Thinking of getting the new iPhone 4S next week? Maybe upgrading to the iPhone 4G instead? This could be the perfect time to get yourself a new EARonic iPhone 4 Case. Just sayin’…
We’ve restocked, so visit our CollabCubed Shop and pick the one that makes you chuckle the most.
Australian architect Sarah Crowley, whose jewelry we posted about previously, joined forces with David Brooks on their winning entry for Austral Bricks’Architectural Ideas Competition. The design challenge was to “design an experiential element for an urban space that reflects the future of brick.” Crowley and Brooks’ solution: a magic carpet installation made of bricks.
The Magic Carpet forms an undulating terrain providing ergonomic curves that serve as seating and lounging spaces, at the same time showcasing the extensive color range and texture of clay brick products.
Currently, it looks like the Magic Carpet will become a reality in the Docklands, Melbourne, Australia. Fun idea!
The German brothers – Sven a graphic designer and Nils a machine artist (see our previous post) – collaborated by combining four walls with 304 framed graphic pages surrounding a field of 252 inflatable silver cushion-like air bags. The bags were programmed by Nils Völker to create sequences according to chapters of his brother’s “books on wall”. The inflating and deflating of the bags, along with the colored lighting system, create a very dramatic and intensified effect.
Em pointed me to Ariana Page Russell‘s work a couple of months back and now I see that the Brooklyn-based artist is having a show at MagnanMetz Gallery, here in NYC, at the end of the month. Russell has dermatographia, a condition in which her immune system exhibits hypersensitivity through the skin, causing painless, temporary welts that emerge when lightly scratched. She exploits this condition in her artwork by creating patterns on different parts of her body and photographing them as the skin becomes irritated and swells. A sort of skin tattoo. She has also created different wallpaper patterns using c-prints of her skin in all its irritated shades.
From the gallery’s site:
Russell’s recent work continues to explore the possibilities of flesh, using her skin as both source material and an entry to go deeper into the body and its emotions. Images of Russell’s abdomen appear throughout the exhibit: covering the gallery window; in a photograph of her torso blanketed in triangular welts resembling raised sails; and as the temporary tattoo mask that she manipulates over her face in the video, Blouse. In this piece, she exhales sharply into the mask to produce a fleeting, gauzy window. A sudden inhale collapses the window to create a skin-tight barrier with each breath. Blouse comes to a close as Russell removes the tattoo, her unadorned face remaining interrogative but naked of the revelatory mask.
Maybe not for everyone, but definitely pretty unique.
A couple of days ago, on a nice stroll up from Canal Street, a friend and I spotted an interesting structure in the window of the very cute Lafayette Espresso Bar + Market. Going in to explore further, and have a tea while at it, turns out the large sea urchin-like object was a lamp made from 300 of the classic “It’s Our Pleasure to Serve You” coffee cups, cut into slim triangles. The artist/designer behind the lamp? The multi-talented Christian DuCharme. Previously a set designer and window display artist, the Swiss designer from Zurich now works as an interior and accessories designer. And, well, he also makes lamps. Very cool ones at that.
The top four images are the 300 Cups Lamp, presently on display at the previously mentioned espresso bar in NYC. The lamp that follows is made from plastic coffee spoons, and the two photos below that are another lamp made from coffee filters. Amazing!
Two of Christian DuCharme’s beautiful bags are at the bottom of the photos. If you’re interested in purchasing Christian’s lamps or bags you can get in touch chrisducharme1@me.com.
The new Adidas Laces R&D building at the corporation’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, is Kada Wittfeld Architektur’s latest project. In addition to the innovative communicative architectural ‘laces’ theme with criss-crossing connecting walkways — a metaphor for the Adidas sports shoe as well as the networked communications of the corporation — the ‘turbocharged’ typographic signage system by Büro Uebele leaps across walls, doors, and handrailings throughout the center. Words identify places as well as becoming colored surfaces and sculptures.
