Happy NY

The Burma Shave Electrics

The Burma Shave Electrics
The Burma Shave Electrics
Pforzheim, Germany: Brigade Commerz - Audio Arts Archives, 2013
12" vinyl record, picture disk
Edition of 25 signed and numbered copies

Burma Shave was an American brand of brush-less shaving cream introduced in 1925 and popular until the mid-1950s. The company pioneered the use of sequential highway jingles, some of which promoted the product and others which were simply intended to resonate with frustrated drivers. The red and white signs were spaced according to the speed limit, so that drivers could read a line at a time. Many employed lyrical rhyming in their structure. The company was sold in 1963 to Phllip Morris and the ads were discontinued, partly due to increasing speed limits.

Inspired by these roadside campaigns artist Raymond Pettibon and German musician Oliver Augst, formed the Burma Shave Electrics. Their debut (and presumably only recording using the moniker) features Pettibon singing and reciting a series of Burma Shaves Rhymes accompanied by Augst’s  "sound- and rhythm interventions".

The recordings were made in Pettibon’s NYC studio last year, intended for the film 10 pm Lincoln Boulevard by Jürgen Heiter.

The picture disk features an illustration by Pettibon and each of the deluxe edition includes the name of a different baseball player written on the disc (Lou Gerhig, Vada Pinson, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, etc.). The regular edition is also limited to 25 copies, which are unsigned and unnumbered.

The unsigned edition is available €150 and the signed edition is twice the price, here.

Mark Gonzales | Nonstoppoems

Mark Gonzales
Nonstoppoems 
Los Angeles, USA : Self-published, 1994
[unpaginated], 21.5 x 14 cm., staple-bound
Edition size unknown

From a series of self-published titles by the artist (and Transworld Skateboarding magazine's "Most Influential Skateboarder of all Time") that also includes Non Stop Poetry, Non Stop Poetry: Cash Up the Ass and Non Stop Poetry: Fucked Up Duck.

Aram Bartholl | Forgot Your Password?

Aram Bartholl
Forgot Your Password?
Berlin, Germany: Self-published, 2013
6400 pp., 21 x 27 cm., (each volume), hardcover
Edition size unknown

Possibly a unique work, this 8-volume set of contains 4.7 million LinkedIn user passwords, arranged alphabetically. In the summer of 2012 LinkedIn.com was hacked and lost its entire user database. A few months later the decrypted password list surfaced on the web.

Several years ago Alex Snukal produced a staple-bound book containing every single possible PIN.

Visit Bartholl's website, here. A PDF of Alex Snukal's Personal Identification Numbers can be downloaded, here.

OpenBooks (Volumes)

Charlotte Cheetham & Sophie Demay (eds)
OpenBooks (Volumes)
Paris, France: Association Catalyst, 2011
220 pp., 13 x19 cm., spiral-bound
Edition size unknown

"This publication is an autonomous compilation of projects that question book display and exhibition as well as interviews and texts around the notion of perpetual ‘mise en abyme’ in books about books."

- publisher's blurb

The £15 book is currently sold out, but with more coming soon.

Happy Holidays everyone and all the best in 2014. We got an insane haul of books this Xmas: artists' books, art books, novels, music bios, and a beautiful book of paper samples.

Harmony Korine | Trash Humpers

Harmony Korine
Trash Humpers
Sheffield, UK: Warp Films, 2009
VHS
Edition of 300 signed numbered copies

Korine's 4th feature (after Gummo, Julien Donkey Boy and Mister Lonely, and preceding Spring Breakers) was released on DVD, digital download, 35mm print and VHS. The film, which follows the lives of three sociopathic elderly people in Nashville "who do antisocial things in a non-narrative way", was filmed on VHS and edited between two VCRs.

At the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Korine informed the audience that the title was to be taken quite literally, giving those likely to walk out due warning. “That’s why I named it Trash Humpers," he told Eye Weekly, "because I didn’t want to fool anyone.”

Each of the 300 VHS copies were released in existing VHS boxes, for other films, which Korine personally altered, or 'vandalized' as the Warp site listed. They were available for around fifty British pounds, and sold out quickly.

The 35mm film print was released in an edition of 5. Each print consisted of four 1000 foot film reels,  playable on 35mm projection equipment, with a print case customized by Korine.

Happy Christmas

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber | Egg Noggin

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber

Egg Noggin

Toronto, Canada: Nothing Else Press, 2013

4 x 5.5"greeting card

Edition of 250

nfs

John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band | Happy Xmas [War is Over]

John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band
Happy Xmas [War is Over]
Italy/USA: Apple Records, 1971
7" single, 45 rpm
Edition size unknown

Forty-four years ago, in December of 1969, John Lennon and Yoko began an extensive poster and billboard campaign in twelve major cities: New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Helsinki. The white with black text posters proclaimed "War is over! If you want it. Happy Christmas from John & Yoko". In Toronto, 30 roadside billboards were set up, as well as thousands of posters and handbills, often posted by volunteers sourced from local record stores.

Two years later, the couple revisited the statement as the basis for a Christmas song. The three and a half minute track was recorded in October 1971, at the Record Plant East, in New York City, by producer Phil Spector. Spector had previously worked with Lennon on the single Instant Karma, as well as his first two solo studio albums (Plastic Ono Band, and Imagine), and had also produced the quintessential classic Christmas record, A Christmas Gift For You.

