Here’s a fun-, if a bit precarious-looking structure for kids. Designed by the recently deceased Thomas Walker Luckey, an artist, sculptor and architect renowned for his one-of-a-kind climbing sculptures, this particular 35-foot “Luckey Climber” is found in Columbus, Indiana at the Columbus Commons. The indoor playground was completed in 2011 and judging from the reviews on Trip Advisor is (not surprisingly) a big hit with kids. The floating C’s alone had me sold instantly.
Click to enlargeAbout a year and a half ago, Daniela and I popped into the Charles Bank Gallery on the Bowery and were welcomed by Allen Grubesic’s modified Exit sign reading “EXCITING”. We both found the sculpture very clever. Since that day, when perusing gallery and artists’ websites online, I’ve run into many other sculptures and installations that repurpose old exit signs or are simply influenced by them. Also, when Emma interned at a gallery the summer before last, one of the tasks assigned to her was to research inexpensive exit signs for one of their artists who was planning to use them in his work. That’s when I realized there was some sort of trend here. I started bookmarking these works as I came across them and though there are some that I’ve lost in the shuffle, this is a roundup of most of them.
And here’s Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Reference Flow in action:
We don’t usually post about fashion, but Maison Martin Margiela is more than just fashion; it’s avant garde fashion that blurs lines between fashion, art, and design. Plus, Em has been a big fan for years and is the one who alerted me to the collaboration with H&M — which goes on sale tomorrow, November 15th — as well as introducing me to Margiela’s existence and work.
In addition, Margiela himself has maintained a very low profile throughout his career. He’s a bit of an enigma, never having had his picture taken publicly and remaining backstage after his runway shows. It has also been stated that Martin Margiela left the company in 2009 with no replacement appointed, but the company has continued and is now doing a Re-edition of previous seasons’ products for H&M.
Most of the designs are full of wit along with edginess. Many of them use trompe l’oeil effects; the strapless bra body suit and the fishnet leggings are prime examples of these, as are the plexiglass heeled shoes and boots that seem to float in mid air.
The Candy Wrapper Clutch is definitely goofy fun, as are the jacket made of belts and the Keyring Necklace. All the pieces in the collection are not your everyday clothes and accessories, and especially not typical of H&M’s, even in their prices, but it should be interesting to see what happens. All I know is that Em will be there at 8am on Thursday, with or without her sister.
I can’t really say that I ‘like’ these sculptures by Chinese artist Cao Hui, but they certainly are hard to ignore and impressively executed. Cao Hui, based in Beijing, is known for his shockingly realistic sculptures of half-flayed animals. More recently he has applied this technique to the unexpected: furniture and objects. These resin and fiber sculptures, that surprisingly ooze entrails at their seams, are all part of Cao Hui’s interest in realisim, deception, and the artist’s power of control. The belief that the interior and exterior of everything possess a perfect logic is now humorously questioned by the artist. Definitely not for the squeamish.
Chilean artist Johanna Unzueta, now living and working in New York, uses felt as a sculptural material to build structures and objects that bring attention to the history of labor. Increasingly interested in site-specific installations that engage with the space,Unzueta has been constructing pipes that go in and out of corners, or ladders that lead to an imaginary attic. It would be fun to have that oversized felt hinge as an area rug.
Unzueta will be having a show at NYC’s Vogt Gallery this January 2013.
Forget if it actually does a good job vacuuming, the Airpouf designed by Lorenzo Damiani is just too cute an object to resist. It’s got the super practical aspect that you’d never have to put it away since the minute you detach the vacuum hose it converts into a fun seat for your home. Available through Campeggi.
This weekend we suggest freely supporting, in a not-so-cheap way, any of the numerous Hurricane Sandy relief efforts throughout the city. You can donate your time, money, or supplies, but we challenge you to be proactive and for every fun thing you do this weekend, do at least another charitable or supportive one for all those struggling in the aftermath of the storm. In some cases you can be supportive WHILE having fun. I’ve included links to some of these events along with regular entertainment ones. Come on NYC!