From the press release:
The building forms a loop. Suspended walkways cross the atrium space, “lacing” the building’s structure together like the laces of a sports shoe. The walkways connect individual departments within the building complex, making for greater proximity and preventing the disruptive effect of people walking through offices. The signage system supports this concept, providing directions at hubs and intersections. The names of the meeting areas are displayed on the glass balustrades, creating a subtly mobile effect as visitors look across the atrium, helping them find their way. The corporate typeface, a variation on FF DIN, is dynamically varied here. The outlines of letters and arrows are shifted vertically and repeated rhythmically, creating a dynamic, sporty effect. The shimmering characters – for all the world as if frozen in time-lapse photography – are combined in varying patterns, offering the viewer a varied and distinctive echo on the “laces” theme.
Dutch artist Jan van der Ploeg has been painting walls and large panels for a couple of decades. His colorful and precise geometric designs are mostly simple forms sometimes in black and white, other times in bright contrasting colors, but always producing a dramatic effect, in my opinion. Painted in multiple layers of acrylic to create a smooth, untextured finish, reinforces the notion that the color has been reduced to a mere surface.
I’m a fan of rust. Not so much on the inside of a toilet or behind a drippy faucet, but a nice slab of rusted steel à la Richard Serra offers such a great combination of rich color and texture.
Not surprising, then, that I really love this building by German studio Scheidt Kasprusch Architeckten. The four-story Haus der Essener Geschicte, in Essen, Germany, is clad in corten (weathered steel) which constantly alters and protects itself by corrosion. It demonstrates the change of time as well as alluding to the background of Essen. The building was built to house archives as an extension of the Luisesnschool which is used as a library and exhibition space.
Russian artist Anya Zholud creates minimalist wire sculptures that appear almost as 3-dimensional line drawings. Their simple forms and often ‘interiors’ setup offer a back-to-basics and paring down view in the present world of excess. Proper lifestyles without luxuries.
I especially like the dramatic effect these have when placed in the starkness of a white or black gallery room, in the contrasting color of the sculpture.
Last night, a night bookended by heavy rain showers here in NYC, fortunately offered a 2- to 3-hour precipitation-free window. Just enough time to ferry on over to Greenpoint and catch the Bring to Light Festival.
Though the ferry was quite empty, I was happy to see that the crowds obviously made it over by other means of transportation. It was one of those really nice NYC events, where everyone seemed so happy in sharing such a fun and unique experience. The brick and corrugated metal façades of the industrial warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront made for the perfect backdrop and canvases for the various video projections and colorful light installations. There were over 50 works displayed, so naturally I can’t go over all of them here, and some I am not sure of the names or artists, but some of the highlights are pictured above starting with, possibly my favorite, a very Buñuelesque image:
Marcus Zotes-Lopez’s CCTV/Creative Control TV; a projection of an eye on the bottom of a water tower looking over the crowds.
Devan Simunovich & Olek, Suffolk Deluxe Electric Bicycle.
Not sure of this but possibly Colin Snapp, Sylvania.
Jason Peters, Structural Light.
BOB, Columbia Architecture Students, inflatable structure (left and right pics, outside and in).
Glowing pedestrians walking around in self-made light costumes.
Not sure about the colored bulbs.
Camilled Scherrer, In the Woods, interactive projection converting people’s shadows into creatures.
Chakaia Booker, Shadows, silhouettes on installation.
Others include a bench with light emanating from the slats and a person lying down within (à la Vito Acconci): projections of hands morphing into latex gloves; a glowing lung-like object that breathed; and Raphaele Shirley’s Light Cloud on a Bender, a glowing mist sculpture.
It was all very bright, colorful, and animated. You can watch the short video clips below for a better sense of the atmosphere. Next year, I’ll at least hang a glow stick around my neck before heading over.
Top photo courtesy the artist, Marcus Zotes-Lopez. Second photo from Alix’s flickr. All other photos taken by collabcubed.
If you’re in NYC, you might want to check out the Bring to Light Festival tonight in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Taking place simultaneously with “nuit blanche” events in other cities around the world, the festival will showcase site-specific installations of light, sound, performance and projection art from emerging, as well as established, artists re-imagining public space. The streets and waterfront of Greenpoint will be transformed.
Sounds like something that shouldn’t be missed.
The ferry schedule will be extended till midnight from East 34th St. Pier in Manhattan and N. 7th St in Williamsburg. You can see more on how to get there here. And more about the festival and artists here.
It all starts in 6 hours and 5 minutes…. 4 minutes…