Brava

Holland Cotter's wrap up—although I'm sure it's not anyone's last word.

(I didn't take the chair.

More Shepard Fairey

A sister site to the Houston street billboard, this "Post No Bills" by Shepard Fairey is over on 29th and Broadway. I love the layering, especially the bits with the Andre the Giant stencils. Some of it (I hate to say) looks like beautiful wallpaper.

Postcards from the new edge

Last night I popped into the opening of Design Journeys at the AIGA National Design Center. The opening was electric. Rafael Esquer and his collaborators's interactive mural is brilliant—intricate in creation but clear, simple, and strong in intent (grab you; make you participate). The exhibition included literal takeaways (or sendaways) in the form of postcards customized with each designer's work on the front and a formatted back that included a few key messages: 1. "Visitors are encouraged to consider their own journeys and place in design" and 2. "Tell a friend. . . I am here because. . . ." In addition, it would be cool to have e-postcard versions (although perhaps there's the omnipresent rights issue?). E-cards would be easy to send—and would justify my hanging on to the printed postcards. Consider this a digital postcard.

I found the stories on the Design Journeys site more inspirational than the work on the walls and Macs. I recognized a fair amount of work in the show; what's news and inspiring for me are the life stories and statements—what impel/propel/compel each featured designer. Early on, Michele Washington was inspired by her grandmothers's fancy church hats. Rafael Esquer got lost after a 36-hour train trip from Sonora to Mexico City and missed an architecture entrance exam, which altered his path. Karin Fong was a cheerleader (this is a gross simplification).

I was struck by Karin Fong's homage to Sheila de Bretteville . . .

an artist and designer who joined the Yale faculty in 1990 as director of graduate studies in graphic design, [and who] resonates powerfully for the ways in which she advocated for the voice of designers. De Bretteville denounced the manner in which designers are subsumed by their clients, and argued instead that student designers should adopt a strong attitude and clear point of view in their work.

We designers must take the lead, but there is often a struggle between being an open-minded partner and a glorified order taker.

The impetus for the AIGA initiative and the exhibit was to diversify the profession; the result also diversifies ideas and increase braincells. Design Journeys is worth the trip to the AIGA for designers who are just starting out or who've been on the road for a while and are, as a GPS would say, "recalibrating."

A few of the exhibition's postcards: Top: Forever Now by Rafael Esquer; Left: Homeland #1 by Rebecca Méndez; Right bottom: The Wazir's Majid by Samina Quaraeshi.


Not in show: Endless Possibilities by Beth Tondreau

Design Can Make Me Happy Too

I stole my title from Stefan Sagmeister, but in the case of the OXO Good Grips Pour and Store watering can, design really makes me happy. When I exclaimed to Hardware Store Guy that the can was so smart, he replied that everything OXO makes is smart. Nice testimonial from the field!

Planned for easy storage, the spout can rotate to nest against the main portion of the (plastic) can. The spout can also turn outward for sprinkler "mode".

If you want to keep life simple, the rose—who knew the sprinkler head thingie is called a rose?—can be stored inside the body of the can.

I justified my whopping $11 spree by (successfully) planting seeds in recycled take-out coffee cup "pots".

See something, say a lot.

A bit of brilliance from Rick Moranis on the NYTimes Op-Ed page Friday (May 14, 2010). (Totally worth looking at the original for the typesetting; some part of the beauty is in the visual reference to the "See Something, Say Something" posters.)

If you see something,
say something.
If you say something,
mean something.
If you mean something,
you may have to prove something.
If you can't prove something,
you may regret saying something.
If you like something,
buy something.
If you keep something,
give away something.
If you lose something
too bad something.
If you shoot someone,
eat something.
If you eat something,
floss something.
If you drink something,
don't drive something.
If you drive something,
don't text something.
If you text something,
tweet something.
If you tweet something,
get a life or something.
If you smell something,
try not to breathe something.
If you cut something,
disinfect something.
If you disinfect something,
bandage something.
If you feel something,
tell a doctor something.
If you drop something,
pick up something.
If you break something,
fix something.
If you forge something,
spend something.
If you steal something,
fence something.
If you sow something,
reap something.
If you sew something,
wear something.
If you wear something,
wash something.
If you stain something,
dry something.
If you dry something,
iron something.
If you iron something,
get paid something.
If you make something,
sell something.
If you sell something,
charge something.
If you charge something,
tax something.
If you tax something,
deduct something.
If you deduct something,
file something.
If you file something,
refund something.
If you refund something,
bank something.
If you bank something,
try to get a decent rate
or something.
If you write something,
publish something.
If you publish something,
try to make a little something.

Mayday

I think the tags on Shepherd Fairey's Houston Street, NY, wall enrich the installation (OK, it's vandalism). Ironically, the perp obscured Fairey's wonderful typography exhorting "AMPLIFY YOUR VOICE" (Coincidence? We don't think so). I like Fairey's art/performance/concepts a lot, but feel his nod to Russian Constructivism is enhanced by tagger's top layer. Is it possible that Fairey himself got the tagger to deface the wall, à la the MoMA campaign?

Marina Redux

So I finally made it up to MoMA to see the Marina Abramovic installation/exhibition, and I have to say that I walked away from the show feeling kind of...assaulted.

