English Spanish Korean
+-
English
Archive page:



Author: nr

Matthew Johnson

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

At Summer’s end my wife and I packed up our Brooklyn apartment and drove north. Congested highways gave way to windy, forest-lined roads. We were trading in the bustle of the city for a slower life, upstate. The skyscrapers and swarms of pedestrians that have become such a motif in my photography were being replaced with rivers and waterfalls, barns and abandoned buildings. I wondered how my work might change now that there wasn’t as much action. I was prone to looking for subtle, relatable moments in the midst of madness.

Now there wasn’t madness at all. In quite a welcomed way, there wasn’t much of anything.

It’s a new story to tell.

One that’s vast, quiet.

One that feels like home.

Credits

www.mattjohnsonink.com

Niklas Bergstrand

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

Credits

Photography Niklas Bergstrand
Fashion Lani Elisé Dafter
Creative Direction Mateja Duljak + Lani Elisé Dafter
Make-up and Hair Marta Tayanouskaya
Discover more from this editorial in the Empowerment issue

Designers

  1. Hats Tsumori Chisato
  2. Jackets Rives Paris Socks Model’s Own
  4. Oleg wears T-Shirt Andrea Crews Jeans Acne Studios Wojtek Jumpsuit Acoté

Mary Elizabeth Ford

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

Feature · Mary Elizabeth Ford
Words · NR

“Whatever someone thinks is out of my control, and I like it that way”

When did you start drawing and creating?

More intentionally, about 4 years ago.

How do you find the balance between the vision you have and the mediums you are using?

The vision I have is always so rough. I’m a moody person and because of that, I make things on a very emotional basis. I don’t quite set out with a vision of what I’m going to make. It just sort of happens. The mediums honestly differ by whats in front of me, or how much money I have to make something. When I started doing wire faces I was just too broke to buy paint and I had a lot of dry cleaner hangers, so I started furiously bending them. Most of my paintings on paper, are on really crappy paper because I don’t plan ahead and that’s usually whats lying around. So, it changes frequently and there is no method.

What inspired your style of work?

I don’t know if I can really control the style I have. I don’t even know what style it is, but every time I try to do something that doesn’t feel like me it really bleeds through and I have to scrap whatever I was trying to be.

Where do you get inspiration from? Are there any particular artists, photographers, painters drawers you look up to their works? 

The environment that I’m surrounded by plays a huge part in what inspires me. What I’m feeling, specific colors, where I live, structures, and personalities all play. Without thinking about it too much, Basquiat, Helen Frankenthaler, Vivian Maier, Kindah Khalidy, are what come to mind immediately. It really varies. I really lean towards following and getting inspired by people that have very different styles or approaches to me.

How long does it take to create a piece? What is the process being it?

Time varies. The process differs too. I tend to have an idea of what I’m feeling drawn too, go with it, hate it, rework it, like it, again and again, until it feels good, lots of layers. I’m a goddamn onion.

Would you say that there is a main thread connecting all your artworks and if so, which is it? 

I don’t know. I definitely get emotional with all my pieces. Maybe that bleeds through or maybe it doesn’t. But, I guess the main thread is I don’t hold back from all the things I want to make or how into it I get, so they are very honest to who I am and I guess I really hope that translates to all mediums and works of art that I do.

What kind of talks would you like to hear around your artworks? What kind of conversations would you like your artworks to spark?

You can not control what people say. If you make a thing and it’s out in the world, you cant get mad if someone feels differently about a piece than whatever idea or intention you had. I definitely put language to a piece after it’s done, not the other way around. Which is for context, not the only way it’s to be thought about. I don’t want to manipulate anyone’s thought process when viewing my work. I guess all I could hope is that someone felt something and wanted to talk about what that feeling is or lack of feeling they have about it. Providing a thing that encourages conversation is really what I want to happen. Whatever someone thinks is out of my control, and I like it that way.

Credits

@dressbetterpeople

Simon Nicoloso

Posted on by nr

NR Vol. 8 (Untitled) · Spring Summer 2019
Published · Print Page Unnumbered

Credits

https://simonnicoloso.com/

Sharon Eyal

Posted on by nr

NR Vol. 9 (Untitled) · Spring Summer 2019
Published · Print Page Unnumbered

Feature · Sharon Eyal
Words · Ellie Brown

“it’s all art and it’s all life”

Emblazoned onto the vast white cube exterior where the Dior SS19 show was held at the Hippodrome de Longchamp last September was a quote: ‘The story comes from inside the body’. The woman responsible for this remark, Sharon Eyal, would also make her mark on the interior of temporary space that was built over the course of two weeks, especially for the show.

Eyal was approached by Dior’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, to choreograph a dance that would take place as models took to the runway. For the SS19 collection, Chiuri found inspiration in the world of dance; corsets were replaced with loose, tulle skirts, leggings and, of course, ballet pumps. For the performance, Eyal’s dancers weere clad in specifically-designed bodysuits. At times, dancers and models seemed inseparable. If the show reflected the unique vision for which Chiuri has become known for as of late, it also brought Eyal’s enchanting choreography to a new audience.

