August 27, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Dough Portraits: Soren Dahlgaard

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These cracked me up when I saw them on Junkculture the other day. Danish artist/photographer Soren Dahlgaard uses dough in much of his artwork, including this series of Dough Portraits along with large installations that use 100 to 300kg of dough with extra yeast…imagine the possibilities!

Dahlgaard has traveled to different cities photographing his Dough Portraits, allowing his subjects to play with the roughly 20lb pieces of dough before placing it over their heads. Dough and bread may be things that everyone relates to, but when seen over people’s heads it definitely takes on a different quality.

This Fall the exhibit will be going from South Korea to Israel and Helsinki. Below is a video of the photographer at work last year at the Vancouver Biennale.

If you like these you might also enjoy Julia Kissina’s photographs.

Photos courtesy the artist, National Art Gallery, and Vancouver Biennale.

via junkculture

August 24, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 8/24

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This weekend’s picks for free and cheap cultural things to do in New York. From art exhibits, to films, music, theater, food festivals and more, free or affordable August 24, 25, and 26, 2012.)

1. Art/Performance- Studio on the Street:Liz Magic Laser at Forever & Today, 141 Division St. Liz Magic Laser transforms the storefront into a newsroom and acts as anchorwoman. Reception: Friday, 8/24 6-8pm. Open Studio Weekend: Saturday 8/25 & Sunday 8/26, 12-6pm FREE

2. Film– Sleepwalk with Me, at the IFC with Mike Birbiglia and Ira Glass doing Q&A’s in person all showtimes on Friday 8/24 and Saturday 8/25. The monologue/play a few years back was excellent! $13

3. Theater – Summer Shorts the acclaimed series of new American one-act plays from some of the country’s top playwrights at 59E59. All weekend. Check website for varying times. $25.

4. Film – Clerks part of the Central Park Film Festival, just north of Sheep Meadow. Saturday 8/25. 8:30pm FREE.

5. Art – Detournement: Sign of the Times. Ends Saturday. Friday 8/24 and Saturday 8/25 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea. FREE. (See related post)

6. Theater – TJ & Dave at the Barrow Street Theater. Late night improvisation from two second city veterans. All weekend at 10:30pm. Use Code TJDAUG for $15 tickets, otherwise: $20.

7. Music/Food – 13th Annual Blue BBQ Festival.Blues bands and food from Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Brother Jimmy’s BBQ. Pier 84 on the Hudson. Saturday 8/25. 2pm to 9pm. FREE

Also in Performance with BBQ: Catch 52 at The Bushwick Starr. Super summer show with rooftop BBQ. Saturday 8/25, 7pm. $15.

8. Beach/Walk/Art – Long Walks on the Beach: a public project that randomly pairs people to take a long walk on the beach at Rockaway together. This is an experience-based artwork that uses walking as its medium. Saturday 8/25 and Sunday 8/26. First call, first served. Call (917) 300-9521 to make an appointment. FREE

9. Music/Food – Surfed Out Session; music, Roberta’s pizza and $3 beers, Saturday 8/25, 4pm to midnight. Beach 87 at Rockaway. FREE

10. Art/Design – America’s Most-Wanted Eco Posters on Governors Island. Moderator Edward Morris leads panelists that include Ellen Lupton, Diego Gutierrez and Debbie Millman in discussing the current state of the environmental movement and the efficacy of art and design as well as designing a related poster in real time. Saturday 8/25 , 2pm to 4pm. FREE. (this event is sold out online, but organizers suspect that not all who registered will show up…)

11. Food/Art – Family Dinner at Culturefix on the LES. Restaurant employees sit down to “family meal”. This meal is usually a one pot meal that is good. At CULTUREfix, they take family meal and offer it to everyone. “Always changing and always delicious” the meal will be served from 6pm to 7:30pm on Saturday 8/25. FREE

12. Art/Photography – ICP Occupies Governors Island: Exhibiting Powerful Images from the 99%. All weekend, through 9/30. On Governors Island. FREE

13. Music – 10 operas on the Lincoln Center Plaza projected in HD, starting Saturday 8/25 with The Enchanted Island, and Sunday 8/26 Don Giovanni. 7:30pm to 10:30pm. FREE

14. Theater/Music – Jason and the Argonauts an avant garde rock concert at the East River Amphitheater. Saturday 8/25 and Sunday 8/26 at 8pm. FREE.

