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Written by Ryan Christian
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 11:13am
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Chicago's Contemporary Art Fair
NEXT/ and other Chicago related weekend activities.
Okay. I am going to tell you about my weekend. It was pretty fancy.
So I spent the week at the Merchandise Mart helping gallerist bad boy Scott Speh set up the Western Exhibitions booth for NEXT. Next is an invitational/ curated fair that was one of five fairs happening at the Merchandise Mart, a building so large, it has it's own area code! NEXT, was super refreshing, we have not had a solid fair since the days of the stray show. Sorry for some of the images, it was a liquor fueled weekend.
It's astounding how last minute things run at a fair. There were galleries with empty booths on Thursday with only a matter of hours until the grand opening.
So anyhow, Thursday I sat at the actual Western Exhibitions gallery. This guy, Mark Wagner, makes really great collages only using dollar bills and there are lots of em', big and small.
After that I met up with my ladyfriend, Marcie, and we went on over to the mart for the opening night. There was TONS of good stuff. Okay, lets go!
Richard Heller Gallery was there...
Jacob Magraw
Damn randall!
Randall Sellers
"A Drowning Man Takes Down Those Nearest"
Lamar Peterson
Kim Light/Lightbox gallery wa s also there.
With PAPERRAD!!!!!
And their new film Problem Solvers. Har har har
Kavi Gupta gallery...
Adam Scott
The mighty Tony Tasset
Met Scott Anderson, he practices tai kwon do
Taylor de Cordoba had some work by Frohawk TwoFeathers
The West Collection was there from PA. If you are unaware of them , check them out, they want to give you a pile of money to roll around in.
They had this mega bling snake made out of acrylic nails and gold sequences.
Lisa Boyle Gallery had some paintings by Steven Husby
I chatted with this Cody Hudson... he's a real sweetheart. Some new work of his gallantly hung in the BucketRider space
Western Exhibitions threw down the gauntlet.
Melissa Oresky
"I am the world, I am the children"
"XXX sex through X-ray spex"
Geoffrey Todd Smith
Ben Stone
John Parot
Stan Shellabarger and Dutes Miller sewing themselves together
There was so much work, overwhelming, we chilled Friday for my birthday and ate ice cream cake. Marcie gifted me a nice little drawing by Kyle Fields as a reward for lasting a quarter century.
Saturday we returned to try and really look at some work instead of walking circles and drinking tons of free Grolsch. Lunch at Crust and then back to the Mart we went.
Imperfect Articles had a some work by May Mayfield
OSP gallery was showcasing some new drawings by Michael Kreuger
John Sparagana had some super rad looking, fatigued, microscopic, magazine page collage things
Frances Trombley @ David Castillo gallery
Mixed Greens/ Lee Stoetzel had this big ol' wooden vw bus
Nicholas Robinson brought some John Copeland work to Chicago.
Andrew Schoultz had work at like 10 galleries.
Chicago's own Stop Smiling magazine, brought along all you can eat free issues, a complimentary photo booth and some super hot gouache paintings y the ever elusive Tom Long.
Deb Sokolow had a monster drawing installation about Scarface, super impressive, here is a detail. My camera could not handle the massiveness of the entire thing. She also had really great books and zines with Bertran Projects.
Jeremy Mora
Sarah Bridgland
Tiny sculpture!
We decided to leave and meet up with this guy,Mike Rea , to the Black Beetle for burgers and drinks and comrades!
Then we stopped by COMA (California Occidental Museum of Art) for a erotic cakes exhibition. Edie Fake, Keith Herzig, and Jeremy Onsmith had screenprints and such there, too. Electronic noise stylings by Frenchman Jean- Louis Costes.
Edie Fake
A few old styles and boob cupcakes and we jetted down to the Co Prosperity Sphere for the final night of Version Fest.
Little Dancing Robots guys were neat
A tambourine and a saxaphone by Rae
Trippy E.T. guy- part of a big installation by The Up Set!
Brilliant Pebbles rocked the set
As well as Dj Douggpound
Met these guys
Went to bed at five a.m. tomarrow we knock it all down and start over again.
{moscomment}
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
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| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
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| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
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| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
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| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
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| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
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| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
 |
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| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
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| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
 |
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| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
 |
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| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
 |
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| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
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| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
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| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
 |
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
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| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
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| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
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| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
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| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
 |
|
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
 |
|
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
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Call for Artists: Port Pier 92 Public Art Project
Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 10:24am
Wanna do a commissioned mural/ multi-media project/ public artwork on a massive silo here in San Francisco? Live in the Western United States? The commission pays $190,000, and the mural will be up for 5 years. Awesome opportunity and if you think you have the right stuff, READ THE DETAILS AND APPLY.
$190,000 to put your art on this massive silo in San Francisco.
