The Salon series at Johnson & Johnson

underground forest #0707-10333 (up to 13,000 years old; pretoria, south africa)

la llareta #0308-23b26 (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile

I attended The Salon series held at the Johnson & Johnson Global Strategic Design offices on Thursday and the theme was, Investigation. The two artists who were in the lecture showcasing their work were Rachael Sussman and Vaughan Oliver. Rachael documents biological life form, plant life from all over the world whose age is incomprehensible. Rachael has spent time researching some of the world's oldest living specimens, finding them in various origins both far and wide. She needs to apply for grants to fund her travel, as most of these places are very far from the Americas. I feel it takes great devotion to find and travel to and shoot these profoundly odd and old living organisms. I admire her fascination with this body of work and moreover, I am grateful for her bringing them to us, who would never otherwise be fortunate to share in the splendor of seeing these plants and trees.


Vaughan Oliver is the Creative Director to the Pixies’ albums on the 4AD label. He hired Simon Larbalestier, the photographer whose black and white, gritty, industrial aesthetic framed the 4AD music mold. It was the changing of an era. The Pixies album first came out in 1988 and this was around the time when cds were replacing albums and thus artwork had to make an emotional impact at a smaller print size. I was excited to attend this lecture and meet the man who worked with Simon. I had just purchased a print from Simon from the Surfer Rosa series of the Spanish dancer. I bought it for my brother for his birthday. My brother and I both loved the Pixies in 1988 and further on. “Surfer Rosa”, and “Come On Pilgrim” being our favorites. The print was an edition of prints created from the original polaroid transfer. The work is very surrealist and kept in form with their compatriots: Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, they shared in it’s gothic and surrealist aesthetic. In all, it was inspiring to hear from a 1990’s 4AD Creative Director who has just completed the Pixies box set.