X FACTOR BAND JLS GET TAPE FOR NEWS OF THE WORLD INTERVIEW

Last month the band JLS (of X factor fame) did an interview with the news of the world called Sex, Lies and sticky tape - where they answered a bunch of questions and got taped to a wall. Well i recon it was more like getting taped to the floor, but hey, whatever.


I don't hate JLS as much as i dislike most of the other x factor acts (even though i do watch it religiously). i reckon of all the bands that have passed through the x factor, JLS were the most coherent and convincing act.


I'm not quite sure what the actual connection between them and stickytape are, but i have to say, its quite a triumph for the world of stickytape as it gains momentum not only in the fabulous world of fashion, but now the world of music.

I have to say that these guys look a lot cooler taped to a wall than lifting their jumpers up to show off their abs. If anyone knows of any other bands/celebrities that have done a photoshoot involving being taped to a wall, please let me know.

REBECCA WARD TAPE INSTALLATIONS

The more i explore the topic of tape, the more amazing things i have been finding. This artist has been flagged to me by my friend Tim. Rebecca Ward's tape installations couldn't be any more tapey if they possibly tried.


There are loads more amazing photos and concepts on her website: www.rebeccasward.com
These are just a few of my favourite pieces. Her choices of colour combinations are really nice, i particularly love this browny-orangey retro looking piece where strips of tape radiate down onto a concrete floor from a balcony rail.


This one below was done in june 2009 at a gallery in Kansas, for the "charolotte street foundation/urban culture project'. The whole space has been invaded by strips of vinyl tape in primary colours.


These images above and below remind me of the patterns i used to draw when i was bored in class using a ruler and grid paper, was always facinated how lots of straight lines can create a visual curve. Ward has brought this to life with strips of coloured tape. There could be no other medium that could create this piece, making use of the adhesive for the wall sections and the 'strippiness' for the sections that hang in the between space.



I would really have loved to see this piece in real life. The black and white section protruding from the corner of the wall in the above image remind of of part of Jim Lambie's Mental Oyster floor installation (see previous posts).


Rebecca Ward has loads more amazing images of her tape installations on her site, i recommend visiting it, but also stay tuned for more posts on Ward's work right here.

http://www.rebeccasward.com/

MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA FRAGILE TAPE

Even the elusive Mr Margiela loves tape. These photos are apparently from the Margiela store opening in Hong Kong. Wrapping a shoe in stock standard 'fragile' tape and then encasing it in a glass box is definitely a way to make a statement about the fashion industry... or to simply showcase your obsession with tape.


I tried this a year or so ago by covering a bag in fragile, i must admit it didn't look half as cool as here Margiela style, but what possibly can?


This photo is courtesy of Spring Globe on flikr. They must have been at the store opening and managed to get some much better photos than i managed to find.


This just shows how the humble roll of tape can be truly elevated to the heights of fashion.

JIM LAMBIE MENTAL OYSTER FLOOR TAPE

Jim Lambie (born 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a contemporary visual artist, and was shortlisted for the 2005 Turner Prize with an installation called Mental Oyster - the black and white installation shown below.


This piece is featured on the tate website where you can read more about it. The kaleidoscopic interior spaces are made from dizzying arrays of black and white tape covering all types of surfaces.




A close up of the geometric shapes created through the sharply angled placement of the tape.


His work also includes concentric shapes of coloured tape stretching from the edge of a room into the centre, Lambie has covered a number of notable building spaces in this manner including the Saatchi Gallery, Moma and the Museum of Fine Arts (in Boston).


The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (shown above) had its walls covered in curved strips of tape.

This is the floor of MoMA in 2008.

And this wopper above is from the Tate London in 2003. The impact of the coloured lines is huge, its both fun and playful but also iconic, especially in the pieces where the coloured tape really contrasts with the natural building in which it is placed.

This is another great link for more info about Jim Lambie
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/boston/look/jim-lambie--093217

DUCT TAPE PARANOIA

This is a room covered in red duct tape (it also looks a bit like electrical tape) The artist who i found on http://www.deviantart.com goes by the name of *dogeatdog5 - and after a bit of hunting around, i find that it is a photographer called Chris Knight.

I really love this piece, it takes tape to the realm of the third dimension. OK, so covering stuff is not new, but the impact is still really strong. Covering the room from top to bottom in vibrant red tape is a picture of stillness, like time has frozen into a red jelly mould.


This piece above looks like it is a life size installation and below, a photo of this installation reduced in size and placed inside a frame which is also covered in the same tape. This is really cool.


I love that you can still see all the joins and air bubbles within the tape, the imperfection means that it would only be stickytape that could achieve this effect. I would definitely hang this one on my wall! In fact, i see a rainy sunday afternoon project covering my old white frames in tape coming on right now.

I hope to talk to Chris more about this work and feature it on my stickytape artists section of the site, so stay tuned.

DUCT-TAPE CARPETS BY BERTJAN POT

BERTJAN POT is a legendary dutch designer and in typical excellent dutch design style, he has created these thought invoking and thoroughly cool duct tape carpets. They are pretty visually amazing but also conceptually abstract. The kind of thing that no normal person would ever think of doing, and thats why i love this carpet SO much. And why i love dutch designers.


These pieces encapsulate everything I LOVE about TAPE. Quirkiness, abstract-ivity (is that a word?) and crafty kookiness.


Bertjan Pot created these pieces for Tent London (which is part of London design week) in 2007.


