Jezebel review, Todd Webb

Elephant Parade received a nice review over at Jezebel music:

"Less is so much more with this super tasteful duo because they only use the choicest harmonies, guitar/keyboard orchestrations, and the sparsest lyrical inclusions are supremely filling."

Also, check out this website by the really talented Todd Webb: a great comicbook artist and musician. What a treat.

Bedroom Recordings

"Bedroom Recordings", the debut release by Elephant Parade, is now available. We're really excited about this home made album, so excited that we took a picture of it next to the new Elephant Parade mascot: a plastic squirrel.

"Cooking for Richard" wins "Best Drama" at Ivy Film Festival

I wasn't there, but this sure makes me happy.

The jury was composed of Michael Showalter, the acclaimed actor and co-writer of "Wet Hot American Summer;" Marc Francis, the director of "Black Gold;" Mark Ross, a producer at Maguire Entertainment; David Courier, a senior programmer for Outfest, the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival; and Lisa Gossels, the director of "Children of Chabannes."

April 3, 2006: Brooklyn Arts Council

Just in: Cooking for Richard was selected for Brooklyn Arts Council international film festival. The screening will take place May 2nd.

On other news: dates are finally available for the Critical Line show at Tacoma, WA. The show will go up on May 5th and will run until July 7th.

March 16, 2006: New York premiere and Ivy film fest

Cooking for Richard will screen in April at NYU's First Run film festival. The screening dates are: April 8th 8pm (main theatre) and April 9th 5pm (room 102) At the Cantor film center located at 36 East 8th Street.

Just in: "Cooking for Richard" was also selected for the Ivy Film Festival. The screening dates aren't published yet but the festival runs April 5th to 9th. The festival takes place in Brown university, Providence.

And again, If anyone wants a DVD screener and has a good enough reason, don't hesitate to contact me.

On other news: "Polar Bears" will be exhibited this Spring at Critical Line a new gallery space opened by Artrod in Tacoma, WA:

"Opening this Spring 2006, Critical Line is a new exhibition project of ArtRod. Critical Line is a 1,800 square foot gallery space located at 741 St. Helens in Tacoma, Washington. The space will feature rotating exhibitions of emerging and established artists from around the world. The inaugural exhibition of Critical Line is called "Found Space" and features photographic works by Matthew Keeney, Kevin Haas, EJ Hercyzk, Ann Kendellen, and video by Israeli artist Ido Fluk."

January 28, 2006: Back to work

Back to work after a long vacation. On the agenda: an artist residency at the 92nd street Y ("Makor"), sending "Cooking for Richard" to festivals, working on a site specific installation in Tacoma Washington for a project called Tollbooth gallery (for August) and planning an Israeli show together with Vered Fluk, my painter sister (something to explore the links between our works, brotherhood).

This month you can catch Polar Bears in Sheffield, England at the S1 artist screening event, in Montreal Canada at Usine C and in Sao Paolo Brazil in a show curated by artist Carlo Sansolo. Exciting days!

And again, If anyone wants a DVD screener of Cooking for Richard and has a good enough reason, don't hesitate to contact me.

January 2, 2006: Cooking is finally done!

I have finally finished Cooking for Richard, my biggest, most extravagant work of yet. I am now working on versions of DVD covers, webpage and packaging for festivals which is such a horror...

Here's a still from the film that's probably going to go on the DVD cover:

And here's the DVD menu:

December 12, 2005: Prints

I have been working on a series of "prints from video". It's interesting how a printed frame from video footage feels so different than a photograph or painting. Video has such a poor resolution, especially when printed (since video doesn't have pure, "progressive" frames, only interlaced fields - which are half frames, really). This low-resolution, the blurriness and pixelation, form an image like no other. I like to think of it as an image that transcends the physical characteristics of objects and conveys something like an aura, maybe even their essence.

