Cool Hunting
| 30 October 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Leo Villareal: Origin
by Ami Kealoha
Taking on Newtonian physics, Origin, New York-based light artist Leo Villareal's latest work, integrates the Laws of Motion into a computer code that controls an LED grid. Though randomized, the sequences created suggest biological patterns and, measuring nearly seven feet tall by 27 feet long, the large scale of the installation lends an experiential dimension and a god-like, macro point-of-view to the show.
Origin
Opening Reception: 3 November 2006, 6-8pm
through 22 December 2006
Conner Contemporary Art
1730 Connecticut Avenue NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20009 map
tel. 01 202 588 8750
Patrick Blanc: Vertical Gardens
by Letizia Rossi
French artist and botanist Patrick Blanc's Vertical Gardens are living installations. The lush wall plantings, which are often several stories tall, require no soil and come equipped with a self-sufficient watering system. You can see Blanc's work at the Pershing Hall Hotel and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Marithé and François Girbaud store in New York and the Hotel Byblos in Saint Tropez, among other places.
via juli b
Refinery29: Freemans Sporting Club
by Ami Kealoha
Taavo Somer's newly opened Freemans Sporting Club, which he runs with business partner William Tigerrt, is is a bit of a novelty in the New York men's fashion market. Located at the entrance of an alley only steps from Tigerrt and Somer's always-jammed restaurant Freemans, the shop seems a world away from its Lower East Side environs. Housed within the space are both an old-fashioned sportsman's shop featuring everything from all-leather bicycle seats to vintage survivalist guides and a tiled turn-of-the-century barbershop (offering haircuts, shaves, and beard trimming from one of the three barbers on staff). But the real centerpiece of the store is Somer's own line of ready-to-wear suits. Fashioned from vintage deadstock wool in three different styles—Slim, Standard, and Three Piece—these beautifully constructed suits come in a handsome fall palette of herringbone and flannel with touches like transparent gauze lining that shows off the needlework. Like everything else in this store, these suits don't cater to trends—this is menswear that's built to last.
Freemans Sporting Club
8 Rivington Street
New York, NY map
tel. 01 212 673 3209
Furoshiki Laptop bags
by Jacob Resneck
A traditional wrapping cloth used to carry goods, 9brand, the Tokyo-based design team Keita and Naoyo Seto. Made from lightweight 1/4-inch urethane fabric, their Furoshiki is a relatively inexpensive ($88) carry bag for notebook computers available in yellow, grey and black from Object Fetish—unfortunately, it won't fit 17" models.
T-post
by Ted Cahill
The world's first international news magazine on cotton, T-post is a subscription t-shirt service based in Sweden. Silkscreened onto American Apparel tees, subscribers get a new "issue" every six weeks with a design about a current news item on the outside and a short article on the topic printed inside. Many of the stories covered by T-post are outside the radar of the traditional news media—like conversations overheard on the subway or microchips implanted in butterflies—but that is precisely why the editors at T-Post think they're important. Available worldwide, each edition costs €26 including shipping and back issues are not for sale—"you can't go trying to buy one like 'you was with it way back when.'"
Bethan Laura Wood
by Leonora Oppenheim
Like a true Brit, Bethan Laura Wood enjoys a good cup of tea. Like a true product designer, she's obviously spent a lot of time thinking about vessels for drinking tea and rituals surrounding the tradition. The results are a beautiful series of tea cups that caught my eye at last month's 100% East exhibition in London.
Delicate white porcelain cups create predetermined patterns out of stains made by the tea, becoming stronger the more you use the cup. (Pictured left.) Laura says that "this project examines the assumption that use is damaging to a product."
The "Time for Tea" set consists of a saucer in the shape of the shadow cast by the cup at different times of day. (Pictured right.) In an effort to reintroduce the traditional use of the saucer with the tea cup, Laura has created three different sizes of shadow saucer for the different types of food—from biscuit to sandwich—often eaten with tea.
