficne et du Graphisme de Chaumont.The trip really underscored what I believe to be a very positive development on the international design scene, a partial dissolution of hegemony within graphic design and the return of neo-tribalism.
Upon my arrival in France I was again seduced by the beauty of French culture. Upon my arrival at the festival, and upon my first walk through the exhibition space, I was struck by how profoundly different this collection of work was from my work (and from the work in the Cranbrook Studio). I want to try to make this clear in a succinct way. I am suggesting that ALL of the work in the exhibition was fundamentally different in approach at it’s most basic level from the manner in which my work is made. More Importantly, I also feel that this difference is not merely constrained to me. The discourse at Cranbrook, and the work made in the Cranbrook studio establishes a fundamentally different starting point that inexorably leads to different results.
Unequivocally, the single best piece in the show was the poster for the exhibition itself by co-jurist Karl Martens. Karl’s work is a brilliant example of all that was good about the exhibition, and it's a shame that the poster could not be considered for the grand prize. While the works by Niklaus Troxler and Ralph Schraivogel were undoubtedtlybeautiful, I would have voted for the work by Karl Martens.
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| Cranbrook Photography Department Poster by Elliott Earls |
2nd Prize Poster, Chaumont Festival by Fanette Mellier |
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| What I would have voted for had it been elegible: The 2010 Chaumont Festival poster by Karl Martens |
Elliott Earls work Abraham - n - Isaac featured in book along side Jeff Koons, Takeshi Murakami and Nan Goldin
| April 1, 2010 9:00 AM |
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Terry Barett profiles Abraham - N - Isaac in his new book Making Art, Form and Meaning. Terry writes:
"TEXTS" AND "WORKS"
Modernists talk about a work of art, and postmodernists prefer the term text, borrowing a word from literary theory. In modernist thinking, artworks are often considered unique creations made by gifted individuals. In postmodernist thinking, however, artworks and all artifacts are more collaborative in nature and highly influenced by culture-that is, other works-which is why postmodernists chose a different word to refer to them. Works are singular, speaking in one voice, that of the artist, which leads the viewer to look for the artist 's singular meaning; texts imply that any artwork is a network of references and citations of other works from many disciplines. Postmodernists believe an artwork is a confiuence of many voices that speak, blend, and clash, that images are influenced more by culture than we had previously thought. Elliott Earls' image Abraham-n-Isaae (11.7) is an artwork, but it is more fully understood as a partial text rather than a singular and self-contained work.
The image is part of a larger text called Bull and Wounded Horse that consists of an exhibition of photographs, objects, and large prints, and a performance piece that incorporates these objects. Making sense of the references in Abraham-n·Isaae requires knowledge of other text upon which it draws: the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew text at the base of the image, and specifically the image of Abraham following God's command to sacrifice his son Isaac without question. The image is set in contemporary hip-hop style, with African Americans representing the two Biblical characters, one barefoot and in overalls, with a revolutionary hat and hairstyle, and the other in dress pants and two-toned leather shoes. Their tattoos are signifiers that carry cultural connotations as well as the specificity of what they show. Bling is abundant around the neck of Isaac, and in the graphical symbols above the heads, which in turn reference the Star of David, a crucifix, the crescent of Islam, and a dollar sign. Blood spews forth. Through these multiple references to texts in sacred and popular cultures, Earls may be referencing black-on-black crime, as well as religiously based conflict in our post-9/11 world and greed for money. It is not a simple or self-explanatory work but highly dependent on references external to itself.
See the original Image here...
The Sentient and the Bag of Meat - an Essay by Elliott Earls for Design Observer
| April 29, 2009 9:00 AM |
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Like the canary in the coal mine, there’s much that can be learned from careful observation of design school culture today. In education, students can easily be grouped into one of two categories: the Sentient and the Bag of Meat. The Bag of Meat, dead from the neck up leads Thoreau's "life of quiet desperation" and is the embodiment of consumerist attitudes towards learning. The Bag of Meat is deceptively quick with an excuse, stupefyingly slow with an answer, and terminally late to accept responsibility for the content and the character of their education. Life is filled with Bags of Meat. And though, by my estimation, and corroborated by the musings of Thoreau and Nietzsche, they comprise the vast majority of students, they are not our concern.
