Small “!” moment

Fade-Out Chair (Nendo, 2009), Acrylic, # 29 1/2 x 16 1/8 x 19 1/2 in. (75 x 41 x 49.5 cm). Image source: MAD

During a recent visit to New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design I discovered the “Fade-Out Chair” of Japanese design studio Nendo (the Tokyo-based design studio founded by Oki Sato in 2002), part of the MAD exhibition Ghost Stories: New Designs from Nendo.

When first confronted with the fade-out chair, I experienced a “small “!” moment.”  Six of the chairs were displayed in a random pattern on a white surface, making the chairs appear as if they were emerging from, disappearing into, or floating on a layer of clouds.  The display was simple yet engaging, humorous in its implications.  I gave a security guard conniptions with my vocal desire to test the chairs’ ability to support my weight.  Would I sink into the clouds, or rise to the sky?

According to MAD:

“The ‘fade-out chair’ appears to float in space; the legs seem to gently disappear, as though the chair stands in a pool of mist or fog.  The chair’s back and seat are made of traditional wood, while the legs are made of clear acrylic.  Skilled artisans painted the surfaces of the transparent legs with a trompe l’oeil wood grain pattern that fades away toward the bottom of the legs.  In the designer’s words, ‘Usually, our perception of furniture is strongly affected by the space around it.  The ‘fade-out chair’ turns this relationship on its head; we can change the look and feel of a space simply by placing the chair in it.  This was our attempt to design space itself through furniture.”

A fitting accompaniment to the fade-out chair might be furniture from the Cloud Seating Collection designed by Jason Phillips for The Phillips Collection.

Cloud Seating Collection designed by Jason Phillips for The Phillips Collection. Image source: DesignMilk

For more “art of the chair.”

~MadSilence

Friday Fun: Poking Fun at Swine Flu

The art of the political/current events cartoon!  I prefer this way of addressing things to the panic-inducing news coverage ^^;;;  Though the first picture pretty much illustrates how we all feel at school at the moment, with 36 students down with the flu..

Piglet gets the cold shoulder.

Aren't they supposed to be best friends?

I think this is the best strategy for dealing with swine flu ^^;;; Click to go to Slate's swine flu cartoon gallery.

Related link:  The Art of the Flu Mask

~MS the Younger (and surrounded by snotty-nosed kids lol)

Have a Lego Christmas!

For those who love LEGO® take a look at the LEGO® City Advent Calendar:

“Count down to the holidays with the 2009 LEGO® City Advent Calendar, with something new to build every day until Christmas! Set includes nine minifigures and many other cool accessories that make your LEGO City even more exciting.

* Each day open a new window in the specially designed Advent Calendar box!
* Includes 24 city-themed surprises for the season, including LEGO minifigures, accessories and more!
* Includes 9 minifigures!”

For more Lego fun, check out these Seasonal Lego kits, including the Cool Santa Set, Santa Claus, X-mas Tree and Snowman.

~MadSilence

Car gremlins?

I’ll have to get a picture of the flying wiener on the front of the car some day…

~MS the Younger

Christopher Radko Adoption Ornament

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has once again partnered with internationally acclaimed artist, Christopher Radko, to offer our annual “Celebrate Adoption” ornament.

This limited edition, hand-painted, blown-glass ornament retails for $46. Ten percent of the retail price of every ornament sold is donated to the Foundation.

The ornaments sell out early in the season, so order yours today at www.macys.com.

Details:

• Mouth-blown, hand-painted glass
• 5.5″
• Made in Poland

~MadSilence

Sleeping under cardboard

Home Duvet Cover Single from DutchByDesign.com

According to DutchByDesign.com, the “Home Duvet lets you sleep under a cardboard box so a homeless person doesn’t have to!”

This high quality duvet cover features a photographic print of a cardboard box. This produces an extremely sharp image that stays flexible because the ink is printed directly in the cotton. The image will stay crisp after frequent washing. The cotton has a thread count of 144 threads per square inch, so it’s soft to the touch virtually non-iron.  The duvet cover is produced in Pakistan and child labour is not used.  30% of the gross profits go to Centrepoint, the UK charity for homeless young people aged 16-25 (charity number 292411). Every night Centrepoint provides support and housing for 800 vulnerable homeless young people.
~

Centrepoint hopes that the Home Duvet will have a wide appeal ranging from the fashion conscious to the socially conscious.

The sales of the duvet will help to raise vital funds for Centrepoint which will receive 30% of the profits, as it works to increase awareness of the vast numbers of young people sleeping on the streets.  Clare Norton, Director of Services at Centrepoint said: “We hope that this smartly designed product will help raise awareness of the numbers of young people who do not have a safe place to call home. Our experience at Centrepoint shows that 47% of the young people coming to our services have slept rough at some point in their life.” “We are grateful to Dutch by Design for working with us in the fight against youth homelessness, whilst also raising vital funds to help Centrepoint support homeless young people.”

And if you find you can’t sleep under your cardboard cover, try snuggling with Gwen, your American Girl homeless doll.

