Heath Kane redesigns George Orwell’s literary classics

Heath Kane redesigns George Orwell’s literary classics

Federica Cimorelli · 2 years ago · Art

January 2021 will mark the 70th anniversary of the death of George Orwell, one of Britain’s and the world’s most iconic writers. His literary works were a scathing social critique of totalitarianism and an outspoken support for democratic socialism.
For more than half a century, his writings have been bestsellers at the UK publishing house Penguin, but this year’s anniversary marks the cancellation of all copyrights. In order to celebrate the writer and conclude the exclusive publications, the publishing house has created a special collaboration with the British artist Heath Kane.

Under the creative direction of Suzanne Dean, Heath Kane has created new covers for four of Orwell’s great classics. The selected titles are Animal Farm, 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London and Homage to Catalonia.

George Orwell began working with Penguin back in the 1940s and since then his titles have not only been literary landmarks for all, but also a constant source of inspiration for lovers of illustration and book cover design. Here is a selection of the best.

ANIMAL FARM
Animal Farm was first published by Penguin in 1951, its original design created by Edward Young and perfected by typographer Jan Tschichold. The best covers include the 1965 cover by Paul Hogarth, the late 1980s designed by Ditz and the unmistakable 2008 cover by Shepard Fairey. And let’s not forget the 2013 version by Den Pearson and finally the 2016 and 2020 versions by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Heath Kane’s new proposal closes the circle.

1984
George Orwell first published 1984 with Penguin in 1954. Among the most iconic covers we cannot fail to mention the 1962 cover by Germano Facetti, the 1966 cover by William Roberts, the 1980 version photographed by Humphrey Sutton, the 2000 edition designed by Stephen Conroy, the unmistakable 2008 cover by Shepard Fairey, then the 2020 version by Coralie Bickford-Smith and finally the new creation by Heath Kane.

DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON
Also for Down and Out in Paris and London, the first edition for Penguin was by Germano Facetti, 1962. Then we find, in order, Bill Brandt’s 1998 version, Shepard Fairey’s 2008 version, David Pearson’s 2013 version and Heath Kane’s new proposal of 2021.

HOMAGE TO CATALONIA
Penguin’s versions of Homage to Catalonia feature Romek Marber 1961, Christopher Corr in 1987, Joàn Miró in 2000 and a Robert Capa photograph in 2013. Finally, Heath Kane’s new graphic proposal.

As well as packaging some of the greatest literary texts in history, these covers make George Orwell’s books highly sought-after collectors’ items for all design and art lovers.
The versions created by Heath Kane were launched on the market in early January and are now available for purchase worldwide on the official website of the British publisher Penguin.

Words by Federica Cimorelli

Heath Kane redesigns George Orwell’s literary classics
Art
Heath Kane redesigns George Orwell’s literary classics
Heath Kane redesigns George Orwell’s literary classics
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Brice Gelot, “For the love of god”

Brice Gelot, “For the love of god”

Tommaso Berra · 2 days ago · Photography

For the love of God is an expression that expresses an image of religion understood as a solution to salvation, often associated with a sense of dissatisfaction or impatience. It is in common use, embedded in language as much as religion itself is pervasive, for multiple and complex reasons, in society.
“For the love of god” is also the title of the photographic series by French artist Brice Gelot, which Collater.al is publishing in full preview. The gaze is toward religion – the Christian Catholic religion in particular – understood as a social-cultural system of behavior, which exceeds rational explanations by tending toward transcendence. It is perhaps in this never running out of meaning in the real world that the success of religious art over the centuries lies, called upon to interpret and depict symbols that are always the same but take on new meanings from time to time.

Photographing faith becomes for Brice Gelot an expression of the reality. Observing how people face the challenges of nature and photographing them means living a life of faith firsthand, which becomes a tool for understanding and analyzing what is sacred and profane.
In Gelot’s shots, it emerges how religion is part of the human experience and how it represents a force that can shape the world around us and its aesthetic representation. Tattoos, statues, icons, niches for the veneration of saints, the artistic imagery in these photographs is not metaphysical but real, living along the streets and on people’s skin.

Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot | Collater.al
Brice Gelot, “For the love of god”
Photography
Brice Gelot, “For the love of god”
Brice Gelot, “For the love of god”
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The inner landscapes of Tetyana Maryshko

The inner landscapes of Tetyana Maryshko

Giorgia Massari · 3 days ago · Photography

The haze of uncertainty, which came with the advent of the pandemic and the subsequent Ukrainian war, swept over photographer Tetyana Maryshko, so much so that it led her to create a long-lasting photographic project in which she relentlessly searches for her own essence. Through a path made of honesty to herself, the Ukrainian photographer explores her inner self by making self-shots in which she blends personal and relational elements. “There is me, the camera and the truth,” says the artist.
Each photograph captures a reflection, a conversation, a still moment in time that dialogues with her soul. The shots, in black and white and color, attempt to go beyond the aesthetics of the subject by applying a veil of blurring that prevents the image from being clearly read, or by inserting textured surfaces in front of the lens, such as wet glass or bubble wrap. At other times, however, the photograph is clear and sharp, such as her shot in the bathtub, which hints at suffering. The gaze is lost in emptiness, the flushed eyes exude weeping and despair while the tight lips communicate helplessness, that feeling that every human being feels in the face of war.

