Things&Ink

December 24, 2015

Five great Christmas movies that aren’t really Christmas movies

Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward. On th-ink.co.uk Harry will be writing a series of posts in which he will be sharing his opinions on things he has watched.

At this time of year, are you ever sat in front of the television bored out of your skull as the usual parade of Christmas movies are dragged out to numb you with forced comedy and seasonal cheer. Do you sit staring gloomily into your mulled wine thinking ‘I know a few films I’d rather be watching that aren’t Christmas movies exactly but they are related to Christmas’? Well that’s exactly what this article is about. The movies in this list aren’t typical Christmas films, as in rather than celebrating Christmas they drench it in alcohol and set it on fire like a Christmas pudding. In other words, Christmas is in the background of these movies but they’re not suitable for the family to mindlessly veg out to after dinner. You certainly couldn’t show them straight after the Queen’s speech. But they’re a little more interesting than re-watching Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

1. The Proposition, 2005, dir. John Hillcoat

The Proposition

You could say this is a Nick Cave Christmas movie, since he wrote the screenplay. What a better figure for Christmas cheer than Australian Goth prince Nick Cave? Just listen to his album Murder Ballads. As we’d expect from the twisted genius of Cave, The Proposition is a bloody, blistering journey into a 19th century Australian hear t of darkness, with lashings of flies, guns and flogging. It happens to be set during Christmas and the only character celebrating is a cockney copper played by Ray Winstone, who has moved from London with his wife in order to lay down some law in the outback. In order to remember the Victorian civilisation they left behind, they order a tree, a turkey and even fake snow. Their attempts to enforce European traditions have some success on their Aborigine servant, who replies ‘merry Christmas’ to his master. However, the English couple’s attempts to practice their cosy civil culture is not enough of a shield against the harsh, violent, alien world just outside their window.

2. Brazil, 1985, dir. Terry Gilliam

Brazil

How about some dollops of dystopia with your warm mince pies? After all, Christmas is the only time of year when we try to forget we live in an unjust, cut-throat society and spend loads on food and presents in order to further the magical illusions spread by adverts. So why not watch a movie that holds a mirror up to the violent, materialistic bureaucracy hiding under the tinsel?

As you’d expect from Monty Python member Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a madly visual cross between 1984 and Pythonesque humour. In the bowels of Gilliam’s spectacular nightmarish metropolis, a bumbling bureaucrat played by Jonathan Pryce loses his grip between reality and his dreams. It’s very dark but also very funny if you like satire based on an all-powerful but inept police force that arrests and tortures the wrong people due to administration errors. There’s also an incredible array of actors, including Michael Palin as a state torturer and Robert de Niro a rogue plumber. Meanwhile Christmas is going on, perhaps to highlight the extreme materiality of this future culture. It even leads to some satire in a scene where our hapless hero thinks a bomb is disguised as a Christmas present. Perhaps this is a comment on the damaging impact of consumerism on the traditional spirit of Christmas goodwill.

3. Eyes Wide Shut, 1999, dir. Stanley Kubrick

Eyes Wide Shut

Kubrick is a director you wouldn’t normally consider suitable for Christmas movies. Sure he once directed a family film set in the snow, but that was a claustrophobic horror where daddy goes mad with an axe and just won’t shut up. Eyes Wide Shut is a family film set during Christmas but it’s also a sexual odyssey. Kubrick’s last film saw him leave behind graphic violence and start exploring graphic sex. Unfortunately Tom Cruise is the hero, and I’m sure most people there days would rather watch Idris Elba in this kind of film. Luckily Cruise doesn’t get his clothes off much. The film is about him and his wife Nicole Kidman (both really married at the time) played an ordinary American couple until Kidman’s character admits she once desired another man, so Cruise thinks it fit to retaliate by going an all-night search for sexual gratification. His journey takes him to a secret masked party, where sumptuous tracking shots linger on all-out room-to-room naked orgies (artfully shot of course). Clearly this marital breakdown erotica is not suitable Christmas family viewing, but it is worth watching for Kubrick’s typically stylish cinematography, tension and atmosphere. Perhaps it also rages against the supposed innocence of Christmas and the refusal of typical seasonal stories to acknowledge that people are just as much victims of their emotions and desires as they are the rest of the year.