Here's an example from the series:

November 22, 2005: Oren Shai's new video

Music video director Oren Shai has just posted his latest gem online. It's an amazing video done in collaboration with Adam Lewensohn (who directed Monica Sex's legendary music video "straw-man") for Shy Nobleman. Check it out.

November 3, 2005: Bushwick art Project, Laila Lounge

Andy Anello is organizing a spontaneous screening of good video art on Saturday November 5 at 9pm at Layla lounge in Williamsburg. Polar Bears will be screened.

Bushwick Art Projects is Bushwick's answer to the fancy shmancy Dumbo Arts and is an entire day (Nov. 12) packed with art events around the neighborhood (Say hello to the Montrose L stop!). The video section is curated by video artist Zohar Kfir (check her work out. It's very very good) and the screenings take place at a place called OfficeOps (Polar Bears will screen at 7pm).

October 27, 2005: Cooking for Richard, Yedioth, Bushwick Art

I Have been working around the clock to finish "Cooking for Richard", a sort of grandiose production of a short film. We recorded the original score (by composer Uri Sharlin) a few weeks ago at the New School University studio (with a beautiful grand piano) then did a marathon of sound design and mix sessions with Oscar Zambrano at Zampol Productions and now we're scheduling a final transfer session at the lab.

Just to give you a taste, "Cooking for Richard" tells the story of Victoria (Caitlin O'Connel) who loses her fat husband over a plate of liver pate. She proceeds to bury him in a special casket equiped with a closed circuit camera that transmits his dead image into a monitor that she installs in her bedrrom. Could the monitor replace a dead husband? I'll have an entire section of this website dedicated to this project when its ready.

A short interview with me was published last week in the American edition of Yedioth Achronot. Unfortunately, both my name and my website's address were misspelled. I decided not to put it on the website. I don't like being called Ido Flux.

Final note: A few exciting projects in the air for November, among them a screening with the Bushwick art projects in Brooklyn. You're all invited.

October 6, 2005: Upcoming events in NY and London

This month is loaded with events:

1. Friday, October 14, London UK: "Party!Films"
Curator Charlie Philips of Gallery 291 in London is organizing an
outdoors art party/event with video-art work screened (including some
of my works) and music by DJs/artists Pil and Galia Kollektiv and Frances May
Morgan:

"8pm. The address is the Yard with the metal gate, near the London
Fields railway bridge, 8 Mentmore Terrace. There's a donation entrance
fee of £2, there'll be a well-stocked pay bar and it's a seated event
with very limited capacity so if you're coming, come early!"

2. Sunday, October 16, New York: DUMBO Arts Under the Bridge festival:
My recent video "Polar Bears" will be screened at this coming DUMBO
arts festival along with works by acclaimed artists like Stephen
Vitiello and Shelly Silver. The event was curated by Caspar Stracke
and Gabriela Monroy. 4pm. 16 Main Street, Brooklyn.

3. Saturday, October 15 and October 22nd: Elephant Parade shows

Elephant Parade will be playing two dates this month:

The first one, October 15th 9pm will take place at the Glasshouse
gallery in Williamsburg Brooklyn, 38 South 1st Street (at Kent
Avenue). We'll be performing with the wonderful girl and boy from
'Louis' and UV Avner.

The second is more cache: On October 22nd, we will have a secret show
with Austin based sensation Peter & the Wolf Email me the week of the show for specific details.

4. Friday, October 28, London UK: DASH05

7:30pm. My music videos for Ping-Pong and for Ha'Yonim will be
screened in DASH 05, a new festival of performance and visual art by
contemporary international Jewish artists like: Oreet Ashery, Pil and
Galia Kollectiv, Diane Nerwen, Deborah Phillips, Ruth Novaczek, Keren
Cytter, Uriel Orlow and many more.

On Saturday October 29th, there's a performance night curated by Anat Ben-David. Both events will continue long into the night, with DJs playing surprising and unexpected tunes to fit in with the groundbreaking nature of DASH 05.
Both nights are connected by installations from Sigalit Landau and
Nelly Agassi. These two nights really will be filled with things you
won't have seen or heard before in any event, let alone what you'd
expect from Jewish ones.

