XQUISITE CORPSE showed up in Central Park on Easter Sunday.. to color some grass. We decided to do XQUISITE the day before and next day we setup the XQUISITE SHODO which turned into a true collaborative effort in the spirit of XQUISITE CORPSE.
As time went on and with input from passers by ( Thank you, Harriet from London! ) the true colors of XQUISITE SHODO painting showed up and it turned into an XQUISITE Kimono!
I wanted to swim in it all along.. that’s why I scouted the Garment District in Manhattan for 50 yards of the most beautiful red ( as soon as I find the card of the store on 38th st – I will publish it. The most amazing place, swimming in beautiful fabrics and amazing people. I owe our red to them )
My intent here is a bit vague.. as much as the dress is obvious. In my work I have always been interested in the third dimension and its intersection with the flat plane. So I crafted an object, a sculpture that carries a two-dimensional message. Also, as with my work, I wanted it to be very personal and an invasion of personal and mental space.
Winter ( Brooklyn Machine series ) - acrylic on canvas, 2012. First I drew some hands with pen and ink. I scanned them into the computer and made an animation - it's called Winter Diagrams. Took a frame from the animation. Handcrafted a primed canvas dress. Painted the animation frame on the dress.
XQUISITE CORPSE Open Studio ( and party )
Saturday, March 10, 12-6 pm and party 6-11 pm
526 West 26th street, studio 723, New York, NY 10001
A Collaborative art project.. with a twist.
Please be cautious,
this will not be a usual art party,
you may need to wear art on your sleeve.
The XQUISITE CORPSE will drink the new wine and art will be made by all and not by one!
Paint, painting surfaces and booze will be FREE, make sure to wear comfortable clothes, if anything.
I have kept a diary since I was 13 years old. In these I write and draw sketches of personal and found work. In a way, they are diagrams of a past and a future, usually written in both English and Bulgarian, sometimes a sentence starts in English and ends in Bulgarian, sometimes I write English words in Cyrillic; sometimes I write Bulgarian words using the English alphabet. There are a lot of made up words and lots of drawings.
My last notebook is red.
These series of animations are the red notebook equivalent. In them I use my latest drawings and paintings, they carry the mood and the sense of place and space I currently occupy – Brooklyn, New York.
No digital manipulations for the drawings have been used – they have gone in as they are – I scan them into the computer and animate them. The hands are pen and ink drawings on hot pressed board, a very smooth velvety surface produced by an American paper company. The red background is a Crimson Red Intaglio ink monotype on Fabriano papers ( an Italian paper praised since the Renaissance ).
For these compositions I was inspired by Marcus Fischer’s amazing album mip~map/for friends this winter.. and my friends as well.
Painted and animated by Mirena Rhee
Music by marcus fischer / mapmap.ch
I have kept a diary since I was 13 years old. In these I write and draw sketches of personal and found work. In a way, they are diagrams of a past and a future, usually written in both English and Bulgarian, sometimes a sentence starts in English and ends in Bulgarian, sometimes I write English words in Cyrillic; sometimes I write Bulgarian words using the English alphabet. There are a lot of made up words and lots of drawings.
My latest notebook is red.
These series of animations are the red notebook equivalent. In them I use my latest drawings and paintings, they carry the mood and the sense of place and space I currently occupy – Brooklyn, New York.
No digital manipulations for the drawings have been used – they have gone in as they are – I scan them into the computer and animate them. The hands are pen and ink drawings on hot pressed board, a very smooth velvety surface produced by an American paper company. The red background is a Crimson Red Intaglio ink monotype on Fabriano papers ( an Italian paper praised since the Renaissance ).
To score these compositions I used Marcus Fischer’s amazing album mip~map/for friends this winter.. Please, support his work: marcus fischer / mapmap.ch and visit his blog.
