All image cred: SuperTouch.

Spotted this fresh series by Kehinde Wiley on SuperTouch.

If you live in LA you can catch Wiley’s exhibition, The World Stage – Brazil, at Roberts & Tilton Gallery.

Wiley got his favela models to recreate the poses of key statues in the city.

In assuming the role the of the western colonizer, they challenge their status as socially invisible – so he explains:

Kehinde Wiley – The World Stage by PGrizzy on YouTube.

I found it strange there were no women in this series, but the artist has a logic:

“By enlarge, the absence of women is the normal state within the history of art. The reasons having to do with misogyny, empire, construction of power – being the sole territory of powerful men.”

The detail on these paintings is spectacular. Get in up-close on the website and you’ll see how grandiose they are.

As hyperrealism goes, they deliver loud and clear. It’s like the opposite of, and complement to, JR’s industrialised photocopies of black and white photo-portraits.

Previous favela:

- Diplo’s first feature film: Favela on Blast.

- JR’s Women Are Heroes: the other face of ghetto grandeur.

Here are some stills from the upcoming film Favela on Blast – directed by Leandro HBL and DJ Diplo.

Still photographer: Rebekka Elhers

Production designer: Leandro HBL

Favela on Blast explores the universe of baile funk in Rio. An October premiere of the film in Brazil was followed last month by a European debut in Copenhagen.

The two directors first collaborated on the music video for Diplo Rhythm and aficionados will know that Favela on Blast bears the title of Diplo’s breakthrough baile funk mixtape.

I’ll keep this post updated on news of US/ UK release.

In the meantime it’s good to know that more favela films are in production. The World Film Collective are working with kids in the Morro dos Prazeres favela so they can make and edit footage from their mobile phones. (More on that here).

Previous Brazil:

- Taschen’s Latin American Grapic Design

- JR’s Women Are Heroes

It’s been kicking around for a while, and I still can’t say I know how Nois made this video for Diplo:

Nois are a collective of Brazilian directors with a showreel that’s diverse and impressive. Thanks Bren for a sharp point.

And Audrey Q showed me Donald Hertzfeldt‘s Rejected Cartoons recently, on the felt tip.

I’ve seen a lot of brands lifting the lid on hand-drawn logos this last year or two. Scribbled design is in.

Obviously we all love felt tips – and for baile funk or a deranged cartoonist, they’re the obvious weapon – but why’s this happening on a corporate level now?

Imitation of a new (old) style? Simple fun? Or are we looking at a form of design “transparency”? Surely not… humanity? Let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of helvetica.