" Best of all, both events are free! For full details, and to stay
updated on the line-up, keep checking www.dasharts.org.uk"
Friday 28th and Saturday 29th October, 7.30pm til late, 291 Gallery,
291 Hackney Road."

I would love to see you at some of these events!

September 29, 2005: Dumbo Arts Under the Bridge

Dates and screening times for the Dumbo (stands for: Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) Arts Under the Bridge festival are finally out. Polar Bears will be screened on Sunday, October 16 at 4pm at 16 Main Street, Brooklyn. Come by and say 'hi!'.

The video-art program was curated by Caspar Stracke and Gabriela Monroy and there are many interesting works by artists like Stephen Vitiello and Shelly Silver.

September 12, 2005: Shoot #3 (FRANK)

A few months ago I wrote about my collaboration with photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya And I am pleased to announce our self-made artist book: "Shoot #3 (FRNAK), featuring Paul's phorographs and a short story I wrote is out.

Here is an excerpt:

"I lived in Chelsea and my neighbor had a moustache. A moustache and a big belly and a strong smell of cool spice or old spice, something that filled the small elevator with a very basic, musky smell. It kinda killed me. I remember taking the trash down to the basement trash room and finding him in a big sweaty wife beater spraying finish on his collages. His name was Frank. We had martinis once in his apartment. After I let him hug me for the first time and after we took off our shirts, he made me cry. I used to hang out a lot in gristedes at the time. I was very lonely."

Find it now in the following bookstores:

North America:
SPOONBILL AND SUGARTOWN, BOOKSELLERS
218 Bedfored Avenue at North 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.

PRINTED MATTER, Inc.
535 West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, New York, NY.

SKYLIGHT BOOKS
1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA.

ART METROPOLE
788 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5v 1N6 Canada.

PRO qm, thematische Buchhandlung
Alte Schoenhauser Str. 48, Berlin, Germany.

September 10, 2005: Elephant Parade interview

Austin based record label Whiskey and Apples interviewed us for their magazine. Read it here, read it now!

September 8, 2005: Vered Fluk

My sister, the painter Vered Fluk, has finally finished designing her website. Right on time too: her first show in Tel-Aviv opens this week. Don't miss it.

September 3, 2005: New Orleans.

Something very wrong is happening. How can this be?

August 26, 2005: Dumbo Arts festival

I just got word the Polar Bears will be showing at this year's Dumbo Arts festival!

August 25, 2005: Elphant Parade at Eat records in Brooklyn

August 23, 2005: Moscow international video-art festival

"Polar Bears" was just anounced as a finalist in the Moscow international video-art festival competition. The festival will take place on the second week of September.

August 14, 2005: Videolisboa

I am excited to take part in this year's videolisboa, a great international festival for video art in Lisbon, Portugal. My work, "Polar Bears", was chosen to compete in the international competition along with works by artists such as Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet.

August 10, 2005: Busy

I have been incredibly busy the last couple of days, finishing up one script, moving on to the next one, writing a column for a new Israeli magazine and working on recordings for Elephant Parade (did I mention we're playing at Delancey this friday?). In addition to all of this, the sound designer for "Cooking for Richard", my new short film, has just quit (too busy). Which leaves me looking for a sound designer for my film. Anyone interested?

Cooking for Richard is a short experimental film about a woman who loses her husband and buries him in a special coffin with a closed-circuit camera inside that transmits the image of his dead face into a monitor she then puts in her bedroom. Let me know if you want to tackle this one (and are a sound designer).

July 28, 2005: mp3 blogs

Mine and Estelle's band, Elephant Parade, just got a nice writeup in an mp3 blog that deals mostly with Israelis making music in English. Here's the link.

July 27, 2005: Koren Shadmi

Here's a site you have to check out: the online portfolio of illustrator (and friend) Koren Shadmi. A good example of merging your actual style with the design of your portfolio site.

