GIF of the Day: El Greco VS Manet
by Michael Anthony Farley on March 2, 2017
Mexican art museums post a lot of weird GIFs on their social media accounts.
I've noticed this because I've purged my Facebook newsfeed (in an attempt to de-stress from American political bickering) of everything except Spanish-language art pages. I highly recommend this strategy, if for no reason other than the constant stream of GIFs.
This one, for example, is from the Facebook of Museo Nacional de Arte INBA. What is going on here? We see the famed painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos (better known as "El Greco") as an old-timey baseball player with contemporary sneakers and dragonfly wings. He's barging in on "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" by Manet, and that painting's famed nude seems bemusedly intrigued. He has three hands, presumably for his sword, baseball bat, and catcher's mitt (just what position is he playing here?). I envy the art history students of the future who will get to study masterpieces like this.
Mostly, I'm hoping Jaimie Warren recreates this for her meme-inspired "Art History Series".
GIF of the Day: Hussein Chalayan's Balkan Glitter Bomb Tops for Democracy
by Michael Anthony Farley on February 23, 2017
We snagged this GIF from Dezeen, because a standalone image it's just so weird. A stoic woman in a bulky/futuristic outfit tears away packaging on her chest to unleash feathers and confetti. You'd think there'd be a really good story behind this one.
It turns out there are a lot of stories going on here, and I'm not sure any of them really make sense. The GIF is from Hussein Chalayan's Autumn Winter 2017 show—a collection that's somehow inspired by "universal personhood," democracy, Greek folklore, and the "new, isolated individuals that the current world order is generating."
The garments themselves kinda remind me of Star Trek: The Next Generation extras, which is a cultural point of reference that I guess communicates some of the above concepts? At any rate, I do like the idea of introverts wearing "IN CASE OF PARTY: BREAK GLASS" style tops full of glitter.
Or in the words of Chalayan:
"The Balkan era of Greek folk culture is used as a symbol of historical empowerment throughout the collection, connecting today's sense of world citizenship to the ideals of personhood stemming from European Philhellenic sentiments of the early 19th century."
GIF of the Day: Highlights from N I G H T D R I V E R
Last year, we would occasionally spend some of our Friday afternoons writing up unusual things we found in the ethers of social media under the tag The 150th Wing of the Internet. I thought of resurrecting that tradition today, when someone sent me a link to the Facebook page N I G H T D R I V E R ナイトコール, which posts lots of GIFs, illustrations, and photos of cars driving through cities at night. Some of them have a retro-futuristic cyberpunk vibe, or capture candid moments of traffic from cities around the world. It's a notable example of hyper-specific Tumblr-style curating migrating to other social networks.
For the ultimate highspeed-car-chase-from-the-comfort-of-your-home viewing experience, I recommend scrolling through the page while listening to this song.
Vrrrooooom.
GIF of the Day: No Stick, All Carrot
by Michael Anthony Farley on February 9, 2017
Pretty much everyone I've talked to today is having a crappy day. The weather in New York is terrible, the art world remains more stressful than it really should be, and the news is even worse worldwide. I found this GIF on Giphy, filed under #relax. Maybe we should all take a cue from this cozy rodent and curl up under a blanket with a healthy snack.
I bet this lil' guy is binge-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation or something on Netflix. I have found my new spirit animal.
GIF of the Day: Tiny Spinning Painter Sculpture
When I first saw this little spinning guy hard at work on a portrait, I thought he was a 3D rendering.
It turns out there's a company in Sevilla, Spain—Studio Impresionarte—that makes tiny 3D-printed, full-color sculptures of clients. These are a little uncanny-valley-creepy, but I kinda want one? The GIFs don't really do justice to the weird factor of seeing people hold tiny replicas of themselves.
GIF of the Day: Alternative Facts
by Michael Anthony Farley on January 26, 2017
By now we're all familiar with Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer's penchant for "Alternative Facts." Countless comparisons have been made to Orwell's 1984, and countless memes birthed. But this meme is my favorite, because it references John Carpenter's campy sci-fi conspiracy masterpiece They Live instead!
So uh, Sean Spicer, care to comment on where all of our signatures on that NEA petition went? I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to go to school in Betsy DeVos's America. Maybe then I'd be able to keep up with this alternative math the Trump team seems to be so enthusiastic about.
GIF of the Day: Overload
This GIF by German digital artist Valenberg is titled "Overload". It pretty much sums up how most of humanity not living under a rock has been feeling lately. The news has been awful, and social media's reactions have been worse. Do yourself a favor and get outside before the stress nosebleeds hit.
GIF of the Day: Scenes From The Global Women's March
Saturday's Women's March, not even counting the thousands of protests on inauguration day itself, was by many accounts the largest demonstration in the history of the United States. In the US alone, a conservative estimate puts the number of protesters around 3 million. Hell yeah! The largest marches were concentrated in Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, but dozens of other cities around the country saw massive crowds. (Just look at Chicago, above.)
Of course, the day was recorded for posterity in GIF form. None of these are particularly memorable GIFs, but it's been one hell of a herstoric weekend.
GIF of the Day: Jim Golden's Relics of Technology
I came across this typewrite GIF below (h/t Museo del Chopo) and discovered it was part of a whole series celebrating obsolete technology (h/t designboom). These are pretty magical. Photographer Jim Golden documents everything from overhead projectors to floppy disks, each posed neatly against a neutral background and stop-motion animated. There's something so reassuring about analog technology—it's really nice to immediately understand the mechanics of how something works rather than just guessing digital projectors work with magic and cords that always seem to need adapters.
GIF of the Day: Brandon Muir
by Michael Anthony Farley on December 22, 2016
Brandon Muir's GIFs are a really satisfying blend of absurd and creepy. Whatever inscrutable things are going on here, I wanna watch but definitely not touch—just like a mini Cronenberg film. According to this interview, the above GIF "A Night's Prayer," was the first he ever created. I think it's a masterpiece.