15. Food – New Amsterdam Market Tomato Festival Uncook-off: 10 Chefs will compete head-to-head to transform heirloom tomatoes into tantalizing tomato dishes meant to be prepared simply and served “un-hot.” Sunday 8/26, 12pm to 4pm at the Old Fulton Fish Market. $20 Register here.

16. Music – Janelle Monae performs as part of the Afro-Punk Fest at Commodore Barry Park. Festival is both Saturday 8/25 and Sunday 8/26, from 12pm to 9pm. Janelle Monae performs on Sunday at 7:30pm. Check site for rest of schedule.FREE

17. Music/Dance – Found Rooftop Party, Dance and Hip Hop musicat The DL, 95 Delancey St. Sunday 8/26, 6pm on. FREE with RSVP before 9pm. $10 after 9pm with RSVP. 21+

18. Comedy/Performance/Music – Reggie Watts performs as part of the Afro-Punk Fest at Commodore Barry Park. Festival is both Saturday 8/25 and Sunday 8/26, from 12pm to 9pm. Watts performs Sunday at 5:45. FREE

For more ongoing summer weekend suggestions see our previous Culture on the Cheap posts here, here, and here. Also: check back throughout the weekend for possible updates.

August 23, 2012 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

MetroDeck

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This is just so smart! Brooklyn-based Norman Ibarra has collected used and discarded NYC MetroCards and repurposed them as playing cards by silkscreening them with classic English-style card illustrations that have a NY twist. MetroDecks (as they are called) include images inspired by landmarks throughout all boroughs of the city, individually screen printed in four colors of enamel ink. The letterpressed packaging is simply beautiful, as well.

More of a collector’s item than actually intended for play, these 54-card decks are definitely not inexpensive, but the amount of work that goes into each deck is impressive.

You can order them here.

via mug

August 23, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Mona Hatoum: Suspended and more

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a Palestinian family, video and installation artist Mona Hatoum has been living and working in London since the 70s. She identifies as Palestinian, not Lebanese, since she and her family became exiles and were never able to obtain Lebanese identity cards, as was often the case after 1948. Much of her art explores cultural displacement and exile. In her installation titled Suspended, a room full of swings initially evokes a playful atmosphere but, upon closer inspection, Hatoum has placed a randomly chosen map on each swing, representing the precariousness of war and randomness of its victims.

Her earlier 6ft. Cheese Grater Divider, again, seems fun at first sight, but there is a violent, life-threatening quality to those oversized large blades.

All photos courtesy of White Cube Gallery

via White Cube

August 23, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Gabriel Pericàs: Door Wedge Collection

I happened upon Spanish artist Gabriel Pericàs’ website and found myself smiling at most everything; from his loopable gifs down to his cute humorous notes to the site visitor. This series of photos titled Cuñas (doorstops/door wedges in Spanish) was no exception.

Pericàs lives and works in Barcelona. He is currently working on an upcoming solo exhibition at Espai 13 titled The Nipple Slip Speech Performance. Here’s the description:

The Nipple Slip Speech Performance is developed as a speculative narrative that aims to explore the concept of distraction and, in a wider sense, our inability, sometimes, to keep a focused attention. It implies turning whatever is trivial, irrelevant, or plainly incidental, into high-ranked information, thus, canceling the importance accrued by any other message.

Through a fragmented narrative that follows the latest mass media hype of Nipple Slip phenomena, Gabriel Pericàs chooses to analyze different aspects related to absent-mindedness and mental lapse. This journey takes him progressively to accident and mishap, and shapes the collection of small sculptures, photographs and videos that are scattered across the exhibition space.

See what I mean?

August 21, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Chris Salter: n-Polytope

Last month at LABoral: Center for Art and Industrial Creation in Gijon, Spain, American media artist Chris Salter presented his large-scale audiovisual installation called n-Polytope. The work subtitled Behaviors in Light and Sound after Iannis Xenakis is a spectacular light and sound environment using lasers and artificial intelligence software technologies inspired by composer Iannis Xenakis’ 1960s radical and pioneering installations named Polytopes (from the Greek meaning many spaces.) A major landmark in the history of audio-visual arts, Xenakis’ works were immersive architectural environments that mimic the chaotic behavior of nature through light and sound.