July 21, 2005: US army recruiting in Bedford

I was coming out of my subway stop at Bedford avenue this morning when I saw two US soldiers striking conversations with the young hipsters: "Hey, how old are you buddy?", "What do you do?", "Want to go to college?", "Looking for a challenge?". It was strange watching the soldiers, who probably didn't realize (or maybe they did?) that they were trying to recruit on the most liberal, lefty street corner in New York.

July 20, 2005: DVD

I am toying with the idea of offering a DVD of my video-art works at cost and shipment price (around $10). I wonder if such an endeavor will be worth my trouble. Please let me know what you think.

July 15, 2005: Rachel Papo

My friend Rachel Papo sent an invitation today to her MFA thesis show at the school of visual arts in New York. Click here for more details.

Rachel's series is titled "Serial No. 3817131" and is a beautiful study of Israeli women-soldiers. You can see a preview on her own website:

"The life of a teenage girl in Israel is interrupted when she is plucked out of her environment at an age when sexual, educational, and family values are at their highest exploration point. She is then placed in a rigorous institution, where individuality becomes a secondary matter, making room for nationalism."

July 11, 2005: Van Gogh

Reading Paul Gauguin's diary, "Un Sauvage Civilize" ("A Civilized Savage") I was surprised to find more interesting details about his life with Vincent Van Gogh and about the infamous ear-cutting incident. A little googling later served me with a wonderful essay published in 1981 in a journal called "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology". In the essay, the author William McKinley Runyan (from Berkley university) brings 13 different, possible reasons for Van-Gogh cutting his ear off.

July 5, 2005: Mandelbaum on NYC-TV

My music video for Mandelbaum (cut out of the MisShapes Project) will be screened tonight at 10 pm on channel 25 (New York) in "New York Noise", a showcase of indie & underground music you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else on the telly.

Tune in!

Reruns on Friday at 9pm and sunday at 10pm.

June 29, 2005: My work in London and Rio de Janeiro

Polar Bears will be showing in London and in Rio de Janeiro in July.

In London, it will be screened on July 14 in a night of experimental video works at 291 Gallery. Other artists screening that night are: Mark Aerial Waller, Audhild DahlstrØm, Miguel Angel Alforcea, Martin Pickles, Philip Sanderson, Jo Nigaghossian and Mateo Willis.

In Rio, it will be screened for two months (July 19 - Sept. 18) in the big video-art exhibition prog:ME, organized by curators Carlo Sansolo and Érika Fraenkel.

June 28, 2005: Nike using album art for ads

I have just found out about this story and it is just unbelievable. Apparently, in one of its advertisements, Nike is using an almost identical artwork as a cover of a "minor threat" album without any kind of permission what so ever from the band and/or the label:

"Many people have now noticed that Nike has appropriated the Minor Threat artwork and logo for a new skateboard demo / ad campaign. To set the record straight -- Nike never contacted Dischord to obtain permission to use this imagery, nor was any permission granted. Simply put, Nike stole it and we're not happy about it. We are not yet sure what options, if any, we have to stop Nike from using our images to sell their shoes, but if you would like to direct your complaints to Nike that would be a good place to start."

Click here to go to Dischord's website where you can find more details about this case of corporate vandalism.

And here - to see the two version of the artwork.

June 23, 2005: Elephant Parade's first show

Elephant Parade is having its first show on monday June 27 at 8pm at the Delancey, 168 Delancey street, lower east side.

We would love it if you came.

June 21, 2005: Coldplay, Tony Blair and Electronic Supersonic

Brendan O'Neil writes today on Salon.com about the unevitable connection between Britain's most popular band, Coldplay, and its prime minister Tony Blair: a strong connection between two conservative, popular powers. worth reading.

In addition: this link, courtesy of Punkass Jason, leads to a most amazing musical discovery (and a great video as well). I give you: Electronic Supersonic!