4. Gremlins, 1984, dir. Joe Dante

Gremlins

Finally here’s some light relief (which is what Christmas is supposed to be about, after all) from westerns, dystopias and erotica. However Gremlins was still nasty enough to inspire the PG-13 rating, since scenes of monsters attacking people with household appliances or being blown up in microwaves were considered too gruesome for a mere PG rating. To be fair, it is odd that today this is considered a family Christmas movie since such scenes are still rather graphic. Nevertheless it’s still lots of guilty fun to watch a sleepy American town fall prey to invading hordes of mischievous little green devils. The difference between this and other critter movies is that this one happens to be set during Christmas. Why? I’m not sure. I can only assume it’s some kind of marketing ploy, or maybe the film was scheduled to be finished near Christmas and the makers thought ‘what the hell, let’s make it a Christmas movie.’ Whatever the reason, they ended up putting a lot of effort into the Christmas aspect.

A festive pop song is blasted at us over the opening credits, the streets are laden with snow and every house is decked out like Santa’s grotto. To be honest this does contrast nicely with the mayhem that follows, perhaps to symbolise the fragility of Christmas against the forces of chaos. I also have a theory that the gremlins themselves are a reflection of what actually happens to people during Christmas. Instead of spreading goodwill, people turn vicious, ravenous and selfish. They devour all the food, drink too much and assault the bar staff while overcrowding cinemas with overexcited, screaming offspring to watch the latest Disney flick. Lastly, the film even has a little message of responsibility about getting a pet for Christmas. Do take care of your animals, whether it’s dogs or mogwai who can sprout evil babies from their backs when you get them wet.

5. Die Hard, 1988, dir. John McTiernan

Die Hard

I think a few people would be upset if I left this off the list. Like the other movies, this is a very un-Christmas movie that just happens to be set during Christmas. It does very little to promote any Christmas message. On the other hand, like Gremlins, Christmas is everywhere in typically American garish fashion. Bruce Willis walks into an airport in L.A. with a massive Christmas present and goes to his wife’s office Christmas party, which is the office Christmas party to end all office Christmas parties, at the top of a towering corporate complex. Then everyone (except Bruce of course) gets kidnapped by the evil Alan Rickman and his team of elite criminals. After that the festive mood is shot to pieces, rather like some of the unlucky office workers. The rest of the movie is Bruce crawling through air ducts in a filthy vest, frustrating both the robbers and the cops he’s supposed to be cooperating with. So what is the meaning of Christmas in this typical 80s action flick, apart from something in the background? Well there is a family theme, since Bruce’s wife is one of the hostages and he spends the entire film trying to save her. So life-threatening situation aside, Christmas time does bring loved ones together. Or maybe the film is trying to say that sometimes Christmas is not enough to fix estranged relationships. Only Snape’s terrorist ring can save your love life. Happy Christmas.

One last thing, I would just like to draw attention to the Christmas scene in Full Metal Jacket, where the drill sergeant leads his recruits in a chorus of ‘Happy birthday dear Jesus’. Because it’s hilarious.

December 24, 2015

The Opening of Booth Gallery

On 5 November 2015 world-renowned tattoo artist Paul Booth, the owner of the Last Rites Gallery in NYC, opened a new gallery called Booth Gallery.

Booth Gallery and its program of carefully selected artists will take over the large ground floor space of 325 W 38th St. (NYC, NY 10018), and the Last Rites Gallery will be relocated to the second floor mezzanine gallery for a more focused program of Contemporary Surrealism. Booth Gallery will allow Paul to display works by an even broader selection of local and international contemporary artists.

