Hasta La Ideas

A museum commissions young artists to create new work that riffs off of classics in their collection

Classic works of art combine with modern applications at Intersections, a progressive series of contemporary art projects. Started in October of 2009 by The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the initiative explores, “intriguing intersections between old and new traditions, modern and contemporary art practices, and museum spaces and artistic interventions” by commissioning a young artist to create a work inspired by a classic piece in their collection.

The project launched with a video projection called “Brain Storm” that projected landscapes of Cezzane, Dove, and Kadinsky onto the walls of the museum’s modern art space, the Goh Annex in October 2009. Since then, the collection has continued to evolve to different mediums including sculptures, wall drawings and monochrome paintings.

Some pieces in the current collection include Tayo Heuser’s Pulse, a group of wall-mounted sculptures inspired by Mark Rothko’s paintings and the architecture of the Goh Annex, as well as Linn Meyers’s at the time being, a wall drawing inspired by the Vincent van Gogh’s, “The Road Menders.” Through these pieces, viewers can see the melding between old art forms and the application of new techniques.

See the full collection of the Intersections Art Projects here. The series will continue to be on display at the The Phillips Collection with the newest project arriving on 1 October 2010.

German designer Matthias Zschaler has made a concept watch that takes its geometry from an isometric drawing of a cube.

Called Cube, the watch would have a digital display and come in a range of colours.

Here’s some more from the designer:

CUBE – digital wrist watch concept

CUBE is a simple and stylish digital watch that because of its layout looks like the isometric illustration of a cube.

It uses an under screen technology to display the time.

See also:

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Time Lines by Denis Guidone	More watches and clocks	Dezeen’s top ten: watches and clocks

In order to gather the vast number of exhibited works currently on show (exhibition ends this Thursday) at Mail Me Art at South London’s Red Gate Gallery, Curator Darren Di Lieto asked for illustrators and artists to post envelopes adorned with artwork to the same address – over a period of a year…

This is the second year running that De Lieto (Senior Editor of Illustration News Portal, The Little Chimp Society) has organised a Mail Me Art show, and both established and amateur artists from around the world contributed – each watching their art disappear into the postal system and awaiting confirmation of its arrival at the other end, with no guarantee it would make the journey intact.

We thought it would be a good idea to get along to the exhibition and see the work first hand. Here are some of our favourite pieces:

This envelope is illustrated by 22 year old American illustrator Lauryn Buda, who is currently doing a major at The College of Visual Arts in Minnesota, USA. We like how the bottom half of the characters’ jaw somewhat resembes a teacup! This piece is priced at £10.

The above illustration of a carrier pigeon – which of course closely reflects the exhibitions theme – is by Brighton based illustrator and designer Joseph Wilkins. The pigeon, complete with postal sack, Converse trainers and a baseball cap truly looks the part. This piece of mail art will set you back £30.

This sad-faced, half empty glass character made its way to the exhibition all the way from Australia and was illustrated by award winning freelance artist/illustrator Benjamin Johnson. Price: £65.

This playful piece is by freelance Spanish artist Ana Menéndes Fuentes, who specialises in illustrations, cartoons and animations. Pick it up at the exhibition for £10.

Both of the above submissions are that of Jonathon Cusick, who is known for his work for the Radio Times amongst other things. Jonathon won the monthly competition for Mail Me Art, in July. These pieces can be purchased for £120 each.

This two-sided piece by Doug Dabb depicts a blindfolded boy against a wall stained with various splats. Turn over the envelope and we find out the fate awaiting the boy on the other side: he’s about to be pelted with water bombs thrown by a group of kids:

Above piece is by Dragica Ohashi. Apologies for the out of focus shot!

This black and white piece is by Humanivore, who specialises in concept art work.

The above envelope was sent by established Japanese multimedia artist, illustrator, fashion designer and creative make-up artist May Sum. Sum is the Chief Brand Manager and Creative Director of wahahafactory.com, and has worked with many famous fashion brands such as Vivienne Westwood. It’s really interesting and unique the way in which Sum manages to incorporate make-up and fashion with illustration, as well as creating a retro feel – very much of the moment. This print is availlable for £10 at the exhibition.

