Hasta La Ideas

Photographer Luis Gispert’s book and exhibit exploring the subculture of custom counterfeit fashion

Artistic jack-of-all-trades, Luis Gispert’s work spans a variety of topics, but his pieces exploring cultural relationships and our near divine connection with consumerism have made him a standout over the last decade. In the last two years Gispert uncovered a niche subculture within the world of custom automotive interiors. After stumbling across a small group of people who deck out their cars with faux fashion logos and fabrics, he started documenting the wild one-off installations and bizarre use of fraudulent iconography in a variety of forms.

In his upcoming show “Decepción,” at the Mary Boone Gallery, Gispert will showcase his imagery focusing on this elusive counterfeit fashion culture, timed to help kick off NYC Fashion week. The collection, which extends beyond cars into clothing, bags and other accessories, nicely parallels the blown-out extravagance of fashion’s biggest month by peeking inside a similarly elusive world filled with eccentric characters.

The images (some pictured are exclusives to Cool Hunting) will also appear in a yet-to-be-titled book due out later this year in which Gispert further documents this obsession with brands and their associated logos. A far cry from the counterfeit bags available on the streets of most modern metropolises, Gispert’s imagery digs deeper into the phenomenon, giving rise to questions of indulgence, desire and status.

At first glance the characters in Gispert’s pictures seem almost comical, the unusual nature of their actions overshadowing their humanity. But after considering the lengths to which these individuals went to achieve their goals, they become consistently more charming. Their idiosyncrasies burst forth from their garb, a testament to the innovation of the human spirit.

The show opens Thursday, 8 September 2011 and runs through 22 October 2011. Keep an eye out for Gispert’s book coming later this year from Ohwow.

Cakes decorated like creepily realistic babies and pencils with the alphabet painstakingly carved into their tips are among the exhibits at power of Making, which opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London yesterday. 

Top: Alphabet by Dalton Ghetti, 1990-2005 © Sloan T. Howard Photography
Above: Sculpted baby cake by Michelle Wibowo, 2006, © Michelle Sugar Art

Organised in collaboration with the Crafts Council and curated by Daniel Charny, the show also includes work by Thomas Heatherwick and shoe designer Marloes ten Bhömer.

Above: Crochetdermy Bear by Shauna Richardson, 2007, © Shauna Richardson

Over 100 hand-made curiosities on show range from surgical equipment to musical instruments to art objects.

Above: Rotationalmouldedshoe by Marloes ten Bhömer, 2009, © Marloes ten Bhömer

Read Alastair Sooke’s review of the exhibition in our Dezeen Wire story.

Above: Blonde Lips headpiece by Charlie Le Mindu, 2009, © Manu Valcarce

The exhibition runs until 2 January 2012.

Above: Anemone trilby hat by Sylvia Fletcher, James Lock & Co. Ltd, 2010-11, © James Lock & Co. Ltd

Here are some more details from the V&A:

Power of Making
A V&A and Crafts Council exhibition
6 September 2011 – 2 January 2012

This autumn, the V&A and Crafts Council will celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making will be a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.

Above: King Silver’ gorilla sculpture by David Mach RA, 2011, ©Private Collection, photographer Richard Riddick

The exhibition will showcase works made using a diverse range of skills and explore how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour. Works on display will include moulded shoes by Marloes ten Bhömer, new Saville Row tailoring by Social Suicide, furniture such as a spun metal rotating chair by Thomas Heatherwick to individual handcrafted puppets from the 2009 film Fantastic Mr Fox, a six-necked guitar, bio-implant embroidering to aid surgical implants, a lion-shaped Ghanaian coffin, extreme cake decorations and new technologies such as 3D printing.

Above: Urban picnic table by Gareth Neal, 2010, © Gareth Neal Ltd

Daniel Charny, who is curating the exhibition, said: “This exhibition will celebrate the importance of traditional and time-honoured ways of making but also highlight the extraordinary innovation taking place around the world. We aim to show how the act of making in its various forms, from human expression to practical problem solving, unites us globally. We hope the exhibition will inspire people and cause them to more thoughtfully consider the role of making in their lives, in their society, in commerce and in education.”

Above: Widow dressmaker pin dress by Susie MacMurray, 2009, Loaned by Manchester Art Galleries, © Ben Blackall 2011

Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council said: “The Crafts Council and V&A partnership is a very fruitful one, enabling the development of ambitious contemporary craft exhibitions that are seen by very significant audiences. Power of Making is our second partnership exhibition and will focus on the universality of making. Over 100 hand-made objects from around the world will reveal the ingenuity of makers and highlight the influence of craft skills in a multitude of settings and across many industries.”

Above: Picking Daisies glass hand grenade by Layne Rowe, 2011, © Layne Rowe

There will be a recently completed work by David Mach, a giant gorilla created of metal coat hangers, which will stand in the V&A’s Grand Entrance, outside the Porter Gallery.

Above: God Save the King, F*** Hitler by Major A. T. Casdagli RAOC, 1941, © Captain A. T. Casdagli

The exhibition will encourage visitors to consider the process of making, not just the results. There will be commissioned documentary footage filmed at individual maker’s studios and factories, to provide an insight into how the knowledge of making is preserved. These will include Watson Bros. Gunmakers, CPP car makers in Coventry, John Lobb shoemakers and Moorfield Hospital’s prosthetic eye maker. There will also be a dedicated ‘Tinker Space’ for demonstrations and a wide programme of activities for visitors.

