by LinYee Yuan With a tepid spring and uncertain weather, summer travel seems like a distant dream for many of us in NYC. But during Design Week, the exhibition “Here & There”—from the designers behind…
Presto. An image from The Big Book of Magic, new this month from Taschen.
• Our new favorite way to make $70 disappear is The Big Book of Magic. Newly conjured by Taschen, the century-spanning tome features hundreds of rarely seen vintage posters, photographs, handbills, and engravings as well as paintings by the likes of Hieronymus “Abracadabra” Bosch and Caravaggio.
• Take an object, leave an object. Such is the invitation of “Museum as Plinth,” an interactive exhibit that opens today in the lobby of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Consider the role of museums, curators, and the general public in validating what is and what is not design as you ponder your new souvenir–stamped “From the Collection of the MAD Museum.”
• It’s official: Paul Schimmel, formerly the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is hooking up with Hauser & Wirth. He’s joined the gallery as a partner and will run a new L.A. arts space called Hauser Wirth & Schimmel. Expected to open in 2015, the new venue is “envisioned as a museum-like destination for experiencing art in context,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the gallery. continued…
The New York home and studio of the late American artist Donald Judd will open to the public next month following a three-year restoration (+ slideshow).
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White, c/o Judd Foundation, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras and Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
Led by New York-based Architecture Research Office (ARO), a team of consultants and engineers have restored the interiors of the five-storey residence at 101 Spring Street, where Judd lived and worked from 1968 until his death in 1994 and amassed a collection of over 500 artworks.
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
The project involved maintaining the open-plan layout created by Judd and reconditioning the timber floors and exposed plaster walls. The team also had to replace an existing spiral staircase to bring the building in line with current health and safety standards.
Third floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Larry Bell
“Our goal has been to preserve Donald Judd’s vision for the building and make it accessible to the public, while satisfying contemporary building requirements,” said ARO principal Adam Yarinsky. “The entire design team worked with creativity, diligence, and sensitivity to resolve the complex challenges involved in reconciling these objectives.”
First floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Ad Reinhardt
The team meticulously catalogued the situation of every sculpture, painting and object in the house, including pieces by Judd himself as well as works gifted by artist-friends such as Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, plus older artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Ad Reinhardt and more. Following the restoration, each object was returned to its exact position.
First floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation and Ad Reinhardt
The ground floor of the house was previously used by Judd as a living room and will now serve as an event and lecture space for the Judd Foundation, the charity responsible for the building. As visitors arrive, one of the first things they’ll spot is a sculpture by Andre comprising a stack of bricks.
Ground floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation
A Judd-designed kitchen with a wooden table and central stove features on the first floor, while the fourth floor accommodates a bedroom with a fluorescent lighting installation by Flavin along one side.
Manifest Destiny by Carl Andre – photograph by Rainer Judd c/o Judd Foundation and Carl Andre
The restoration also included the exterior of the building, where the team replaced around 13,000 cast-iron pieces.
Fourth floor – photograph by Josh White c/o Judd Foundation, John Chamberlain, Lucas Samaras, Stephen Flavin/Artists Rights Society
When Donald Judd’s New York City building in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District opens to the public in June 2013 after a three-year restoration, visitors will experience Judd’s home and studio as originally installed by the artist. The restoration of 101 Spring Street began on June 3, 2010 (the artist’s birthday) and will conclude three years later. Donald Judd lived in the building with his family beginning in 1968, and it was his New York studio until his death in 1994.
Guided visits will be offered for small groups by appointment through an online ticketing system and by telephone. Visitors will be guided through all floors of the home, including Judd’s studio, kitchen, and his stately fifth-floor bedroom, which is installed with a floor-to-ceiling 1969 Dan Flavin fluorescent light piece, extending the length of the loft space.
101 Spring Street – photograph c/o Judd Foundation
Each floor will remain as installed by Donald Judd with pieces from his collection of over 500 objects, including original sculpture, paintings, drawings, prints, and furniture designed by Judd and others. Judd installed artworks by Jean Arp, Carl Andre, Larry Bell, John Chamberlain, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, Ad Reinhardt, Lucas Samaras, and Frank Stella throughout the building, all of which viewers will be able to explore.
