Archived entries for art
My week in Milan
I’ve just returned from Salone del Mobile in Milan, where I introduced Kicker Studio in a presentation I gave last Thursday. I took a million photos of all the cool designy fair, which I *tried* to narrow down to just few. Here are the pictorial highlights of the work I saw, from Established & Sons, Tokyo Fiber, Swarovski Crystal, and the designers at Superstudio:
Bird on a Wire
bird on a wire, 19th and Valencia
My friend Raphael had a job to do last week, and I had the honor of assisting him in seeing it through. He was asked to help his friend Rhys Newman carry out his project Bird on a Wire. (Check out his sketches — they’re amazing!) Rhys constructed and sent 12 pairs of birdhouses to 12 cities — Tokyo, Sydney, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, Builth Wells, Brighton, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Panguitch Lake & Cardiff — and asked his friends to hang them from a neighborhood wire. Raph was charged with hanging his houses in the Mission. The first time we tried to hang them we were at 16th & Mission, at the heart of Mission crazy. It was a lot easier than you think to throw string over an electric wire at a busy intersection in SF. Ben climbed on top of dumpster, hurled the weighted string over the wire, used it like a pulley to hike the birdhouses up. But alas, the string wasn’t threaded through the houses at the right angle, and we couldn’t get them to tip over the wire. So it was back to the drawing board. Raph did a few more tests at home to perfect the angle of the threading, and a few days later we tried again. We started back at 16th and Mission, where I was promptly offered methadone pills and cocaine, but we luckily discovered the cops in the middle of the intersection before we got to work. So naturally, we relocated. We eventually hung them on 19th Street just west of Valencia, on a quiet street with a view to the Sutro Tower. And 5 days later, they’re still there! Check out the photos of the trial run and the final go on Flickr.
I LEGO N.Y.
I’ve been meaning to write something about my first week in SF but I keep putting it off. In the meantime, this is the best (and very appropriate) use of Lego I’ve seen in a long time:
SF Prologue: days 5 & 6
Day 5, part 2: the paranormal
When we left you last on Wednesday eve we were on our way to Marfa, Texas. We thought that would be the end of our story for day 5, but we were wrong. So wrong. Upon arriving in Marfa, a convenience store clerk asked us if we were there to see the Marfa lights. The Marfa lights? The Ghost lights. Ghost lights?? We turned around and drove 8 miles back East of Marfa to investigate. Cue Scooby Doo Episode # 34. We stopped at the “Mystery Lights Viewing Area,” and it was dark, dark, darker than you could possibly imagine. And deserted. No people, no cars, no nothing — this has become a theme on our trip. There were so many stars in the sky — more than we’d ever seen — that they felt smothering. The lights: basketball-sized orbs hovering waist high, moving around, appearing and disappearing, etc. They were far enough in the distance that they didn’t look menacing, but regardless we were afraid to get out of the car. Did we mention it was dark and deserted? We did venture out (for maybe 5 minutes) to get a better view. We watched the Marfa lights come and go and move around at strange speeds and odd angles until we looked at each other, nodded, ran back to the car, and locked the doors. We were spooked. Mission accomplished, we headed to town to find our hotel. The Thunderbird’s refreshingly modern rooms were a warm welcome for our tired bones and we drifted off to sleep dreaming of the next day’s half-day driving break and wondering what the town looked like in daylight.
Lights out, 1230am
One very wide state, but 600 miles
Alarms set for 7am.
Day 6
J awoke before J to snap a few photos of the sunrise from the hotel door. (It was surprisingly cold out at that hour.) After breakfast at the local cafe we headed over to the Chinati Foundation for our half day of art. Before the tour started, our amazing tourguide Erin the intern reminded J of the basics of knitting so that she could resume her waylaid car project. The first stop of the morning was by far our favorite — Donald Judd’s 100 Untitled Works in Milled Aluminum. The space was incredible and the light spectacular. Highly recommend.
At lunch we stopped by Robert Arber’s print shop. Arber was Donald Judd’s print maker in Marfa, and he and his wife continue to produce work for past and present Chinati artists. While there we met Canadian artist and sculptor David Rabinowitch, there to hand color monoprints inspired by William Blake, which were printed in Arber’s studio. He took a liking to J and gave her his phone number so that they could meet up back in New York (adventure to be continued…) Our lunch from Food Shark was ordered to go, and we rushed back to Chinati for a self-guided hike to Judd’s unfinished metal buildings and “Non-site specific,” works by recent artist-in-residence Eric Gonrich. The afternoon tour featured a lots of Dan Flavin’s trademark florescent lights, as well as other smaller works. Not as cool as the morning session, but the surroundings and our great tour guide made the afternoon well worth our time. We eventually got around to eating lunch, which we enjoyed sitting by the Thunderbird’s swanky pool. We were tempted to stay in Marfa another night to play bingo and look for dancing in the neighboring town with the people we’d met. Marfa’s residents seemed to be intellectually curious and creative folks, the types we’d like to hang out with. But we had a date with Roswell, and 6 more hours to drive.
So off we went. About 60 miles west of town we came across two sites unexpected: #1 – we saw a UFO! It was cool, it was big, it wasn’t moving. We took pictures to show the folks in Roswell. #2 – Prada Marfa. A Prada boutique, complete with handbags and shoes, with no sales counter and no entrance. So surreal, oh how we love art. Entering New Mexico, we crossed into mountain time — an extra hour in the hot tub! When we arrived in Roswell we made a b line for some Mexican take out and spent an hour in the hotel whirlpool. We slept extremely well. No nightlife in Roswell, and they didn’t have any decent beer. Although it seems beer with tomato juice is popular here.
Lights out 12am
2 states, 270 miles
Alarms set for 7:30am.
Picturing Excess
Have you seen this? It’s a few months old, but still worth sharing…
TED TALKS – Chris Jordan: Picturing Excess
Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture
looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable
statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every
single day.
Read more about Chris Jordan.