Chris Salter’s installation (in collaboration with his team: Sofian Audry, Marije Baalman, Adam Basanta, Elio Bidinost and Thomas Spier) uses hundreds of LEDs that function as powerful bursts of light and hundreds of tiny speakers suspended through the space, creating a walk-through performance environment.

Here’s a brief video on the installation with the artist:

All photos courtesy of LABoral.

August 20, 2012 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Dan Witz: Do Not Enter Project

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We went through the very quiet August streets of Chelsea last Thursday evening and stopped by the Jonathan LeVine Gallery to find a great show that included several works by Dan Witz from his Do Not Enter Project. The Brooklyn-based artist started the project in 2007, creating his own modifications – sometimes humorous, sometimes politically charged – of Do Not Enter signs and has since continued with the project in 2011 and 2012. The signs have been placed on the streets of Brooklyn, Vienna, Norway and Poland. The bald, white face that appears in many of the signs is Witz himself.

You can see some of Dan Witz’s signs at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC as part of the Detournement: Signs of the Times exhibit through this Saturday, August 25, 2012.

August 20, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Sabine Ducasse: Melting Pot

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Perler beads—the small plastic beads that fuse together when ironed—were a favorite craft project material with Em and Dan for years, especially when they were younger. For a while we had stacks of the melted bead designs the size of coasters lying around, but attempts at more elaborate constructions proved difficult to execute without breakage. That’s why French designer Sabine Ducasse’s Melting Pot fashions are that much more impressive to us.

Ducasse used the beads to create East-meets-West armor style fashion; a melting pot of cultures with a literal take on “melting”. These amazingly well-crafted pixelated design pieces won the designer a scholarship at the International Fashion Academy. Nice!

via kerrysoup/the creator’s project

August 17, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 8/17

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Our picks for free and cheap art, music, performance, and food events this weekend (August 17 through 19, 2012) in New York City:

1. Music/Dance/Food– Lunch Break lunchtime dance party; DJ Michna at Le Poisson Rouge with free lunch and vodka. Friday 8/17 at 1 to 2pm. FREE 21+ RSVP

2. Food/Music/Sport – Jaguar Chill, Life-size snow globe at the High Line housing a skating rink including free skates, demos from professional skaters, and some Jaguars. Plus treats that (at least when we were there yesterday evening) included People’s Pops, Van Leeuwen ice cream, pulled pork sliders and more, as well as beverages, all free. 10th Ave and 17th St. Friday 8/17 12pm- 8pm, Saturday 8/18 12pm-5pm. FREE

3. Art/Beach – Rockaway Beach Sandcastle Competition Watch artists Ryan McNamara, Tom Sachs, Snarkitecture and more battle it out with their sand creations. Friday 8/17 at 3pm. 86th Street Beach. FREE.

4. Music/Art – Dumbo Summer Friday. An evening of music, art and technology underneath the DUMBO Archway with bands Bosco Delrey, Zambri, Prince Rama, and Javelin. Friday 8/17, 2pm-9pm. FREE.

5. Film/Party – Love Story by Florian Habicht. A funny meta-fictional romance. Rooftop films. 350 Grand Street. Friday 8/17, 8pm – 1am (film at 9pm).$12

6. Music – Though not exactly NYC, the Lackawaana Music Festival is just a Path ride away in Hoboken. Tokyo Police Club, Vacationer, and many more. Pier A, Hoboken. Saturday 8/18, 12pm to 1 am. FREE

7. Theater – Mormon in Chief. Unassuming Mormon, Connor Jorgensen, becomes the center of national media frenzy when his tweets about a Mormon presidential candidate go viral. Play by Matthew Greene. Saturday 8/18 at noon, Sunday 8/19 at 7pm. $15 in advance, $18 at door. Much more theater at FringeNYC.

8. Art/Photography – Lunch Hour NYC at the NY Public Library, Friday 8/17 and Saturday 8/18, 10am-6pm. Continues through February 17, 2013. FREE

9. Music – The Kills; Hudson River Park Pier 63, Saturday 8/18, 5pm. FREE

10. Music/Dance/Food – Jazz-Age Lawn Party on Governors Island. “One of the most memorable parties of 2009 and 2010” says the New York Times. Dress up in your best vintage clothing and head on over. Saturday 8/18 and Sunday 8/19, 11am to 5pm. $15.