Overseen by board members Flavin Judd and Rob Beyer, the restoration project shares the same goal and mission of Judd Foundation: to preserve Judd’s living and working spaces and promote a wider understanding and appreciation of Donald Judd’s legacy. The New York City design firm Architecture Research Office (ARO), led Judd Foundation’s project team of consultants, which includes a preservation architect and engineers.
South Korean studio VOID planning used handmade paper and gravel to create the appearance of a misty landscape for this exhibition stand at a craft fair in Seoul (+ slideshow).
The stand, for hand-crafted furniture and products brand Onn, comprised a room with walls made from traditional Hanji paper, stained to create a natural gradient from dark to light.
VOID planning added narrow openings at each end to allow visitors to walk though the space over a gravel pathway that spanned the interior.
Furniture was positioned at the edges over a dark mirrored surface reminiscent of water.
“Walking along inside of the exhibition space reminds of taking a walk on a wet foggy lakeside in the morning,” say the architects.
Smaller items were presented on a raw timber shelving unit that formed an obstacle across the pathway.
The Onn booth of ‘2012 Craft Trend Fair Seoul’ shows the direction successfully under the title of ‘Beob Go Chang Shin’ (which means create new one based on the old one).
Onn is a brand of masterpiece which is carefully classified and selected under the present standard of values and tastes of Millenary Jeonju culture. These premium handcrafted products are well blended traditions with modern designs by cultural asset masters. Materials and colours, products of Onn are inspired by nature and it lights up the traditional peculiarity.
The exhibition booth was constructed to remind a scene of nature as Onn desired, and the space becomes an art piece itself harmonised with the products by Onn. Walking along inside of the exhibition space reminds of taking a walk on a wet foggy lakeside in the morning. Gradation effect of Muk on Hanji which is traditional colour and paper of Jeonju stands becoming the wall and gravels are spread on the floor. All of these extraordinary scenes of nature reflected through the black-mirrored pathway on the floor. This collaboration seemed like watching an epic oriental painting as it was.
Visitors to the Afrofuture exhibition in Milan built light-up glasses from recycled materials at a workshop organised by Maker Faire Africa (+ movie).
The workshop was a taster for the larger two to three day events that Maker Faire Africa put on in African cities for local makers to exhibit and develop their designs for gadgets or products.
“The concept is that people come together to show their ad hoc inventions that they’ve made in their garages, basements or studios,” said Jennifer Wolfe of Maker Faire Africa, who organises the workshops.
“In Africa, the inventions tend to be focussed on items that solve immediate and fundamental needs – issues such as agriculture, health and electricity.”
At Afrofuture, a series of African-oriented design talks and activities, designer Cyrus Nganga from Nigeria helped visitors create their own versions of his C-Stunner glasses.
The decorative glasses are built from old spectacle frames and recycled wire, metal or other found materials.
Technology expert David Olaniyan was on hand to help integrate arduino microcontroller circuit boards with the designs so LEDs could be programmed to flash.
“We’re trying to bring together some of these emerging technologies with grass root strategies, which you need to couple togther in a place like Africa,” Wolfe told Dezeen.
Maker Faire is a global initiative that runs public workshops for designers to showcase their inventions and Maker Faire Africa has amassed a community of makers across the continent that have presented over 400 inventions.
Wolfe presented other projects championed by Maker Faire Africa during the event, including a generator than can produce six hours of electricity with one litre of urine and conductive woven textiles.
Maker Faire Africa has been running for five years and operates in Ghana, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria, and has introduced 3D printers to Cairo and Lagos as part of its programme.
The organisation aims to help designers market their products and find funding, as well as introduce them to technologies that could make their items more useful and consumer friendly.
The Afrofuture exhibition took place at the La Rinascente department store in Milan during the city’s design week last month and was curated by Beatrice Galilee.
The W New York Hotel Union Square helped ICFF celebrate its 25th anniversary with an exotic installation imported from Spain. We equipped writer Nancy Lazarus with castanets and sent her out into the sultry night.