1. Food – EAT OUT!! Yes, it doesn’t have to be expensive, but support the many restaurants south of 39th Street and those in Brooklyn that lost almost a week’s business plus all their perishables. Take your pick, but do it! All weekend.
2. Volunteer/Donate – There are an impressive amount of places to drop off donations, or volunteer your time sorting supplies. Check out WNYC’s list; SandySucks; OccupySandy; Caaav in Chinatown and Rockaway Relief. If volunteering, from personal experience, I recommend calling first (if a number is provided) to find out which shifts are low on volunteers. If making donations, stick to what is requested: right now blankets, batteries, flash lights, and groceries are high on most lists. All weekend.
3. Volunteer – Nighttime shift volunteers are needed at the Park Slope Armory Shelter. Food Prep and social support for a mostly senior population from 2 nursing homes in Rockaway. All weekend.
4. Art/Benefit – Ed Osborn (previously here) Albedo Prospect. Closing Reception & Fundraiser at Bitforms. Fri 11/9 at 6pm. FREE
5. Theater – Wild With Happy at the Public Theater. All weekend and through 11/18. Tkts $25 with code STORM.
6. Art –Clintel Steed Aerial Views Sandy Relief Project Fri 11/9 from 6 to 9pm at 379 Broome and Sat 11/10 11am to 7pm.
7. Film – DOC NYC New York Documentary Festival at IFC and SVA. All weekend and through 11/15. $9 to $16.50.
8. Sweep/Beach – Rockaway Project Operation Sand Sweep: Sat 11/10 from 10am to 1pm. If you’ve enjoyed the beach now it’s time to give back! Some ride shares here.
Alternatively: Sign up to help Coney Island.
9. Art/Graphic Design – Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Sat 11/10. 12 to 7pm. FREE
10. Donate – Two Boots in Park Slope is taking donations. See list of supplies needed and who to make checks out to. All weekend.
11. Music – Jazz & Colors in Central Park. 30 Bands. 30 Locations. Sat 11/10. 12 to 4pm. FREE
Also in Music: Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival. Fri 11/9 & Sat 11/10. $35 for an all day pass.
12. Food – Help Chinatown recover by eating at your favorite Chinatown restaurant. If they haven’t been washed away, I recommend the delicious Green Sandwiches (mustard greens on sesame roll) at a stand under the Manhattan Bridge: 75 East Broadway. $1.50! Also at Waloy Bakery. All weekend.
Alternatively in Food – East Village Meat Market will be sampling cooked/smoked meats on Sat 11/10 as part of Meat Week NYC. FREE.
13. Performance/Comedy – Rob Delaney at Skirball Center part of New York Comedy Festival. Sat 11/10 at 7:30. $35
14. Art/Drinks/Performance – Recess at MoMA PopRally.Eleven emerging artists “intervene” in MoMA’s Painting and Sculpture Galleries with objects and performances created specifically for this night. Sat 11/10 8pm to 11pm $13 in advance $16 at door 21+
15. Interactive Performance/Fun – Halloween TOO. “Killers” Haunted event — come in costume to the 107 Suffolk St. location and stay for a Halloween party. Fri 11/9 and Sat 11/10. 10pm $20.
16. Music/Drink/Food/Benefit –Fuck. Off. Sandy. Benefit for NY Cares with Heliotropes and three more bands. Sun 11/11. 3 to 7pm. 21+ $10.
17. Food –Peck Slip Pickle Festival at the New Amsterdam Market with a fundraiser for NYC residents and small businesses affected by the storm. Sun 11/11. 11am to 5pm. FREE.
18. Host/B&B – Offer any extra space/room/bed to a Sandy victim. Over 100,000 people are still stranded by Hurricane Sandy. Airbnb has partnered with the City of New York to connect those in need with people who are able to provide free housing.
Check back for possible updates throughout the weekend!