Paul has wanted to launch a new gallery focused on the exploration of new avenues in terms of cultural significance and visual communication for years. Booth Gallery’s program has been conceived to encompass a departure from contemporary surrealism for which Paul and Last Rites Gallery have been known. Paul’s goal for his new gallery is to develop a wider audience interested in connections between historical relevance and experimentation of idea based works. Furthermore, the gallery aims to trigger discussions focusing around social, psychological and philosophical subjects in virtue of a deliberately thought-provoking approach to contemporary art. We would like to invite you all to become an active part of our ongoing dialogue and new perspective on these topics.

Booth Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, “Second Sight”, opening on November 14th at 6pm, will revolve around the connection that exists between information, perception and interpretation. This exhibition will include new works from artists Mike Cockrill, Jade Townsend, Ted Lawson, Chad Wys, Todd Lim, Johan Barrios, Ekaterina Panikanova, Ryan Hewett and Jesse Draxler. This exhibition will be pivoted on the ambiguous connection existing between information, perception and interpretation. The title of the exhibition refers to the concept indicating the extraordinary ability of certain individuals to look beyond the oftentimes deceptive immediacy of the five senses. “Second Sight” has been conceived to explore the meanings and symbols that can be identified in the work of these artists through the interpretation of a vast repertoire of images, memories and esthetic experiences. The main goal of this exhibition is to highlight the analogies and differences between reality, representation and everything in between.

All the works have been selected in virtue of a dialog-based interaction that had been previously triggered by the artists themselves. In the light of these premises, the work of Chad Wys relates perfectly to the imagery of Jesse Draxler, since they are both deeply connected to the stratagems of visual communication and culture. The juxtaposition of excess and absence of information is a topical subject that can also be individuated in the work of Ekaterina Panikanova. Jade Townsend and Johan Barrios are like modern shamans who can turn the narrative dynamism of drawing, painting and sculpture into figments of their prolific imagination. The work of Ted Lawson, focused on experimentation, revolves around scientific theories, new materials and technology. Mike Cockrill and Todd Lim, on the other hand, prefer to provoke the viewers through an intricate alternation of social political and psychological statements. Together, these artists give us the opportunity to explore our existential perceptions of our reality.

Booth Gallery will follow up its inaugural exhibition with solo exhibitions by LA artist Jesse Draxler and Brooklyn artist Mike Cockrill in 2016 with several future exhibitions to be announced as well.

For further information about Booth Gallery, please visit: www.paulboothgallery.com or email: paulboothgallery@gmail.com or call Casey Gleghorn (Gallery Director) at 570-447-5778

December 23, 2015December 23, 2015

Careers: Tattooed Model Booker

We chatted to 22-year-old Laura who works as a model booker in London, about her beautiful tattoo collection and people telling her she doesn’t look like the tattooed type…

My first tattoo was (I’m embarrassed to say) those feathers with little birds coming out of them with the quote “Not all those who wonder are lost” I cringe so much looking at it but despite what it is it’s not actually a bad tattoo but just poor decision making on my part. I was 18 when I got my first tattoo and have learnt a lot about tattoos over the past four years so I try not to feel too bad about my first couple of tattoos! At the time I loved it so I’ll never regret it but at the same time feathers and birds are so cliché; I didn’t even realise the quote was from The Lord of The Rings (sorry!) so that makes me feel bad!

There are two people in my life that influenced me. My older cousins had tattoos and I used to think they were so cool. I’m like 12 years younger then them so they were my idols. When I was older (like 16/17) I worked with an Aussie girl at Dr Martens and she had beautiful tattoos, I can’t remember the name of the tattooist she went to but from then on I was set on getting at least one tattoo. I lost touch with her after leaving Dr Martens but I always think about her and her tattoos.

I guess one of the first thing people notice is that the majority of my tattoos are ladies and animals, animals on my legs (there’s a couple of exceptions to that though) and ladies on my arms/chest. I have a tattoo by Daniel Gensch based on Rebecca from a novel by Daphne Du Maurier that’s on my arm, Sam Smith also tattooed a portrait of that author on the same arm. I love my Eckel tattoo, it took years to finally get a reply from him and I still can’t get over that I managed to get booked in with him!

