Purple Diary
[January 5 2015]
A recap on the best Purple TV Takeovers of 2014
As 2014 has now come to an end we have decided to do a recap on the best TV Takeovers of 2014. The year started with photographer Ari Marcopoulos whose choices ranged between Maria Callas primadonna observations with Lord Hareword, to the horrifying beauty of historic archival stock footage from the Vietnam war, up until the short film by Werner Herzog shot in Crete and on the island of Spinalonga.
Next up, John Rafman started his list with the Ratboy Genius theme song that, according to the youtube commenter Pigeon, will never be fully understood by humankind. Rafman also chose the last film Chris Marker made before he died, sourced from the Dubai State security service of CCTV footage tracking Mossad assassins on their way to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, and lastly included the “badass” science fiction anime The Running Man by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Arcangel Surfware aka Cory Arcangel was easy to please and repeatedly raised awareness on the first single Sunshine by the dutch group Dance Nation released in 2001.
The Song by Mark Flood‘s 80s band Culturcide, from the album; Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America was chosen by Leo Gabin, who advise to check out the entire record. Leo gabin also recommended to keep an eye out for the Mixtape by our man DJ Lil Gabino.
Continuing the TV takeover of 2014 is Katerina Jebb who chose an excerpt from Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me, originally a book written by anthropologist Edmund Snow Carpenter, a film documenting the male initiation of the Kandangan tribe in Papua, New Guinea.
One surprisingly interesting video was the one chosen by Richard Kern called Fall ‘95 that documents a young woman’s transformation into an artist. “Alex Bag’s work predicted today’s obsession with video and photo identity creating via Internet self-blogging and social media, it comes from a time in which video art could only be seen if purchased or in a gallery setting,” explained Kern. He also used other examples of this phenomenon like the rising stars Chloe Wise and Maggie Lee.
The multimedia artist Doug Aitken gave an insight to the unknown American rock band Butthole Surfers, formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary, giving a drug fueled interview in bed. Aitken later selected the Japanese commercial for toiletry brand Mandom starring Charles Bronson, of “Death Wish” franchise fame.
As the last TV takeover of 2014, Purple asked the American brand Eckhaus Latta, who selected Sometimes Making Something Lead to Nothing by Francis Alys and I Love Europe, It Does Not Love me Back by Oleg Kulik.
Make sure to check out all TV Takeovers of this year on Purple Diary here