This illustrated envelope is by Baser and can be purchased for £30.

This illustration is by Jonathan Fidalgo and is priced at £120.

This decorative piece is by Yorkshire based graphic designer, Victoria Gregory. Check out more of her illustrations, as well as some typography here. Pick this piece up for £10 at the exhibition.

The above piece is by Sumbody and is availlable to purchase for £30.

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This piece is by French sub-pop artist Pascal Cuttoli, of Royal Glamsters. Cuttoli had his first exhibition at just sixteen years old and his personal philosophy is “no style, no rules – just ideas and curiosity.” The above envelope is priced at £45.

Freelance illustrator, Michael Hacker is behind this fun canine envelope design, but there is more than meets the eye. On the reverse and inside of the envelope there is further illustration for you to check out at the exhibition or view on Hacker’s website. This was the January Mail Me Art competition winning piece and is available to buy for £65. Again, sorry about the out of focus photograph!

This illustration is by Brazilian born Roberta Masciarelli, whose work has been exhibited throughout the USA and Europe, as well as South Africa. Masciarelli has been a graphic designer for twenty years and is now based in Texas, USA. This piece is availlable to purchase for £10.

This piece is by illustrator Maura Cluthe and is priced at £120.

Cluthe says of the process of submitting her artwork “I have always enjoyed creating (and receiving!) mail art. I really like the addition of scruffs, marks, bumps and bruises it tends to receive while travelling through the postal system,” adding “Since I was sending this piece to England, I thought it would be fun to create something more durable to see how it would fare passing through so many hands.”

The above character – who reminds us of the character Leela from animated sci-fi, comedy show Futurama but with an extra pair of arms – is by Lulu Wang Parades. This illustration is found inside the external packaging used in transit, and is priced at £10.

The colourful piece (front and back, shown above) is by Canadian illustrator Melody Llewellyn. Llewellyn is a Fine Art graduate of ’96 and has an interesting site full of similar illustrations which you can check out. Priced at £10.

This piece of mail art, by Lina Kasparaityte, made its way to the exhibition from Lithuania. Availlable to purchase for £10.

This piece – which features similar illustration on all surfaces of the box – is by UK based illustrator Lee Hasler. Hasler’s inspiration comes from “1950’s and 60’s advertising characters, dirt cheap robots, lo-fi monsters,” as well as many other themes. Yours for £30.

This piece is by London based illustrator Martin Tomsky and is priced at £65.

by Brooke Thyng, £30.

This piece is by storyboard artist and illustrator, Maria Pena and is yours for just £10.

This stencil illustration is by Matthias Krumbiegel and is priced at £30.

This colourful piece of mail art has been illustrated by Paul Yangue and can be purchased for £10.

This collection of illustrated boxes is by Teodoru Badiu and can be yours for £30.

If you like what you see, check out even more mail art at the exhibition at:

The Red Gate Gallery
209a Coldharbour Lane
London
SW9 8RU

Nearest Station: Loughborough Lane

Ends Thursday 5th August – so get down there quick!

One angle this writer hadn’t considered during this two year-long kerfuffle between Prince Charles and architect Richard Rogers, where the former was able to kill off a project by the latter because of his strong anti-modernism leanings is, to some people, an ability the Prince might be considered useful for. In something like the debate playing out in New York over building a mosque nearby the World Trade Center site, groups in West London have been fighting to get plans scrapped for a proposed new Islamic Republic embassy there. Though far more focused on their not liking the modernism of the building itself, instead of all the hostility here which seems much more anti-religion, the tone of pieces like this one in the Telegraph seems to elude that it’s not all just about the building there either. But sticking with the anti-modernism of it, the groups against building something “clad in marble and stone” and featuring “an overarching rhomboid with a bright yellow square structure beneath” in their particularly conservative, very Victorian neighborhood, have decided to turn to Prince Charles to help use his influence in getting the project canned. That he would step in shortly after being so criticized, even through an official judicial ruling seems unlikely, but again: the guy a) sure loves to hate modernism and b) seems more than happy to talk about it, so we’ll see how it pans out.

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