Hasta La Ideas

With the eye of sculptor, Michael Zelehoski breaks down and reassembles everyday objects into two-dimensional works—like pieces of a puzzle—that challenge perspective. His mixed-media picture planes of chairs, ladders and tables incorporate recognizable remnants of these items, creating eerie spatial illusions of structure.

“In the collapse of the object I explore the duality between three-dimensional reality and two-dimensional pictorial space and try to push the continuum of representational art to a logical extreme,” Zelehoski states on his website. “A chair, for example, remains a chair, formally and materially, even as its function is negated.” A peek at the back of one of his pieces (below) shows just how little the artist alters his source material to pose these questions.

Born in Concord, MA, Zelehoski attended Simon’s Rock College of Bard, graduating with a degree in fine art from Finis Terrae University in Santiago, Chile. There, he apprenticed for sculptor Felix Maruenda, helping to complete the “Monumento al Trabajador Voluntario” after Maruendar’s death.

Zelehoski returned to the United States four years ago, turning his focus from sculpture to investigating the quandary of artistic representation and the subjects represented. He also carves and burns wood in his figurative illustrations.

Currently, Zelehoski is preparing for “Collection,” an upcoming group exhibition at the Christina Ray gallery. He’s also at work on new pieces for a solo show at Christina Ray slated for September, flattening a picnic table and two police barricades into two-dimensional pieces. (See first two images above, and check out a few others in the gallery below.)

“Collection” runs from 10-27 June 2010.

Pass the Pistons pizza and Timberwolves toast! Soon, you’ll be able to put your favorite NBA team where your mouth is, thanks to brave new licensing initiatives designed to fatten up the NBA’s bottom line. The league is betting that basketball fans, having lost interest in team-branded apparel, will have bottomless appetites for logo foodstuffs. “As key licensing categories have matured, it’s an ongoing goal of the NBA to expand the brand into places that may attract new customers,” Sal LaRocca, head of global merchandising, told USA Today. Why the move to food? “A lot of people watching NBA games on TV tend to eat.” A-ha! First up is NBA team logo pizza, created by applying printed wafers of sugar, starch, and food coloring to baked and sliced commercial pies that will retail for about $5 more than their logo-free counterparts. Fans can also burn favorite team logos into slices of bread with NBA Pro Toast Toasters, which are already popping up on eBay.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A colossal container made from bullet-proof glass, Glassphemy withstands some serious blows as people throw bottles from the platform above in an effort to rethink and revive the act of recycling. Created by Macro Sea—the studio that stirred NYC last year with their dumpster swimming pools—the installation serves as both stress reliever and glass recycling center, because “smashing shit is fun.” (See Rafaël Rozendaal’s recent (less eco-minded) version for more insight on the subject.)

Measuring 20 feet high and 30 feet long, people armed with glass bottles collected from local bars stand on one side of the structure, ready to hurl them at the awaiting group, who stand behind bullet-proof glass on the other end.

Each breaking glass activates a lighting system designed by Jason Krugman, and a bike-powered cement mixer polishes the resulting shards or they get ground down into sand, which will eventually find a home in a planned beer garden.

While not open to the public, Macro Sea welcomes ideas on what to do with the broken glass. Together with ReadyMade magazine
they’re holding a contest asking for recycling ideas, making the winning designs from the leftover glass.

Photos by Chris Mottalini

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pa href=”http://www.epfl-ecal-lab.ch/page32323.html”emSunny Memories/em/a, a traveling exhibition exploring the application of dye-based solar cells, landed at the Center for Architecture during New York Design Week and runs through June 6th. Above, Laetitia Wolff of a href=”http://futureflair.com/”Futureflair/a and Nicolas Henchoz of a href=”http://www.epfl-ecal-lab.ch”EPFL+ECAL Lab/a walk us through 5 highlights./p

pThe story begins with a partnership between designers and engineers. The EPFL+ECAL Lab is an outpost of the Swiss technology bureau Ecole Polyteacute;chnique Fedeacute;rale de Lausanne (EPFL) that lives within the design school at ECAL. Their goal is to find ways to integrate and apply new technologies by bringing them straight to designers. /p

pFor this exhibition, the EPFL+ECAL Lab invited three other schools, the California College of the Arts (CCA), the Royal College of Art (RCA), and Ecole Nationale Supeacute;rieure de Creacute;ation Industrielle (ENSCI), to explore a colorant-based solar cell technology invented by Michael Graetzel at EPFL a few years ago. /p

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pThe cells are best explained in the show’s catalog: /p

blockquoteA colorant is poured onto ceramic powder which is heated at 400 degrees and sits between two plates of glass. A liquid conductormdash;an electrolytemdash;serves as a kind of sauce, the final ingredient in this sandwich. An electric wire is connected to the top glass, another to the lower glass and the cell is ready to work. The technique used to deposit the powdermdash;the colorant’s supportmdash;comes from screenprinting and can thus be used for refined patterns and even texts./blockquote

pThe results are impressivemdash;the four schools produced work that touched all parts of daily life, from architectural pavilions to radios and horticulture. The new capabilities of the dye-based cell combined with the inventiveness of the students moved the projects away from the familiar aesthetic of the surface-applied, black and blue pholtovataic. The best part is that one-third of the projects shown are feasible now, and the rest within ten years. /p

pImages and descriptions of several of the projects follow./p

pENSCI: /p

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pemHelio/em by Leacute;a Longisbr /
Big time radio is back! In an era of miniaturization for electronic objects, Helio gives radio back the ability to captivate as it used to. Recalling the esthetic of tube amplifiers, the device showcases cells whose direction and colour complement each other to capture almost all of the light spectrum./p

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pemElectriflore/em by Alexandre Kournwskybr /
A wall fixture to encourage plant growth: a solar energy-fed electric current circulates in the floor to help plants growmdash;the new solar cells, inspired by photosynthesis, are making their tribute to plants. Electriflore can be bent as needed to allow the grower to add plant food capsules.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/ny_design_week_10/new_york_design_week_2010_dye-based_photovoltaics_at_sunny_memories_16633.asp”(more…)/a
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