Ever look around at the frenzied construction of Bloomberg-era New York City and wonder how to turn it into art? On November 18th at Studio-X, multimedia artist Daniel Perlin will do just that, and in a novel way: using screws, glue, nails, sawhorses, an audio cassette and a laptop to question work and construction as auditory processes. In his performance “re:construction,” he will ask: What do buildings sound like? How do structures house the process of their construction?

At Studio-X (fittingly, a downtown annex of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, located just blocks away from Donald Trump’s new and looming Soho tower), Perlin will build a small house over the course of one hour. Recording and manipulating samples from the construction process, he will simultaneously build a large orchestral work with rhythm, melody and harmony to be recorded onto a cassette tape in real-time. According to Studio-X, this cassette will then be housed within this new structure “as an artifact built to highlight process, and to archive the sounds of its own creation.”

Who: DANIEL PERLIN
What: re:construction
When: Tuesday, November 18, 7 pm
Where: Studio-X, 180 Varick Street, Suite 1610
1 train to Houston
RSVP: gdb2106@columbia.edu.

Each Friday, Dossier will bring you knowledgeable style commentary, context and inspiration — a roundup of the week’s best style coverage — in no particular order.

1. In a belated nod to last Tuesday, this slide show of post-election parties and day-after fashion incorporates Bill Cunningham’s (the one you can thank for eagerly anticipated New York Times’ Sunday Styles “On the Street” shots) soothing grandfatherly commentary. It’s one for the ages.

2. Photographer Patrick Demarchelier has been on the international fashion scene for more than three decades, a regular in Vogue and the official photographer of Princess Di. As the Paris’ Petit Palais hosts an exhibition of 400 of his photos, he takes a moment to chat with the Wall Street Journal about the kaleidoscope of fashion, art, photography, life and their association.

3. The name “Rio Bravo” and post-Fashion Week party photos may be a bit dubious — someone once told me bravo wasn’t Portuguese — nonetheless Astrid Munoz’s shots of the flower market at Copacabana and the beaches of Ipanema, in combination with The Satoralist’s ever trained lens, are enough to remind me that much inspiration lies to the south.

4. The erudite — and just great — Suzy Menkes details and discusses Chinese artists’ current love affair with Western luxury fashion brands. Learn a little something from this conversant, and surprisingly upbeat, take on the mutual influence of this powerful country and global commerce.

5. I might be a bit heavy on the visual content this week, but Vanity Fair’s shtick is nothing if not solid cultural portraits. Check out their just released “Year in Pictures, Part One“. I truly can’t pick a favorite.

p.s. I know. It’s the third week of Style links and the third week of obsessing about Show Studio. However, this week’s “Let there be Light” photo shoot is exactly what fashion journalism has the potential to be in this multimedia age: historic, referential, beautiful, current and inspirational. A true fashion shoot; it’s more than 20 clips long.

Image via the Wall Street Journal.

At the Guggenheim International Gala on Monday night, Rirkrit Tiravanija was surprised to find himself honored, along with the nine other artists in the new exhibition, theanyspacewhatever. “I don’t read the e-mails, I just show up,” he explained. Tiravanija is perhaps best known for his installations, in which he doles out free vegetable curry in various gallery settings as a way of complicating ideas about gifts and wealth.

On the subject of satirical art under an Obama administration, he produced a twenty dollar bill from his wallet with the phrase “Fears Eats The Soul,” printed on it, a reference to the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.” “Sure, it applies because there’s still a lot of fear,” he said, “but fear is on the run in a way that something else is going to change, and then we’re all going to be out of the job because we have nothing to criticize. Which would be great because I would like to go fishing.”

The lackadaisical mood was complemented by a soundtrack provided by New Mexico-based hippies Brightblack Morning Light. Guitarist Nathan “Naybob” Shineywater and keyboardist Rachel “Raybob” Hughes live in an adobe house in the desert and, in the past, have asked fans to bring crystals to their shows. Their lifestyle at first seemed at odds with the art crowd, but at the auction and dinner, our places were marked with translucent stone-shaped objects. Was the Guggenheim giving out funky paperweights as party favors? During the speeches portion of the dinner, a museum official said they were limited-edition works from the artist Mariko Mori, and that they would be valuable someday. Groovy enough.

Two years ago I layed gloved hands upon a copy of Harmony Korine’s Humor zine at the special collections library. This was one of several limited edition fanzines Korine made (sometimes in collaboration with Mark Gonzales) during the 90s, through the Alleged Gallery and Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York. On November 18th, the gloves come off, when Drag City re-issues eight fanzines with the publication of The Collected Fanzines. My Friend or Sheep Boy, Adulthood, Aldulthood 2, Oh Death Where is Thy Sting, Foster Homes and Gardens, Humor, Pocahontas Monthly, and Hümer will be available as a deluxe boxset (containing exact reproductions of the originals) and as a trade paperback (for a whole lot less). Even better, Harmony is considering doing some readings, maybe with Mark, to promote this release.

