James Jean signing at La Librairie/Galerié Brüsel

Maze. Mixed Media on Paper, 29 x 41", 2008

On Wednesday Brun and I went to Brussels to go to a James Jean signing at Brüsel. We arrived a bit after two, walked around for a little while, grabbed something to eat and proceeded to Brüsel. The signing hours had changed instead of signing from three till six, he’d be signing from four till seven.

Artist Edition of Hint Mint by James Jean.

So we looked around for a bit longer, till four o’ clock rolled around, bought the Kindling print book, got a number and waited for our turn, even though about thirty odd people showed up we had to wait for a long while. Lucky for us some friends of ours were there as well, so the time went by pretty quickly.


Then it was my turn to get my book signed, I talked a bit to James Jean, about where I was from and what I did, asked him some stuff in return and wanting to say something not art related I told him that I liked his hair, he’d grown it out, which looked a lot cooler then his short hair. I guess the hair comment was something he didn’t get on most occasions, because he acted a bit shy in response. All in all it was a fun day and really nice to meet one of my favourite artists.

Hare/Bindle. Oil on Rives BFK, 22 x 30" each , 2008

James Jean used to design the covers for the Fables Comics, he quit the project after designing 81 covers for the comics and several covers for the collected volumes. Fables is a comic book series about fairy tale characters living in our world after seeking refuge from their own world which has been taken over by The Adversary.


He worked for several other brands including a collaboration with Prada (see video below) he started out by designing several illustrations for the brand which ended up on clothes and accesoires. Other brands James Jean has worked for include TIme Magazine, The New York Times, Hint Mint, Rolling Stone and many more. After working as an illustrator James Jean is now working more for himself and has drifted over into fine arts.

Love,

Jules

Michiel Hendryckx - Rambling across Europe

"Only by wandering do you get to know a city, a country, a continent."

The exhibition of Michiel Hendryckx at the FoMu is the result of three years of travelling through Europe. He undertook the journey on his own mostly by car and on foot, going back to places he had discovered earlier and discovering new places.

All of the photos in the exhibition are black and white, they were taken with a Nikon camera, he used a Nikon D200, D300, D700 and most of the photos were taken with a 50mm lens. He used this kind of lens because it’s closest to representing reality and also tells something about the way a photographer sees his subject.

Although he likes the Fomu, what he doesn’t like is the big open space it provides, he prefers to show his photos on a small format, because he believes that the format can sometimes take away from the photo itself, therefore the room in which his photos are presented was made smaller by building several smaller rooms in the middle of the exhibition room. The rooms were painted in colours that are based on Goethe colour theory. By creating these smaller rooms he hopes to create a more intimate atmosphere, which suit his photos more then a large room could ever do.


I personally feel that by taking a subject such as a daily life in Europe, he was able to create very intimate portraits, true to the place where they were taken. He explained something about the several layers that are present in a photo he took in Norway. The photo is of a mother and her daughters celebrating their national holiday. One layer he described was the very profound pride these people carry for their country and how it was very honest and beautiful in a way.

He also talked about his own love for his country, like the love you feel for a child and how he loves the strange and quirky things that make our country unique.



One of the photos he took was of a man he met in Settle, England. Hendryckx was fascinated by the tattoos he had on his back. He asked the man’s permission to take a photo of his back, assured him that no one would recognize him, to which the man agreed. The man became a tad bit uneasy when he noticed that Hendryckx wasn’t just an amateur photographer. After taking the photo, Hendryckx wanted to know more about the tattoos and their meaning, the man responded by telling Hendryckx that he was a soldier, but refused to divulge on the origin of the tattoos. The photographer decided not to push the matter, afraid that he might lose the photo. Feeling somewhat unsatisfied that he didn’t know more, he decided to look the names up, he found out that they are all names of places. Probably the names of places the soldier was stationed, he didn’t find out much about the dates, but after asking a friend, their most likely conclusion was that the tattoos were hunting trophies, although not everyone has such a horrid view on it. When asked what some of the students thought, most went in a complete different direction, suggestion that he might have lost a friend in battle that day, in the end none of us really know and in a way that makes the photo even more interesting.

All in all it’s a beautiful exhibition and if you’re in the neighbourhood you should definitely visit. The exhibition is running till 10.01.10 at the Fomu.

Love,

Jules

Listening to: Kasabian

Roro is Changing Its Ways

I've decided to continue Roro on my own, I think it will be more productive that way. I'll post reviews on all sorts of things art exhibitions, movies, music, ... some of my own work and some random stuff.

Love, Jules

Wandering Roro Has Been Found...

It’s been ages since we last updated Roro, so we thought it would be a good idea to make a slightly larger post about all sorts of things to get Roro going again.

To start of, here’s where we are Brun just started his third year of Illustration at the Royal Academy of Arts and although his thesis project is still months away he’s already spent most of his summer working on it, but more about that in the following weeks and months to come.

I on the other hand dropped out of school, preferring to learn and work on my own. I do however got a job as a guide at the Photography Museum, so expect updates on the current collections and just photography as a whole, but enough about us.

Music wise we just discovered Kasabian and are completely taken with them. but I'll let Brun explain a bit more about them.

Recently I rediscovered a band, which I haven’t heard in over 3 years. There music is being described as music made by people for people.

Kasabian is their name. Their sound just screams England and is definitely influenced by the music scene better know as Madchester. What I love about these guys is their approach to music. Not that it hasn’t been done before, but they use so many tricks in new and improved ways, which result in a unique sound.

I won’t start making resemblances with other bands, cause I hope that when u listen to these guys, u will take the time to observe their music and their point of view.

The lovely Noel Fielding plays Vlad The Impaler in this low-fi kind of quality music video. Talking about low-fi, this summer I discovered my love for analogue and Lomography, toy cameras are truly brilliant and give some amazing results.


My favourite one has to be the Holga, it comes in sturdy black plastic, it’s a bit ugly actually, but when you see what it can do, you’ll fall head over heels for this little baby. I took the photo above with my Holga on Fuji Pro Medium Format Film. The one below was taken on Agfa Portrait 160. I have to admit, though, after getting the Diana Mini delivered to my doorstep last week, with it’s ability to switch between square and half-frame and taking 35mm film, it’s quite quickly winning me over and might replace the Holga when it comes to first place.


Film wise I saw The Brothers Bloom a couple of weeks ago and was completely in love with the quirkiness and the clothes. The clothes were brilliant, I especially loved Adrian Brody’s Black and White look the most. I’ll probably re-watch it one of these days and write a more detailed review.

Love,

Jules & Brun

P.S.: The Kasabian segment was written by Brun, the rest was sort of a collaboration, trying to decide what to put in here and written by myself.

Currently listening to: Kasabian mostly, counts for both of us

Currently reading: I'm reading Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Dazed And Confused Magazine and Brun is reading Many Lives Of Tom Waits by Patrick Humphries.

Currently working with Diana Mini as my main medium and my ever-present diary filled with ideas and visual inspiration. As for Brun, he's currently working with digital drawing and painting, as well as experimenting with aquarelle and pencils.

I think I slept on my ear wrong, Do I look asymmetrical to you at all...

Wristcutters: A love Story

"Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. And they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, "You're crooked. You've always been crooked and you'll continue to be crooked. But look at me! Look at me!" said the straight tree. He said, "I'm tall and I'm straight." And then one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, "Cut all the straight trees." And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange"

The film starts with a Tom Waits song, which immediately sets the tone for what is about to happen. Zia, one of the main characters offs himself and ends up in a world not unlike our own, except that it’s just a little worse. Everything is washed out and kind of bleak looking. Zia meets Eugene, I remember that I kept thinking through out the whole film that the character was so much like Eugene Hutz, they also used his music, and maybe Eugene would have been a better Eugene.

The trailer from Everything is Illuminated, just wanted to show you the real Eugene Hutz

When Zia finds out that the girl he killed himself over offed herself as well, he decides to go look for her. He convinces Eugene to go along with him, on their road trip they meet Mikal, played by Shannyn Sossamon. I think their little roadtrip takes up a third of the movie and it’s just a nice part, to see them bonding and singing along with Gogol Bordello Songs.

In the third part of the movie Zia, Mikal and Eugene nearly run over Kneller, wonderfully played by Tom Waits, in doing so they crash the car. Kneller takes them to his camp, where they stay for a while, Zia and Mikal grow closer to one another and Eugene meets a mute girl called Nanuk, who does this weird amazing like throat signing. In the end Zia finds Desiree, the girl he killed himself over and Mikal finds the people in charge. Kneller turns out to be one of the people in charge, Mikal gets the mistake they made sorted out and is sent back to the world of the living, Eugene and Nanuk go off together to visit her family leaving Zia is on his own. He feels lonely and even more depressed then before, because he lost Mikal, the girl he loved. Kneller does Zia a favour and sorts things out. The movie ends with Zia waking up in the hospital and realizes that Mikal is in the other the bed, they smile and the end credits follow together with Through The Roof ‘N’ Underground by Gogol Bordello

I think the black hole in the bottom of the car was the only thing that visually annoyed me, for the rest I loved the washed out feeling and colours of the place. When we first meet Tom Waits, you barely get to see his face, but then he grunts and even Tom Waits grunting is very Tom Waits like, you instantly recognize it. This is the second time I’ve watched this film and there just so many little things that make you smile, because even though the film is about suicide, it is a comedy and in a way it’s about the little things in life that make it worth while.

Listening to Ziggy Stardust, it's on high rotation, so much even that I haven't listened to any of the other records I bought...

Finished reading "This Book Will Change Your life" by A.M. Homes and started reading a little french book that plays out in a museum...

Other things I'm doing...Taking a shit loads of pictures...working on my very large collage...and turning my studio into a mess, which is nothing unusual...

Love,

Jules

Short Movie by Sam Kroes

Brand New Roro

As you can see Roro got a shiny new look, there will be some minor changes going on in the next couple of days, but nothing that will interrupt you from enjoying Roro. The left column is filled with inspiration and links. If you click Roro's banner under The Whole Shebang you'll be redirected to Roro's Tumblr for some daily inspiration. Hope you like it...

Love,

Jules

ERWIN OLAF - EYECANDY 1984 - 2009

On saturday Mattia and I went to an exhibition at The Museum of Photography in Antwerp.First order of the day was visiting the gift shop, where I contemplated on buying a Holga or a Diana, we decided to see the exhibition first and come back to the gift shop afterwards.

There were three exhibitions, but for the sake of not making this blog post to lengthy, we’ll focus on just one of them. More precisely Erwin Olaf’s retrospective exhibition ‘Eye Candy’ 1984 – 2009.

Royal Blood, SISSI +1898, 2000

Personally I found the collection ‘Royal Blood’ the most intriguing. The collection is about persons of royal blood who have been murdered or killed themselves, the only exception is the picture of Jackie O. where it’s the remains of her husband that stain her immaculate beauty.

JACKY O. 12:29 PM, 2000 & JACKY O. 12:30 PM, 2000

Mattia and I spend several minutes trying to figure out who was who in the portrait, because there were no separate titles. I love how, even though some of them have been killed in horrible ways, they all keep a strong and royal composure. They look straight at you, daring you…something that fits perfectly for a series on persons of royal blood.

JULIUS CAESAR +44 B.C., 2000

Even though I really like the portrait of Caesar, I don’t quite understand why he picked a young boy to represent him, maybe because some sort of idealism died with Caesar.

TSARINA ALEXANDRA +1918, 2000

When I first saw the collection ‘Hope’ by Erwin Olaf in his latest book I had a mixed feeling. There were pictures were you could clearly feel what was hoped for. For example ‘The Practice’. The woman in the picture has a sad expression, which is understandable because she’s probably awaiting test results. In this case a picture says more than a thousand words.

THE PRACTICE, 2005

But if you look at ‘The Classroom’ there’s no sign of hope. It’s more like a filthy professor lusting after his student, while she’s just standing there like a doll, without emotion. For me hope portrays a unique feeling, a feeling that I feel is absent from this picture.

THE CLASSROOM, 2005

After seeing ‘Hope’ I was quite disappointed because his exhibition in FoMu was quite impressive, especially ‘Chessmen’.

HOPE 5, 2005

His ‘Grief’ collection contained a lot of inspiring images. I really liked the way he sees grief and how he plays with the notions of action and reaction. The images are simplistic and well put into frame.

To conclude I would say that Erwin Olaf is a gifted photographer who is clearly capable of portraying certain human emotions in all their integrity.

Visit Erwin Olaf's site here

Some Pictures from the exhibition

Stills from the short film ROUGE

Royal Blood and Blacks

Fashion Victims

We ended our trip to FOMU in the same place we started, the giftshop, we spent close to an hour there, talking to a lovely woman that worked there and trying to decide which camera I would buy. I ended up buying a DianaF + and I just picked up the rolls of film I ordered, so expect pictures soon …

This review for Erwin Olaf was a joint effort between Mattia Lampis and myself, Julie Smits. Mattia focussed more on the book we both bought and the series Hope, Grief and Rain and I more on the collection Royal Blood.

Love,

Jules

The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen ...

August Rush

Listen. Can you hear it? The music. I can hear it everywhere. In the wind... in the air... in the light. It's all around us. All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do... is listen

From the first moment I saw the trailer of this film, I knew that I had to see it. The music is what caught me first, which I think is normal, because music is the essence of this film.

Another thing that made me want to see this film, was Jonathan Rhys Meyers being in it. I first saw Jonathan in Bend It Like Beckham and I thought my god who is that gorgeous guy with those piercing blue eyes. That was a couple of years ago and in that time I’ve seen several films with Jonathan in it and he has more than just piercing blue eyes, he’s got talent and tons of passion for what he does. My absolute favourite film with Jonathan in it has to be Velvet Goldmine and I don’t know if you noticed but several things on this blog are inspired by that film, figure it out for yourself which ones …

But more about the movie itself, it takes you on this amazing musical adventure of a boy trying to find his parents. He believes that the music he hears all around him is his parents trying to reach him and if he could only play music, then he could reach them as well. He runs away from the orphanage to New York City, there he meets all sorts of people, but most importantly he meets Wizard. Wizard played by Robin Williams gives refuge to all sorts of musical prodigies in return he asks for their tips and their loyalty. One night the police raid the place and the group splits up, August finds refuge in a church and is taken in by the people there. The reverend discovers his talent and takes him to Juliard. August is given the change to learn all about music and one of his teachers discovers that August has written a rhapsody, they suggest that he play the piece at The New York Philharmonic in central park. Wizard finds August once more and asks him to come with him, August does. While August is playing on the streets again, he meets his father, Jonathan’s character, although neither of them know who one another is. They play together and Jonathan’s character tells him he should never give up on his music and that he should do the concert. August runs away from Wizard and arrives just in time to perform his piece. His mother is there, as well as his father and the film ends with August turning around to the crowd and smiling as he sees his parents.

Truly a beautiful film and if you get the chance to watch it, well just do …

Love,

Jules

The Road

Click the image to enlarge

You can visit my teacher's blog at www.frankalbers.blogspot.com, unfortunately it's in dutch, so not all of you will be able to read it. He's an amazing teacher, very passionate about the things he talks about.

Currently listening to Jeff Buckley (bootlegs, rare tracks, ... hehe the good stuff, Expect a post about him very soon) and Tom Waits (Alice and you can expect a post about this musical genius very soon as well)

Love,

Jules

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