Winter Diagrams: December ( Brooklyn machine series )
I had heard so much criticism about Damien’s Spot paintings before going to the three New York shows, that I had the sneaky suspicion I am going to love them. They gave me pleasure – pleasure is hardly an argument – you either like having it or not. The flavor colored paintings made me want to lick every single dot, were named after various chemical substances and defied Jerry Saltz’s argument “You see one, and you really have seen them all.” In fact, they all tasted different.
When I think of Damien – I also can’t help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Hey, if that artist’s intent is to make a lot of money – that is not a reason to reject the work – although this is not my intent but can’t speak against that being someone else’s. The spots aren’t things by themselves and they do not create a traditional artistic value (via the artist’s hand ). We all know from math that a dot cannot be defined as having a substance, it’s a destination. Each room of the three Gagosian galleries was brilliantly hung – thus all the paintings in a room worked together with scale to triangulate space and create a giant, Three-dimensional musical piano ( you know, the toy ones – i had one when i was a kid ).
It was a pure pleasure to indulge in the simple language of color, to occupy the space within the dots and just listen to the music.
When I think of Damien – I also can’t help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Hey
The exhibition Opening at Pace gallery’s Happenings: New York, 1958-1963 was packed with the Who’s Who in the art world today. Although the crowds for the most parts obscured the actual show – I think it was more or less the point. The exhibition opening was, all over again, a Happening on its own.
Works by Jim Dine, Simone Forti, Red Grooms, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, Carolee Schneemann, and Robert Whitman.
Hand painted ocean in HD ( Brooklyn series ) – animated pen and ink drawings, 2011. Painted, animated and edited by Mirena Rhee. Music by Al Dimeola, John Mclaughlin & Paco Delucia – Azzura.
This piece was inspired by a climbing wall I saw in Brooklyn. A climbing wall is usually littered with tiny boulders of various shapes and sizes and your climbing path is marked and color-coded with tape. Say, black tape with a stripe designates a VO, a beginner’s path, a dark red could be a V6, a path for only experienced climbers. I thought the climbing wall was a good metaphor for life, with the tape off.
V6 ( Brooklyn Machine series ) - 4 x 6 inches, pen, ink, gouache and acrylic on hot pressed board, 2011
..I have seen to have survived many centuries and hold their power, on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a lavish Indian painting exhibit and I managed to catch the last day and take notes, photography was not allowed.
The ultimate geek list of pigments used in Indian Painting:
White pigments:
1. Lead White ( basic Lead carbonate )
2. Zinc White ( zinc oxide )
3. Chalk ( calcium carbonate )
Red/Orange:
4. Cinnabar ( Mercury sulfide )
5. Vermillion ( Synthetic Mercuric Sulfide )
6. Lac ( primary colorant Laccaic Acid )
7. Red Lead ( Lead tetroxide/orange red )
8. Realgar ( Arsenic disulfide/bright orange red mineral )
9. Saffron ( Crocetin and Crocin )
Yellow:
10. Opriment ( Arsenic trisulfide/soft yellow )
11. Indian Yellow ( Magnesium euxanthate/ originally from the urine of cows fed mango leaves )
12. Gamboge ( yellowish orange )
Green:
13. Verdigris ( Basic Copper Acetate/dark bluish green pigment )
14. Malachite ( Basic Copper Carbonate )
Mixtures to make green – Indigo and Indian yellow
Blue/Violet:
15. Ultramarine ( Natural Ultramarine is the ground, separated blue particles – lazurite – from the gemstone Lapis Lazuli )
16. Azurite ( basic Copper Carbonate/frequently found adjacent to Malachite )
17. Indigo ( Indigotin )
Earth Pigments:
18. Iron Oxides
Black/Gold/Silver/Tin:
19. Carbon
20. Gold Ink ( Gold particles with gum ), similar with Silver and Tin ink
21. Beetle wings ( to represent Emeralds )
Inks:
22. Carbon inks ( Lamb black )
23. Metallo-gallic ink
24. Indian ink ( naturally )
25. Willow Charcoal
26. Lamp Black ( soot from fat, oil, tar )
27. Ivory Black