Eyal founded the L-E-V dance company in 2013 with fellow dancer and collaborator, Gai Behar – whilst the musician, Ori Lichtik, is responsible for the music and sound that accompanies the company’s productions. Performances of the company’s repertoire, particularly OCD Love and its second act, Love Chapter 2, have captivated audiences across the world. In this sense, the Dior show can be seen as a continuation of the ways in which Eyal utilises the body in its totality to convey emotion and feeling. Speaking with Eyal soon after the Dior show, it is clear that this idea that the story comes from within is one that Eyal embodies whole-heartedly. 

NR: What inspired the approach you took in choreographing the Dior SS19 show?

Sharon Eyal: For me, inspiration is life – it’s everything I’m going through. I met Maria Grazia [Chiuri], who is an amazing person, and then I saw the work on the collection as it appeared. I think it’s all about chemistry. When you work with people, or another artist, they have to inspire you. In terms of the Dior collaboration, fashion and material is something that I really connect with. It feels like you can see the material sewn into the movement. I really love all the layers that you can see in the connections. 

NR: What does the partnership between fashion and dance reveal? 

SE: It’s about a collaboration of feelings. I think it’s not just dance, or fashion, I think it shows the combination of something unique that you want to share together. When you create something, it comes from a certain point in your body; I think me and Maria Grazia were creating from the same point, so it was very organic.

“For me, dancing is something basic, like you eat; you dance.”

Life is about movement, and fashion is something that is so free, as if it has no limits. With the combination of fashion and dance, it’s something that seems so distant but very close, like it was growing from the same planes. Everything came together with an organic feeling.  

NR: Is dance a medium that can express human emotion better than other art forms? 

SE: I think every art form can express these emotions. Painting, cinema, music, and, of course, fashion. But also, something like, going to the beach: it’s all art and it’s all life. For me, there isn’t a difference between life and art. 

NR: How does dance reflect art and life back to audiences? 

SE: I think dance is something very physical and emotional. Everybody feels these emotions and, and I think that connects people. Everybody feels sadness, disappointment and loneliness, for example.

“There is something about the physicality of the body connects with people: dance doesn’t need to be a story in order for it to be something you understand. It’s emotion as seen through the body.”

NR: How do you hope audiences will interact with the combination of dance with music with lighting and movement?  

SE: If the elements are separated, or don’t connect, it doesn’t work because it’s one piece. I think it’s about total feeling and total experience. This connection is important. 

NR: When you’re creating a new dance, where do you start first?

SE: I don’t start a piece, it’s always a continuation of something; it’s like the story of my life, but we have deadlines and so, I’m always cutting it, but it’s a long story that carries on. I start by improvising movements, which my dancers record, and from there I cut, edit, and change: this is the first layer. I work with lots of changing compositions.  

NR: Would you say that your dances have a futuristic element to them?

SE: I don’t know how to explain movement in words, but it’s very natural and simple, but complicated at the same time.

“It’s about trying to be what you are, in a very, very physical way.”

NR: So are you stripping back the elements of dance to the body?

SE: It’s not just the body, it’s also about the body and soul. I believe in the heart and emotion, but I think that everything comes from the physical, from inside the body.

“Muscles are emotional; you don’t need to put anything on top of the way muscles move because it’s all already there.”

NR: Do your dances take on the traditional structures of ballet, or is it a completely new style?

SE: When you see our dances, you can see the roots of that. I love ballet because I feel like I can play with it; I love the technique, and I love to break it. 

NR: In future, do you hope to add another chapter on to OCD Love and Love Chapter 2? 

SE: I like chapters a lot, so I would love to add more to that. Anyway, I think it’s always a continuation of what we’re doing, or what we’ve done, so I’m sure it will be happen. 

Credits

https://www.instagram.com/sharoneyaldance/

Photos

  1. Sharon Eyal photographed by Eyal Nevo

Sayuri Ichida

Posted on by nr

NR Vol. 9 (Untitled) · Spring Summer 2019
Published · Unnumbered

When the Past is Present

Credits

https://www.sayuriichida.com/

Rory Gardiner

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

Credits

www.rory-gardiner.com

Ronan Mckenzie

Posted on by nr

NR Vol. 9 (Untitled) · Spring Summer 19
Published · Print Page Unnumbered

Feature · Ronan Mckenzie
Words · Ellie Brown

“I try to capture each person as they are”

Ronan Mckenzie’s photographs are imbued with the personal, a quality that transcends the nature of the project she’s working on. Be it personal work or commissions, there’s a warmth that Mckenzie manages to capture regardless. To that end, her recent cover for Teen Vogue featuring Serena Williams feels as intimate as, say, a portrait of her mum wearing the underwear brand Marieyat. It is this approach to photography that makes Mckenzie’s work so captivating and unique.

