November 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Boy Scouts Sustainability Tree House

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Seattle-based architecture firm Mithun created a sustainable tree house for the Boy Scouts of America that functions as an educational center in West Virginia. Sitting among the trees within the forest the structure, that follows the rigorous set of standards of the Living Building Challenge as a guide, has a set of outdoor staircases that go from the forest floor to the 125 ft-high rooftop. At the top a 4,000-watt wind turbine and 6,500-watt photovoltaic array offers lessons about renewable energy. The structure’s mission is to teach visitors about the environment and sustainability, including water conservation, energy use, recycling and more.

Photos by Joe Fletcher

via dwell

November 22, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Mike Hewson: Deconstruction

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New Zealand artist Mike Hewson (previously here) is playing with people’s minds again. This time the trompe l’oeil specialist has has covered an elevated walkway in Christchurch, NZ over its main thoroughfare, Colombo Street, with anamorphic large-scale digital prints of the two buildings connected by the walkway. When standing at a particular vantage point on the street below, the art visually deletes the overpass. When viewed from other spots the work looks distorted. Hewson’s objective in this post-earthquake affected area is to paradoxically reconstruct the site through a process of deconstruction, reflecting Christchurch’s recovery process of adding new development through the “deletion” of crumbled buildings.

via inhabitat

November 21, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sam Falls: Tuileries Colored Sculpture

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Los Angeles artist Sam Falls created an Untitled sculpture for Hors les Murs, a public art event in Paris, made up of colored metal boxes. The exterior of these multi-color windowed pieces was coated in a UV-protected pigment. The inside of the same boxes were treated with an unprotected paint. Though each respective panel appears to be the same color on both sides, the sides facing inwards will all fade in the sun. The form that each sculpture takes is dictated by the shadows that fall on the inside of the sculpture and the gradient of sunlight is revealed over time, burned into the sculpture like a photograph. Unlike most outdoor sculptures usually designed to stand the test of time as well as the elements, Falls’ Untitled (Tuileries Colored Sculpture) is meant to age the way we do. But, there’s a final twist! Once the interior panels fade through their top coat, the bottom coat from the exterior will start to emerge, reversing the aging effect, and revealing the bright saturated color once again. Not so much what we as humans go through, though maybe if we exfoliate enough….

Photos: Courtesy Balice Hertling (Paris) et Eva Presenhuber (Zürich); FdN77’s twitter; Miami Herald; le banc moussu; and dalbera’s flickr.

via fiac

November 20, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hot Tea: Banksy Tribute & More

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Minneapolis-based street artist—and NYC frequenter—HOT TEA is known for his yarn-bombing typography, usually found on—but not limited to—chain link fences & telephone poles. Most often the words HOT TEA are geometrically spelled out, seemingly interlocked in three dimensions. I’ve run into several of his pieces over the past couple of years around NYC, one in Soho, another Nolita, and DUMBO as well. A couple of weeks ago, shortly after Banksy finished his month-long scavenger-hunt-like show Better Out Than In around the city, I came across a tribute to the reknowned street artist by, I assume, HOT TEA, though this speculation is based soley on style. The piece, which was on East 4th Street, was gone in less than 24 hours replaced with a real estate sign by the owners of the empty lot where the work stood. I’ve looked around to see if this Banksy tribute appeared anywhere online, including HOT TEA’s flickr, but so far nothing. Earlier in the fall, HOT TEA created his largest site specific piece to date with over 1600 knots and 800 pieces of yarn installed on the Williamsburg Bridge walkway. You can see the installation in the video below:

Top two photos: collabcubed. All others courtesy Hot Tea’s flickr.

November 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Lucas Simões: Desretratos

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Brazilian artist Lucas Simões uses source materials such as maps, books, and photographs which he then folds, cuts, and deconstructs into new forms. In his series of portraits titled Desretatos (Disportraits) Simões invited friends to tell him a secret as he took their portrait. More than listen to the secret, Simões was interested in capturing their expression as they revealed it. He would also listen to a song selected by the subject as he photographed them, and asked them to give their secret a color as well. Combining all these elements as he worked, the artist would then select 10 different portraits from the photo shoot, layer them, cut, and overlap them. As you can see, the results are pretty wild. See more Desretratos here.

via fifty8

November 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Willie Cole: Shoe Sculptures, Masks & More

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New Jersey-born and based artist Willie Cole creates many of his works by repurposing objects such as irons, hair dryers and, in this case, shoes. His shoe sculptures and masks communicate messages about African history. I happened upon the last day of Cole’s show If wishes were horses… at the Alexander and Bonin Gallery in Chelsea this past weekend which featured a large bronze sculpture in the center of the lower floor titled Sole Sitter. At first glance the seated figure appeared to be just that, but upon closer inspection the oversized stacked shoes became evident and just at that moment all the shoe masks on the walls came into focus as well. Super-cleverly done, these pieces have an African art feel to them. Cole is not new to creating with shoes. A few years back at the same gallery I saw his impressive shoe mandalas, but these more recent sculptures really take the use of shoes to a new dimension.

Top two photos courtesy of Alexander and Bonin; all others collabcubed.