Also, similar but totally different – Improv Everywhere’s zany Black Tie Beach. Saturday 8/18. Location to be disclosed Friday (today). FREE

11. Comedy/Performance – Upright Citizens Brigade All-Stars of Improv. East River Park Band Shell, Cherry St. and FDR. Sunday 8/19, 7pm to 8:30pm. FREE

12. Drink/Fun/Views – One of NYC’s best kept secrets: The WillyWall, Manhattan Sailing Club’s floating clubhouse sits in the Hudson River with a bar atop and beautiful views of Manhattan, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Reserve Admiral’s Launch boat service to WillyWall which departs every half hour from North Cove Dock in Battery Park City. Fridays 5:30pm to 10pm. Saturdays 3pm to 10pm. $10.

Also in Film: Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg opens. The director will be speaking at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at two screenings. Friday 8/17, 6:30pm and 9:15pm.$13.

Also in Food/Music/Beach: Back to the Beach in Staten Island. Music, food and activities plus fireworks. Saturday 8/18 and Sunday 8/19. Noon to 9pm. FREE

Also in Art: Quay Brothers at MoMA. Great show. Through January 7th. FREE Fridays from 4pm to 8pm.

UPDATES…

Also in Comedy/Music: Heart of Darkness at Union Hall in Park Slope. Comedian Kate Berlant, music by The Bowery Riots and The Forgiveness. Saturday 8/18 at 8pm. $8 advance, $10 at the door.

Also in Film: Festival Express screening (documentary on Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead and The Band’s train ride together) at City Winery on Varick St. Sunday 8/19, doors opne 6pm. Film at 7:30. FREE

For more ongoing summer weekend suggestions see our previous Culture on the Cheap posts here, here, here and here. Also: check back throughout the weekend for possible updates.

August 16, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

FreelandBuck: Slipstream

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New York and Los Angeles based architectural firm FreelandBuck, run by principals David Freeland and Brennan Buck, has created an installation currently on exhibit at the Bridge Gallery in NYC titled Slipstream.

…Architects have used digital software to imbue structures and spaces with some of the same qualities as Da Vinci’s meticulous drawings: fluidity, undulation, instability and temporality. But while software has allowed architects to create novel, dynamic forms digitally, they have struggled to translate these qualities to the physicality of the material world. Slipstream is a physical structure that confronts that leap directly, translating a 2-dimensional digital line drawing into 3-dimensional space.

Alluding to Lebbeus Woods’ 2010 ‘Slipstreaming’ drawings of flow, the installation is a single drawing extruded through the gallery space and cut away to produce a set of interconnected spaces. The linear extrusion acts as both structure and dynamic visual filter, shifting views through the installation and between the spaces it defines. It’s integrity as a structure is masked by both its redundancy and bright coloration.

The exhibit runs through August 24th at the Bridge Gallery on Orchard Street.

Photos courtesy of the architects; Carles Faus; and the Bridge Gallery.

via archdaily

August 15, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Tatzu Nishi: Discovering Columbus

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A couple of days ago we passed by Columbus Circle on our way uptown and noticed massive amounts of scaffolding around the Christopher Columbus statue. I assumed they were doing some repairs but, as it turns out, not at all. Em pointed me to the NY Times article that announced the new Public Art work by Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi, currently being built and due to debut on September 20th. The plan is to build a living room complete with couches, lamps and even a TV that surrounds the statue, six stories up from the ground. Visitors will be able to climb stairs or take an elevator up to the floating living room with Christopher Columbus’ head popping through the floor. Sounds very zany but very fun, too.

This is not the first time, nor probably the last, that Tatzu Nishi does something like this. Other similar ventures include surrounding a statue of Queen Victoria in Liverpool, England, with a temporary functioning hotel; creating a one-room apartment over the roof of a 14th-century cathedral — enclosing a bronze, angel-shaped weather vane — in Basel, Switzerland; and building a temporary hotel suite around the Merlion fountain in Singapore.