~MadSilence

************UPDATE***************

Check out this picture from Design Milk:  “This mattress cover mimics the appearance of pavement and the bed linens that mimic the appearance of cardboard pieces. The pavement and cardboard images you see on the fabric are printed directly in the cotton to ensure a sharp appearance wash after wash.“

 

International Festival… and a new (old?) hobby

This year, the International Festival here in KZ was bigger than ever!  They extended the festival to 2 days and moved it to the front of Kanazawa Station, which is a very well populated area, so we got lots of exposure.  The ALTs did lots this year, with a bake sale, charity craft sale, and lots of music and food from around the world!  For such a small city, Kanazawa has a very strong international community.  We’ve got people from the Middle East, Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Australia… name most countries and we have at least 1 person from it.

International Fashion! Featuring (from left to right) Kenya, India, and Tonga.

In my role as Friendly Local American I participated in the International Fashion Show (in Kenyan dress) and sang a few English songs from around the world with a friend from a neighboring city.  Even though we had a small audience it was a bit nerve-wracking. I caught a cold and thought we wouldn’t be able to perform at all, but a large cup of black tea with honey saved me from ignominy! We performed “Botany Bay” from Australia, “Wild Rover” from Ireland, and “This Land is Your Land” and “Country Roads” from America. We were actually going to do my newest favorite song called “Paperweight” but high notes were a bit out of my range that day.  It’s amazing how most Japanese people know only about 5 English words but can sing John Denver’s “Country Roads” in English very well. We also ended up dancing the Virginia Reel in the Scottish Ceilidh dancing workshop! It was really exciting, because although I’ve been here for 3 years this was my first time participating in the festival!

Stitch 'n Bitch, babies!

Perhaps one of the best parts of the International Festival has been the rediscovery of that old friend, crocheting!  And just in time for winter, too.  There’s nothing better than sitting with a warm blanket on your lap, working away with a cup of something hot and steamy by your side.  A bunch of the other ALTs in our area are avid crafters – knitters, crocheters, earring and hair-tie makers (some of them even have their own Etsy accounts!)…  I never realized how many talented people we have in the prefecture!  Luckily some of them are motivated as well as talented so we started up a little “Stitch ‘n Bitch” group, or, as we call it, “Sit ‘n Knit,” to make stuff to sell for charity.  They introduced me to an awesome little site called Ravelry, which all of you knitting and crocheting fans should sign up for.  It’s a notebook/pattern/crafting help site with an amazing community of interesting people and free patterns – a really fun community dedicated to bringing knitting and crocheting out of the “grandma” world.

My current project:  The gorgeous “Garden Scarf” from The Happy Hooker, by the same author as Stitch and Bitch.  Looks scary, but absolutely easy to put together.  WIP ~50%.  I swear the colors are more awesome under natural light!

Garden Scarf - 50% done!

I’ve begun to obsessively read crafting blogs.  My latest “blog crush” (as my friend over at SweetfernHandmade puts it) is for the amazing Attic24, home of rainbow crochet hand warmers, lovely bird ornaments and gorgeous photography from the north of England.  Look at that picture!!  Doesn’t it make you wanna go on a yarn buying spree and then crochet a rainbow to hang on your ceiling!!

A picture of the amazing rainbow handwarmers from Attic24 - her designs are so inspiring!

Alright, enough with the fangirling over crafts – you’ll just have to wait till next time for the crochet/knitting/sci-fi fandom podcast review!

~MS the Younger

Golden penny from heaven

A “penny” made by a Seattle artist out of 18-karat gold was put into circulation in Los Angeles in 2007 and found by a graphic designer in Brooklyn two years later.

In March 2007, American artist Jack Daws put one of his sculptures into circulation at Los Angeles International Airport.  His sculpture is no ordinary artwork, but a copper plated, gold penny.

In the summer of 2009, the penny resurfaced, discovered by a Brooklyn graphic designer named Jessica Reed.  Ms. Reed was paying for groceries at the C-Town supermarket in Greenpoint, when she noticed the penny.

Back in 2007, Daws hired metalsmiths to make a mold of a penny, cast it in 18-karat gold, and then copper plate it.  The “artwork” looks like a real penny, except due to the casting process, it’s slightly smaller, and because of the gold’s weight, it’s almost twice as heavy.  Daws had several pennies made in addition to the one placed into circulation: Seattle art dealer, the Greg Kucera Gallery, is selling them.  Prices start at $1000.

