Tamir Zadok’s film Gaza Canal ,תעלת עזה is nothing less then brilliant. Zadok’s humorist approach to this politically charged subject matter is genius. If you haven’t seen yet this film you absolutely must watch it. Just beware that the film completely rely on fabricated contents and “facts”.
Gaza Canal, describes the Canal’s construction. It was created for the opening of a Visitor Center on site, and forms a part of the Center’s permanent display. For the current exhibition it was shifted to the Gallery. The Rabin Visitor Center in Gaza Canal offers a visitors route which includes a virtual tour of the Canal, historical documentation of the digging work, and interviews with the project initiators. The Gaza Canal was created over the course of eight years, during which 61 kilometers were dug by 15,000 Jewish and Arab workers. It began as an American initiative and saw many crises along the way. Over the years, however, it became a symbol of change and improvement, a paragon of a healthier reality, creating a reality of prosperity and tourism, industry and commerce in the “island of Gaza.” Zadok’s chosen tactic employs tools from the field of propaganda, such as interviews and documentary photographs, which constitute the body of documentation indicating that the construction of the Canal was the optimal humanitarian act for implementation of the Israeli fantasy—”to throw all the Arabs into the sea.”

gaza canal ,תעלת עזה from Tamir Zadok on Vimeo.

The piece above was done yesterday morning on Quai de Valmy in Central Paris by Nick Walker. It’s in response to Sarkozy’s decision to ban the burkha. From Nick:

“It’s particularly tense in Paris. They are in between elections and the reaction is expected to be quite strong. The police discovered the piece 30 minutes after it was completed and we don’t expect it to stay up long. After months of wrangling, the government are believed to be only days away from ratifying the ban.”

Depths of Criticism

Chris Jordan’s images are evoking and really brings to a wake up call to what we are doing to our environment, or even ourselves. Every time you zoom in from a large scale image, you realize it is made out of a certain entity.

The artist is using many objects together to create beautiful textures and shapes that represent certain disturbing facts and statistics. The statistics that Jordan provides are astonishing: with the number of paper cups that we use each day, number of prisoners in the states, deaths from smoking, breast augmentation, and many more… It is amazing how us human beings are not aware of all the things we are consuming each day and being so careless to how it will affect our planet or even ourselves. Jordan’s creation in these large scale photographs are to show how unconscious we are of our surrounding and culture.

Chris Jordan’s website:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Environment Artist Tanya Preminger

Tanya Preminger’s environmental art is both beautiful and smart. In the past few years Preminger has been very active in the fields of environmental art and land art, striving to connect people to nature, and improve the modern culture’s relationship with the natural world. For this purpose she established the Green Gallery Group, which works in the fields of Arsuf Kedem, displays annually a large collection of environmental art works made from natural materials, and speaks about the human contemporary connection to mother-nature. Her art is usually ephemeral, site-specific, and characterized by simplicity and a healthy sense of humor. The materials vary from Earth, wood, bamboo, plants and tree branches, and agricultural waste.

Tanya Preminger’s website:
http://www.tanyapreminger.com

Superheroes inspired by Islam

In “THE 99,” Naif Al-Mutawa’s new generation of comic book heroes fight more than crime — they smash stereotypes and battle extremism. Named after the 99 attributes of Allah, his characters reinforce positive messages of Islam and cross cultures to create a new moral framework for confronting evil, even teaming up with the Justice League of America.

Wonder How THE 99 Comics Are Created?

It all starts with an idea. Maybe the idea is about a certain character or a type of story that we want to tell. Sometimes, the creator of THE 99 generates the ideas for our stories but other times one of our writers or editors has a story that they’d like to tell or even read! An editor oversees the entire production process of the comic book, from discussing the direction of the story with the creator or publisher to hiring the various artists who will work on the book. Almost all of the people who work on our comic books are freelancers; this means they work from their own home or studio rather than in one of Teshkeel’s offices.
Once an idea has been approved, it slowly takes shape by first becoming a script. A script provides written direction from a writer to the artists who draw the comic book stories. The writer explains what action will take place in each panel and provides the dialogue and sound effects that will accompany that image.

A copy of the script gets sent to the penciler, an artist who adapts the writer’s words into action-filled images. A penciler must be able to draw just about anything from airplanes, buildings and cars to jungles, futuristic machinery and super-powered people with extraordinary abilities. Using a pencil, the penciler draws on a large piece of paper called an art board. Each page is broken down into panels that tell the story sequentially (in order). The penciler uses his drawing abilities to stage the pacing, frame the action and create the mood of the story.

Once the penciler has finished drawing, the pages are sent to the inker. The inker applies black ink to the penciler’s artwork with a pen or brush. This provides the dark lines that are necessary for the printing process. The inker does his best to enhance what the artist has penciled. The inked artwork gets scanned into a computer.

Working from a scan of the inked artwork the colorist provides the color that can add life and mood to the black and white artwork. Our colorists use a computer program called Adobe Photoshop. This program allows them to create a wide range of coloring effects that best enhance the action atmosphere of the story.
While the artwork is being colored, another process is also taking place; again, working from a scan of the artwork, a letterer is creating the speech balloons, captions and sound effects that add to the visual imagery.

When all these processes are complete, a production artist works on the computer to bring each piece together to create a finished computer file that the printer can work from. The editor reviews the files and finally sends them off to the printer.

http://www.the99.org