Commenting on The Collected Fanzines, Korine says:

Going back ten years… it’s so hard to remember, I was always tripping and falling over myself.

These ‘zines were written over the last fifteen years, mostly in dark rooms and the basements of old people. With names like Adulthood, Foster Home and Gardens, Pocohontas Monthly, Hümer, and others, they were sold in limited editions out of the Alleged Gallery and Andrea Rosen Gallery. Some were sold on street corners and given away to the tramp sects that were so prominent during that time period. Scraps of paper and half thoughts in the guise of art objects, you see.

Not many people actually got a chance to have these but the ones who are still amongst the living have greatly benefited. I know one lady in Panama who has the complete set, her family has stopped referring to her as a gimp now, now they call her Sue.

They were never meant to be collectible – just low-concept laugh-inducing juxtapositions of words and images, images and images, lists, monologues, cartoons, free verse, jokes, half-thoughts, fake/real interviews, innuendo and Matt Dillon’s phone number. If you sold them on eBay for a bunch of money, I want my cut. Or if you bought them then please spare a percentage to the dyke army and the flame militia, its a good charity and it’s ribbon buttons are invisible.

Some of them read like letters from prison. I know these were popular in some prisons but I’m not sure why.

Now if only they would re-issue The Bad Son, because my drool on the glass cases at the NY Art Book Fair was rather unsightly.

STARTING THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13th

Lauren Moffatt (Womenswear)
Spawned in 1999 by a cute young couple from Philly, the earnest whimsy and color play of Moffatt translates into some surprisingly timeless pieces.
Thursday, November 13th, 9am-7:30pm
214 W. 29th Street (between 7th & 8th Avenue), Suite 1503

Lela Rose (Womenswear)
The name says it all: little girl grown up, and Lela Rose is actually the Texan designer, Parson graduate and Richard Tyler intern’s name.
November 13th & 14th, 9am-6pm
224 West 30th Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues), 13th Floor

Me & Ro (Jewelry)
The M.O. of this mid-level to fine (we’re talking price range) line is to express individuality and the human values of strength, love and faith through jewelry. Nice.
November 13th & 14th, 12noon-7pm and Friday 10am-7pm
13 Crosby Street (between Howard & Grand Streets), 2nd Floor

Mike & Chris (Mens and Womenswear and accessories)
A good example of casual LA fashion, a leather hoodie for example, successfully reaching beyond sunny shores.
November 13th -15th, 10am-7pm and Saturday 10am-3pm
447 West 36th Street (between 9th & 10th Avenue), 5th Floor

Ted Baker (Mens and Womenswear)
An anglophile favorite and a solid step up in “business casual” wear, this British-based retailer does classic with a twist (or what we like to call style).
Now - November 14th, 11 am-7pm and Friday 9:30am-2pm
215 Park Avenue South (between 17th & 18th), 20th Floor.

Twinkle (Womenswear)
This Gen Art alumni’s eight-year-old line is cute but not too sweet fusion of West Village gentrification and Paris grit.
November 13th, 10 am-8pm
545 Eighth Avenue (between 37th & 38th), 17th Floor

Valentino: (Womenswear and the Home Collection)
It’s Valentino, all you need for an excuse is an occasion or the remote possibility that the namesake and founders last collection samples are floating about.
November 13th to November 16th, 9am-6:30pm and Sunday 9am-5pm
Soiffer Haskin: 317 West 33rd Street (Between 8th and 9th Avenue)

Vivienne Westwood (Womenswear)
Westwood devotees often tend towards the obsessive, which makes the mandatory RSVP understandable.
Now-November 14th, 10 am-8pm (by appointment only)
RSVP is required to receive location: rsvp@industrypulbicity.com

STARTING FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14th

PHI (Womenswear)
New York’s take on dark, moody French style — somewhere between Carine Roitfeld and Mary-Kate Olsen.
November 14th & 15th, 11am-7pm
71 Greene Street (between Spring & Broome Streets)

STARTING SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15th

AEFFE Showroom (Womenswear)
Featuring the Europeans: Alberta Ferretti, Jean Paul Gaultier, Moschino, Pollini, Basso & Brooke, and more.
Now-November 15th, 10am-6pm and Saturday 11am-5pm
30 West 56th Street (between 5th & 6th Ave.) 1st Floor

Armani Exchange (Mens and Womenswear)
High quality basics, but Secaucus…
November 15th 9:30am-3pm
125 Enterprise Ave. South, Secaucus, NJ 07094

Fashion Alley on Pier 92: New York’s largest vintage fashion fair
(Mens and Womenswear)
Vintage Chanel, Fendi, Prada, Hermes, Gucci and Pucci and over 100 vendors hawking gems from fashion’s past. The $15 admission also includes entrance to Pier 94’s 500 vintage, furniture, art and object stalls.
November 15th-November 16th, Saturday 9am-6pm, Sunday 11am-6pm
711 12th Avenue, Pier 92 (at 52nd to 55th Streets)

Last week, Zidane: A 21^st Century Portrait, directed by Douglas Gordon in collaboration with Philippe Parreno, showed at both BAM and Anthology Film Archives. Winner of FIFA World Player of the Year three times and both the European and World Cups with France, Zinedine Zidane is mainly known in North America for having brutally head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest, and for getting sent off in the last match of his career — which happened to be the 2006 World Cup final, a match France went on to lose in a penalty shootout.