Click to enlargeAustralian artist Paul Caporn (previously here) works in several mediums, but his large-scale Reconstruction Works are soft sculptures of construction vehicles some made with with polyethylene and others, more recently, with EVA foam, the rubber used to make the interlocking mats found in playgrounds. I’m sure the irony of having these construction apparati, usually associated with strength and structure, fall limp does not escape many.
Caporn’s recent show at Turner Galleries was titled Paul Caporn Works; a clever play on words.
Here’s a nice event that took place during the Graphic Design Festival in Breda, Netherlands. Design firm Studio AIRPORT held a three-day-long workshop called Tempting Typography based on window-typography.
Every participant worked with a shop on St.Annastraat to create a typographic window display/signage to the satisfaction of the retailer and with the idea of staying on the shop’s window for an extended period of time. The end result was a beautiful street with lovely handwritten window typography.
via studio airport
Listen up all you type lovers! How does a desk with your favorite letters of the alphabet, or maybe your initials, as its legs grab you? Romanian graphic designer Liviu Avasiloiei, now living in Washington D.C., has a design in the works making it a reality. So smart and clever! Even the lamp has been integrated into the design. I think Ikea needs to get in touch with Avasiloiei ASAP…
via behance
Yuri Maldkovets is a Russian photographer based in St. Petersburg. He has photographed more than 120 catalogs and albums for the State Hermitage Museum, with access to its art. In his exhibit titled New Hermitage, Malodkovets hung large black and white photographs of classic 19th century Italian marble statues wrapped in polyethylene for storage. The plastic wrap acts as a graceful veil, sculptural in its own right. The statues seem to grimace at having the plastic on them, as if trying to escape. And the series of busts smothered in the same material are a little disturbing but add an interesting quality as well.
via art in russia
Click to enlargeFrench street artist Clet Abraham, now living and working in Florence, humorously alters traffic signs throughout major cities in Europe by strategically pasting removable stickers on them. But it’s not all just to crack a smile on the faces of those who pass by. Clet is commenting on society’s standardization and the constricting effect that rules have on us, limiting individual expression and thought. It’s no coincidence that many of his images reference religion.
If you like Clet Abraham’s work, you might also enjoy Dan Witz’s Do Not Enter Project and Roman Tyc’s Semafory.
via studio magazine
Sure, you’ve seen plenty of sand castles, but what about sand handbags? Shelley Miller (previously here) created a series of sand sculptures of designer bags, purses, and clutches during a residency in Brazil a few years back. Much in the way that her Icing Graffiti works disappear in less time than it took to make them, so too these accurate pocketbook replicas that wash away with the tide.
From Miller’s website:
The mirage-like nature of these objects, physical in form, yet never fully tangible, is a reference to the desirable objects one sees flipping through a fashion magazine while laying on the beach.
The photo documentation of these temporal sculptures were then used to produce the “Summer Collection” booklet, a mock fashion catalogue that returns these objects to their fashion industry inspiration.
If it were up to me, next year Miller would be one of the artists invited to participate in the Creative Time Sand Sculpture Competition in Rockaway.
The other night I attended a talk at the New Museum about the future of Nuit Blanche in NYC. One of the panelists was an organizer of the Nuit Blanche in Toronto and she spoke about an artist included in this year’s event that instantly intrigued me: Shelley Miller a street artist who creates her work with cake icing and presented an interactive piece titled Throw-Up.
Shelley Miller is a Montreal-based artist whose installations, sculptures and public works have been exhibited across Canada as well as India and Brazil. Much of her work is created using sugar and cake icing. Her murals and street art tags made with these cake-decorating techniques reference history and other cultures. Some examples are her murals depicting the history of sugar, linking the port of Montreal into the global network of sugar’s history and the slave trade that supported this industry. Miller’s graffiti tags, also made with icing, at closer look recall the decorative scrolls of arabesques and calligraphy from ancient mosques, temples and pottery spanning the history of decorative arts.