I had the afternoon free, and planned on seeing the Abramovic show and then checking out the William Kentridge AND the Henri Cartier-Bresson, all stuff I really wanted to see. But I found, after viewing all of the pieces in the Abramovic show, and simply just feeling that she was downstairs, that I just was emotionally exhausted and could not, would not, look at another piece of art. I was distracted and unfocused. I felt like I had endured walking, crucifixion, screaming, dancing, pointing, staring, being tied together, nudity, holding a mirror, holding a bowl of milk, running into columns, breathing each other's air, laying on ice, washing bones, nudity, self-mortification, whipping, smashing into each other, slapping, driving in circles, and a breakup.

I did walk through the 2 nude people in the doorway (making sure to face the guy, since you had mentioned that most people face the woman). I thought after doing it that it's more sensible to face the shorter person so you have more face space, maybe that's why people face the woman?) I watched the changing of the guard of the crucified woman, and I laid down on the "Green Dragon", a bed made of copper with a green quartz "pillow" and tried to get my energy to align (note: the back of my head still hurts from that ersatz pillow, and I'm not sure if I achieved any enlightenment or inspiration).

Photo from opednews.com


The only other time I've ever felt like this as a result of an art exhibit was at the Bruce Nauman show at MoMA in 1995. It was filled with solitary squares for sitting in loneliness, a video of a clown laughing and crying, ropes tied like defiant arms, a video of someone slapping themselves (or was it 2 people slapping each other? I can't remember), a violin that played the notes D-E-A-D over and over (and could be heard throughout the exhibition over the sound of the crying/laughing clown and the slapping), and overall, the sound of metal taxidermied animal forms that were tied by their necks from a spinning frame that dragged on the floor. I think I walked all the way home from that show and cried on my couch. At the time I thought it was just me.

But the artist being present (and downstairs) and looking so tired and enduring, made this show more disturbing and more powerful. But I found that I didn't want to participate in the staring contest...I didn't want to be a part of the show at all, not even to take photographs (which people were doing like crazy). All in all...??? more pondering is in order. Surprisingly, I didn't dream about any of it that night.

Maybe, overall, I felt like I had endured something.

On a related note, I love this post by Paddy Johnson on Art Fag City (a great art blog/column) that references a 2004 article by Robert Schorr discussing how only good looking artists get naked (except for Vito Acconci!). Agreed. I think I had this thought sometime last year when I saw a Carolee Schneeman show in Chelsea...glad to be validated.

Bizarre Juxtapositions

Did someone putting up ads in the subway have a good time playing with different meanings of light and enlightenment?

Human copy machine

Like Linder, but not. Art by Sebastan Black, shot by yrs truly at his Senior graduation show from Vassar (and used sans permission).

Chelsea Gallery Jaunt: Joan Linder

Had a chance to see the Joan Linder show at Mixed Greens. Unbelievable...the artist has hand drawn all her mail and the contents of her desk...down to the patterning inside the envelopes.

Speaking of type and signage

I try to avoid posting material that's already gotten exposure, but . . .
The TDC's "Beautifully Banal" exhibit of posters, made to benefit the TDC scholarship fund, are breathtaking examples of how great design can transform communication into art. The online gallery shows both the original classified newspaper ad, taken from the designer's local community, and the retooled version. The latter is hardly banal. John Downer's version shows some fun lettering in the spirit of the Nautilus Diner as well!

Nautilus Diner

Some great signage in Madison, NJ.

Bag Tote

The driver of this mega-branding truck shouted out that everybody likes the big bag. He himself seemed unimpressed: "It's only contact paper." I wouldn't say "only." It's a big new applications—and a market extension— for something that used to be a covering for kitchen shelving or school notebooks.

Cultural Boundaries

In a newly-blooming site, my friend and colleague Michele Washington explores cross-cultural research in her blog cultural boundaries. Michele is also among the designers in AIGA's participatory exhibition Design Journeys," opening on May 19 in New York at 164 Fifth Avenue.

BTW, I may have been too quick to diss the use of the word "journey," but I still think Hollywood overuses the word!

Function . . . Fashion

I bought a used copy of John Wesley Powell's 1875 The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons and quickly perused all pages before sending it to my history-buff brother. Speaking of buff, the image of the "Navajo Ready for a Journey" looked as fit as—but less fierce than—Kate Hudson as snapped by a Life photographer at the recent Met Museum Costume Institute Gala. The late 19th century engraving was intended to show customs, not costumes. However, over a century after the book's original publication, my first (incorrect-fascinated-by-fashion) reaction is that the Navajo is Vogue-ing like Ms. Hudson (apologies for mixed metaphors and rivers).

While I'm superficially commenting on changes in interpretation, I've got to note that meaning of the word "journey" has evolved from traveling across challenging land masses to a Hollywood-style trek across "challenging" terrain—often more mental as physical.

Borges: simply beautiful

Recycling Redux (is that redundant?)

Hardly as arresting as Uhuru's chair—or art direction—but sustainable nonetheless, here are new "planters," in our front yardette, made from wine crates we picked up from the curbside trash in front of a NYC liquor store. Planting in process. Photo by Pat O'Neill.

Cyclone Lounge Chair

Beautiful (and very limited edition) furniture created by Brooklyn's Uhuru Design, made from reclaimed Coney Island boardwalk wood. This Cyclone Lounger is heartbreakingly lovely.

Link from the fabulous Noah Dziobecki.

Brilliant riffs on the pie chart

John Michael Boling over at Rhizome has collected some variations on the graph meme.
Hilarious.