He is considered the most gifted player of his generation, famous for his incredible touch and control. Born and raised in an immigrant ghetto in Marseille and recently voted the “most popular Frenchman of all time,” he also holds a special place in French culture for having been the most recognizable player in a national squad comprised primarily of players with their roots in Africa (a team about which Le Pen infamously claimed France “cannot recognize itself”), and consequently is a symbol for the new multicultural France.

All of this context lurks in the background of Gordon’s mesmeric film. Working with 17 cameras and a crew of about 150, Gordon follows Zidane –- and only Zidane -– over the course of an otherwise routine La Liga match between Zidane’s Real Madrid and Villareal on April 23^rd, 2005, at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. The film leaves the Bernabeu only at halftime, where Gordon surveys other events that happened on that day: Toads mysteriously explode in Germany; nine are killed by a car bomb in Najaf (a kid in the crowd is wearing a Zidane replica top); Gordon’s daughter is ill.

The soundtrack, performed by Mogwai, fades in and out, as does the voice of the Spanish announcer, the roar or murmurings of the crowd, and a text on the bottom of the screen in which Zidane, probably reluctantly, reflects on his career. His vague and laconic replies conjure Eric Cantona –- also a Frenchman with remarkable skill and temper, who while playing for Manchester United attacked a heckling Crystal Palace fan with a flying karate kick –- and then at the following press conference enigmatically declared, “When seagulls follow a trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”

Zidane’s comments provide one of the main sources of the film’s dramatic tension: He mentions how, when things are going badly, the crowd suddenly becomes perceptible. In addition to the cheers and taunts, he can hear a person coughing, whispering in the ear of their companion, or even shifting in their seat.

There is an oft-cited quote by French singer-songwriter Jean-Louis Murat: “Nobody knows if Zidane is an angel or a demon…He smiles like Saint Teresa and grimaces like a serial killer.” Part of what makes Zidane so affective as portraiture (see Michael Fried in Artforum) is its refusal to transgress Zidane’s impenetrable gaze or reveal his struggle to come to terms with his split French-Algerian identity — the fact that he often had nightmares as a child when his father worked the night shift, or whatever, that is the true source of these outbursts.

It is the film’s avoidance of such biopic conventions that simultaneously gives the event -– the match -– its gravitas, and exposes its utter banality. It allows us to see Zidane’s performance in a Sisyphean character (another training, match, season, for infinity) — a characteristic “professional footballer” shares with all of the world’s occupations. But we also catch a glimpse into what Hegel called the “night of the world”:

The human being is this night, this empty nothing, that contains everything in its simplicity — an unending wealth of many presentations, images, of which none happens to occur to him — or which are not present. This night, the inner of nature, that exists here — pure self — in phantasmagorical presentations, is night all around it, here shoots a bloody head — there another white shape, suddenly here before it, and just so disappears. One catches sight of this night when one looks human beings in the eye — into a night that becomes awful, it suspends the night of the world here in an opposition. In this night being has returned.

Image via KVIFF.

After 19 years, the self-proclaimed “Queen Bitch Jungle Mother of Jew York,” Grace Jones herself, is back. Following her return to the stage at this year’s Meltdown Festival in London, Jones released Hurricane, featuring an all-star production team led by Ivor Guest, including Brian Eno, Tricky and Sly & Robbie. Unfortunately, she won’t Grace us with her presence stateside, but friends across the pond can catch her on tour this January. In the meantime you can catch her video, the sublime Corporate Cannibal from director Nick Hooker.

Our friend Ilirjana’s band just released the video for their single “Tropics.” The song is from their as-yet untitled, Martin Bisi-produced record, which is to be released on Summer Lovers Unlimited in March 2009.

Brooklyn-based New Yorker editor Ben Greenman is looking for help with his new “highly fancy limited edition publication.” The book, Correspondences, is a collection of short stories written in epistolary form, and includes an unfinished story called “What He’s Poised to Do” that intentionally leaves gaps in the narrative.

“The Man is staying in a hotel. While he is there, he writes and receives a number of postcards. Some carry messages of love, others messages of regret, others still are confessions or rationalizations. There are nine postcard messages in all, not a single one of which is actually reprinted in the text of the story. That’s where you come in.”

Calling this interactive portion of the book The Postcard Project, the unwritten sections, numbered from one to nine, represent postcards sent from one character to another. Greenman is inviting writers (or anyone, really) to fill in the holes in the story by sending in postcards to an address in Brooklyn, numbered according to where they belong in the story.

Submissions will be read by Greenman and selected to be included in future editions of Correspondences. More information can be found here.