Discovering Columbus will be open to the public from September 20 to November 18, 2012. Admission will be free, but visitors will be required to reserve timed passes in advance through the Public Art Fund website.
UPDATE: FOLLOW-UP HERE.

Photos courtesy of the artist and the New York Times.

via The New York Times

August 14, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Straight Up: Cameron R. Neilson

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New York based photographer Cameron R. Neilson has photographed a collection of images with his camera leveled and pointed straight up. The series of photographs is aptly titled Straight Up. The abstract angles and shapes created by photographing city architecture this way is surprising and dramatic. Both recognizable and yet new. Though we tend to look up to some degree when walking city streets, ‘straight’ up is a less common angle. The concept for Straight Up started in NYC and has since grown to include cities across the country, and eventually Europe.

Straight Up will be exhibited at Openhouse, 379 Broome Street here in New York opening this Thursday, August 15th through August 22nd.

August 13, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Piracy: Musician Mosaics from CDs

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These are impressive. Italian artists/designers Mirco Pagano and Moreno De Turco created these cd mosaics of seven classic deceased musicians for an ad campaign by U.S. ad agency TBWA and also an exhibition. The idea behind the project, titled Piracy, is that musicians are being brought down by internet piracy. The cds used in each portrait are that of each individual musician’s music. The musical artists include: Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, James Brown, Elvis, and Michael Jackson. The typographic sculptures of the title are also well done.

Here is an animated video clip as well:

via visual news

August 6, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Desiree de Baar: Knitted Sculptures

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Move over olek, here comes Desiree de Baar. The Rotterdam-based Dutch artist creates knitted sculptures of objects that range from domestic fixtures to chainsaws. De Baar knits monochrome rooms, and the unnoticed objects within them, focusing on the details and highlighting the poetic side of the ordinary. She not only works with knitting but uses wallpaper and embroidery in much of her other artwork.

Photos: top two photos by Ed Jansen; rest of photos courtesy of the artist.

via Ed Jansen

August 6, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Gary Deirmendjian: Do Not…

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Sydney-based artist Gary Deirmendjian created his, at once, humorous and critical sculpture Do Not… for last year’s Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Australia. An oversized version of the “do not touch” signs Deirmendjian had noticed beside all the sculptures in the previous year’s exhibit, the playful Do Not… most likely brought a smile to viewers’ faces. Here is what the artist has to say on the piece:

Superficially speaking the work takes its form and language directly from the actual warning signage developed and used extensively by Sculpture by the Sea. However to the artist it represents not only a site and event specific proposition, but more significantly a personal protest against what is quite simply a “sign of the times”. How is one able to do anything anymore?

The sculpture is currently being exhibited at Sculpture in the Vineyards in Wollombi, Australia, where Deirmendjian is one of four Australian artists selected to show their work in this year’s exhibit.

via Artereal Gallery

August 3, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 8/3

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Our picks for free and cheap art, music, performance, and food events this weekend (August 3 through 5, 2012) in New York City:

1. Architecture – The Grand Tour each and every Friday throughout the year at 12:30 pm in the sculpture court at 120 Park Avenue, located at the southwest corner of E. 42nd Street and Park Ave. directly across from Grand Central Terminal. No reservations are necessary. Friday 8/3 at 12:30 pm. FREE

2. Video/Music – John Cage, One¹¹ and 103,at the High Line, 14th St. Passage. Black and white video and sound, 94 min, in celebration of the John Cage Centennial. Part of the new High Line Channel 14, outdoor video program. 1pm – 11pm, Daily (all weekend) through September 13. FREE

3. Film – King Corn Screening at the Culture Project 45 Bleecker St. Friday 8/3 at 6pm FREE. Reserve seats here.

4. Interactive Performance/Music – Phil Kline’s DreamCityNine performed by Talujon. World premiere. To take part in this event, download the stories as one file from the Artist Links — upload them to your laptop, smartphone, tablet, or MP3 player, and bring them with you along with your battery powered speakers, or blast Q2 Music through WQXR’s mobile app. Friday 8/3; 6:30 pm at Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza. FREE.

5. Art Event/Walking Tour – Telettrofono by Justin Bennett and Matthea Harvey, part of Guggenheim’s Stillspotting NYC. An audio walking tour that braids history with fantasy along and around the Staten Island waterfront. Starts at the stillspotting kiosk at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in St. George. 1.5 hrs, Saturday 8/4 and Sunday 8/5, from 12 to 7 pm. $12 adults and $10 for members.