Read the essay on Design Observer...
Art Basel Miami Beach 2010
| November 20, 2009 9:00 AM |
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Wall Supergraphic Segment #1 |
For the past six months I've been working with BeverlyFishman, William Massie and Heather McGill on the design of a lounge for the AXA Art Insurance corporation. The lounge will be in the main pavillion at Art Basel Miami Beach 2010. The image above is twentyfeet long by nine feet tall. The lounge contains sixtyfeet of supergraphics
An "Objects" Section Has Been Added to the Store
| Thursday, May 7, 2009 10:30 AM |
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We are beginning to flesh out the "objects" section of the store. The category heading has been added, and the first item has been listed. Over the course of the next couple of weeks the section will be fully populated.
Eye Sling Shot Lions, now available as a free download
| Tuesday, May 5, 2009 9:35 AM |
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As a thank you to our fans Elliott Earls 1997 album Eye Sling Shot LIons is now available as a free download. The music is available in high quality MP3 format (mp3 - 192kbs).
What is Eye Sling Shot Lions?
Eye Sling Shot Lions was a multimedia performance piece released by Elliott Earls in 1997. It consisted of 5 large posters, original typography, 45 minutes of pop songs and an interactive component. All of this material was incorporated into a live performance piece. To gain a better understanding of the conceptual terrain of Sling Shot look here...
A Short Video Clip from Art Basel Miami Beach 2008
| May 2, 2009 8:35 AM |
In order to actually see the video you have to let if fully load. The video clip is only 9 seconds long. The easiest way to accomplish this is simply play it twice. |
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The clip above is a few brief seconds of video from Thoughts on Democracy, my December 2008 performance at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach. The piece debuted at the museums' VIP opening for Art Basel Miami Beach 2008. The performance piece was designed for five sixty inch plazma screens. The Swiss production company Vernissage TV and CAST in Miami both produced short videos of the event.
I'll be posting a more comprehensive video documenting the event as time allows.
| Post comments, rate this video, embed or share directly on the Vimeo website. |
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Elliott Earls at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston
(Updated with video from the talk - below)
| Friday, April 3, 2009 2:36 PM |
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Elegant Dissent and Anarchy
11:30 am Saturday April 4th
ICA Boston, Tickets $15
Designer Elliott Earls presents his perspective on establishment and anarchy. How does one visualize dissent? It can take the form of a sophisticated challenge to dominant ideologies—political, religious, or cultural—or the opposite: an anti-establishment counterculture with no message. How are people responding to or acting on these images? Are designers defined by a “design canon” which determines the way they operate? Should they look beyond traditional sources of inspiration or court contradiction and chaos to produce relevant, resonant, and prescient design?
The footage from the talk posted above deals with how The Saranay Motel and the 11 Posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art are related. It also specifically addresses the concept and context for the work. Skip directly to the section concerning the cranbrook posters.
| Interested in downloading a high definition version of this in Quicktime format for offline viewing?1080x720 423.8 Meg
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Post comments, rate this video, embed or share directly on the Vimeo website. Elegant Dissent: Elliott Earls talk at the ICA Boston from Elliott Earls on Vimeo.  |
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Candy and Horses, The Entenmann SMART car
(a Dyptich)
| Wednesday, March 25, 2009 8:25 AM |
Candy and Horses, the Entenmann SMART Car |
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In January I was comissioned by collector Kathrin Entenmann to design a paint job (actually vinyl) for her SMART FourTwo Cabrio. Candy and Horses is the result.
Candy and Horses, the Entenmann SMART Car. |
Hence, the Dyptich...
The car was conceived as a dyptich. Hence there are two major components. The car, and an eight by ten inch india ink and kaolin clay drawing on hardboard. The drawing is entitled Horse no Candy.
