ICFF 2010

Arriving with rather low expectations due to all the talk of depressed economies cranking out depressing designs, I was happy to find that not everything at this year’s ICFF was a frankenstein of last year’s show. For starters, this piece was all over the fair as well as the off-site shows and is part of the latest collection from furniture company Council, a company out of SF that won me over last year with their stunning Periodic Table. This year’s room divider still maintains the sort of Designer’s D.I.Y. feel that permeated the show.

Big themes were definitely eco-conscious materials and subtle pared down design. Taking material design to the next level was this “wooden fabric” lamp titled Miss Maple, featured in the Design Deutschland exhibit and made by german designer Elisa Strozyk.

Not all young designers are as experimental with traditional materials. For many, the emphasis on environment has led to a reexamination of the less eco-impacting past. Studio Dunn, winner of this year’s Editor’s Choice award for new designer, is going traditional not only with materials and design, but with manufacturing methods as well. All of the designs are manufactured in the good ol’ US of A by artisans in their native state of Rhode Island (this local pride also informs the name of each piece). Studio Dunn’s design sense references the hand-crafted nature of mid-century modern classics like Haywood Wakefield while also tapping into contemporary collective desires to be equal parts environmentally and aesthetically conscious.

S

Scattered about and hidden in the nooks of the all the furniture booths were a couple of really exciting product and jewelry finds from some promising up and commers. Starting with the smallest – jewelry from designer Hao Shi was selling at the designboom mart like hot cakes. Shi’s designs consist of tiny, fantastical creatures made from an opaque white resin.

Hao Shi’s booth was too crowded to take photos. Fortunately I just couldn’t leave without my very own Rabbit X Ring pictured here next to the beautiful package it came in. I have since received many compliments from all sorts of crowds including design snobs and random children on subways. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Everyone’s favorite from Brooklyn Designs, FRAMEicariums was also selling at designboom mart. For those who haven’t already seen them, these are real live ant farms in frames! Absolute genius!

And last but not least, for all of you out there with an irrational fear of numbers, Qlocktwo has found a solution- a typographic matrix that spells out the time in a way we can all understand. If only there was a version for my phone, I just might start being on time to things.

Seein’ Dis: BKLYN DESIGNS 2010

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 34

BKLYN DESIGNS 2010

Heck yes!

Yesterday we caught the tail end of BKLYN DESIGNS 2010, which marked the beginning of New York design week!  Check out our favorites from the show, and stay tuned for some more in-depth posts about some of these pieces.

Seein’ Dis: Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 35

Thesis show!

Yesterday was the opening for the Columbia University MFA Thesis exhibition at the Fisher Landau Center for Art in Long Island City.  It was put together by über-curator Anthony Huberman and was totally worth the double subway ride.  Check out our favorites above, or see it for yourself (through May 23rd).

Fisher Landau Center for Art
3827 30th Street
Long Island City, NY

Seein’ Dis: Hunter MFA Open Studios!

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 29

We had a good time.

We took a little jaunt to the Hunter College MFA program open studio event on Friday.  Their studio building is this enormous former-something near Times Square (there is, weirdly, an abandoned travel agency on the top floor? That kind of thing).  We put on our best skeptical-journalist faces and went around trying to balance our DSLR with our oversized Budweisers, and now we bring the results to you!  Enjoy.

Seein’ Dis: The Anxiety of Influence

On the morning of Saturday, March 27 2010, the MoMA opened as usual.  Inside, Marina Abramovic sat facing a table and an empty chair.  As scheduled, she was ready to receive visitors as part of her marathon performance piece, “The Artist is Present.”

But this Saturday was different: the first visitor in line was a young woman who showed up dressed in a long dark blue dress, a black braid swept over one shoulder. As Abramovic’s doppleganger, she sat across from her and assumed a mirror pose. And there she sat, to the befuddlement of the museum staff and visitors, all day.

Frequently overhead in the crowd was the exclamation of disbelief, “She’s still here?!” There were some grumpy folks who waited for their turn in line before giving up, because no one could beat this marathon sitter. I checked twitter to see someone whine, “Really mad at this Marina Abromavic[sic] imposter whose[sic] taken over the exhibit at the MOMA. A plague upon both your houses!“*

It was mysterious. It was intriguing. It was hilarious. My initial thought was: what a better way to “kill your idol” than to beat her at her own game, but then I also wondered if it was a way to present affection to a long-admired artist and influence?

As it turns out, the doppleganger is Anya Liftig, a Brooklyn-based performance artist.  Her intervention on “The Artist is Present” was a performance of her own, which she has titled “The Anxiety of Influence” after the Harold Bloom book of the same title. Bloom’s main concern was how poets, driven to write by their admiration of their idols, could succeed in generating original work in spite of the pressure of influence. See what I’m saying?

I spoke to Anya about her anxieties of influence, her endurance level, and what it was like to come face-to-face with the so-called “grandmother of performance art.”  Read the interview after the jump.

Continue reading…

No, Puddles! NOOO! and other thoughts from the Kings County Biennial

So, last weekend I did that hilarious thing at a gallery opening.  You know, where first you confuse a piece trash for a sculpture, and then confuse an actual sculpture with a piece of trash.  Ha ha ha ha ho ohmyGOD contemporary art, I LOVE IT when you painfully confirm all those things my mom says about you.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one confused.  Moments later the crowd ceremoniously parted, giving me a perfect view of a little dog lifting its leg and pissing on the above sculpture. Not kidding.  I’m very, very sorry to say I don’t know whose piece it is, or what the title was– but gentle jury, please know that I tried to stop it.  Cue the slow-motion outreach and open-mouthed horror: “NOOOoooo…….!”