Speaking earlier this year at It’s Nice That’s series of talks, Nicer Tuesdays, Mckenzie remarked that her desires to pursue styling were quickly quashed upon the realisation that she ‘preferred faces, people and stories’ to clothing. If this explains the beauty of her photographs, then it also points towards the underlying focus that spurs her practise on behind scenes. Mckenzie has taken to task the industries within which she works, exposing and unpicking the narrow vision ingrained in the realms of art, fashion and publishing that still fail to incorporate a broad range of voices. In 2015, for example, Mckenzie’s first exhibition, A Black Body, sought to normalise the diverse possibilities in what it means to be black; a year later, the first issue of her magazine Hard Ears challenged the prevailing obsession with youth culture.

Towards the end of last year, she curated her second exhibition: I’m Home at Blank100, hosted in a purpose-built space with a series of interactive events explored the idea of ‘home’ through the lens of the black experience. At stake in Mckenzie’s work is a critically-engaged, and engaging, approach to shaping of the future – one that is both too enchanting and important to miss. 

NR: Your work showcases an honest representation of personal experience by challenging homogeneous representations of ‘black, female, British’; what can the industries you work within do more effectively to counter these approaches?

Ronan Mckenzie: I think the only way to truly be representative, and by that I mean showcasing a diverse cross-section of stories, is to include a more diverse cross-section of people both behind the scenes and visibly. 

NR: In the case of both Hard Ears and I’m Home, you have created a platform that wasn’t already available; did you ever aspire to becoming an editor and a curator, respectively, or are these projects that you’ve taken on out of necessity?

RM: I guess you could say I’ve taken them out of necessity for myself, not because any one else made me, but because I needed the platforms to be there so took it upon myself to make them happen. There was never really a moment with either project that I said ‘Ok, I’m going to be an editor (/curator) now’. Those were just the titles that afterwards summarised best what my roles were within those projects. For me, the action part is so much more important than the title, and I was prepared to and excited to take the actions I needed to achieve what I wanted to exist. 

NR: What inspires the way you photograph people? Does it change from person to person?

RM: Yes, each person I photograph inspires the way that I photograph them by offering something completely different. I try to capture each person as they are, so that can change drastically depending on the type of person they are and in which way I connect and communicate with them.

“I try not to have a set idea of what I’m aiming to achieve with each person and instead let them lead the way.”

NR: How do you create a sense of tactility and warmth that is present in your work? 

RM: I guess that what is visible is the honest sense of warmth and care that was present when the images were being made. 

NR: What is the one, most significant thing that you hope to see change in the art and fashion industries in the future?

RM: Artists to be paid fairly for their work every time an institution/brand/platform will value monetarily from it. 

Credits

https://www.ronanmckenzie.co.uk/

Designers

  1. Mamu
  2. Ashanti
  3. Zen

Marleen Pennings

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

I started with painting portraits. I learned how to mix colours, how to paint skin, fabric and hair. I have always been drawn to abstract painting, though. I experimented, but it felt like it was too soon, I didn’t know how to begin such a process. There’s so much in it. I like the confrontation in abstract work. It’s a good change of focus for me. I like both, very different, processes and techniques. I can get lost in both just as easy. At the moment I’m more focused on abstract work, because I want to explore more, it inspires me to not know where it’s going. For me, painting is the most obvious way to translate an ongoing pace, the world, its people and environment. It’s my language at the moment, it’s always there.

Credits

https://www.instagram.com/strokeabird/

Designers

  1. Follow the Green (2015)
  2. Copper (2016)
  3. Germany Series (2016)
  4. Melon (2017)

Luisa El Bouyahyani

Posted on by nr

NR · World
Published · Online

Space in Between

Space can be seen as a free and borderless. As I searched to fund out how to visually capture an in-between space, a creative process developed. is creative process consists of taking photographs of places and textures, defining forms out of the surrounding and recombining all of it.

I define ‘natural’ as in something you do that feels good, pleasurable, right and authentic to you no matter what the activity might be. When you follow what holds your interest, are true to yourself and do what you really love and what defines you as a person.

To me talent is the successful synergy of passion and soul. It’s something that differentiates people from one another. Talent is being yourself. It’s an ability, a skill set, an expression of a passion that is located in you, sometimes hidden, sometimes more obvious. I think everyone has a certain natural ability, something they are good in without trying hard or even being aware of it.

Talent is something that grows. Something you might need to train through learning about yourself and your passion, being in a right and positive environment, overcome fear and self questioning, staying curious and open minded about your passion – and as a creative – trying to work on personal projects, experimenting and expressing your mindset (visually), no matter how individual or non-suitable it seems to be for the majority.

Credits

www.elbouyahyani.de/

Subscribe to our
Newsletter