September 4, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

The Weird Girls Project & Converse China

Click to enlarge

The Weird Girls Project (previously here) creator, Kitty Von-Sometime, was approached by Converse China to produce a series of videos featuring the Fall 2012 Color Collection of their Chuck Taylor shoes. The videos were to follow all of the usual applications of The Weird Girls Project and, excluding the shoes, the video concept and direction had complete free reign. The three-episode series was filmed in China: the first at the Great Wall; the second at a high rise building just on the south side of the river in Shanghai; the last at an abandoned fake Disneyland theme park an hour outside of Beijing. All three contain spectacular imagery and the requisite Weird Girls weirdness.

Below is one of the videos, but if you like what you see here, there’s plenty more to check out on the website.

September 4, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Alicia Martin: Paper Biennial Book Sculpture

Click to enlarge

As part of the Paper Biennial 2012 at the Meermanno Museum in The Netherlands, Spanish artist Alicia Martin has created one of her site-specific, signature book sculptures using thousands of books donated by the public for the event. Martin’s sculpture pours out of one of the museum’s windows, down the façade and onto the street. Quite an impressive feat.

The installation will be on view through November 25, 2012.

All photos by Ed Jansen except second from bottom left courtesy of Meermanno Museum.

September 3, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Winkel & Balktick: Laboratory

Click to enlarge.

Saturday night, intrigued by their invitation/announcement, I headed over to the abandoned Pfizer headquarters and plant in South Williamsburg to experience Winkel & Balktick’s art/performance/music/dance event/party/experiment: Stranded V – Laboratory. The area around the plant’s location felt creepishly dark and desolate, but as I got closer it was interesting to see the groups of white-clad (the requested form of attire) young people emanate from the dark in all different directions — reminded me of that scene in Witness when all the Amish suddenly appear over the hills to help Harrison Ford. Anyway, the huge and vacant complex of laboratories had two of its large floors taken over by science-themed art installations, bars displaying test tubes, flasks, and beakers filled with colored liquids on light tables, as well as beanie babies in jars, performances such as hula hoopers with multi-color-lit hoops glowing in the dark, modern dancers dancing in shallow pools of a substance similar to Nickelodeon’s old green slime, and a band whose back-up singers consisted of projected talking heads. There were installations that included a cloth covered dome structure filled with red balloons, a seemingly nude man in a trapezoidal box with small slits where the viewer could watch him bathe in a milky mud-like liquid, and floating petri dishes en masse that created interesting patterns on the floor of their contents’ movement. There was many a science-themed table with lab assistants (aka artists and techies) to answer questions and guide you through their inventions reminiscent of a high school science fair, all the while the loud thumping beat of dance music could be heard (and felt) throughout the two occupied floors in dance club fashion. On more than one occasion I overheard comments to the effect of “Everyone who’s not at Burning Man is here.” Not sure of that myself, but kudos to Winkel & Balktick for coming up with a very interesting and unique (at least for me) event, with the added twist of mystery and intrigue.

August 30, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 8/31

Click to enlarge

Here are our free and cheap suggestions for things to do this Labor Day weekend 2012 (August 31 to September 3) in NYC. We’ve included some staycation ideas as well as fun and easy day trips within an hour or two from New York via public transportation.

1. Music- AM & Shawn Lee at the Knitting Factory. Friday 8/31. Doors 7pm. Show 8pm. $10 to $12.

2. Art – Avery McCarthy‘s Destination: Unknown. Includes a large, vast canvas framed by LED lights, allowing itself to be both an optical trick and aesthetic object: a modern day vanity mirror of total blackness. At Orchard Windows Gallery. 37 Orchard St. Fri, Sat, Sun 8/31 to 9/2. FREE

3. Day Trip/Food/Culture – Mitsuwa Marketplace A little taste of Tokyo only a bus ride away. In Edgewater, NJ, this shopping center immerses you in Japanese culture with a food court, books, magazines, toys and a supermarket filled with Japanese products. Take the shuttle bus from Port Authority. $3 each way. All weekend.

4. Music/Party – Swimming with Sharks at The Standard’s Le Bain. Saturday 9/1, 3pm-9pm. FREE with RSVP.

5. Architecture – Vertical Tour at the Cathedral St. John the Divine. No need to go to Europe to tour a spectacular church. This tour takes you up to parts of the Cathedral you never knew existed! Saturday 9/1, 12pm still available. $15 Get tickets here.