He says " The duct-tape is really molten into the textile so it won’t come off when using it as a carpet". Great point. I was wondering about that.


I really love that the duct tape used on this piece is cut into small strips, not disguising or attempting to transform the tape into anything else. Furthermore, the tape is stuck onto the carpet so it is still performing its main task which is to stick.


It is, arguably one of the best uses of duct tape i can imagine. Damien Hirst, go shove your dots.


If anyone has an old rug like this lying around, please bring it around to my place and you can use my multitude of duct tapes to create this for me for and give it to me for christmas.

In the mean time you can check out Bertjan Pot's other amazing pieces: www.bertjanpot.nl

MARK KHAISMAN TAPE ART

Mark Khaisman's work has been all over the media lately - in London in the metro, the free newspaper that millions of people see every day. I say good on him, his work is really amazing. But i have to say i quite like his abstract, more rough and ready tape art much better than the portraits and realistic looking pieces that have been getting the most press lately.


The interesting thing to note is that before Khaisman got into using his signature brown packing tape, his work was quite different. Some of his pattern works (see website - http://www.khaismanstudio.com) is actually amazing and alot more abstract.



Maybe its the over-exposure that has made me a bit bored with this work. Don't get me wrong, i think its amazing and very original but i have also come across some other tape artists doing interesting and visually strong things that haven't had half as much publicity.


This piece was done in 2007 - i do like it, but i would like to see him using some different types of tape! Mark, if you read this, would you like to do an interview with me for my stickytape blog?


This is some of Khaisman's other work labelled "patternworks". I really like them - they are quite distressing and morbid, but also decorative and beautiful at the same time. I am not sure of the whole story behind it but it is sort of like taking something really horrible and groteque and with a bit of photoshop (or depending on when these were done - manual manipulation) creating patterns which by their very nature become decorative and 'beautiful'.


Maybe i am far off in my artistic interpretation of his work. The pattern generated above on the right side of the image reminds me of wallpaper... imagine having wallpaper in your house which you didn't realise was generated visually from the patterning of a murdered man. HAHA. I'm feeling like a bit of a sicko tonight. Saw my ex today which was both amazing and also depressing at the same time. I keep thinking - what did i do wrong. Well i know what i did wrong, but i think - where did it all go wrong. WHY??????? That is why these pieces above appeal to me. Intellectually i know that there is obviously good that has come out of this 8 year relationship, its just that right now i can't help but to think - what a waste of an amazing partnership. At least i think i'm starting to slip into the denial phase, i really can't wait for the angry and sad stages... yessss bring it on.

FABRIC TAPE RED CHECK

The perfect tape for patching up a picnic table cloth. I found it on an obscure livejournal website. Its from a Korean company called Storybox where i think you can buy it online. It comes in black and red check patterns.










If you want to check out the other products sold on the site, including pens, wallets, pencil cases and other random cute Korean stationery items, check out this site http://www.ifreeview.com

FABRIC TAPE AND DOG BOOTS

This post investigates fabric tape and some of the uses for it. I scoured the web for a while doing some investigation and i found these. Below is a roll of fabric tape, also known as cloth tape used in the medical field.


I'm pretty sure i have seen this tape being used in the application of bandages and doing things like taping fingers together when one is broken, in fact, i vaguely remember my dad doing this to me when i slammed my fingers in the car door when i was a kid.


This picture is not, in fact, my fingers, but some poor person who demonstrated for a strange website on finger injuries related to mountainbiking. I will spare you the pain of seeing some of the other pictures on this site.


Here is another picture of a roll of white fabric or cloth tape. You can't really see that its fabric and i wish i could have found a better image, but this one will have to do for now.


These two images are from one of the stranger websites that i have seen in a while which is called Adventures with Dog Boots i have to say, even after reading practically the whole website, i still don't really undertstand why dogs need boots.


But as far as dog boots go, i think this one is pretty cute, it looks like it is made out of an old bicycle inner tube. Oh i have just realised that this is from a hunting website - chukar (are a type of bird and the poor little victims involved)- hmmm, i'm not sure about killing birds for sport so i have to say i do not condone hunting, but that is no reason for your dog to get sore feet.

HEY DAYS BRANDING + TAPE

Heydays is an Oslo-based design studio specialized in printed media, creative direction and graphic design. Works include corporate identities, books, magazines, interactive websites, packaging and more. I REALLY luuuuve their tape (of course) as its bold and typographic.



I love that this tape is photographed on a industrial strength tape dispenser. It looks like you can write additional info on it. Most of the company's stuff is really cool and scando in style. Those scandos have great style huh.




Sometimes less is more and the Scandanavians really understand the art of restraint.

HAPPY TAPE

HAPPY TAPE is from Japan, its mini rolls of masking tape that comes in a huge range of colours and patterns. I have to say that i have quite a few rolls of this tape myself which i picked up when i was in tokyo not too long ago. I LOVE IT. i have used it to wrap up presents a few times.


The blog http://happytape.blogspot.com/ is dedicated to this tape exclusively and all the cool things you can do with it.


The coolest thing is this new tape dispense launched on the website which can hold multiple rolls of the tape. I could really do with one of these, what an amazing accessory to go with this ultra cute tape.



The tape comes in a range of different widths also - from ultra narrow 5mm to 10mm. The tape is made from thin paper like a kind of luxury, designer masking tape.



Its all about happy tape!
happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy happy tape!.