Hasta La Ideas

Eager for the inside scoop on retrofitting the Manufacturers Hanover Trust building on Fifth Avenue (pictured) for retail use? Want to know how Beyer Blinder Belle restored the Beacon Theater? Fancy a peek inside the restored and renovated Gracie Mansion? Don’t miss “Living With History: Restoring, Redesigning, and Reviving New York’s Landmark Interiors,” which takes place tomorrow at the Museum of the City of New York. In showcasing some of the extraordinary projects aimed at bringing historic NYC buildings back to life, the half-day symposium will highlight the various and sometimes controversial approaches to preserving the past while accommodating the needs of modern life. The presenters include architectural historian Matt Postal, Frank Mahan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designer Jamie Drake, and Franklin D. Vagnone, executive director of the Historic House Trust. UnBeige readers can register at the $25 member rate by clicking here and entering the discount code Living1022 at checkout.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A great way to kickstart your weekend wanderings, check out this beautiful video courtesy of Australian builder Matt Machine. The video was shot as a promo for his shop and besides the behind-the-scenes snapshots of the workshop where Matt hand-builds vintage motorcycles, we get a feel for the breathtaking backdrop that the southern tablelands of New South Wales, Australia provides for its community of easy riders.

On the list of motorcycles Matt Machine has built and which are showcase on his site: Moto Guzzi Mark 1 Le Mans, 50 Panhead, 48 Panhead, and a 1926 Norton Model 18. Check it out after the jump:

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Earlier this year, we had a look at ten “could-potentially-see-the-light-of-day” chair designs from Austrian designer Thomas Feichtner. It’s been an exciting seven months at Feichtner’s studio: while the Salone only saw a 1:5 scale model of the “M3” chair, the designer saw fit to unveil the final product in his hometown during Vienna Design Week. (In the meantime, he’d also found time to design a rather timely chandelier for Lobmeyr.)

Liberated from the demands normally made on a mass-produced item, this design experiments with functionality, structural engineering and material. Both its back and its armrests are mere tangents of the construction, the functions of which are only discovered via actual use. With a seating surface floating within the construction and legs extending far to the sides, the M3 is most assuredly not a chair that saves space—it is much rather one which creates a space [of exactly one cubic meter; hence the name of the piece].

Although the thickness of the bars has proportionally increased from the rapid-prototyped model to the end result, the element of space remains its defining characteristic. Indeed, I was initially struck by the form’s resemblance to the tesseract, the “fourth-dimensional analog of the cube”—a concept that I recalled from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. (Seriously, try not to be mesmerized by this GIF.)

Nevertheless, Feichtner design also alludes to craftsmanship through his choice of material:

The chair is made of one and only one material: oak. This is a conscious choice of materials, hearkening back to the woodworking tradition upheld by furniture workshops of yore. The wood renders the chair’s light construction a static experiment which could only succeed in a handmade, unique item. Like many works by Feichtner, the M3 is to be understood as an artistic and experimental examination of design removed from industry and mass-production, as art and design placed in interdisciplinary dialog with one another. The M3 experiment is particularly well-suited to showing that design can free itself from the doctrine of the purely objective and is not automatically obligated to serve industrial utility. It represents a catalyst for the discussion of various positions.

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DesignPhiladelphia is rolling along here in Philadelphia. On Tuesday evening, Philly Works—now in its third year—invited three professionals to speak and participate in a panel discussion around the topic of “quality of life” at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, kicking off something a little bit different this time around.

Philly Works hosts an annual event occurring during DesignPhiladelphia that aims to highlight the thriving communities in design, craft and production in Philadelphia—often paying homage to Philadelphia’s history as being a highly productive and creative hub; “the workshop of the world.” Philly Works, in past years, has celebrated Philly’s makers by showcasing local products—from furniture to clothing, from housewares to motorcycles—alongside images of workspaces throughout the community to give viewers a glimpse into where and how the products were made.

After two successful exhibitions, Philly Works coordinators Will McHale and Alexandra Schmidt-Ullrich decided to take a drastic shift for this years DesignPhiladelphia event. “The last two years we had large design exhibits with things. It was wonderful and it was a lot of work for 10-days during DesignPhiladelphia. Last year we actually made a catalogue,” says Alexandra. “But we realized that while it was great while we did it, eventually we needed to move on. We were showcasing local Philadelphia artisans, fabricators, makers, designers’ architects and what they were doing, but it was starting to repeat itself. So we thought, why don’t we take these amazing minds—people with all of these amazing skills—and start letting them work together.”

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NYC artist Bruno Levy introduces street art to Nepal

Boasting a variety of talent across multiple mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, music and video, Bruno Levy‘s work has been exhibited in some of the America’s most influential museums, from the Guggenheim to the SFMOMA. The Paris-born, NYC-based artist—newly fascinated by cross-cultural differences—recently spent five months living and working in Kathmandu, Nepal in an effort to bring beauty to a stark landscape foreign to Western influence.

Upon encountering a culture in flux, besieged by communist propaganda and forced cultural views, Levy was compelled to begin painting his own pieces in the Nepalese capital this summer. For what he dubbed the “Bigfoot Project,” the artist took to the streets, using high-profile city walls as a canvas to inspire the locals rather than to interject his own foreign views. Included in his efforts were painted murals and an experimental sculpture that seemed to capture the city’s curious spirit. We caught up with Levy to pick his brain about the project, from inspiration to execution.

Why Nepal?

Kathmandu is a city in transition, modernizing rapidly, trying to catch up with the rest of the world. It’s somewhat raw, dirty and open. The concept of public space there is different than in the West. Although Nepal has a rich and amazing culture of craftsmanship, the concept of creative art is still very new. So I wanted to share some urban culture in an effort to make Kathmandu a bit more beautiful and inspire other people to express themselves.

Is Nepal generally free of un-commissioned street art?

This is very new. Graffiti does not exist. So it’s not legal or illegal, making it a perfect place to just play. There were a handful of tags in more hidden parts of town and Space Invader visited Nepal and left his mark, but for the most part it was out of the general public’s eye.

What inspired the “Bigfoot Project” name?

The Bigfoot is really elusive, abominable snowman. So I just started painting feet all around the city, BIG FEET. Also in Hinduism feet have a certain stigma. Feet are dirty or impure, yet the feet of gods or gurus are special.

How did the Nepalese people respond to the art?

The first reaction was curiosity: “why are you doing this and what does it mean?'” Most people have never seen anything like this and cannot understand why someone would paint a wall for free or for fun. Once people realized that there was no political agenda, they reacted with complete enthusiasm and support. They helped paint, an old man blessed me for cleaning the walls and the statue was even given offerings and worshipped. Newspapers and magazines wrote some stories. Soon local kids started forming groups and painting.

Describe the Bigfoot Project’s transition from street paintings to sculpture.

The paintings are part of the bigger project to share street art culture through all possible mediums. When that started picking up, and locals kids started painting, I thought it was important to introduce a new medium for a new way of public expression. The sculpture took a little over a month of 10-hour days. I had not made papier-mâché since kindergarden, so there was definitely a learning curve.

What were you trying to say with the larger street paintings?

The character with the money coming out of his head or “dreaming of dollars” was painted on the oldest government college’s wall. It was a statement about the corrupt politicians in Nepal and the future of the students. The mural of the character plugged to the TV was painted across the passport agency, where around 200 Nepalis a day wait for their passports, with idealistic visions of moving and working abroad. I wanted to make a statement about the impact of television and media. Most paintings have stories, but my main drive was to make the walls more beautiful rather then impose my foreign views and to explore some concepts of repetition that are so prevalent in urban art.