6. Day Trip/Art – DIA:Beacon in Beacon, NY. Beautiful galleries filled with spectacular installations and all your favorite contemporary artists. MetroNorth from Grand Central or 125th Street gets you within steps of the building, 80-minute train ride. Train and admission package: $31.50 for Adults. All weekend.

7. Food/Views – La Marina in Inwood. It’s a waterfront resort in Manhattan. Beautiful views of the Hudson and GW Bridge. Take the A-train.

Alternatively in Food/Views: Brooklyn Crab in Red Hook on the waterfront. Free Shuttle Bus or the IKEA Water Taxi from Pier 11. All weekend.

8. Architecture Tour – Before Brooklyn Bridge Park. Learn about the history of Brooklyn’s waterfront with architectural historian and author, Matt Postal Saturday 9/1, 11am.$20. Tickets.

9. Music – Troublemakers; Midnight at Arlene’s Grocery. Saturday 9/1, 12am. $10

10. Fun/Leisure – Unicycle Fest on Governors Island. World-famous riders will display their skills, and members of the public will have the opportunity to try one-wheel riding. Saturday 9/1 and Sunday 9/2, 12pm to 5pm. FREE.

11. Day Trip/Relaxation/Food/Fun – Spa Castle. Okay, maybe not so free or cheap but if you consider what a spa trip costs…this looks pretty good. We’ve yet to try, but have heard good things. A sort of “Disneyland” of spas, in Queens no less! Weekdays $35; weekends $45.

12. Fun/Music/Food/Culture – West Indian Day Parade and Festival, Eastern Parkway near Brooklyn Bridge Museum. Labor Day, Monday 9/3 starts at 11am.

Also, in Comedy/Improv: The Friday Night Sh*w at the Magnet Theater in Chelsea. Friday 8/31, 11:30pm $5.

Also, in Food/Music/Beach: Caracas Rockaway at Rockaway Beach at 106th St. has music events Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 4pm. (Though, lately, we’re partial to the beautifully wide unpopulated beach at 67th, if you’re okay with limited food and bathrooms…shhh.)

UPDATES:

Art/Music/Design/Experiment: Stranded V: Laboratory, a night of eureka moments, bold experiments and a Nobel-worthy science fair built by King’s County’s creative catalysts. Saturday 9/1, 10pm-5am, at the Pfizer plant in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Near the JMZ and G trains. 21+. $26 Tickets here.

Music/Food: Mister Sunday Labor Day Weekend Special; Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter at Gowanus Grove. Sunday 9/2, 3pm-9pm. $10 advance; $12 door.

Performance: The Moth StorySLAM, Monday 9/3 at The Bell House, Brooklyn. 7:30 doors; 8pm starts. $8 at door; $16 advance. 21+

Or check our previous Culture on the Cheap posts for links to Free Met Opera HD, PS1’s WarmUp, and ongoing museum exhibits that we recommend. Have a great weekend and check back for possible updates!

August 30, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Robert Kusmirowski: Mock-Up Demolition Project

Polish artist Robert Kusmirowski is known as a “counterfeiter and manipulator of reality”. Most of his works/installations are based on the recreation of old objects, documents, photographs and situations that are astonishingly authentic in appearance. In general, they have no defined original from which they are copied. One example of these works was the temporary installation The Façade in which Kusmirowski created a perfect copy of a slum-like façade (typically found in a Polish alley) in Blankenberge, Belgium, among the carefully-tended seaside townhouses. His re-creations become symbols of ephemerality; addressing the fleeting nature of life and death of material culture.

Kusmirowski’s Mock-Up of the Demolition Project, pictured above, is virtually the opposite of the previously mentioned project, but similarly themed. A building, ready to be demolished, was painted white along with all the objects related to it—down to the wash hanging outside a window— as well as painted markings indicating places where the wrecking ball would strike. In essence: a model for deconstruction rather than construction. And I would assume his choice of white paint ties in with his conviction that “everything white and clean is soulless.”

Kusmirowski’s most recent installation, Pain Thing, was exhibited at this summer’s Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

via artboom

August 29, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Naama Israel: Fantasy Project

Click to enlarge

Israeli photographer Naama Israel nicely captures a dreamlike feel in her series titled Fantasy Project. These photos, all taken from above, illustrate fantastical scenes made up of bunched-up fabric evoking bed-linens, which compounds the dreamy effect.

You can see the rest of the series on her flickr.