Wow.

But don’t take that one (doggy) critic’s opinion: Kidd Yellin’s “The Kings County Biennial” is an uneven but sprawling and fun show featuring some top-notch mid-career artists’ work, and it runs through Feb 28. A few pics after the jump.

Continue reading…

Olivier Zahm @ Half Gallery, NYC

So, Tuesday 12/1 was Olivier Zahm’s opening at Half Gallery @ 208 Forsythe.  In attendance:  yours truly, and a swarm of European fashion trend-stars.  The show features big, small, and naked printouts of the Purple Fashion magazine editor’s Diary.  Arriving early (during installation), I missed out on the concept of being fashionably late… but the crowd got considerably more fabulous as the night went on.  That, my friends, is what I really came for.

(and of course to knock off the photo stylings of the guest of honor.)

Continue reading…

RISD Exposé opening

Last Friday was the opening of RISD Exposé, a pop-up store in downtown Providence that is dedicated toward current RISD students slinging their art and design work like there’s no tomorrow.  Here are a few standouts from the show.

Continue reading…

ICFF 2009: Never Say Never

So my post about ICFF 2009 is almost as late as the checks I ordered online from Bank of America; however, since they finally arrived the day after paying rent with yet another money order, I felt it was appropriate to argue that it’s never too late and to just post the damn thing! Rather than pretending to offer comprehensive coverage of the entire show, this post is just going to be a mish-mash of favorites and oddities that perhaps haven’t made their rounds about the blogosphere just yet.

First off in the student category of awesome is this magazine rack from the Cranbrook booth designed by Issac Yu Chen. Pretty much all of the pieces in Cranbrook’s booth were phenomenal. Check out their site Innate Gestures for the rest.

These re-used table saw blade scissors by Brian Persico are just too wonderful to leave out. Even the leftover scrap is beautiful.

The RISD booth was full of oddities this year, but most odd of all were these shoes made of all natural loofa. I would hate to be caught in the rain in those, but for wearing around the house, they probably make for a great exfoliator-duster combo.

I will admit that I did rather like this leather stool and it might have just a little bit to do with the fact that I am completely in love with a certain pair of Rodarte leather leggings!

Moving on from student work to these crazy little chairs by Jang Won Yoon.
My immediate reaction: “they look like BUNNIES!”
Come on, I know you see it too, it’s only slightly disguised by the stealthy, uber-I.D. curves. Seriously though, these chairs have so much identity and so much life to them, you can’t help but appreciate.

Gauthier Poulain’s Hold-H credenza and Hold-V cabinet is pure fantasy fetish furniture. Don’t worry, he knows. His take-away card states: “I carry out your dreams made to measure.” Check out the bold ace-bandage/medical/moving strap style securing system. Some strange ideas must have informed this piece, unfortunately I can’t read french.

Japan by Design featured many small treasures this year, including this humidifier designed by Miyuki Yoshida. Fill the tray with water and the fabric “leaves” become saturated, helping the water to more quickly evaporate into the air. Such a simple and beautiful idea for something that is normally a much more complicated, electric appliance.

Off site at the Model Citizen’s Design Show there were some additional noteworthy pieces:

Duo bookshelf by Ana Linares.

Egg Bench by Grace Chen.

When placed just so, the physical shape of the egg allows it to distribute weight extremely effectively.

D.I.Y. Fine Art/Title Unknown

I think there might be a dead hamster in there.

Well, there it is. My post, of sorts, from ICFF 2009. Glad I finally found some time to share.

Indisposed

Before the news is completely old-hat, I thought I’d post some of the pictures from the InDisposed show. Apologies for the iPhone quality pics. For those not familiar, the show is composed of completely original pieces designed around the theme of disposability. Above is the “Dough-Dough” bird house by Jeff Miller. If you haven’t gotten it yet- it’s a solid, birdhouse-shaped, bird-feeder made out of left over bakery dough. Not sure I buy it as a viable means of disposal of leftover dough, but the concept and outcome are rather nice.

This new piece from Design Glut pretty much speaks for itself.

Takeshi Miyakawa’s piece, “Furniture ToGo” is a concept for Lego-like ToGo containers that can be used to build playful, trash-art, furniture.

Tobias Wong’s submission, like the majority of his work, is conceptually stunning; however lacking in the photographability.

“Rather than design an object to be disposed of, Wong decided to not make anything. Or rather, to create a conceptual piece by ‘unmaking’ something- a strategy that likewise reduces waste. Using a magazine as his medium, Wong collaborated with PAPER to ‘edit out’ a 10 page section and make it only available online. Converting the pages from print to digital format saved roughly 13 trees, decreasing PAPER’s footprint for the month.” – InDisposed

“Pleated Paper Can” by Paul Loebach and Chris Specce. It’s pretty much just a more iconic looking version of the paper-grocery-bag turned trash can that already sits under my sink; however, it’s still a really nice looking piece, and sustainably minded.

And finally. To end on a less conceptual note- Susan Tick, textile designer for Knoll, made these wonderful wall hangings out of plastic bags and waste wire material. I can’t wait to see Knoll turn these into upholstery.