Horse no Candy, for the Entenmann SMART Car. |
Sex, Death, Love and Graphichug....
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 9:18 AM
This morning the design blog Graphichug posts a fairly comprehensive interview concerning my work, sex, death, love and the Cranbrook studio.
The Unapproved Cranbrook Metalsmithing Poster
| Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:02 AM |
Rejected Cranbrook Metalsmithing poster |
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In January 2008, I completed eleven posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art in twelve weeks. All of the originally submitted work was approved without hesitation. There was but one issue in the entire design process. The initial design direction I submitted for the Metalsmithing department was perceived to be too overtly sexual.
While this is completely understandable given the nature of the image above, it is somewhat funny if you look at the work in context. Obviously there is an attempt to encode a kind of charged sexuality within these posters. It would seem that my more overt attempts to construct a highly fetshized surface that is charged with sexual energy were better received. The strategy was to attempt to tap into a kind of corporeal energy and work that through a subconscious articulation.
The image above is the poster that was rejected. In such a massive project, with such a quick turnaround time, having to re-address one component is understandable.
The poster that was approved is here...
(Detail) Rejected Cranbrook Metalsmithing poster |
I'm guessing the problematic area is depicted in the detail shown above.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with Pig Nose
at The Flint Institute of Arts
| Wednesday, February 11, 2009 11:51 AM |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at Flint Institute of Arts |
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The show is up through May 10th 2009...
Art Supernova
Elliott Earls profiled in The Metro Times
| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 2:09 PM |
Elliott Earls profiled in The Metro Times |
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Elliott Earls at The Wolfsonian Museum
Art Basel Miami Beach | Design Miami
December 5-6 2008
My participation with The Wolfsonian Museum at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 has three major components:
- A new performance piece entitled Thoughts on Democracy.
- An installation of related sculptural objects.
- The design of Seven SMART cars.
Seven SMART cars designed for Thoughts on Democracy
Car number seven
Car number seven was designed with a graphic language extrapolated from my performance piece. As you may know, SMART cars are designed with easily replaceable body panels. The panels from the seventh car will be auctioned after the event, the proceeds of will help support Cranbrook Academy of Art.
For questions regarding the auction, contact Felicia Molnar at Cranbrook Academy of Art: 248.645.3329.
Or email her here...
The Installation component of Thoughts on Democracy
| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 10:10 AM |
Elegy for the Collapse of the Empire |
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Elegy for the Collapse of the Empire was created as a discreet sculptural component of my performance for The Wolfsonian. Elegy attempts to triangulate a conceptual space situated between the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the potential collapse of the Big Three Automobile manufactures and the diminished role of craft within our culture. With major components articulated in hard paste porcelain, unfiltered bees-wax and horse hair, Elegy in part contends with these issues through a reflexive neo-classical language.
This object has been added to the store...
(Detail) Elegy for the Collapse of the Empire |
Eleven new posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art
2D (Graphic Design) Department
| Monday, July 21, 2008 11:24 AM |
Cranbrook 2D (Graphic Design) Department Poster by Elliott Earls One in a series of eleven two sided posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art. Commissioned by Director Reed Kroloff. |
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Reed Kroloff the new Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art approached me in November of 2007 and asked me if I would design eleven new posters for the Academy. The posters were to serve as a kind of new catalog for the Art Academy. Beginning on January 1st of 2008, I designed and produced one poster a week for twelve weeks. The posters are currently on press. I will post one new poster a day over the course of the next two weeks.
Eleven new posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art
Photography Department
| Monday, July 21, 2008 8:29 AM |
Cranbrook Photography Department Poster by Elliott Earls One in a series of eleven two sided posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art. Commissioned by Director Reed Kroloff. |
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Liberty Weeps featured on the cover of The New York Times Arts Section, and in The Herald Tribune
| Sunday, July 20, 2008 3:29 PM |
Liberty Weeps by Elliott Earls |
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AVENTURA, Fla. — Elliott Earls’s reinterpretation of Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” practically screams. A little girl seems to be crying, her eye bruised, with an American flag in the background and two words framing her figure: “Liberty Weeps.” The color scheme is red, white and blue, but patriotic pride has been supplanted by sadness.