My tattoos are quite girly apart from my chest piece that is a lady with daggers going through her head. Sam Smith tattooed that one as well, she finished it all in five and a half hours, it’s one of my favourite tattoos but hands down the most painful. I’ve been really lucky with who I’ve been tattooed by; Sadee Glover, Drew Romero, Kodie Smith, Magda Son, Georgina Jurd.. My most recent tattoo is a portrait of the actress Felicity Jones by Rose Hardy.

There are so many artists that I admire and still want to get tattooed by, including Emily Rose Murray, Jacob Gardner and Sam Clarke, to name just a few! There are so many more though! I can’t wait to get my back started by Aimee Cornwall, I’m really excited but nervous because I hate not being able to watch myself being tattooed.

I saw my current job on Fashion Monitor whilst at my previous internship. I applied, got an email back 10 minutes later, had my interview the next day and got offered the job a couple of hours later! I started working at Scallywags which is a child’s modelling/acting agency and I’m starting up a little model division with Simon & How which is Scallywags big sister company. I look after Scallywags social media, answer the phone to parents but mainly look after new briefs that come in from clients I submit the children that match the briefs to the client, book in children for auditions, shoots. I do a lot of scouting as in town and have meetings with photographers and potential new clients.

Before that I was interning at the Anti Agency which was really fun, I learnt a lot and really enjoyed working there! Aside from that I’ve worked at Dr Martens, Fenwick’s, Whistles, Fred Perry, Office and Waterstones so yeah I’ve had quite a few jobs. I attempted university twice and changed my course three times. My courses were fashion based so I guess I tried to to study for my current job.

Another thing I’ve been really lucky with is doing lots of work experience. I started doing work experience at Vogue in the classified department when I was 14, I worked hard and eventually was allowed to work at GQ and Russian Tatler, I had done a lot of the packaging of clothing and accessories that had been on set for shoot. I assisted different stylists for a couple of years as well, interned at Tank, worked at Fashion week doing photography.

I tend to dress pretty casual for work as the office is super chilled. When I came for my interview I covered up all my tattoos and when I got my job I came into the office with most of my arms and legs on show. I’m lucky that my bosses actually don’t mind at all about tattoos. In general I usually wear a lot of dresses and skirts, little tops. I think I live in a constant mental state of summer, I hate winters clothing!

I think my family have just accepted all of my tattoos now, they were never angrily against me getting tattoos but my parents were more worried about the financial side of things. I’ve got a twin brother who doesn’t have any tattoos and I just think that my family were more surprised that out of the two of us I started to get all the tattoos that I now have because I’ve always been the slightly awkward, quiet one. I think my work colleagues were surprised that I have tattoos just because they said I didn’t look like someone to have any interest in tattoos. That’s the most common thing I’ve heard people say about my tattoos that they were surprised I had any because I didn’t look the type, I don’t know like to me it feels normal and natural to have my tattoos but maybe to others it might not make sense.

I get a bit of a mixed reaction from strangers in the street, I get stared at A LOT and most the time I just ignore it but if I’m having a bad day and I’ve got someone glaring at me and shaking their heads it just makes me really anxious. People come up to me and start talking to me about my tattoos and that’s really nice when people have a genuine interest in the art that I have. I’ve had some mean comments as well from complete strangers like I was going to order a coffee from Costa and the guy serving we was like ‘oh you look really scary’ I only wanted my coffee not your opinion on me but yeah thanks! Recently I got told I looked like a public toilet which was very nice- people have such a lovely way with words!

I would say to people thinking about their career when getting tattooed to think carefully about getting a obvious tattoo like on your hands, knuckles, face etc. just anywhere that can’t be covered just purely because some companies still judge someone on appearances as opposed to their skills and what they’re capable of. I think it’s a rubbish way of judging someone but at the end of the day that’s what people are like so before making a rushed decision and then being angry about not getting a job maybe just try sit down and have a careful think. As for getting tattoos on any other part of the body that can be covered then go crazy!