The ephemeral aspect of this work adds another interesting dimension when it begins to melt, causing a dripping effect. All around impressively done!
This weekend! Free and cheap things to do 10/26 to 10/28 in NYC. Cultural events in art, architecture, music, film, dance, theater, design, food and general fun. This week’s listings include a smattering of spooky Halloween-related events.
1. Design/Architecture/Talks – Designers & Books Fair 2012 is a live New York City event at the intersection where design, architecture, and books meet. All weekend at FIT. Tickets range from $25 to $50. See schedule.
2. Architecture – The brand spankin’ new FDR Four Freedoms Park is now open to the public (see post). All weekend. 9am to 5pm. FREE
3. Art/Technology/Science – ReGeneration: an exhibition that explores the connection of cultural vitality to immigration, urbanization and sustainability through art, technology & science. All weekend (starting Sat 10/27 through 1/13). $11 Adult $8 Kids & Students. FREE Fridays, 2-5 pm; Sundays, 10-11 am
4. Architecture/Art – Past Futures, Present, Futures presents 101 unrealized proposals for New York City. 2nd Part of the exhibit (Present Futures) opens Fri 10/26 with reenactments. 7pm. Through 11/4. FREE
5. Film/Discussion – Encore screening of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. Fri 10/26, 7pm. $25.
6. Theater – How to Break at Here Theater. All weekend. Check schedule for times. $10 in advance. $18 less than 24-prior. Students with ID FREE.
Alternatively: Tim Burton Burlesque, Fri 10/26, 9pm to midnight at Bar Matchless. $5 in costume; $7 if not.
7. Film –Holy Motors at Walter Reade & Film Forum. All weekend. $13.
Alternatively: Scary Movies at Walter Reade Theater Fri 10/26 and Sun 10/28. See schedule. $13
8. Film – Friars Club Comedy Film Festival. Fri 10/26 & Sat 10/27. See schedule for films & times. $10.
9. Art/Architecture – The blps Project (see post). Spot pill-shaped stickers on and around the High Line—from smokestacks to the Standard Hotel—on surfaces that usually go unnoticed. Kind of like an Easter egg hunt without the chocolate. In conjunction with the Richard Artschwager! retrospective at the Whitney. All weekend. FREE
Alternatively — Leo Villareal’s Buckyball light installation in Madison Square Park (see post). All weekend. FREE
10. Walking Tour – Haunted Tours of NYC. All weekend. Nightly at 8pm. $20 Adults $15 Kids. 90-minute tour.
Alternatively — Walking tour of Green-Wood Cemetery: Celebrate the fall season with tales of murder, mayhem, spirits and ghosts on our annual autumn tours led by Green-Wood’s historian Jeff Richman. Includes a visit to the Catacombs, usually closed to the public. Sat 10/27 & Sun 10/28 at 1pm. $20
11. Comedy – Jos Houben: The Art of Laughter. Renowned actor from Théâtre Complicité and longtime collaborator of Peter Brook presents a hilarious comedy about comedy. Sat 10/27 at 7pm. $20 with Code FIAF20.
12. Music – Justin Townes Earle with Low Anthem and Joe Pug at Pace. Fri 10/26 & Sat 10/27. At 7:30pm. $5 for Students. $25 and up everyone else.
13. Readings/Fun – Utilities Included: A Night of Brooklyn Writers. Six local writers kick out the jams for Halloween weekend Brooklyn-style. Sat 10/27 7pm at the Pine Box Rock Shop in Bushwick. FREE
14. Art – One of our favorites! John Baldessari Double Play at Marian Goodman. Fri 10/26 & Sat 10/27 through 11/21. FREE.
15. Tour – A Very Spooky Boat Tour of Newtown Creek. Sat 10/27 from 4:30 to 6:30pm $20 Leaves from South Street Seaport.
Alternatively – Halloween Dead Celebrity Ball: Costume Ball aboard the Jewel Yacht. Fri 10/26 at 8pm.