6. Fun! – Summer Streets nearly seven miles of NYC’s streets are opened for people to play, walk, bike, and zip(!) from 7am to 1pm on the next three Saturdays 8/4 (and 8/11, 8/18) from 7am to 1pm. Check site for route and activities. There will be a zip line in Foley Square as well as free bike rentals. FREE

7. Food – Parked! A Food Truck Festival at South Street Seaport. Saturday 8/4 from 10am to 9pm. FREE

Also in Food: Hester Street Fair Olympics. Corn-on-the-cob and BBQ Ribs eating contests plus burlap sack races. Lomography Photo Tour of Fair here as well. Saturday 8/4 and 8/11. FREE

8. Art– Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940 at the Jewish Museum, (saw this last weekend…lovely exhibit!) through September 23rd. Saturdays FREE all day.

Also in Art/Design: Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000 at MoMA through November 5th, 2012. Fridays FREE from 4pm to 8pm.

9. Music – 54/10 Music Marathon; Alice Lee, The Henry Millers, Night Fevers play at Ars Nova Theater
511 West 54th St. Saturday 8/4, 8 pm. Tickets $10 online; $15 at the door.

Also in Music: Amadou & Mariam / Theophilus London / and Just a Band at Central Park’s Summer Stage. Saturday 8/4, 3pm to 7pm. FREE

10. Performance/Installation – The Murders of Crows at the Park Avenue Armory. The largest sound installation to date by artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, a compelling “sound play” that envelops the audience in an unexpected physical and aural environment. Through September 9th, but this Saturday, 8/4, from 12pm to 7pm, FREE

11. Talk/Film Presentation – Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell and David Frankel talk about their new film Hope Springs at the Soho Apple Store. Sunday 8/5, 4pm. FREE

12. Music – Mad Decent Block Party at Williamsburg Park, with Major Lazer, Erol Alkan, Bonde Do Role and more. Sunday 8/5, 12pm to 10pm. RSVP required. FREE.

Dance – The Wind of Colorful Guizhou, Guizhou, China, Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe at Skirball Center, Saturday 8/4, 7pm. FREE (Tickets distributed first-come-first-served basis – call 973-917-3005 or bethb.sunels@yahoo.com)

Also in Film: If Yes Men Fix the World, screening at the Culture Project, Saturday 8/4, 8pm. Reserve tickets here. FREE

For more ongoing summer weekend suggestions (i.e. Rineke Dijkstra Retrospective at the Guggenheim [see post], PS1’s WarmUp and Street Art Walking Tours in Williamsburg) see our previous Culture on the Cheap posts here, here and here. Also: check back throughout the weekend for possible updates.

August 2, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Elian: Street Art from Argentina

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Elian is an Argentinean street artist from Córdoba who creates colorful geometric street murals. I like the clean lines and color palettes on these murals, and the transparency effect on the top one is clever, but there’s lots more to see on his site and flickr as well.

via graffitimundo

August 2, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jim Lambie: Taped Surfaces

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I love it when random bits of information coincidentally relate to other random bits of information. There’s that ridiculously satisfying “Aha” moment, where you feel like Sherlock Holmes or Columbo, but without having done any real sleuthing. That’s how I feel with respect to my recent revelations about Jim Lambie, a Scottish visual artist. Last fall, I happened upon an exhibit of Lambie’s work at the Anton Kern Gallery in Chelsea. My favorite pieces involved concave, colorful conical forms embedded within large photographs of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan. Later I spotted another similar piece at the NY Frieze Art Fair. Around the same time I did a post on an interesting townhouse renovation in our neighborhood, and creepily photographed the colorful staircase with its tape design from the window. Fast forward to today, when I came across photos of interesting taped floors created by none other than Jim Lambie. Among these images I found the same Greenwich Village staircase taken from inside and above. So, yes, you’ve probably made the mad leap yourself by now: Jim Lambie, who transforms spaces with his very cool taped geometric mazes of color, was the artist whose exhibit I saw in Chelsea and a few weeks later admired his impressive design work on the local staircase. Case closed.