In the kind of job I have it doesn’t really matter about whether you have tattoos so I’m really happy about that, to be honest I’ve never really had a job (whilst having tattoos) that have a no tattoo policy, even when working at Waterstones I got my job because the manager liked my tattoos.

December 22, 2015

Rosey Jones Illustration

23-year-old Rosey Jones from the Netherlands creates bright and bold illustrations. We chatted to Rosey about what inspires her, her fashion style and her awesome tattoo collection…

When did you start up your company/big cartel store? I started my store exactly 10 weeks ago! It’s funny to think my intentions were never to make prints of my designs, it was coincidence that I got asked to make one of the designs I handpainted on a tote digital for a band from the UK – then I realised I could do this with more of my designs and eventually the main focus became making designs for prints instead of hand painting them on totes. That’s kinda how this all started!

What kinds of things do you create? My main focus is on making artwork for my prints, besides that I also handpaint tote bags that I sew myself too, but I haven’t got as much time for it at the moment. The designs on my prints vary from teacups to roses and from donuts to daggers, I literally just draw whatever I fancy at that exact moment which could be anything really!

How do you create things, what is the process? I try not to think too much about what I draw so I usually just start sketching up some stuff that comes to mind, which usually happens when listening to music (might explain why half of my designs got lyrics included in them), then when I start seeing it come together as a whole I redraw my sketches with a sharpie, scan the image, and colour it digitally. I love the mix of it being both analogue and digital without it being super obvious how it’s done (if that makes any sense).

Do you have a background in art? After I graduated high school I worked for Vans for three years so I had time to build up a portfolio – my biggest dream was to study photography. I eventually got accepted in the school of the arts in which I’m a third year photography student now!

What inspires you? Literally anything and everything inspires me, I get fascinated by small things really easily which makes it quite easy to stay inspired all the time! Also cool looking people and nice tattoos inspire me a lot, and seeing amazing artwork of others always makes me want to get better at what I’m doing. I’m crazy lucky to be surrounded with passionate people, it’s really hard to be uninspired or unmotivated when the people closest to me are so supportive and hard working themselves.

How would you describe your style? Both fashion and art. I would say my artwork is pretty much the exact opposite of the way I dress, my artwork is all bold and bright while my clothing style is literally all black everything most of the time! I like simplicity, black jeans, black tee, black denim jacket and some sneakers to go with it (ok, maybe some dr martens when I’m feeling adventurous). I think for some strange reason my glasses make my outfit look a lot more fashionable as people keep on asking me where I got them from.

What does the word beauty mean to you? Not much, if there’s one thing I learned over the past few years it’s that beauty is relative.

Can you tell us about your own tattoos? I got quite a few tattoos for a 23 year old but then again, I started getting tattooed at the age of 16. My goal has never been to get covered as quickly as possible and I’ve never been one to get a whole suit planned out on my body either. Lately the main focus is on my legs as I just find that super pretty, finally got my second knee done too woo hoo! Couldn’t be more excited about that. Most of my pieces are done in the traditional style which is what I love most, there’s some very colorful ones and also some black ones but I think they go really well together. When I first started getting tattooed I always made sure I had some story to go with it but now I don’t really care about that anymore. Now I just want to get things tattooed that I find pretty or funny without it having to have a meaning – my latest addition is the donut design I drew myself. I’m super happy with how my legs are looking, all my favourite tattoos are on there.

Which was your first, do you still love it? My first tattoo was Stay True on my wrist, got it done in Germany when I was 16 and knew nothing about tattoos or how they were supposed to be done. This might explain why it’s upside down too, but I don’t really regret it, it’s something I still stand for – wouldn’t say I love it but I wouldn’t get it covered either!

December 21, 2015

Interview with Yle Vinil

Our Italian contributor Ilaria Pauletti chatted to tattoo artist Yle Vinil who lives in Bergamo but works all around the world…

Long eyelashes and red cheeks: these are two of the recognisable elements we can find both in her tattoos and in the artist herself! In this interview, Vinil talks about how it all began, revealing a more intimate view of her tattoo world, among Dolomites, childhood memories and bicycle rides!

