Pete KL – Modular Memoro

Designer Pete KL launched a collection of Modular Memoro blocks at the Pratt booth at ICFF this weekend. The students were challenged in a collaboration between Pratt and Herman Miller to create objects that promote physical and mental well-being.

The Modular Memoro blocks encourage active engagement with one’s cherished memories, and allow for countless configurations of tablescapes to create a stage for the stories of the objects you collect and treasure.

In addition to the standard collection of Modular Memoro blocks, Pete collaborated with friends and designers to come up with an Artist’s Series of Memoro blocks, including a solid ebony block decorated with gold leaf by Lucia Oceguera (above), and a collaboration between two artists, MP Landis and Les Seifer (below), which includes a piece of art that was folded and mailed between the two artists until one of them declared it finished.

Table of Pencils by Motohiro Tomii

“table of pencils” (2010) | pencil, acrylic board | installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2011) | photo : Masaru YANAGIBA | design collaboration：HIROYUKI TANAKA ARCHITECTS | cooperation：Masuki Co.,LTD

Does art serve a purpose? Does it have a function? I would like to believe that it does.

Table of Pencils is the work of sculptor Motohiro Tomii. “Does art serve a purpose? Does it have a function?” These are the questions he asked himself as he set about working on this project. In recent years Tomii has been primarily concerned with the reason we make things. But instead of perusing an answer through his art – “Will we ever find the answers if we keep making things? No, definitely not,” he says – Tomii has quite literally turned the tables on himself, accepting that art is something incomprehensible. His objective is to understand, in fact, how much we don’t understand.
The Table of Pencils was created specifically to walk a thin line between conceptualism and utilitarianism. But leaving the “is it art?” debate aside, I thinks it’s a fantastic table. How fun would it be to walk into a super serious meeting around this table?

“table of pencils” (2010) | pencil, acrylic board | photo : Masaru YANAGIBA | design collaboration：HIROYUKI TANAKA ARCHITECTS | cooperation：Masuki Co.,LTD

Many thanks to Mr. Tomii (the artist) and Ms. Chinzei (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo) for helping obtain images.

Thomas Doyle – Surface to Air

Unfortunately, the Surface to Air exhibition by Thomas Doyle at LeBasse Projects has already come down, but the work is pretty awesome, so I thought it was worth featuring it here anyway. Thomas Doyle creates miniature models that explore the intersection between destruction and domestic life. To give you a sense of the scale of the models, each figure measures only a few millimeters high.

In “Surface to Air,” houses hover safely above their ruined and burnt foundations while soldiers huddle below. A family goes about its business inside a home that has been cleaved in two. A subterranean house juts from the earth, as a family trudges through an ash-strewn landscape above. Reflective of the apprehension endemic to our times, Doyle’s works also communicate a timeless longing for the stability of home, hearth, and family.

culdesac: the paint evolution for valentine

'the paint evolution' by culdesac for valentine


valencia-based designers culdesac have created 'the paint evolution' for the paint company valentine. their collaborative project
celebrates the ever changing nature of artistic tools and implements within the valentine brand.
brushes and rollers in this creative collection feature an interactive, form-as-function approach to the construction of each piece.
one may anticipate the mark and movement of the implement in an artist's hand simply by examining the form of each object.

'genetic mutations give birth to imaginative instruments: the brush compass, pendulum or whip give us a clue
to the behavior of paint through sketches and through history' -culdesac



the 'whip cephalus' is an essential species in the 'action painting' technique

Chu Enoki | Unleashing the Museum

“RPM 1200″ | click images to enlarge | courtesy Hyogo Museum of Art

Chu Enoki is an eccentric Japanese artist who has been practicing since the mid-1960s. He is known for going to Hungary with a “hangari” haircut, walking the streets of Ginza shirtless, with the Expo ’70 logo sunburned onto his bare chest, erecting a pop-up bar and serving drinks to customers while dressed as a transvestite,  as well as large-scale sculptures such as Space Lobster P-81, which was built from over 20 tons of scrap metal salvaged from trains and boats that he disassembled with his own bare hands.
Well now all his humorous oddities – both big and small – have been assembled in a single space in the largest retrospective of his work to date. “Unleashing the Museum,” which opened earlier this month at the Hyogo Museum of Art (details below), is a comprehensive look at the enigmatic artist who poked fun at himself while ridiculing all that modern Japan had become.