(Photos courtesy W Hotel Union Square)
Wanda Barcelona is heading back to Spain with many new fans. The design firm, which specializes in “paper dreams, ephemeral architecture, and creative spaces,” created “Fantastico” (above) for display at the W New York Union Square during ICFF. The enormous yet graceful wooden fan with intricate paper cutouts celebrated the history of furniture design, the Spanish “language of the hand fan,” and the recently completed renovation of the W hotel property.
During a Monday evening event at the hotel, the trio from Wanda Barcelona (below) was on hand to shed light on their fantasy construction, created with the support of Interiors from Spain. Inti Velez, the firm’s architect, said the fan structure was inspired by the way “high-society Spanish girls used to communicate with their lovers during Spanish colonial times.” For example, fanning very quickly meant they were engaged. Velez noted that it reminds him of today’s rapid text-message exchanges.
The name “Fantastico” not only conveys hand fans and fantasy, but also translates well into English, Spanish, and other Romance languages, noted Dani Mancini, the firm’s designer. He said they used white along with gold accents to “capture the feeling of elegance and to fit well into the new décor of the W Hotel’s lobby.” continued…
You came, you saw, you Friezed (and joined the Collective), and then dived straight into NYCxDESIGN and ICFF. In the few days that stand between you and a road trip, body of water, and/or that teetering stack of unread books you can now refer to as your “summer reading list,” soothe your weary eyes with the help of Paul Delvaux (1897–1994). A selection of 20 of the Belgian artist’s quietly seductive works are on view through June 1 at Blain|Di Donna gallery in New York, after which they’ll travel to London.
Produced over a span of 35 years, the works in this non-selling exhibition follow Delvaux as he samples a variety of influences–James Ensor‘s skeletal hijinks, Giorgio de Chirico‘s haunted piazzas, Dalí‘s alienated objects and parched landscapes, Magritte‘s mysterious lovers and bowler-hatted men of mystery–and makes them his own, in a world where mythical figures contemplate crumbling cities (Delvaux studied architecture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels before picking up a paintbrush), suspiciously lush foilage, roiling seas, and ribbon corsages, abandoned and pinned to the floor.
A recent graduate of California College of the Arts, Toyin Odutola is already celebrating her second show at Jack Shainman Gallery in NYC. The energetic artist produces ink works…
This past weekend, we took the water taxi to Randall’s Island for the second edition of Frieze New York, which has established itself as an extremely well curated and produced art fair. The 250,000-square-foot temporary tent by SO – IL architects provides generous space for exhibitors, amazing natural light, and stood up remarkably well to the rolling thunderstorms that struck on Saturday afternoon.
Not one to shy from controversy, visitors were greeted by Paul McCarthy’s giant 80 feet tall inflatable ‘Balloon Dog’, a dig at Jeff Koons’ failed attempt in court to get exclusive rights to balloon dogs worldwide, if you’re skeptical of the stakes, McCarthy’s homage sold for $950,000.
LA-based Pae White won hearts with her suspended installation of tiny upward facing mirrors reflecting their bright geometric patterns underneath. Dan Colen’s circular sculpture made from basketball backboards at the Gagosian booth provided awesome photo opps for 2001 style shots, and as far as found objects go, it’s hard to beat the cement mixer by Alexandre da Cunha.
There was an abundance of bold new work on display with a lot of galleries choosing to promote the same artists they represented last year. Tom Friedman’s solo show was hugely popular; we were really into Daniel Arsham’s volcanic ash and broken glass cast resin pieces; and Liam Gillick’s ‘Scorpion or Felix’ decorative door screens would probably do quite well at the ICFF this weekend.
Clearly, the organizers know their audience partnering with food vendors—Frankies Spuntino, Prime Meats, Roberta’s, Mission Chinese Food and Blue Bottle Coffee, to name a few—and we were really impressed with the amount of water taxis they secured to ferry visitors to-and-from Manhattan. We’ll see if The Armory Show, which takes place in March at the crowded Pier 92+94 complex, steps up its game in response next year…
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Photography by Glen Jackson Taylor for Core77