How did you get into the world of tattooing? Did you immediately know that it would become an integral part of your life or it was just part of a gradual process?
I basically entered on tiptoe. When I was 18 I got my first tattoo, to commemorate a person who was very important to me, and I had lost a few years before.
I actually had never been attracted to tattoos before, and I did not get tattooed to be cool or to look different, but just to have a memory.
From that moment on, I fell completely in love with tattoos and a few years later I joined a tattoo studio as an assistant.

Year after year, your style becomes even more recognisable. Do the emotions you feel when creating a design and then a tattoo, remain the same? Every time I undertake a new adventure, when I guest in a new studio, I always feel emotional. Travelling makes me savour the beauty of my work, separating me from the routines of life. I must admit that sometimes we forget, while creating a tattoo, that we are creating something more or less important to the customer and that will be forever on skin.

Have you always drawn characters, or have these developed over time? Like all the things, even my characters have their own story, and their birth occurred absolutely randomly. When I started tattooing I tattooed almost every kind of style, it’s a typical thing in the beginning of any tattoo artist’s career (or at least it should be).
One day, a friend who left a few years earlier to London, returned home for a short break, and he asked me to tattoo something on him. I gave him a little strapping man, because of the courage he had shown by moving abroad on his own. The character had a giant head and blue moustache. From that day on, people started asking me to tattoo in that style.

Who and what inspired you during your journey?
When you manage to find your own expressive channel of communication, you realise that in the end it’s like drawing yourself. And what we are is what we see, what we love, what affects us. Certainly, in the early days, my striking inspiration was Amanda Toy.
I have always been attracted by illustrations for children and I think that this is in general what continues to inspire me a lot.

What makes a good tattoo and what would you like to change?
The fixed point for a good tattoo is definitely the impact: not too many elements or too many details, I love the immediacy of a good tattoo and not too much confusion.
There is not a definite thing I would like to change: I am always looking for an evolution, that extra step.

Following you on Instagram, I can see that you are a huge fan of cycling, mountains and strudel! Are these elements linked to your childhood? How would you define them? I am very passionate about mountains, and then also of strudel and cycling and elements in my life always link to them.
I have been following cycling activities with my father since I was little. While watching the Tour of Italy on the mountain stages, I always looked forward to the Dolomites, the places where I have always spent my holidays since I was born, and with whom I am linked with by a strong bond. There, I always find my peace, and these are places I like to call, quoting Tenco (Luigi Tenco), “my place in the world.”

What aspects of your imagination do you draw upon when you create tattoos? I do not have a definition, I only know what I am not and that many people get confused when they see my work. To many my work is seen as fancy and fantastical. Like I created it with a mind full of unicorns, fairies and candy. Although I think there is a lot of sweetness in my work, I wouldn’t class my style as fairytale-esque.

How do you like to work with your clients? And, most importantly, what is the stage of the process that absorbs you the most?
I always design at the time of the appointment, just before the tattoo session.
I love this approach because it is the most direct: I discuss directly with the client, I can understand what they want. The designing stage definitely absorbs me the most.

I heard you love to call yourself ‘old inside’ and you love the Italian singers of a few decades ago. Do you feel nostalgic toward an era that you could not live fully? Do you think this is reflected in your work?
Old inside is absolutely the perfect definition for me.
I think I have a bit retro/old fashioned taste, and I sometimes have a nostalgic aura about those golden years. The notion that I long for a world that I cannot live in definitely shines through my work.

Who have you been tattooed by over the years? I have had the fortune of getting tattooed by many tattoo artists, some became great friends: Gianni Orlandini, Nik The Rookie, Francesco Garbuggino, Marco Luzz, Pepe and Angelique Houtkamp.

Are you planning any other guest spots?
I have scheduled some guest spots in Paris, Berlin and Moscow! And I hope to return to London with my friends at Cloak and Dagger tattoo shop.

Is there a particular subject you would like to tattoo?
There isn’t a particular one. What I always hope is that in the proposals I receive there could be something I haven’t done yet!