An element that recurs often in Tetyana Maryshko’s is the flower, placed in dialogue with the body: placed along the spine or in front of the eyes, to cover the gaze, symbolizing a desire for rebirth. Tetyana tells how it was a long, difficult and troubled journey: “When we turn the camera toward ourselves, we embark on a journey of self-discovery that requires introspection and vulnerability… In the end, this project was not just a personal journey, but a universal one. A testimony to the human experience.”

The inner landscapes of Tetyana Maryshko
Photography
The inner landscapes of Tetyana Maryshko
The inner landscapes of Tetyana Maryshko
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The male body taxonomy by Francesco Paolo Gassi

The male body taxonomy by Francesco Paolo Gassi

Laura Tota · 4 days ago · Photography

Inhabiting a body means perceiving it, recognizing oneself in it and being recognized. It means feeling familiar to oneself and to others, relating to the World through nerve endings, fat and senses.
The body is the core center of our own identity and will, and the nude has long been a favorite subject for photographers since the birth of the photographic medium. However, speaking of male nude, its diffusion is lower, except for some particular cases, since it has been considered less interesting (if not disturbing) by the dominant “Male Gaze” (or the representation of the female universe, in the visual arts and literature, from a male and heterosexual point of view, which represents women as mere sexual objects aimed at the satisfaction of the male audience). Only since the late ’70s, thanks to the birth of the homosexual liberation movement and the advertising market, we have witnessed a new life of nude male, able to transform the male body into an erotic subject open to hedonistic contemplation.

 
 
 
 
 
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Un post condiviso da GASSI (@iam_gassi)

An example is the iconic body of works by Robert Mapplethorpe, attracted by the male nude since childhood, which recalls classical nudity and gives dignity and beauty to a considered degrading category of people, or the most recent portraits by the photographer Florian Hetz who, through tight close ups, immortalizes the true essence and innate sensuality of the male body.

And it is precisely on the border between art and eroticism that the narration of “Bodies” is played out, the latest project by Francesco Paolo Gassi, a young author from Puglia who investigates the physicality of the body in his practice. Francesco is literally obsessed with imperfections and the naturalness of smudging, far from the glossy aesthetic clichés: hair, skin and body fluids are his playing field, details are his favorite points of view. He moves carefully around the male body, that is at the same time, something familiar to him, but also a source of shame for a community he has had to hide his sexuality for years.

Art, pornography and taxonomy dialogue in the photographic space. The poses, meticulously studied, just as the illumination and the relationship of the body with space, suggest and allude to an eroticization of the body that is never explicit, they orient the human anatomy to emphasize the insignificant and the banal, elevating it to the object of desire. It’s an almost scientific approach that, through the photographic image, aims to make eternal the organic matter of which man is made and to reach the essence of every portrayed subject.
Thus, the male bodies become the ideal playing field on which to renegotiate identity, free from social superstructures and free from conditioning, presented to the eye of the observer in its total, disturbing and ambivalent authenticity. The project combines digital photographs with snapshots:  the unrepeatable body is perpetuated in the uniqueness of a Polaroid, as well as the quality of the digital image reflects every single detail of the epidermal specificity of each photographed body.

The male body taxonomy by Francesco Paolo Gassi
Photography
The male body taxonomy by Francesco Paolo Gassi
The male body taxonomy by Francesco Paolo Gassi
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Lise Johansson and the non-appartenence to places

Lise Johansson and the non-appartenence to places

Giorgia Massari · 5 days ago · Photography

Why do we feel we belong to some places and not others? Danish photographer Lise Johansson (1985) questions herself. This reflection is the starting point of her research, based on an analysis of the relationship between humans and the environment they inhabit. Very often our homes represent who we are, they are a reflection of our soul and character. Minimal or baroque, total white or colorful, full of objects or aseptic; in any case, we build environments tailored to us, in which we feel comfortable and which shape our person. But when we go outside the home and find ourselves relating to other environments, such as the workplace, a doctor’s office or our friend’s house, external factors come into play that we cannot control and with which we are forced to interface. Lise Johansson reasons about these unconscious dynamics that govern unconscious psychology.

In the series I’m not here, the photographer makes a series of selfies inside an abandoned hospital. The environment is aseptic and a disturbing desolation in which the white dominates relentlessly. The daylight enters through the windows, sometimes in contrast with the artificial one, accentuating the chromatic power of white, highlighted even more by the milky complexion of the photographer and her long candid dress, typical of hospital patients.
The relationship between the subject and the environment is not relaxed. One perceives a melancholy tension, typical of subjects locked inside a place. The figure almost seems to wander like a spectrum, its face is never visible because of the photographic framing and, in other cases, it is hidden inside or behind an object – like a sink or a mirror. This detail allows the woman to be present in space but at the same time not to inhabit it, as if her mind tried to escape in other directions, looking for a way out. Like the subject, the environment is vulnerable, stationary in limbo and undergoing transformation. The place exists, like the woman, but they are forgotten entities, without status and completely emptied of a soul.

Lise Johansson and the non-appartenence to places
Photography
Lise Johansson and the non-appartenence to places
Lise Johansson and the non-appartenence to places
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