“She is begging us with her eyes to take responsibility for our actions as a nation,” Mr. Earls said of his creation in an e-mail message. “And to live up to the greatness embedded in our social fabric by the brilliance of our founding fathers.”
Clearly, Rockwell’s America this is not. It is Sunday afternoon at the Aventura Mall in South Florida, and I’ve come to gauge the impact of a handful of images displayed in 14-foot-high posters near Nordstrom. Culled from a surprising new exhibition at the Wolfsonian museum at Florida International University titled "Thoughts on Democracy," they are all artists’ responses to Rockwell’s wartime "Four Freedoms" series...
Damien Cave – The New York Times July 9th 2008.
On July 9th in an article entitled Rockwell Re-enlisted for a Nation’s Darker Mood Damien Cave profiled my recent poster for the Wolfsonian Museum's exhibition entitled Thoughts on Democracy. The article is also available in Europe in the Herald Tribune.
Read the full New York Times article here...
Thoughts on the design process
When asked to respond to Norman Rockwell's original work, I went through a period of deep reflection. Prior to actually working visually, I struggled with how to encapsulate the complexity of what I wanted to say in a single image. Often political work seems very heavy handed and seems to lack nuance. As the deadline approached a kind of clarity settled over me and the image of Eugène Delacroix's nineteenth century painting "Liberty Leading the People " plagued me. In Delacroix's work it is the use of allegory that I found so intriguing and appropriate. Allegory is when the literal content of a work stands for abstract ideas, suggesting a parallel, deeper symbolic realm. I felt the use of allegory might enable me to invest the work with the complexity and power I so desperately needed.
I chose to work with my three year old daughter Scarlett to strengthen the allegory. Children have a kind of openness, honesty and innocence that would seem necessary to the idea of Liberty. Young children can be blind to race, creed, sex and power. In about twenty minutes I took over three-hundred and fifty high resolution digital photographs of Scarlett for the project. during the photo shoot. there was a period of approximately four minutes where Scarlett began to cry. I held down the shutter release button and took about fifty photographs that captured a vast range of emotions that spanned sadness, anger and fatigue. I then spent about twelve hours comparing all fifty faces attempting to select just the right facial expression. I spent another four days digitally compositing the right head with the right body, manufacturing the smoke and arranging the image.
This entire process was in service of a larger idea. I wanted the image to be conceptually focused but to be open to interpretation. I think that it's possible to read the image in such a way that Liberty is weeping over the victims of September 11th. Or that Liberty is weeping over or the loss of civill liberties in the War on Terror. Or that Liberty is weeping wherever justice is perverted, or over the war in Iraq, or over the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Or for our Fallen servicemen.
As part of the exhibition at the Wolfsonian Musem I have been asked to write, produce a new multi-media performance piece entitled "Thoughts on Democracy." It will debut at the museum during the opening at Art Basel Miami Beach on December 5th. During this writing process I have struggled with a vast range of emotions when I reflect on the state of Democracy in America. In essence I have come to the realization that the optimism, clarity and hope exemplified by Dr. King, John Kennedy and Jefferson has been perverted by the small-minded in pursuit of a partisan political agenda. This agenda fueled by xenophobia seems to have lost sight of the central tenant of the American experiment in democracy: In the words of Abraham Lincoln - the great emancipator - "...our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." As a country, I see no evidence that we are behaving with absolute respect or the unalienable rights that this great nation was founded upon.
Yes I'm sad. In my poster this is embodied in a beautiful, innocent crying child. She is begging us with her eyes to take responsibility for our actions as a nation, and to live up to the greatness embedded in our social fabric by the brilliance of our founding fathers.
Read previous blog posts here