“RPM-1200″ (detail) | courtesy Hyogo Museum of Art

One of the main attractions of the show is RPM-1200 (above), a utopian – or perhaps dystopian -  futuristic city sculpted from old drill bits and machine parts.

“cartridge” made from thousands of actual bullet shells

unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy Tabitoba

source: HitsPaper | Hyogo Museum of Art | Tabitoba

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Chu Enoki | Unleashing the Museum
Hyogo Museum of Art
2011.10.12 – 11.27
10:00 – 18:00
general admission 1200 yen

Boffo Building Fashion: Irene Neuwirth and Marc Fornes/THEVERYMANY

I love what BOFFO is doing with their collaborations between fashion designers and architects. Their latest installation is a temporary shop for jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth, designed by Marc Fornes/THEVERYMANY. The result is an amazing environment and landscape of jewelry terrariums that showcases Irene’s raw jewelry line beautifully. Check out the shop while you can – it’s open until October 12th at 57 Walker Street in New York.

Modern Representation of the Deceased

This project, titled The Last Minute, was inspired by rituals and traditions honoring death from various cultures. The objects are symbolic as well as functional, representing modern interpretations where ritual and tradition meet. The series deals with the concept of memory and transience in the form of urns and other objects used in this sacred rite of passage.
Sea Urn was inspired by the concept of the “death ship,” a concept known in many cultures. Rather than burying the dead under ground, they were sent across the water. The ceremony of sea burials is an idea that is controversial in our modern culture. Rather than being placed in the water and sinking immediately, the “sea urn“ attempts to capture and prolongue the poetic quality of that moment. The form imitates that of a ship, so that it carries the ashes on the surface of the water, gradually fading into the horizon. Constructed of tonolith, the ship dissolvesa few days after it has been set out to sea.
The Figure Urn is characterized by numerous ceramic figurines placed on its lid. One of the figurines can be removed and kept as a memento of the deceased, whereas the jar itself finds its place at the cemetery or on the mantelpiece at home. The inspiration for this concept came from the Egyptian “ushabti statuettes” that represented the embodiment of the dead person and were either placed in a holy area or on a grave to symbolize the presence of the deceased.
The Tear Jug is a porcelain container in which the emotional value outweighs the functional one. By collecting the mourner’s tears, and placing a flower inside, new life is awoken. The inspiration came from tear jugs in ancient Rome, into which professional grievers would cry.
Similar to the tearjug, the Coins part of the series acts purely as a way to remember a loved one. In Greek mythology the dead had coins placed on their eyes to pay Charon to take their souls over the river Styx leading to the entrance of Hades.
Designer: Patrycja Domanska




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arnaud lapierre + AUDI: ring installation

'ring' by arnaud lapierre in collaboration with AUDI
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre

french designer arnaud lapierre has created 'ring', a series of mirrored cubes placed in
a circular pattern in collaboration with AUDI. the vast amount of reflections and angles warps
the perspective of the surrounding area. the optical effect creates a surreal environment in which both the structures
and people are distorted and recreated, fracturing the usual relationship that individuals have with the piazza as well as
themselves. overall, the installation measured 5500 x 4000 mm (216 x 157 inches).    

 

the 'ring' installation was on show at place vendôme, paris, at the 2011 foire internationale d'art contemporain (FIAC).

view of installation at place vendôme
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre



view from inside
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre



fractured reflections
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre



buildings deconstructed in mirrors
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre



view of mirrored cube
photo by ALDS and eric mercier
image © arnaud lapierre

Intricate Installation

Designer Tamer Nakışçı’s Intersection is an exploration of the connections between different times, techniques, dimensions and people; and how they actually come together. The installation combines simple lighting techniques with the complexity of water and is constructed using 1.6km of elastic. It will leave you wondering whether you’re looking at a digital projection or a tangible, intricate web.
Designer: Tamer Nakışçı

D-Torso

I thought that the D-Torso booth was pretty fun. It featured life size animals, and a moving robot. A version of the giraffe is currently on display in a zoo in Japan. Other life size animals include an elephant, cow, horse, dolphin and a tortoise.

Pattern Matters

Amazing papercraft/pieces by Pattern Matters.