The golden penny seems a bit tame from an artist whose artworks include small black boxes, inside of which he sealed a variety of hard-core drugs, from crack cocaine and crystal meth to ecstasy, heroin and LSD.  Is this the face of contemporary sculpture?  Or should the object even be labeled as an artwork?  Is the maker guilty of the crime of counterfeiting?  Or is the lowly penny above the law?  Admittedly there’s a romantic appeal to the idea of a humble penny, secretly valuable, anonymously circulating through pockets and change drawers until it emerges two years later across a broad continent.  In fact it sounds almost too good to be true for an artist known for his “wicked sense of play:”

For Daws, life itself is inherently flawed, and those flaws inspire his subversively wicked sense of play.  [...]  There are no easy answers to Daws’ provocations. He forces you to crawl along the razor’s edge of his consciousness, and he rents space in your head long after you’ve left the building.  From seattlepi.com

Links:

On finding Jack Daws’ penny via Arts Journal

Counterfeit Penny put in Circulation via the Greg Kucera Gallery

Art: Jack Daws’ counterfeit penny surfaces via the Seattle Post Globe

~MadSilence

A woman of the arts

Recently, my friends and I visited the Japanese city of Kyoto for two days of fun and excitement.  For me the highlight of our trip was the visit to Maiko Transformation Studio Shiki in the pursuit of beauty, Japanese style.  Studio Shiki provides kimono-dressing, makeup and photography services, essentially making you over like a maiko, an apprentice geisha.  It was a little expensive, but I’ve wanted to do this for three years, and finally had an adventuresome friend who wanted to experience it with me!

The Transformation Process in four parts:

Part 1: The Finding
First we had to find the place!  It was up in the outer parts of the city, very near to Kiyomizudera, the famous water temple.  We walked and walked and walked, but every moment was appreciated because I’ve never been to that area before— lots of winding narrow streets and traditional buildings, with the unexpected pagoda or temple hidden in different corners, evocative of old town Kyoto.  We finally found the studio down this little staircase on a very busy (but tiny) tourist street.

Part 2:  The Stripping
After checking in, we were divested of our outerwear and handed a basket full of undergarments and special tabi socks.  We snuck into the locker room, only to find ten other women already crammed into it!  Good thing we’re all comfortable with getting undressed in front of total strangers (I knew those many hours spent luxuriating at the onsen would come in handy sometime).  We had to put on this little cotton robe with a very deep v-neck in front and back… and then scamper up the stairs to the 3rd floor in out newly applied split-toed socks.

Part 3:  The Making (Up)
We then waited in line with a bunch of other women, each with different stages of their makeup put on.  First, a hair net is applied and your face de-oiled and rubbed down with wax, which helps the white makeup stay on (those ladies know how to apply lotion—what strong hands they have!).  Next, we moved to the “ghost” station, where the layer of plain white makeup is applied.  Except for the back of the neck with its two-pointed fence shape, applying the white layer is a bit like painting a barn—you close your eyes and they draw this big flat brush over every surface.  Two big buffer pads are used to polish it all up, taking off the extra and making sure it’s in every nook and cranny of your eyes, nose and mouth.  When I finally opened my eyes I had to force my eyelids open—they were glued together!  Next we moved to color: beautiful cherry blossom pink applied to the flat white with red and black accents.  What a price to pay in the pursuit for beauty.  Next on to wardrobe!

Part 4:  The Robing
We got to pick our own kimono!  It was so cool, the room full of long-sleeved kimono, very long and of every color of the rainbow with different motifs.  All fall styles, of course!   It’s important with traditional dress to wear motifs and colors that reflect the seasons.  There were sage greens with golden Japanese maple (momiji) leaves, purples with wheeled carts, rich browns with chrysanthemum… so many to choose from.  Over 100 pieces of kimono were available.  After making our selection we were led to the dressing room.  In what proved to be a lengthy process, we were then strapped down with padding and tied into our kimono (don’t ask for details, regular kimono is ridiculously complicated to wear, and geisha style is even more convoluted) and selected our obi, the large sash.  Our transformation was complete with as we were crowned with our maiko-style wig (quite heavy) and, slipping into large wooden clogs (called okubo), we ventured outside to display our finery.

We walked leisurely outside while enjoying the beautiful surroundings of old town Kyoto, the stone-paved streets with traditional Japanese-style houses along each side.  The area surrounding Studio Shiki was packed with enthralled visitors, oohing and ahhing over our outfits and makeup.  We were stopped repeatedly with polite requests for photographs.  At least 15 people asked to take a photo with us!

What an incredible experience to walk the streets of old Kyoto, swathed in silk kimono and richly embroidered obi, with snow-white powdered face and red-painted lips, shimmering trinkets in my hair.  It made me feel very much a Japanese  “woman of arts”, which is exactly what a geisha is—a woman trained in the traditional arts of Japan such as flower arranging, poetry, dance, music and song.  What a wonderful feeling to share in this rich cultural heritage.

~MS the Cooperative Effort

White House art collection

What an incredible opportunity, to decorate your home with some of the world’s greatest artworks.  The White House is now home not just to President Obama and his family, but to the largest collection of modern and abstract artwork ever assembled by a sitting president.

The White House is a home, workplace, and national symbol. It also houses an art collection that represents the geographic diversity of the United States, and the values, tastes, and accomplishments of American society.

Source: The White House Historical Association

Links:

A Bold and Modern White House via The New York Times

Changing the Art on the White House Walls via The Wall Street Journal

And be sure to check out the WSJ’s great timeline of art in the White House.

Via: ShelterPop

~MadSilence