Cool Hunting
| 08 January 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Manifesto Games
by Ami Kealoha
An antidote to the slick graphics and high prices of most video games, Manifesto Games offers hundreds of lo-res and obscure concept titles, from educational to traditional combat games. Their approach makes for a wide breadth, like Façade, a one-act interactive drama about a husband and wife (pictured above right), The Shivah, which takes on morality via a Rabbi and a battle reenactment game called American History Lux.True to its name, the rebel game distributor has a credo and policy behind their approach, actively supporting independent game developers.
via Wired
Refinery29: Animal Farm
by Ami Kealoha
Jewelry designers are using their primal instincts—literally. Our favorite recent trend in accessories are pieces that pay homage to animals great and small in brilliant pins, cocktail rings accented with bejeweled eyes and necklaces carved from unexpected materials such as porcelain, wood and resin. Best of all, behind these bunnies and buzzards are symbols, meanings or omens that date back centuries and range from the mystical to the biblical. These animal motifs may be cropping up all over the fashion scene, but we especially like the jewelry, as it recognizes these animals as a wearable totem, from Brooklyn designer Gerard Tully's gold and gem rabbit ring to Driftwood Skull's carved alabaster antelope pin to designer Karen Walker's more modern owl cocktail ring. Regardless of whether they historically symbolize immortality, harmony, fertility or even death, this animal trend is worth going just a little bit wild for.
Robert Wilson: VOOM Portraits
by Wendy Dembo
Iconic artist and theater director Robert Wilson has created a series of video portraits of celebrities, ordinary people and animals called "VOOM Portraits." Known for his glacier-paced theatrical productions with Tom Waits and Lou Reed, Wilson's now bringing his aesthetic to a video format. The recent developments in HD technology have allowed Wilson to create something like a precise hybrid of still photography and motion pictures. Actors such as Brad Pitt (as a crazy person on the streets in the rain), Isabelle Huppert (as Greta Garbo), Steve Buscemi (as a mad butcher chewing gum on a variety show), Robert Downey Jr. (as a dreaming corpse in a Rembrandt painting), and Winona Ryder (as Winnie, the main female character in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, buried up to her neck in sand) were asked to “think of nothing" and move slowly and steadily to collaborate in Wilson's vision of who they might be.
“VOOM Portraits” opens at Paula Cooper this Saturday, 13 January 2007 and runs through 4 February 2007. The show consists of the large scale projection of the portrait of Winona Ryder and a dozen snow owls in front of a polka dotted background. A much larger show of 36 portraits opens at Phillips de Pury & Co. on 17 January 2007 and runs through 14 February 2007. The shows are produced by VOOM HD Networks and will travel to LA, Moscow and the Far East and, later in 2007, can be seen on the VOOM HD Networks suite of channels.
VOOM Portraits
Opening Reception: 13 January 2007, 6-8pm
13 January-4 February 2007
Paula Cooper Gallery
534 W 21st Street
New York, NY 10011 map
tel. 01 212 255 1105
VOOM Portraits
Opening Reception: 16 January 2007, 6-8pm
17 January-14 February 2007
Phillips de Pury & Co.
450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011 map
tel. 01 212 940 1200
charity: water
by Ami Kealoha
The good people of Flavorpill have joined up with NYC club promoter Scott Harrison's non-profit charity: water to help raise funds bringing the most basic of needs, clean water, to rural Ethiopia. By purchasing a $20 virtual bottle of water, 100% of your contribution goes towards building a new well in the area, which costs a total of $4,000. Flavorpill has donated half and is asking for the rest of us to pitch in the rest. It's a small, targeted action to help the one billion people in the world who don't have access to clean water and alleviate the sickness, disease and death tolls the problem brings.
Liz McKay
by Lost At E Minor
Sydney-based Liz McKay is a young figurative artist whose vibrant works draw their essence from "smoky bars, sultry jazz singers, romantic couples and European cafes." Her work is about love, seduction, music and Casablanca-style cool. "Painting is my eternal search to find something of beauty, an expression, a face, a smile. The figures in my works convey intriguing expressions and the interaction between the painted figures invite the viewer to explore the unwritten thoughts and feelings between them and how they can express wider truths about our selves." She has exhibited in most Australian capital cities, New York, Singapore and New Zealand. She is exhibiting in February 2007 in Sydney and California.