The song begins with spoken greetings from Ono and Lennon to their children: Ono whispers, "Happy Christmas, Kyoko", then Lennon, "Happy Christmas, Julian". Lyric sheets often erroneously listed this as "Happy Christmas, Yoko" and "Happy Christmas, John." The song features a solo Lennon during the verses, and he is accompanied by Ono and the Harlem Community Choir—featuring thirty kids, between the ages of four and twelve— during the chorus and verse counter-melody.

The song is backed with Ono's Listen, the Snow is Falling, which was recorded with the same crew and musicians, on the day following the sessions for Happy Xmas.

Apple records released the single in December of 1971, but a legal dispute between music publisher Northern Songs and Lennon over royalties from Ono's co-writing credit delayed the release in the UK for almost a full year. The song was not initially a hit in the US and reached No. 4 in Britain. However, the song has reentered the charts another nine times, most notably following Lennon's death in December 1980. At that point it entered the charts at number two and remained in the top thirty for nine weeks.

It is now considered a Christmas classic, appearing on countless holiday compilations. It has been covered by Sarah McLachlan, Andy Williams, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Jimmy Buffett, Celine Dion, The Moody Blues, Darlene Love, Jessica Simpson, Damien Rice, The Alarm, Melissa Etheridge, and Boy George & Antony Hegarty.

Listen, the Snow Is Falling was covered by Galaxie 500 in 1990.

Or Gallery editions

Stan Douglas
Guilty, 1950 (2010)
Overall dimensions 28” x 34.5” (image size 18” x 24”)
Digital fibre print mounted on dibond aluminium
Signed and numbered edition of 25 (with 5 APs)
Edition previously unreleased from the artist’s
Midcentury Studio series.
$5,000 CAD

Ginger Goodwin Way
Edited by Jesse Birch
Texts by Jim Green, Jesse Birch, Michael Turner, Adam Sellen,
Eric Bell & Raymond Boisjoly
$12
Softcover

Ron Terada
Cockatoo Island
Published by Bywater Bros. Editions
and the Or Gallery
April 2009
104 pages, hardcover, edition of 500
Colour cover and inner pages
$25 CAD

Cranfield and Slade
12 Sun Songs
$20 CAD
Published with JRP Ringier in the Christoph Keller Edition series.

Aaron Carpenter
Exercises in Kinesthetic Drawing and Other Drawing
$25 CAD
Hardcover



Or Gallery

555 Hamilton St.
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6B 2R1

T. +1 604.683.7395
E. or @ orgallery.org

Gallery hours 12 - 5PM
Tuesday - Saturday

Holiday Recommendations Guest Post #17: VSVSVS

We would like to spotlight Naillash, by Anuta Skrypnychenko.

The Naillash multiples are playful combinations of two commonplace accessories. Wearable fake nails with fake eyelashes attached to their tips make for an uncanny bit of adornment. The surrealist throwback demands a double take when brought into the real world. Dazzle your friends, surprise your family, or shock your coworkers. Available in multiple sizes.

They are available from Art Metropole, here, for $15.00 CDN.

- VSVSVS


VSVSVS (pronounced versus versus versus) is a seven-person collective based out of a live/work warehouse in the Portlands of Toronto. Formed in 2010, their activities encompass collective art making, a residency program, curatorial pursuits, and individual studio practices.

Visit their website, here, and their Multiples page, here.

Holiday Recommendations Guest Post #16: Roula Partheniou

Michael Dumontier
Candle
Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2013
8 x 12 inches, 8.5 inches tall
Edition of 12 (+ 3 AP) signed and numbered copies

I admire the efficiency of material here: a power-coated steel sculpture of a candle, which
suggests its own shadow.

Available from the publisher, here, for $400.00 CDN.

Marion Bataille
Numero
San Francisco, USA: Chronicle Books, 2013
24 pp., 7.1 x 4.5 x 0.9", hardcover
Edition size unknown

Even better than her renowned Alphabet popup book ABC3D (2008), Numero takes the basic forms of 0 and 1 as the building blocks for the remaining 8 digits. An elegant and concise play on the binary code.

Available here and here.

Derek Sullivan
Folding Ruler 
Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2013
130 cm x 2 cm x 1.5 cm
Grey foil stamp on die-cut card, silver-coloured rivets
Edition of 100

This versatile multiple (it can function as both a wall or shelf piece) regrettably speaks to a personal blind spot which I've carried through childhood and into adulthood and can indeed complicate my day to day trajectory. A fitting gift for friends and family who may suffer from the same affliction.

Available here, for $50 CDN.


- Roula Partheniou


Roula Partheniou is a Toronto-based artist whose recent projects have centered on an exploration of the replica with a particular interest in the "double take".  Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax, Surrey, Kingston, Cambridge, New York City, Cincinnati, Dublin and Israel.

Currently her work Dopplekopf can be seen at Sheridan College Trafalgar campus; at the Power Plant as part of the group exhibition curated by Micah Lexier titled More Than Two; and her piece Fluorescent Tube is on view at MKG127 as the gallery signage. This winter she will be artist in residence at Open Studio and has forthcoming exhibitions at Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga and The Dunlop Gallery, Regina. She is represented by MKG127, Toronto. Her work can be seen at www.roulapartheniou.com.

Partheniou is also the co-founder of the Nothing Else Press, which recently launched an edition by Kelly Mark.