16. Food/Fun – 11th Annual Pickle Day will celebrate the rich history of pickle vendors of the Lower East Side and this time they are bringing back the pushcarts! Sun 10/28 on Orchard Street. 12 to 5pm. FREE
17. Food – Landhaus Farm to Sandwich Grand Opening Party at the Woods. Sun 10/28, 2 to 6pm. FREE with RSVP
18. Readings/Comedy – Bare! True Stories of Sex, Desire & Romance with John Flynn, Amy Sohn & many more. Brings together storytellers, comedians, sex educators and others to share true tales from their own experiences of sex, desire and romance. At the Bell House. 8pm $10
Art/Fun/Interactive – Bird on a Wire: a projected interactive display created for a pair of storefront windows at the corner Mercer St. and Washington Pl. By calling a number a passerby can set birds perched on telephone wires into motion. Cool! All weekend through 10/29. Opening Fri 10/26 at 8pm. FREE
AND Coming up this week – The Gay Death Halloween Variety Show, Tues, 10/20 at 8pm at The People’s Improv Theater with Scott Schachter and his Fun, Fab Weirdo Friends for a Macabre filled Sinful Night of Devilish Comedy: Nick Cobb; Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting and more. $5
Check back for updates and take a look at our previous Culture on the Cheap posts for ongoing suggestions. Have fun!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and it seems that people have moved on from simply sporting a pink ribbon on their jacket lapel. Two, very different, creative approaches to raising awareness took place this past week, among many others I suspect. One, though bright pink and hard to miss, was a little more subdued and consisted of an installation created with 400 pink umbrellas forming a canopy over the street (much like an Ingo Maurer installation) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The other, a bit more of an in-your-face and slightly controversial approach, was a “bouncing boobie” flashmob in central London supporting the breast cancer charity Coppafeel!. From the mouths of Coppafeel!: “The whole point of Coppafeel! is that we go about awareness in different and engaging ways – we like causing a bit of a stir.” And cause a stir they did.
Cracking Art Group is a collective made up of 6 international artists that was formed in 1993. The group considers “cracking” the process which transforms the natural into artificial; organic into synthetic. Their interventions involve huge colored plastic animals invading spaces, usually as a cry for awareness. By selecting recycled plastic and adapting it to their own purpose, Cracking Art Group is attempting to hold back control of the process and turn it towards fulfilling the movement’s social and environmental commitment to reinstating humanity as part of nature, not apart from it.
Their most recent intervention titled REgeneration took place earlier this month (October 5th through 13th) in Milan at the Duomo. In collaboration with the cathedral and Opera d’Arte, Cracking Art Group created and placed 50 blue snail sculptures on the Duomo’s roof to call attention to the much-needed repairs and restoration. 100 smaller limited edition snails were also created and sold at the Glauco Cavaciuti Gallery with net proceeds going towards to the restoration of the cathedral.
via tribeart
Click to enlargeHere’s another fun art-around-town event happening in NYC starting this week. In conjunction with the Whitney Museum and their retrospective Richard Artschwager! which opens this Thursday, High Line Art is installing a series of blps in various locations on and around the High Line. The blps were introduced by Artschwager (who is now 88) in the late 60s; the name was coined by the artist and is pronounced “blip”. This is not the first time that blps will be adorning NYC, or any other urban landscape for that matter. Artschwager’s black and white caspule-shaped blps — ranging in size from 1 to 5 feet high — have been part of many public interventions over the decades with the purpose of highlighting and drawing people’s attention to architecture and surfaces that usually go unnoticed.
So far, High Line Art has installed a large blp on a smokestack (see top 5 photos), one of their glass elevators (6th photo from top), and one of the glass windows that overlook the street from the High Line (bottom), in addition to others at the Standard Hotel and at least one other uptown by the Whitney. Many more are planned to go up, so keep an eye out. Should be fun to find them all.
And if you’d like to own your own blp, you can purchase one here.
via @HighLineArtnyc
CollabCubed 