Artwork opportunities may include a mural or kinetic artwork on the exterior wall of the northern grain silo or a lighting or multi-media project that illuminates or projects on the cranes or silos in the day or at night. Pier 92 is located at the entrance to the Bayview community and the artwork should make a strong visual statement in keeping with the gateway experience and industrial setting. ~read on
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Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 11:56am
New Fish Print
Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 10:12am
Our buddy Jeremy Fish has a brand new print The Golden Hills out through Upper Playground. The print is made in an edition of 100, signed and numbered by the artist, and printed at the fantastic Bloom Press in Oakland, California. 18" x 24" $100
This drawing was inspired by that looming feeling that San Francisco is an isolated island from the rest of the country. As SF becomes more and more expensive, and the lower income creative folks that make this city pulse get squeezed off the island, "the city that knows how" will slowly transform into a sterile west coast Manhattan full of tech chads and internet gurus. —Jeremy Fish
To All The Graduates
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 11:23am
Congrats to some of our friends who've just graduated from SFAI this past weekend. Henry Gunderson (below), Alex Ziv, Quinn Arneson and our intern Alex Uhrich among many more not only at SFAI but those at CCA and other schools across the country. May you all work hard and prosper in your future arting endeavors.
Henry Gunderson all grown up, college graduated and bow-tied.
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 1:40pm
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist, Round 2: When Jacobs Turns Vandalized Store Into $680 Shirt <-- Earlier this week, on the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was hit by French graffiti artist Kidult, who has famously vandalized Supreme, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton, among others. The hit? Kidult took a fire extinguisher filled with pink paint, and sprayed the word ART over the front of the store (seen below). ~continue reading
Dave Kinsey @FFDG 5/18
Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 1:00pm
Thanks to Arrested Motion who posted some info on Dave Kinsey's solo show Lost For Words which opens at FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm). This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years. RSVP.
Founder of BLK/MRKT w/ Shepard Fairey in '97 (becoming sole owner in '03), lengedary street artist with his Unlearn campaign, and highly accomplished painter, it's with great honor that we welcome him back to San Francisco. New paintings, mixed media and installation, it should be one of our best shows to date and a lot of fun. -Complete Show Details
Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words at FFDG on Fri, May 18th.
Asian Art Museum Tonight, Thurs
Thursday, 17 May 2012, 10:51am
The Asian Art Museum opens their grand first contemporary show PHANTOMS OF ASIA with a massive preview party this evening with DJs, food, and other goodies 7:30pm - midnight ~details
We went to the press preview yesterday and should have some photos to share, but time constraints due to preparations for our show w/ Dave Kinsey opening Friday and the lack of a mayor Ed Lee which all were waiting for... Well, we had to bail before they let us preview the show... What we've seen online looks great and tonight should be a blast. See you there.
Some of the artists participating in PHANTOMS OF ASIA under Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa's 24-foot-tall "Breathing Flower" in the Civic Center.
Phantoms of Asia Opening Thurs, 17th
Friday, 11 May 2012, 1:29pm
The Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco opens its first large-scale contemporary art exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past with a big old preview party on Thursday, May 17th complete w/ DJs VIN SOL and KING MOST. ~details
Curated by Mami Kataoka, chief curator of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, in collaboration with Allison Harding, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum, Phantoms of Asia features artworks by contemporary artists hailing from Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Tibet, and the U.S. Going to be a great show.
Installation by Choi Jeong Hwa
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+SF
| :: Love Lunatic: Or, How to Be Loved When .. - Thu | | :: "So you think you can Paint?" - Thu | | :: RAW SF: The Blend with B.LEWIS, THE SPI.. - Thu | | :: Nothing Is Ever Finished @Eli Ridgway G.. - Thu | | :: 'Yi, dos, drei, four' @Fouladi Projects - Fri | | :: SFFS Presents: 'Once Upon a Time in Ana.. - Fri | | :: Friday Nights at SF Decorator Showcase .. - Fri | | :: "Graphical Inspirations" Art Opening - Fri | | :: Opening Reception for 'Yi, dos, drei, f.. - Fri | | :: “Between the Lines” a solo exhibition b.. - Fri | | :: “YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR” @Fouladi Projects - Fri | | :: 5 3 5 Progression: Brad Bernhardt, Mati.. - Fri | | :: Moe Thomas at B.G.O. - Fri | | :: 5 3 5 Progression: Brad Bernhardt, Mati.. - Sat | | :: Francesca Pastine - Unsolicited - Sat | | :: Stand Your Ground... The sun is Rising - Sat | | :: Strange Sinema 52 - Sat | | :: Intermittant Motion - Sat | | :: San Francisco Carnaval 2012 - Sat |
+NYC
+LA
FULL CALENDARS: BAY AREA | NYC | LA
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Dave Kinsey at FFDG through June 16th. -as of 1pm
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
|
|
| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
|
|
| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
|
|
| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
|
|
| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
|
|
| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
|
|
| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
|
|
| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
|
|
| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
|
|
| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
|
|
| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
|
|
| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
|
|
| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
|
|
| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
|
|
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
|
|
| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
|
|
| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
|
|
| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
|
|
| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
|
|
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
|
|
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
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