A hymn for the planet

HOME is an ode to the planet's beauty and its delicate harmony. Through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an unique journey all around the planet, to contemplate it and to understand it. But HOME is more than a documentary with a message, it is a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth - our Earth - as we have never seen it before. Every image shows the Earth's treasures we are destroying and all the wonders we can still preserve. "From the sky, there's less need for explanations". Our vision becomes more immediate, intuitive and emotional. HOME has an impact on anyone who sees it. It awakens in us the awareness that is needed to change the way we see the world. (HOME embraces the major ecological issues that confront us and shows how everything on our planet is interconnected.)

Synopsis

In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it is too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption.

Starting on June 5th to June 14th, 2009 you can view this film in it's entirety on YouTube.  See inside for details.

Starting on Tuesday, June 9, Art Battles moves into the RedBull Space to curate The Living Art Exhibition, hosted by Alchemy Properties, Inc.  For two weeks, the SoHo studio will be transformed into a Live Art Gallery and Art Battles Arena, during which eight live artists will be allotted gallery time to create their artwork for the exhibition in front of attendees.  The public is invited to come down to the RedBull Space and observe the artists in progress and literally watch the Living Art Exhibition grow as the artwork is created.  

The top four artists from The Living Art Exhibition, as voted on by critics and guests, will then go on to perform on stage at this summer’s opening event at Central Park Summer Stage.  The artists are also competing to be chosen as the muralist for Alchemy Properties’ new condominium development, The Griffin, located at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 54th Street.  

While some Artists have Book and some Artists have 'Books", the new publication by Taschen is most definitely the later. Koons is a 598-page ode of Jeff Koons work. The book also in it's entirety embellishes the very spirit of Jeff Koons with it's excess as if it was almost not just a book but his latest piece of work. In perfect style the book perfectly recreates Jeff’s justifiable ego by printing each article in the book in English, German and French. As if to say I am so worldwide and I have so much work that we have plenty of room next to all my work to publish each article three times without any complaints. While a bit frustrating at times they are entirely correct. Without publishing each article in each language the book would largely be a photomontage but the trilingual publishing does send the reader a message and serve as a statement to Jeff Koons' international greatness.

Koons opens it's 598-page journey with a fitting article by Ingrid Sichy, which serves as a biographical introduction for the book. It’s a wonderful piece written after Koons installed the first new work at the World trade Center after 9/11. The article traces back his routes as a young boy and takes us on a quick run through several important periods in his life as a child, while working at MOMA through a National Endowment for the Arts internship and further through the 80's. The article goes on to touch on the importance of Koons work and his politics but it's not until you have finished seeing the complete evolution of his work from 1979 to the present day can you truly understand what Koons has accomplished.

March 07, 1996 — April 04, 1996
76 Grand Street, New York

Kessler's Circus places the viewer inside the American war machine. An army tent pitched inside the gallery houses mechanical sculptures and barracks stacked with video monitors. The work depicts the American military-industrial complex as macabre circus, traveling from country to country, importing nothing and exporting atrocities under the veil of democracy. Rather than simply presenting a mediated spectacle, Kessler indicts the audience in the violence.

Surrounded by handmade mechanisms and surveillance cameras, the viewer becomes part of the machine. There is an induced sense of vertigo and surge of paranoia, as the viewer's own faces appear in the video feed. Entering Kessler's Circus, one is immersed in an undefined state, conflating machine and spectacle with entertainment and horror.

Watch the video of the Michael Kors Spring 2009 Collection runway show from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY  on New York Artist Series TV.      

Watch the video of the Rosa Cha Spring 2009 Collection runway show from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY  on New York Artist Series TV.    

Watch the video of the Miss Sixty Spring 2009 Collection runway show from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY  on New York Artist Series TV.  

Watch the video of the Diesel Black Gold Spring 2009 Collection runway show from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY  on New York Artist Series TV.   

Watch the video of the Rock & Republic Spring 2009 Collection runway show from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY  on New York Artist Series TV.