Meanwhile #129
Hello, hello. Another week, another email full of links to keep you distracted from the collapse of Western civilisation. If you enjoy these Meanwhile missives, do be sure to tell all of your friends and loved ones and colleagues and representatives. All of them.
1 — I know precious little about Italian-based artist P.X. Miranda – one of her paintings simply landed in my Instagram feed one day and I was instantly captivated. What I particularly envy about her work is that she knows exactly where and when to stop; striking the perfect balance between precision and energy.
2 — After ten years, I’ve wrapped up my regular Creative Review column. Have a delve through the archive to read me babbling on about desks and comics and social media and spines and colour and stationery and typefaces and flaneurism and indices and indecision and mental spillage.
3 — Okay so I know I linked to The Peculiar Manicule last week, but there’s one piece of ephemeral delight on there that I can’t stop looking at: Esquire’s 1961 gift guide, gloriously designed by Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser’s Push Pin Studios, with Vicorianesque illustrations by Isador Seltzer. And what a range of gifts! Not sure what I’d prefer for father’s day: a leopard print coat hanger or a pair of leather-bound matchboxes adorned with portraits of Napoleon and Josephine.
4 — Mishka Henner's work explores and subverts the value of photography in today's media-saturated world. And it’s fun. Personal favourites: the scale model of our solar system in book form; power stations’ evaporation ponds composed from satellite imagery; and the series of paintings of – and priced according to – the Fibonacci sequence.
5 — A little bit in love with the incredible portraiture of Kenyan photographer Thandiwe Muriu, using bold fabrics to showcase Africa’s unique mix of vibrant cultures, colour and people.
6 — Oh sweet public domain Shangri-la, behold this complete digital reproduction of J. G. Heck and Spencer F. Baird’s Iconographic Encyclopædia from 1851, comprising 500 plates, more than 13,000 illustrations, and 1.6 million words. An incredible work of restoration from data artist and designer Nicholas Rougeux.
7 — There are simply no words to describe how much I love everything about Iceland’s innovative new OutHorse Your Email service. How have I still never visited this absurd, wonderful country?