Cool Hunting
| 13 October 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Alastair Mackie
by Ami Kealoha
Touching on issues of pop culture, ethnicity and war, London-based artist Alastair Mackie, 29, is making his U.S. debut today, 13 October 2006, at Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles. Called "Sticks and Stones," the solo show consists of sculptural works that Mackie creates using unconventional materials and techniques.
Inspired by the role the military played in his family, Mackie says his work has to do with "the childish obsessions boys have and playing with those ideas." From a series that plays on Aztec ritualistic death masks, "Talk to me Goose" (pictured right, click for detail), made of turquoise, mother of pearl and jasper, borrows a motif from a fighter pilot helmet—in this case one from the movie Top Gun. For these pieces Mackie says he was thinking he could slip them back into a museum, questioning the role that history plays and whether or not we learn from it. With "Bi-polar," (pictured here) he similarly transformed an army helmet by laser-cutting traditional Islamic fretwork to create a delicately beautiful geometric pattern.
Other works, like "Matchstick Tree," are less politically charged but—by using a readymade material—are still a wry, paradoxical take on contemporary culture, encouraging viewers to look a little closer at the world around them.
Sticks and Stones
13 October 2006-11 November 2006
Opening: Friday, 13 October 2006, 6-8pm
Mark Moore Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue A-1
Santa Monica, CA 90404 map
tel. +1 310 453 3031
Emil Goh: Mini Room
by Josh Rubin
Fascinated with how many young Koreans construct lives online, Emil Goh started photographing users of Cyworld, a virtual community that allows users to create rooms using various skins and other icons of furniture and appliances. In Goh's work, these imagined universes are perfect counterpoints to explore the many different living situations in Korea. He describes "regular 3-4 bedroom family apartments to cupboard sized "goshiwons" for cramming students-often wide as double bed." For the group show “r u logged on ^^;?" that opens today, 13 October 2006 and runs through 28 November 2006, at Ssamzie Space, Goh will show his work created in his offictel (office+hotel, a korean multi-use style of dwelling), the mini room that he created in real life based on his online mini room.
To a T
by Ami Kealoha
Celebrating the humblest of fashion statements, Atlanta's Design Museum will launch an exhibit devoted to t-shirts next Thursday, 19 October 2006. Including several lines you may have previously seen in these pages (co-curator Laura Moody says she often sourced designers from Cool Hunting), the show features the latest in t-shirt design with an emphasis on southern regional designers, like Esperanza, former Sam Mitchell (pictured center), Pecan Pie Couture, Black Black Label and Epidemik Coalition. Also bringing together high-end designers who've embraced the democratic medium, like Marc Jacobs, with innovators such as Project Alabama (known for their quilt-like reconstructed tees) and the hand-written tees of Snerko, as well as others from San Diego-based Rxmance (pictured left, click for detail) to San Franciscans Turk + Taylor and Australian designer Jonathan Nichols, "To a T" offers a diverse mix of t-shirts the world over. More images here.
To a T
Opening: 19 October 2006, 6-9pm
19 October 2006-13 January 2007
Museum of Design Atlanta
285 Peachtree Center Avenue
Marquis II Tower
Atlanta, GA 30303 map
tel. 01 404 979 6455
BLT Ring
by Letizia Rossi
The BLT ring was created as a collaboration between jewelry designer Carrie Weston and The Grateful Palate the pork connoisseurs behind the Bacon of the Month Club we featured in our gift guide. A version inmulticolored 14k Gold for $750. See an image of the gold ring modeled on a hand after the jump.