June 19, 2005: The Danish Video Art data bank

Another biased entry: this website contains a very comprehensive list of links for video art websites, organizations, festivals and artists (me included). Well worth the visit.

June 15, 2005: Elephant Parade.

Elephant Parade, mine and Estelle's lo-fi band, finally has a website with an online demo.

Check us out.

June 14, 2005: Psychotherapy for artists.

11211 magazine ad:

Psychotherapy for artists
Anxiety - Depression - Anger - Work Blocks - Relationship issues - Self-Defeating patterns - Family problems - Lack of self-confidence.

Sliding scale fees - Williamsburg office
917-xxx-xxxx

June 13, 2005: Shangahi Times.

The Shanghai Daily newspaper had an article this weekend about the VVF program:

"In total, 33 videos were shown in a little over two hours with some of them being the work of experienced artists such as Douglas McCulloh ("Surge"), Ido Fluk ("What I Want") and Catrina Notte ("Domus de Janas")..."

I wonder when did I become an 'experienced artist'.

Click here for a PDF of the original article.

June 12, 2005: Hilton Head island, SC.

Not sleeping for 36 hours. 2 planes. washington. Georgia. Airport breakfast. Savannah is hot and dry. Israeli gift shops. Bad seafood. Tan overweight waiters. Fried shrimp. The ocean: Warm and lightly salted, clean. Blue. Strawberry shortcake cocktails. Spicy wings. Sand. Flipflops. Parrots. Jimmy Buffet. Leonard Cohen in an open car. Bowling alley. Midnight pasta. A lamp that makes colorful shades on the ceiling. Tired, old retirment plans. Instant coffee. Tennis. Wife beaters. Gregor Samsa. Straw hats. Lawyer calls: contract negotiations on a sweaty balcony. Sitting on the beach, under an umbrella in a rain storm. BBQ ribs. Tall frozen beer glasses (south carolina blondes). Chocolate chip mint ice cream. Large statue of Neptun. A club called "Monkey Business". Missing estelle. No matter how much sunscreen you use, you always get burned.

June 8, 2005: Google image search.

Lately, I have been playing a lot with google's image search engine. It seems to be a wide window into contexts, meaning and the semantics of the Internet (and therefore of our species). I googled "loneliness" and found many pictures of windows, or people sitting next to windows. I googled "happiness" and found lots of babies. "Love" gives me predominantly more pictures of women than men.

I even googled "How to be a good artist" and found this link, which invites illustrators to join the marine corps combat artist division. So that's where they teach it...

June 7, 2005: Karen Finley blogging.

Just yesterday I got the word that Karen Finley, the ground-breaking performance artist who was one of the "NEA four" (and my professor in New York University) has joined the Huffington Post - Arianna Huffington's celebrity blog site.

Her first post was about Tom Cruise. Her second about Michael Jackson. The words of the woman who currently appears on the stage as Martha Stewart in the hilarious "George and Martha" are priceless. Don't miss out.

June 6, 2005: ID magazine: Fashion and activists.

My friend bought ID magazine today. It's issue 255: 'the declaration' and I was shocked to find many activist reports amongst its fashion and fashionable art stories. It's interesting how brands, businesses and magazines all want a bite of the 'activist' pie since its growing bigger and bigger (with the popularity of Adbusters magazine and such).

The big question is whether the young fashion crowd reading about Louis Vitton bags and third-world debt side by side will be able to distill the irony and cynicism in the ink dripping pairing of the two. I'm not against ID particularly but this seems like a big warning sign of things to come.

June 5, 2005: Oren Shai.

My friend Oren Shai just launched a new version of his website. Oren is an incredible talent with a unique stylistic approach that puts a capital 'R' in the word 'retro'.

June 2, 2005: Turner Prize.

The Turner prize short-list nominations are in. This time, the big sensational surprise is actually with a nominee who paints traditional still life.

June 2, 2005: B.E.D.