November 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 5 Comments

Killy Kilford: Happy Signs

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I’m all for things that surprise and delight, and that’s just what British artist Killy Kilford is up to since moving to NYC this past year. Feeling negativity from some of the city’s street signs, Kilford set out to create Happy Signs with upbeat messages and, with the help of volunteers, placed them under the official signs. “Honk Less, Love More” or “You Look Pretty Today” are just two examples of the many slogans aimed at getting a smile from his street audience. Kilford proposes that the city open a Dept of Well Being in addition to their standard agencies. He plans to use his project—currently 200 signs have been installed mostly around lower Manhattan and Williamsburg—to measure happiness using surveys and social media, with the ultimate goal of acting as a model for other cities to adopt a similar concept and their own department of well-being.

If you’re in New York City, keep your eyes peeled for the smile-inducing signage.

Photos courtesy of the artist and evgrieve

November 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Net Blow-Up Yokohama: Numen/For Use

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The Numen/For Use (previously here and here) guys are at it again. Known for their fun, playful, interactive structures, the Croatian-Austrian collective has recently gone inflatable. Their latest installation in Yokohama (home of the also fun CupNoodles Museum) looks like a carnival Moonwalk gone wild. The stylized cloud-like object has nets inside connected to its inner lining that expand and become taut as the blob is blown up. The exterior membrane is sheer enough that when lit from within, it acts as a projection screen for the activity inside. The nets provide climbing and tumbling surfaces on multiple levels. Looks like a blast.

via vizkultura via notcot

November 7, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Lauren Tickle Jewelry: Increasing Value

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Dan and Em attended the RISD Entrepreneur Mindshare conference in Providence, RI a couple of weeks back and, among the many interesting presentations, they saw artist/jewelry designer Lauren Tickle speak about her work.

The Brooklyn-based RISD Alum has a series of jewelry pieces under the title Increasing Value. In these brooches, necklaces & earrings, Tickle takes US currency of a designated value and cuts it apart, then pieces these delicate and ornate elements together creating a new object of greater value: jewelry. This experiment questioning value, adornment, and materialism is meant to make the wearer reflect on these social constructs in today’s society.

A couple of Tickle’s works, such as the $16.50 Necklace which sells for 100x its original currency value, can be purchased at the MoMA Design Store.

All photos courtesy of the artist.

November 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

RAE: Word of Mouth Bodega

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What if your corner bodega didn’t just sell milk, candy and cigarettes, but acted as an exhibit space for beautiful street art, inside and out? Cool, right? Well, that’s exactly what Brooklyn artist RAE has done in the East Village. Finding a former bodega that had to close due to flooding by Hurricane Sandy last year, RAE reopened the shop temporarily for his first solo NYC exhibit Word of Mouth. Covering most every surface in the place—including security cameras—with his drawings, and folky sculptures, the artist has the ‘gallery’ space operating as a functioning bodega as well.

A couple of years back, a friend pointed out RAE’s art on a sign at a now defunct fruit and vegetable stand in SoHo, so it seems that he has a longstanding fascination for the corner food vendor.

Word of Mouth will be on exhibit Thursdays through Saturdays until November 16, 2013, at the corner of East 12th Street and Avenue C.

Photos: changoblanco and vandalog

via vandalog & gothamist

November 5, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NEXT Architects: Meixi Lake Bridge

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Amsterdam-based studio NEXT Architects was awarded first prize in an international competition for their design of a pedestrian bridge to span more than 150 meters and connect a diversity of routes across the Dragon King Harbor River and Meixi Lake in Changsha, China. The undulating, multilevel design is based on the principle of the Möbius strip as well as referring to a decorative knot seen in ancient Chinese folk art. And, though it’s not mentioned, I find it hard to believe that no one was thinking of a serpentine dragon when coming up with this wildly unique structure. It also looks like the architects decided to push the limits on their impressive and elegant recent project The Impossible Stair, completed last June in Carnisselande, The Netherlands.

Construction for the new bridge is scheduled for next year. Add this to your list of reasons to visit China.

via designboom

November 4, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Rune Olsen: Will to Power

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It’s hard to know what to make of the wacky exhibit Will to Power at La Mama Gallery here in NYC, but it’s definitely engaging. Norwegian artist Rune Olsen, now living in Hudson, NY, is interested in what he refers to as “Alternative Intelligences” such as ADHD, Asperger’s, Dyslexia and Bipolar disorder. He questions what functionality would look like if “the norm” were one of these alternative intelligences.

Using mostly food and kitchen-centric objects, Olsen creates pieces that include a Cheese-ball Head that conveniently doubles as a paper towel holder; a leaning tower of take-out containers titled Endless Column; a kitchen counter in the center of the gallery with a person covered in foil and dishes stacked precariously by the sink in a piece titled Endless Water Fall, just to name a few. The entire space has foam sausages flying through the air as well and, apparently, at times there are performances in the space, though not while I was there.

In some ways meme-like, the artist seems to favor that comparison. He speaks of the idea of evoking “a visceral response in the viewer, a response that elicits a desire to imitate thus initiating a first hand experience and making them personal.”

