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Charles Wilp - Bunny

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one bunny

 

 


RealAudio WR74 - Charles Wilp

Charles Wilp fotografiert Bunny (WR 74)

1. Beautiful Bald Woman
2. Mad. Ave. Perfume Ad

3. Nanci for Soft-Ice

4. Powder Puff

5. Busy Bee

6. Pink Carpet

7. Bunny 
8. Close-Up

9. Silky Stockings

10. Red Indian Sirene

11. Size 178-79-55-91

12. Purple Playmate

13. Sexy mini... Part 1

14. Sexy mini... Part 2

No other German has embodied the breakaway from the 50s into modern times so well as Charles Wilp. A Man Ray student, turned artonaut, Dokumenta 5 artist, photographer, an advertising conceptualist, conductor and a space age media artist. 

Whether spectacularly blowing up his racing car, building an ufo bungalow on the roof of his Düsseldorf home, or overcoming gravity in a NASA centrifuge simulator, the LP written in the Sun Year 1965, titled Charles Wilp fotografiert Bunny - a light and floating melange - has at Ata Tak's specific wish, been re-released as a CD. A world first in psychedelic TV advertising in 1969 -" Africola" showing three lightly clad women dancing behind a water covered screen (Amanda Lear's, Marsha Hunt's and Donna Summer's first TV appearance) - 'Bunny' was never available in the shops, but was produced together for 16 organizations which had contracted Wilp to create their company designs. Over 500,00 free record copies were distributed to employees and clients in the same companies.  

What is surprising about Bunny-Musik is the elegant stylistic assuredness and relaxed work out which is really unusual for a German orchestra. Peter Thomas made some close observations of these recordings, noting influences from A.C. Jobim, Frank Sinatra and Claus Ogermann. This possibly had to do with the hottest summer of the century in 1965, when this piece was composed.

More probable is that Charles Wilp developed a feeling for music and space through his mother, who accompanied Richard Tauber through the world as a silent film pianist, as well as through encounters with the so called 'rocket men' he knew, including Karl Oberth, Paul Nebel, Werner von Braun, Fritz von Opel and Paul Valier.

One thing however is certain - this record is too good remain unreleased .........

That opinion is shared by Daniel Miller, The gentle people, Tipsy, Stereo Total, Thomas Fehlmann, a certain frank, antonelli electronics, Andreas Dorau, Schlammpeitziger, the bad examples, Justus Köhnke (Whirlpool), Toon (Uwe Jahnke), Combustible Edison, Stockhausen & Walkman and many others ........

who have expressed willingness to make a remix for Charles Wilp. This will shortly be released under the name 'Michaelangelo in Space' (ata tak WR 75), a name shared by the space art module to be designed and built by Wilp as the first Art-in-Space Gallery as well the first Space Art Academy. This is to be docked onto the newly developed international ISS space station - which will of course include the CD onboard ! The first CD in space !

 

Michelangelo In Space


wilp2a.jpg (2442 Byte)

 

 

 

 

Charles Wilp

Cola highs to cosmic orgasms - Charles Wilp's definition of his own career. Born in the 30s to a pianist and a grain trader, he inherited both inspiration and a sense for business acumen.These qualities were to be brilliantly combined in the future. On finishing school at the Francois Xaver's Jesuit high school in Berlin, he studied art and influential psychology. His path led him to New York where he studied photography under Man Ray at the elite Raymond Loewys school. During the 50s, he became part ofthe Copsy Circle and was initiated into the secrets of biofeedback, bioclimatics and sexology.

Through his family, Wilp enjoyed continuous contact with early space pioneers - such as Werner von Braun who he met at an American rocket base. The encounter gave him the idea for his notorious Afri-Cola advertising - Charles Wilp smiled through a crystal-covered glass door of the cold room at a Pin-up-Girl - the 'super sexy mini flower pop op cola' was born. The novelty of the innovative Afri-Cola High left the whole advertising branch aghast. Wilp succeeded by breaking away from all conventional advertising ideals of those times, risking the use of such words as 'spaced out' in his slogans.

He further risked his pilot's licence when flying dangerously low along the Düsseldorf Königsalle for a Puschkin vodka advertisement. His sports car, the 'White Orchid' was also the centre of interest when he drew attention to environmental pollution caused by cars - by exploding it and then hanging it as a wall sculpture.

Ikons such as Yves Klein, Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys belonged to his sincerest admirers - some later becoming friends. His romance with travel over the years became focused in the ufo he built on the roof of his Rhineside home in Wittlaer near Düsseldorf. This is now used as a chill-out station by researchers in the Arctic. Wilp himself finds his higher self when training as a astronaut. As of April 4 1995, his first day at 40,000 feet above earth in the Orbitec Zero-G training shuttle, he believes that a new age began for humanity when man set foot on the moon - a new dawn was in the reckoning. The man who once blessed the German nation with a high, is the only living artist who, while zapped out at high altitude, was able to experience a state that probably only Rubens and Michelangelo encountered, as exemplified by the flying beings in the Sistine Chapel. This remained no secret to Wilp who projected photos of floating people in one of Michelangelo's paintings, referring to the work as 'Michelangelo auf der Mir``, which will also be available on the cover of the remix CD 'Michelangelo in Space`.

Wilp considers weightlessness the mega sensory MERKWELT (reminder of the world ),-the motor of all creative urges. He replaces canvas, oil-based paints and varnish with magma-materials of the present, such as high quality satellite foil-film (eg Stycast), a slippery see-through mass which he uses to seal his works of art. His creations regularly take off via the Shuttle directed to and returning from MIR, as signed space art pieces.

Some of his works remain as 'permanente Documenta' floating in the cosmos.The climax of his cosmic art has been his processing of remnants of the 'Cluster' satellite on board the Ariane 5. This sculpture is a homage to the space age philospher H.G. Wells with the title 'no rest - no ending'. One can only reflect on this name wondering where Charles Wilp's next high flying mission will take him. On the communication front, his controversial goal is already defined. In the future, C.W. will be working on starting the first space agency. Caffeine will no longer be a necessity for art directors and artists on board the culture module of the initiated ISS space station. According to Wilp, the best ideas will result from microgravity. And to defy all prophecies of doom, the most important part of his dreams is about to become reality. On New Year's Eve 2000, Charles Wilp will be rocketing away to conquer space - as an astronaut in zero G.

art&space.jpg (20043 Byte)

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