I put on a suit jacket and a button down white shirt for last night's party/screening at B.E.D: Misshapes project amongst other works was screened on a long transparent glass wall in the center of the club. It looked really beautiful. Other works by artists from CVZ contemporary gallery in Soho were really impressive.

B.E.D, though, is a little silly for my taste: the concept of a club with beds for tables is really awkward when you think about things like socks, shoes, sheets and other practicalities. I don't know how long this club can last.

May 31, 2005: Miranda July.

Miranda July, the 'it' video-artist and filmmaker just won the Camera D'or prize in Cannes (for best first feature) and three other important awards. This is great news for good films, young people, indie culture and... video artists!!!

I had the opportunity to watch her film a few weeks ago at NYU. It's brilliant. It's beautiful. It deserves every honor. Miranda July herself seems really charming and down to earth, which is refreshing. You can get a taste of that attitude on her blog.

On another happy note, I'd like to congratulate my friend Sharon Joon who won a grant presented by an online Miranda July craft-project called "Learning to Love You More".

May 31, 2005: Screenhead.

Screenhead, a Gawkermedia blog, posted a link to Polar Bears this weekend. They thought my statement was too windy but liked the video:

"pleasantly meditative in tone, well worth checking out."

Straight to the DVD jacket.

May 28, 2005: Antville videos.

A friend of mine posted the MisShapes project on Antville videos. I'm sure most of you know of this site by now: a constant parade of links to online music videos in suprisingly good taste (I am biased, of course).

What's interesting about this, however, is a comment someone left over there:

"Hey, Apple! We've got your new iPod commercial right here!"

It's always interesting to realize how your use of a certain aesthetic will trigger a connection to a branded image palette. It's hard to plan and even harder to get away from. In the eighties, Charlie Chaplin was IBM's (remember?) and since, everytime I watch his films, I keep expecting him to pop an old computer out and advertise it.

What the iPod image reminds me, is the activist campaign that coated the east village at some point last year.

May 27, 2005: Jordan Mattos.

My friend Jordan Mattos makes really beautiful hand-made shirts. I really like the design that blends super-hipsterism and naivety. Get them now before some boutique snatches them and they start costing $3,000 a piece.

I have been collaborating recently with Paul Sepuya the unbelievably talented photographer. We are planning to print an artist book together: I will write the text and Paul will do portrait photography. Here's something Paul wrote about this project:

"“Ido is writing the text, and for each segment of it I’m taking a portrait related to the developing story. The segments will form a complete story and the subjects in the portraits will develop a linked relationship by their own relationship to the story. The tension between the loneliness of the writing and the romantic, sexual sadness of the images play off of one another, tying text and portrait together by way of sentiment and the possibility of happiness in resolution....”

And here's my addition:

"The collaboration is internet-based. We do not meet and discuss the relationship between text and image. We correspond with pictures and text via email and find the subjects for the portraits on craigslist online. We never work in the same space. We try not to steer one another in a specific direction but to create a symbiosis of sorts, where text and visuals are used to fill in blank spaces or suggest inherently different interpretations of the other medium. And yet, this still feels like a very collaborative effort."

And lastly, here's a short excerpt:

"I lived in Chelsea and my neighbor had a moustache. A moustache and a big belly and a strong smell of cool spice or old spice, something that filled the small elevator with a very basic, musky smell. It kinda killed me. I remember taking the trash down to the basement trash room and finding him in a big sweaty wife beater spraying finish on his collages. His name was Frank. We had martinis once in his apartment. After I let him hug me for the first time and after we took off our shirts, he made me cry. I used to hang out a lot in gristedes at the time. I was very lonely."

May 23, 2005: New Design.

I finally finished the new design. As you can see, this one has much more web text in it (no more graphic text) as I surrender to default Verdana and the tyranny of the search engine world.

I tried to use more clean lines, in this design, creating a sharper definition between the video icons and overall better functionality. The one thing I am still contending is the inclusion of an online journal through a blog feed.