Lux Lotus

Tropicalia

I'd definitely like to check out the Jean Prouve exhibition at the Yale School of Architecture:The exhibition is organized around a building Prouvé constructed in 1951 as a prototype of inexpensive, readily assembled housing that could be easily transported to France’s African colonies. Fabricated in Prouvé’s French workshops, the Tropical House—as it is known—was carried in the cargo hold of an Air France plane to Africa. It was erected in the town of Brazzaville and remained there for 50 years...The exhibition will include photographs by Mark Lyon, plans, artifacts and a short film documenting the Tropical House from its return to France and the completion of its restoration near Paris last summer. Related Prouvé objects, such as furniture made for export to the tropics, will also be included... In mid-April the entire house will be erected on the vacant lot adjoining the A&A building, where it will remain through June.[via Unbeige]

Things I Now Know (Or Need) Thanks to Suede

Suede magazine is pretty good. I wouldn't say that I am head over heels in love with it (yet!), although the potential is definitely there.  Here is a list of things I am obsessed with as a result of reading the March 2005 issue:

-The "Kenga" duffle bag, $80, from Angela Adams
-Having a tailor re-line a vintage trench in pink madras
-Duro Oluwu dresses
-Fab 5 Freddy's touching remembrance of his friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from March 11 to June 5 ("Painting was also my passion at the time, and while moving away from spray-painting subway cars to the gallery scene, I realized graffiti could and should be considered an art movement.")
-One day owning two white salukis who will enjoy sitting perfectly still on a white couch while I pose next to it in YSL
-The Black Fashion Museum possesses more than 4000 garments & accessories
-1953 liqueur decanter, Steuben Glass

The Smart Set: February 21-27

In the latest edition: Boozy, Cupcake, Mud, and more! Noted:

SUNDAY, 2.27: I can attest to the fact that the new Tim Hawkinson show at the Whitney is truly a popping, whirring, clicking spectacle of fantasy, wonder, and delight. Best of all, his Signature (1993) installation -- "A machine that signs my name onto a roll of paper, chops it off, and drops it into a pile" -- deftly sums up the lesser glories of the writer's (or touring author's) life. Through May 29. Sunday hours: 11am-6pm, $12.

More on that -- and how I want to get a tattoo of James Lee Byars' The Little Red Angel of Marseilles; a swirly, spherical, glass icon for the new century -- later.

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Flower Pin Mash-Up:

Tobias Wong's Ballistic Rose Brooch: "Instead of traditional silk or velvet, Wong has created a feminine icon for the 21st century out of bulletproof Kevlar fabric."

+/&/vs.

Karen Lee's Hotspot Bloom: "a wearable flower that glows and changes color to indicate the signal strength of a nearby wireless network." [via Eyebeam reBlog]

Related from the LL Archives: One the Surface of Things (Tabletop Mash-up) and Literally On the Road (Manuscript Mash-Up).

Whose Streets?

I interviewed street artist Give 'em Hell, aka James Wolanin, for London-based online culture mag, Ammo City. Excerpt:

ammo city: so much of the traditional new york gallery scene is about connections and money, and i see new art now as subverting some of those really tired constructs. still, our capitalist society in the u.s. makes it extraordinarily difficult for artists to get by except for the few artists that embrace that ethos. is that something you deal with in your work or personal life, giving away paintings for free? how do you view your relationship to that idea of the art world and is your perspective changing as you participate in more shows?

james wolanin: i don’t think so. alright, say i was to get into the whitney biennial next year. i think i would put paintings out front, for people to take them during the opening right before it. and i think they would freak about that because there’s always somebody sitting behind a desk wanting to make money off you. i feel like [the process through which i distribute my work] is giving back something for everyone.

It was a stimulating, provocative conversation about art (and its related economic and political aspects) and is well worth a read, here.

No Joy in Roseville, Apparently

I am quoted in an article in this morning's edition of the Detroit Free Press. A muralist in a nearby city has been thrown into jail for violating a city ordinance. For adding a woman with her breasts exposed - in homage to Michelangelo's "Creation of Man" - and the word "love" to a mural on the side of his building, the artist received jail time, a fine, and probation.

The mechanics of the situation are slightly more complicated, but that's all the context you need to understand my comment:

New York City-based Emerging Arts is a nonprofit organization that promotes up-and-coming artists.

"This is a case of taking the letter of the law to the limit and ending up with something that sounds ridiculous," said Lauren Cerand, the group's spokeswoman. "If it's good enough for the Sistine Chapel, it would be good enough for Roseville."

True story. And, best of all, it's the kicker.

Like a Salt Shaker

It's nearly half past midnight and I only have two more deadlines to meet this evening! I don't know how I do it, honestly, but I love everything I'm working on right now, and, believe me, I understand that's quite a gift.