Will to Power will be up at La Mama La Galleria through November 17, 2013. Open Wednesday to Sunday 1 to 7:30pm.

Photos: collabcubed

November 1, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Three Architecture Firms Design with New Lego

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I certainly would have enjoyed Lego’s new Architecture Studio Set as a kid. I loved building minimalist houses (okay, so they were more like cubes or rectangular blocks with a door, but I felt like the future Mies Van der Rohe) using all the white and gray pieces, and snatching the few translucents included in our set from my brother.

Wired Magazine had the fun idea of asking three world-class architecture firms to ‘go crazy’ with the new Legos. And crazy they did. Norway-based firm Snøhetta created a striking boomerang-shaped tower, playing with equilibrium. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) inspired by the wintry environs of their Chicago office, cleverly froze their multi-level structure in a block of ice, slowly revealing its interior intricacies as it melted. And finally, SHoP Architects in NYC, created a futuristic cityscape going as far as 3D printing some curved pieces of their own to create undulating walls.

You can see more photos of the above projects here, and you can buy Lego Architecture Studio here.

via wired

October 31, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Suzanne Caporael: Enough is Plenty

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On the recommendation of a friend, I stopped by Ameringer McEnery Yohe Gallery last week to see NY artist Suzanne Caporael’s exhibit Enough is Plenty in the back of the gallery. Though the paintings were quite nice, the pieces I was immediately drawn to were the small color paper collages. The combination of her lovely palettes, the irregular shapes, and subtle hints of the New York Times newspaper in the background either in the form of folios and running heads, or articles ghosted back behind other paper, added a surprisingly lovely touch. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes these so special but, at least to me, they certainly were. Enough is Plenty will be up in the Chelsea gallery through November 23, 2013.

Photos courtesy Ameringer McEnery Yohe Gallery.

October 30, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Gooyesh Language Institute: Ali Karbaschi

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I definitely get a kick out of seeing typography integrated into architecture (hence the multiple Architypeture posts) and this building in Isfahan, Iran is no exception. Designed by architect Ali Karbaschi, the Gooyesh Language Institute’s curtain wall is clad with almost a crossword-y look of, ironically (or not so ironically, being a language institute), Latin letters on all sides as well as cut out of its steel entrance gates. As far as I can tell, the letters are purely decorative and don’t spell anything out, but I wasn’t able to find any information on the project, other than its location, architect, and that it was built a little over a year ago. Looking closely, it would appear that in some areas the oreder of the letters in the rectangular panels adhere to the alphabet, but then suddenly a ‘W’ appears sandwiched between an ‘E’ and a ‘G’, so there goes that theory. In any case, it looks particularly attractive lit up at night, wouldn’t you say?

via Contemporary Architecture of Iran

October 29, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Sambre: Wooden Sculptural Street Art

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French street artist Sambre recently finished a new work at Le MUR XIII in Paris (looks to be a similar situation to NYC’s Bowery Mural with alternating artists’ works throughout the year) in the 13th arrondisement. Using found wood, the artist superimposed a sculptural piece with a protruding face at its center over the previous Le Mur XIII mural. Sambre had previously created an impressive installation in wood at Les Bains Douches (if you have a couple of minutes, check out the video below, it’s kind of amazing) this past summer, but this appears to be his first outdoor wooden piece.

Though (I’m pretty confident) not at all Sambre’s intention, this work seems fitting to post on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. It almost looks like the storm personified, down to the ripped apart boardwalks. To all who were affected, and the tough year they’ve been through, here’s to a better year ahead.

via graffuturism

October 28, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Pro Bono Promo: Dori the Giant

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Recent photography grad Dori the Giant, aka Dorota Pankowska, created a street art series on the walls of downtown Brampton, Ontario titled Pro Bono Promo. She recreated logos using the product which they represent: the Colgate logo was illustrated in Colgate toothpaste; the Nutella one with Nutella…you get the idea. Then she also documented their (sometimes quick) deterioration, whether naturally or due to finger smudges. Which leads to the humorous title of the series. In many ways Pankowska gave these companies free advertising (pro bono) with free samples thrown in (promo). You can see a lot more of Pankowska’s clever work on her website and her blog.

If you like this, you might also enjoy Danielle Evans’ work.

via junkculture

October 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Ross Sawyers: Dismantled Rooms

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Photographer Ross Sawyers builds models of construction-site-like homes and photographs them as full-scale eerie environments. Sawyer is interested in the home and the relationships we have with our own. His most recent photos contain drawings and markings on the walls of the spaces which are related to hobo signs—a language that was developed during the Depression by transients to inform each other about neighborhoods, houses and people. Sawyer states in an interview with the Seattle Met:

…one of the things that led me to it was when foreclosures were really commonplace in maybe 2009 or 2010. A lot of people, as they were foreclosed on, would just destroy the house—whether that was through vandalism or just pure destruction—and so that got me interested in the kinds of marks and destructive actions people were inflicting upon the spaces. Through research on that, I sort of stumbled across information about hobo signs. And the relationship between those two things became really interesting to me.

Some of them have a magical feel, no? Love them.

via seattlemet