Above: a Prosthetic Suit for Stephen Hawking with Japanese Steel by Michael Rea, 2007, © Contemporary Art Museum Virginia Beach

People from around the world will be invited to upload short films about making to a dedicated open submission website and a selection of the best entries will be continually screened in the exhibitions making area.

Above: Miniature die cast ‘Chevy Van’ by Kevin Cyr, 2010, ©Kevin Cyr

Power of Making comes at a time when the loss of skill is threatening cultural practice and impacting on commercial industries. However, there is also a resurgence of making currently taking place as a means of self expression, social participation and cultural definition. The exhibition will examine and celebrate the expertise, knowledge and innovation demonstrated in objects, supporting the importance of traditional making skills and the drive towards new ways of working.

Power of Making is the second exhibition in the V&A/Crafts Council partnership.

6 September 2011 – 2 January 2012 in the Porter Gallery
Open daily 10.00 – 17.45 and until 22.00 every Friday

See also:

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Akio Hirata’s Exhibition of Hats by Nendo	A Flip Flop Story by Diederik Schneemann	Blaue Blume by Undergrowth Design

Perception shifts as art and nature intersect at the Nevada Museum of Art

Promising “unexpected access to the invisible,” what exactly the Nevada Museum of Art’s current show Landscape Futures proposes isn’t immediately clear. On first blush, the work looks like the usual collection of forward-thinking designs. But here there’s a catch.

The exhibit’s range of large-scale installations, experiments and devices all concern themselves less with the design itself than with the viewer’s reaction to it. Two years in the making, Bldgblog editor Geoff Manaugh worked with the NMA to develop an exhibition that would reflect the intersection of art and landscape architecture contextualized by the ever-evolving scope of design communication. The resulting project surveys methods for architecturally inventing and exploring the human perception of and interaction with their environments.

This flip-flopped point of view comes from Manaugh’s desire “to look at the devices, mechanisms, instruments, and pieces of equipment—the technology—through which humans can learn to see the landscape around them differently.” Revising the concept of “landscape futures” he posits that maybe we don’t need to devise new landscapes, “but simply little devices through which to see the world in new and unexpected ways.”

Artists Chris Woebken and Kenichi Okada’s interactive installation “Animal Superpowers” anthropomorphizes human sensory capabilities. Furthering the theme of human impact on environment, design firm Smout Allen’s Rube-Goldberg-inspired system visualizes a technological landscape that can adapt to our water needs.

An architectural commentary on the Arctic landscape, “The Active Layer” by experimental design group The Lateral Office consists of thousands of wooden dowels arranged to point out the tenuous geography in the North. “Embracing speculative scenarios in order to provoke new ways of thinking about the future” is at the heart of the exhibition, explains Manaugh.

Furthering the cause is the recently-launched Landscape Futures Night School, a series of event-styled lectures sponsored by Studio X in conjunction with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture under Manaugh’s current direction (along with Nicola Twilley). On hand at the debut installment was lecturer Liam Young, founder of the futuristic think-tank Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today and fellow featured exhibition artist. Creating “living maps of moss,” Young’s “Specimens of Unnatural History” ecologically replicate the Galapagos islands as populated with robotic and taxidermy entities that simultaneously reflect a “cautionary tale” of the future and a throwback to the naturalistic height of the Victorian era.

Supporting the contemplative narrative of his work, Young presented a metaphysical tour-de-force of his expeditions, ranging from Chernobyl dreamscapes to invasive species in the Galapagos conducted under the nomadic studio group, Unknown Fields Division—a group devoted to “unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies.”

Landscape Futures runs until 12 February 2012 at the Nevada Museum of Art.

“Specimens of Unnatural History” images by Liam Young. All other images by Jamie Kingman.

The American Design Club (AmDC) is back at it again. We recently saw them at the New York International Gift Fair and showing their last exhibit, Use Me, at the NoHo Design District during this year’s New York Design Week. Now they’re looking for submissions for their 7th group show, THREAT: Objects of Defense and Protection.

At Home. 3 A.M. SMASH! What do you grab?

Most of us are frightened by the idea of a criminal breaking into our home. In our minds we’ve imagined how we would react: Will I run? Will I hide? Will I fight? The American Design Club (AmDC) announces a call for submissions for its seventh show, THREAT: Objects of Defense and Protection. Designs will be based on the idea of protection from an intruder. The objective of your design is to invent an object or tool that will help you deal with an intruder.

Submissions will be accepted until October 27, 2011. Download the form here and enter your design (billy club, baseball bat, brass knuckles?) for exhibition in the upcoming AmDC show now!

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Above: Surfboards from the ’70s. Images and reporting by Matt Skenazy

“Shortboard Revolution, Surf Design 1967-1984” opened last week at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica. The exhibit aims to display “the evolution that created the modern surfboard and modern surfing as we know it” through more than 60 handcrafted boards from nearly two decades of rapidly evolving design and images from some of the great, early surf photographers. Performance and design are linked in many things, but in surfing, more than perhaps in any other sport, the rules of the game change constantly. And nowhere else is progression and design more inextricably linked.

Two examples: In 1968, when Nat Young brought a new, round-tail design to Malibu, he was able to do smoother, sweeping turns than his counterparts on squaretail boards. In the early ’80s, when Simon Anderson combined three smallish fins with a square-tail, down rail body, the thruster was born. In less than thirty months the thruster accounted for over 90% of surfboard sales. It was the best of all worlds: fast, with maximum acceleration out of turns, but it held fast even during the most dramatic of maneuvers paving the way for surfers to do blow tails, aerials and flips with reckless ease.

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