I have so many fabulous blog posts in my head and jotted down in my little notebooks and on the backs of flyers and receipts - be patient, for you, next week, I promise. You will get it all: my jangly thoughts on Cy Twombly @ The Whitney, Dutch Design 2005, Vintage Floral Arranging Techniques/Motifs, Prouve's Tropical House, Howard Dean & the DNC, La Paresse, the eminently cool Tobias Wong and his Jenny Holzer tattoo, and much more.

I'm headed out of town for the weekend, and already have a new book, Elizabeth Wilson's Bohemians: The Glamorous Outcasts, (I've a weakness for the topic, I know) stashed in my bag for the trip down to DC.

This weekend, I'll be catching up with some old friends from my labor movement days, trying to get a jump on next week's work, and checking out the new exhibition of Ruscha drawings at the National Gallery of Art. 'Cos baby is hot. And I like his work anyway.

Made in Peru (by way of Eindhoven)

...eleven students of the 'man & humanity' masters' course of the design academy eindhoven, the netherlands left for peru for a period of seven weeks. part of this innovative course is an exchange project conducted in cooperation with the lima-based 'allpa' company this dutch-peruvian company operates on the basis of 'fair trade' and social responsibility. the purpose of the journey was to combine design with social commitment in a social context, to design new products with local people, using traditional techniques... [at designboom]

"No More Prisons"

I do love architecture, although it's really just a general interest. I don't work in the field, possess any formal training, or pretend to have more than passing knowledge of the subject. But: I actually don't understand how people aren't passionately interested in architecture, especially as it relates to issues of sustainability and global development. I mean, chances are you live in a man-made building, right? It affects your life.

And though I usually read the Architect's Newspaper for the gossip and intriguingly gossamer content ("In [a talk entitled 'The Trouble with Icons', given at the Royal Academy, Graham] Morrison attacked buildings that are 'distorted into unneccessarily complicated shapes,' and specifically called out Will Alsop's Fourth Grace (or Cloud) scheme in Liverpool. He later dubbed the Alsop building a 'donut on sticks' for an audience which included Alsop himself."), I found myself quite moved by a call for a boycott of prison architecture amongst design professionals in the latest (2.16.05) issue.

The essay is unfortunately not available online, but the core sentiment is summed up nicely in the following paragraph:

While some claim that our ever-expanding prison system has quelled a long wave of drug-related violence and returned us to the relative safety we enjoyed in the 1970's, the many ups and downs of crime rates since 1970 are sharply at odds with the constant increase in the number of prisoners. To make matters worse, studies document that Americans feel much less safe than we did then. It is our current culture of fear and ignorance that drives the prison system, not the other way around. Despite mounds of data on the failures and inequities of the prison system (most collected by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics), the public is largely uninformed about prison issues. The members of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) believe that building prisons has not only failed to significantly reduce crime, but has caused additional social problems. Continuing on the current path of imprisoning even more people will do little to improve our society, and will especially injure our already most-embattled communities. ADPSR members have pledged to not participate in the design, construction, or renovation of prisons, and we ask [architects and design professionals] to join our boycott.

Raphael Sperry, the author of the article, is the president of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibilty and works at 450 Architects in San Francisco. Definitely check that out, citizens of the world.

Still Not Moody Enough

The Albright-Knox Gallery has suggestions for hands-on activities to help students identify with Clyfford Still, easily my favorite American painter.

Why don't you...

Make a diary without using words--use only colors and abstract shapes. Draw the way you feel today or something you did today. On the back of each drawing, write about what you were feeling or experiencing that day. Do the same thing for a whole week, or a whole month. Put the drawings together in a book.

Hang up the drawings from the above activity and have each student select one and write what it means to him or her or how it makes him or her feel. Come up with a system so that every picture is chosen by somebody. Compare what's written by the artist on the back to the viewer's interpretation. Do the two ever match? Which writing is "right"? (This is a question with no right answer, but students may discover some of the issues that artists face when confronting their critics.)

Clyfford Still often used dark colors in his work. Sometimes he used two, three, or more different looking blacks, or dark blues. Have the students collect markers, pencils, paints, and crayons--anything that can make a black or dark blue mark (even a charcoal briquet!). Then have them use a large sheet of paper and create an abstract drawing or painting like the one above, using only the colors they have collected. You could even try adding different substances to parts of the drawing after it is finished, such as Elmer's glue, to make some parts shinier than others. Talk about matte as opposed to shiny, opaque as opposed to transparent. Try to classify all the different blacks in the students' drawings using these terms. Finally, let students look at the works and describe how they make them feel.

It would be most satisfying to react as Still might have at the end of each activity. What's next: Yves Klein for fifth graders? Oh right, absolutely.