August 29, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Atelier XJC Jewelry Design

Click to enlarge

In celebration of their 10th anniversary a few months back, Swiss company Atelier XJC launched an onsite laboratory to study new components and materials in order to create original, offbeat objects. As you can see, they certainly succeeded in their goal. Working in collaboration with various prestigious manufacturers, Xavier Perrenoud and his team have pushed the boundaries on the definition of jewelry and accessories design.

You can see more on their website.

via trendhunter

August 28, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

M. Angelo Arnold: Fun Furniture Sculpture

Click to enlarge

Looking at these sculptures by Angelo Arnold, I feel like I’ve entered the real-life world of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I can’t get over how much attitude and personality each of these inanimate pieces possess. Arnold, currently living and working in Vermont, calls his familiar upholstered objects with an unfamiliar twist: Familiarture. The titles of the individual works are also, in some cases, very humorous: Not Today (top), Loved Seat (2nd from top), and at the bottom is An Eames, a Chippendale and an Ottoman walk into a bar…

From the artist’s website:
Through the comfortable format of furniture, I present concepts of metamorphosis, change and subversion with self. I create custom works that embrace change and present possibilities for adaptation to new, unfamiliar environments and situations. These metamorphic forms deconstruct the functional object to establish a foundation or platform to recall past memories, stories and uncanny events. Through my reconstructed objects reference a vocabulary of furniture, the removal of the functional aspects subverts the viewer’s expectations and provokes new interpretations.

Some of Arnold’s works can be seen at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe Vermont as part of their exhibit Exposed, through October 13, 2012.

August 28, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Orbis Building: ARM Architecture

Click to enlarge

Australian firm ARM Architecture definitely has a unique style and approach to building design (see our post on the Portrait Building for another interesting example.) Taking their cue from Viennese architect Adolf Loos — who believed that apartment buildings fulfill different functions inside (a place to live) than out, where they should contribute to the quality of the street — ARM has some very unusual, leaning toward surreal, façade designs. One of their most recent projects, due to be completed in 2014, is the Orbis Building. A 7-story apartment building in South Melbourne, Orbis was inspired by the works of sculptor Anish Kapoor and surrealist Rene Magritte. The exterior plays with the perceptions of space and depth with its reflective gold concave and convex shapes. It’s interesting to see how the architects have continued, more subtly, these forms in the entrance lobby’s spherical caverns, and the apartments’ windows and balconies.

Orbis is the latest in a series of developments by the ARNO Corporation, which seeks to merge the boundaries of art and architecture and create buildings that themselves become works of public art. 20% of the apartments have already been presold.

August 27, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Tu Wei-Cheng: Happy Valentines Day

Click to enlarge

Taiwanese artist Tu Wei-Cheng likes to create illusions and hoaxes with his art. One such work is his large-scale installation titled Happy Valentine’s Day: a chocolate shop complete with hearts, ribbons and pink walls, except that the chocolate boxes are filled with tiny chocolate tanks, guns, hand grenades and other arms and artillery.

All images courtesy of White Rabbit Gallery.

August 27, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Dough Portraits: Soren Dahlgaard

Click to enlarge

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

Click on images to enlarge

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

Click to enlarge

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 22, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Puck: Cinema Caravana

Click to enlarge

We’ve seen plenty of food trucks and even clothing caravans but, at least for me, Puck Cinema Caravana: The Smallest Cinema on Earth, is the first cinema truck I’ve encountered. A colorfully painted trailer that acts as an ambulatory theater showing short animated films, Puck opened in the summer of 2009. Founders Toni Tomas and Carles Porta created the mobile cinema in Bellpuig, Spain. They pride themselves on showing rare animations, some, I believe, created by Carles Porta himself with the help of Ruben Hengesbach.

Maybe a bit crowded, but a very appealing and cute idea. Here’s one of their trailers:

All photos by Carles Porta.

via calle 20

August 22, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

David Byrne’s Typographic Bike Racks

Click to enlarge

David Byrne is at it again. The well-known musician, who is often seen cycling around town, was invited by BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) to design new bike racks to replace their old utilitarian ones. Byrne, having designed a series of fun bike racks for NYC in 2008 with shapes ranging from dogs and cars to high heels and guitars, decided to go typographic this time around. Realizing that with a semi circle, line and ‘v’ shape he could create most of the letters of the alphabet, he designed racks that create different words. The racks installed yesterday spell out “Pink Crown” and “micro lip” both chosen by designer Byrne. The bike rack words will change periodically, and BAM may be soliciting suggestions from its audiences in the future for new words.

Top two photos by Dino Perrucci. Third photo by G.R. Christmas and bottom by Jason Accime.

via Brokelyn via BAM’s facebook

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: