Robert Carrithers

Fairytales in a New Light within the Darkness

From Robert Carrithers: Now it is time for my project "Fairytales in a New Light within the Darkness" to come to life. Please help me realize that! It is do or die time and I am trying to raise the final funding of the Berlin gallery show of my part of the project by June 7th. The clock is ticking and I am getting nervous! I have used up all the funds that I have had and now the debts are starting to pile up. I am attempting to raise money on Indiegogo, Please read it through and support it how you can. I am offering a lot of goodies to all who give something. Have a look and contribute what you can and tell me what you think. If you can’t contribute, that doesn’t mean you can’t help!

Please, share this campaign with your friends on facebook, twitter or send to your email contacts, who you think might be interested in this project.

The Indiegogo share tools on this site can help get the word out!

Thank you so much for your support!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fairytales-in-a-new-light-within-the-darkness

The Fairytale Photo Series: The making of the photo The Story Of The Eye

The Fairytale Photo Series part two: The making of the photo of the 1928 novella by Georges Bataille "The Story of The Eye" with Frenchie Cooper and James Laine. Frenchie is very much involved in the Prague creative community. She is known as a creative consultant/executive that helps inspire various artists with ideas and styling. She is originally from Paris and this is one of the many reasons we chose "The Story of The Eye". James Laine is a rapper and author of what he sings. He writes scripts and art directs for his album covers and the band's videos. He is from Leeds, England. He is rapper in the British band China Shop Bull. He has a solo rap music project under the solo rap name Tha PCP. The following "Making Of" photos were taken in the process of making the second photo with the theme of the erotica. Frenchie and I got together to find the proper fitting fairytale for us to do and for some reason we kept going back to the book "The Story of The Eye" because of it's French origins and it's influence on worldwide culture. For me this book is the most shocking book that has ever been written! It was banned in many countries when it was first published in 1928 and it continues to be banned in many countries still. I reread the book for the research for the photos and was surprised to find how extreme and shocking it still is! A lot of people would not think of this story as a fairytale, but for me it actually is in a bizarre way. It is about a young 16 year old girl and boy who discover their sexuality together, goes too far with their passions, lose complete control and ends with disastrous results. Other people see this story as a story that details the increasingly bizarre sexual perversions of a pair of teenage lovers. It is narrated by the young man looking back on his exploits. Some other people consider this book total pornography. Georges Bataille is a major literary figure whose themes dealt with eroticism, surrealism and philosophy. The book "The Story of the Eye" was a major influence on writers, artists and filmmakers throughout the decades. The use of the surreal images of eggs, milk, tears, blood, urine, and semen were very strong images that inspired many artists and we did our best to make full use of these strong images from the story. This is not what a lot of people consider a fairytale, so I will have to choose another title for the exhibit like: Fairy tales, myths and stories of oddities. I have to respect the people who I choose with the stories that inspired them and which story we choose best. Another model/artist chose a Greek myth. Marko Lopatić was the costume designer and stylist and Táňa Havlíčková was the make-up artist for these photos. Luis Cerdas Jaubert was the art director for these photos. You can read more about the concept and vision of the fairytale at my website with the first making of photo Popelka/Cinderella. Scroll further down. We continue doing the series and will be posting more very soon... I hope that you enjoy the photos!

New York performers at Tina B. Festival in Prague 2012

I have posted these photos from last October 2012 from the Tina B. Prague Contemporary Art Festival in Prague. These are all special New York performers that performed and created unique one of a kind performances.  I have been backed up with too many photos that I have to post and want to finally do it because I have three major international exhibits this year of my fairytale photos and need to complete the past photos to move ahead. I will write much more below, but slowly compiling information and you need to click on the names for for their further details.

The woman below is the South Korean artist Ok Soon Yoon. She did an amazing live painting performance with music in front of the Prague Žižkov Television Tower. These are several photos from that. She has been very successful in her country and is now residing in New York City. She has had 21 solo exhibitions and over 200 group exhibitions. She was director of the private Woobang Art museum in Daegu for 10 years and lectured at the Yeungnam University in Daegu.She has her own gallery in New York now. She expresses through her paintings a basic Korean philosophy of tthe passage of time and the elements of air, earth, wind and fire.

Shalom Neuman put together a series of performances with artists that he brought over from New York. Shalom is a believer in fusion art that brings together all of the arts to make one time performances that will never be repeated again. Below are a series of photos taken at one time performances. The first series is front of the Prague Žižkov Television Tower. Please click on the highlighted names here for further detailed information.

Above and below a fusion art one time performance event with the multi-talented Oh Zee, master of hip hop and other forms of music such as jazz, metal, punk and funk. Oh Zee travels between his music, art and Magick. Click on his name to read more details about him. The other performers above are OK Soon Yoon and Shalom. Below New York singer and performance artist Carrie Beehan enters the performance fusion event in grand style. Click on her name to read more details about her. I do not know the name of who she is with and the other artist in the performance, but will find out. 

 

 

An unashamed Oh Zee in all his glory. He has nothing to be ashamed of as he lets it all hang out.

Above is the Israel sculptor, painter and artist Israel Rabinovitz working with his burning Hebrew words and below a casual Israel with Tina at the Tina B festival. I will write more aboiut him when Iget the information. Click on his name for more information.

Above is New York perormer and artist Kika Von Kluck. I will write more about her when I have it and she is performing with Oh Zee below.

Below is French performance artist Maria Clark who does amazing installations and uses her body as her main meduim. Please click on her name for more information.

Maty Dio and Tereza Z Davie

A portrait of two special people who I am pleased to know! When I posted the photos on facebook, someone commented that they look like aristocrats and I could not agree more. Thet are modern aristocrats that are full of creativity or as Maty Dio says himself, "I tend to introduce myself as a pseudo-intellectual dilettante. It just about sums me right." Dilettante or aristocrat, it does not matter. Maty is truly a very unique person. Read more about him by clicking on his highlighted name which will bring you to his website. He is a Slovakian-Italian multi-genre artist, performer, painter, illustrator and a poet with a fondness for a black and white film grain photography. He is also a very good writer and he writes poems that certainly got a reaction out of me. So I guess you can say he has become a renaissance man of sorts. He is in a performance duet with Dan Stewart called Drag Addicts. They are performance artists and gender illusionists. They perform extreme gender acts mixed with comedy. A sort of transgender burlesque cabaret that is dedicated to breaking up hetro-normailzed stereotypes. He also lives in the medieval fairy tale UNESCO world heritage site town of Cesky Krumlov with his four children. He has a special place for people to stay at which is neither a hostel or hotel, but offers quality accommodation. It is appropriately called Dilettante's Hangout. I highly recommend everyone to stay there if they find themselves in Cesky Krumlov and to treat themselves to a romantic unique atmosphere. 

Tereza Z Davie is a very talented photographer and has been commited to working with photography since her early childhood. She does amazing figurative and nudes. She works in a classical way and develops and enlarges all of her own photos. She has had major exhibitions in the Czech Republic and had exhibitons in Chicago, Argentina Buenos Aires and in Paraguay, Asunción. Please click on her highlighted name to go to her website.

I am pleased to write that I will be working with the well-respected Czech photographer and filmmaker Adolf Zika as his assistant director on his new documentary about Maty Dio next year 2013! Please click on all highlighted names for further information.

The Fairytale Photo Series: The making of the photo Popelka/Cinderella

I am doing a new series of photos with the theme of fairytales for a gallery show in Prague April 2013 and Berlin June 2013. The following photos were taken in the process of making the first photo with the theme of Popelka/Cinderella. I choose unique personalities and they tell me their favorite fairytale or a fairytale that they feel connected to. We then explore the subtext of darkness, sexuality and eroticism of the story. We then go on to capture the idea in photo form. I will have a solo show in Prague April 2013 and then I will be in a very special group show in Berlin at the Neurotitan Gallery called "Your Daily Darkness" with German photographers Miron Zownir and Tina Winkhaus and also with Prague based artist Luis Cerdas Jaubert. The first photo Popelka/Cinderella was done with the inspiration of model/performer and musician Gabriela Vašková. Modeling as her prince in the photo is uber-talent singer, DJ and performer Albert Warhol. He will have his own fairytale photo captured soon. The art director on these photos is Luis Cerdas Jaubert.Táňa Havlíčková did the make-up for both models. The original idea of incorporating the darkness of fairytales is by the very talented concept-maker Sandra Conte. The idea of each individual photo is by Robert Carrithers with the process of working with each model. The following photos are part of this process and the making of the final photo of Popelka/Cinderella. The final composed photo of Popelka/Cinderella will be displayed in the gallery shows in 2013. These are websites for Gabriela's music project. Please go to them if you are interested: http://bandzone.cz/girltherapy
http://bandzone.cz/electricalady

Love and Sex: The dance of love at Sára Saudková's vernissage

I had the pleasure of attending Sára Saudková's vernissage/gallery opening at Record Gallery Club in Prague on August 16th 2012. I took many photos that night, but this one captures the theme of love and sex that I have been working on. There were two dancers performing at the vernissage and they were dancing the dance of love. I like their final embrace as the people in the gallery watched them in silence. Thank you Sára!

I recently wrote an essay about the justification of Julian Assange’s fears of extradition, some obvious things that are not written in the press and the problems with penis and the power of pussy. 

This is a shorter version to suit the theme of love and sex. I have read a lot of details about what they accuse Julian Assange of doing and it seems to me that in most cases this would be a private issue rather than a public legal one. Both women accuse of him of some sort of rape, but were involved with him in a consensual sexual relationship. He stayed at both of their homes. He is accused of having forced sex with one of the women when she wanted to go to sleep. He is also accused of not using condoms with the women and they did not know about it until afterwards. That is very difficult to do, but I suppose it is not impossible.

This is only my personal opinion and what I think happened: Julian Assange became quite a celebrity because of founding Wikileaks and had many admirers as a result. I am sure he had his share of groupies at that time. This of course inflated his ego and he proceeded to think with his penis. Too many men have done this, myself included. Men usually always learn to regret doing this much later. I can only read between the lines and guess what happened. I think that he was having sex with these two women and they did not know about each other. He probably lied many times and went back and forth between the women. The really bad thing is that he had unprotected sex with both women. What happened next? The Swedish authorities somehow informed both women about what he was doing and of course they got very, very angry at the fact that he was cheating on them and also did not bother to use a condom with either of them. I do not think the Swedish authorities had to do too much convincing with these women for them to cooperate! They were rightfully very angry about this affair. What to do? Screw him like he screwed them! Julian Assange’s biggest crime was that he was thinking with penis and had unprotected sex. The moral of this particular story is to be honest with your relationships and if you are going to have more than one relationship use a condom on that penis! Also, sooner or later Julian Assange will have to face the music with these two women and give them their day in court. If he had relations with these women it is the proper thing to do.

I do not think it is very polite to talk about penis without talking about pussy! Although many people seem to think it is impolite to talk about pussy or penis. It is quite sad that many people somehow feel intimidated to talk openly about pussy and penis. It is funny and sad in many ways. Here is an example: The last several months there has been a lot written about Pussy Riot and the situation in Russia. In the U.S., the public TV reported it, but would not say the word pussy on TV. I guess they were forbidden to say the P word! On the NBC breakfast news last week they just said, “The all girl Russian band with the vulgar name with the word riot!”

Pussy is vulgar? I certainly do not think so. Some commentators said it was distasteful to say the word pussy while people were having breakfast. Is it a matter of taste? Really? I personally think it is in good taste! What I truly think is in bad taste is to show the Syrian military killing it’s civilians at breakfast time and nothing is done about it. I would enjoy my breakfast better talking about pussy and penis!

Love and Sex: A photo series in tribute to Alain Badiou's book "In Praise of Love"

This is a photo series in tribute to Alain Badiou, France's greatest living philosopher. He has just completed a book about Love called 'In Praise of Love". The following are quotes or comments from the book. There are also some ideas from Jacques Lacan. This was also inspired by an article by Stuart Jefferies in The Guardian. Please click on the highlighted words or names for further information and click on this if you want to hear Alain Badiou speak in a video about this theme: Alain Badiou, What is love, sexuality and desire? I am still trying to work all this out myself, but I do agree with his following quotes completely! I have enclosed some of the most appropriate quotes that go with these photos, but I want the photos to speak for themselves.

"A new century, new threats to love . . . Love without risks is like war without deaths - but, today, love is threatened by an alliance of liberalism and hedonism. Caught between consumerism and casual sexual encounters devoid of passion, love - without the key ingredient of chance - is in danger of withering on the vine."

"Love is not a contract between two narcissists. It's more than that. It's a construction that compels the participants to go beyond narcissism. In order that love lasts one has to reinvent oneself."

"In Paris now half of couples don't stay together more than five years. I think it's sad because I don't think many of these people know the joy of love. They know sexual pleasure – but we all know what Lacan said about sexual pleasure."

"Jacques Lacan argued that sexual relationships don't exist. What is real is narcissistic, Lacan suggested, what binds imaginary. "To an extent, I agree with him. If you limit yourself to sexual pleasure it's narcissistic. You don't connect with the other, you take what pleasure you want from them."

"Everybody says love is about finding the person who is right for me and then everything will be fine. But it's not like that. It involves work."

"Solving the existential problems of love is life's great joy. There is a kind of serenity in love which is almost a paradise."

"Love is a construction, a life that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective of Two."

 "In love, fidelity signifies this extended victory: the randomness of an encounter defeated day after day through the invention of what will endure."

 

Love hurts

What can I say? Love hurts... sometimes! For some, pain is pleasure and for others, it is just pain, some need this in a relationship and others need it for sexual release. For many, life has enough pain and find other ways to escape pain, but it often leads to pain.

A self-portrait of Duality

A self-portrait of Duality with the help of Murhaaya.

Lucy and Max Dax in Prague

Lucy and Max Dax in Prague working on an article about Prague for Electronic Beats. A pleasurable night out at Klubovna to see Nikki Nevver and enjoy a nice night outside in the beer garden. Friday, July 27 2012 — with Max Dax at Klubovna.

Harsh Times

These are REALLY harsh times! Here is a man I came across in the center of Prague at Václavské náměstí, selling the cremated ashes of his mother with the urn! Economic crisis indeed! Everything is for sale in this world now, including your soul!