Cool Hunting
| 30 April 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Chris Johanson: Please Listen I have Something to Tell You About What Is
by Wendy Dembo
Chris Johanson’s new book, Please Listen I have Something to Tell You About What Is, surveys drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures he completed from 1992–2006. Moving chronologically, the book documents how his art progresses— from his beginnings as a street artist in San Francisco to his more recent contemplative work in Portland where he now lives—while some themes and characters stay consistent. Full of colorful geometric shapes, balloon people as well as naked men and women, his simple figures are all busy doing many things, like talking in cartoon speech bubbles, hugging, standing in lines, having sex and contemplating life, and are painted in a näive style that's synonymous with Johanson's work.
Also included are some collaborative pieces that Johanson did with other artists, such as his wife Jo Jackson. Tobin Yelland contributes photos of Johanson dumpster-diving for wood (Johanson has always primarily used found and/or household materials), which he took in San Francisco in 1996. And Cheryl Dunn's photos of a piece she did with Johanson as well as a few of her installation shots round out the edition.
Published by Alleged Press, the imprint of Johanson’s good friend, curator Aaron Rose, Please Listen has been out for a bit but it's a must for any art library. Johanson says, "what I like about the book is that I got to look at it and think about it before I was dead. And I am excited to have a book out with my friend Aaron." One of my favorite parts of the book it Johanson’s "thank you" page. To read it is like putting a puzzle together.
Available through Amazon, D.A.P. or YouWorkForThem.
Arnheim Fashion
by Ami Kealoha
Dutch designer Sebastiaan Kramer and his collaborator Sjaak Hullekes challenge the establishment by infusing their year-old menswear line Arnheim Fashion with subtle statements and a tongue-in-cheek sensibility. Arnheim combines the designers' individual labels—Sebastic and Sjaak—incorporating their fondness for precise cuts and practicality. The Sjaak line is more melancholic and mature while Sebastic is young and easygoing. For his Sebastic line, Kramer prefers, "supple fabrics, mainly jerseys, that symbolize the carefree." While Hullekes likes to play with duality. "I always try to create a feeling of suspension in the use of fabrics: Matte versus glossy, soft versus harsh, but comfort remains key."
by JiJi Lee
Design for the Other 90%
by Tim Yu
Design for the Other 90%, an upcoming exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum looks at what happens when designers design for an audience without the privilege and money of the first world. Featuring affordable design solutions for those whose main concern is not a better tea kettle for boiling water but how to get water in the first place, the exhibition includes life-saving designs such as The Life Straw, a mobile personal water purification tool (right), the Sierra Portable Light, a woven aluminum textile featuring flexible photo-voltaics to provide light (below left) and the Q Drum, a circular plastic container used to transport water (below right).
Design for the Other 90%
4 May-23 Sept 2007
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street
New York, NY 10128 map
tel. +1 212 849 8400
21_21 Design Sight: Chocolate
by Ami Kealoha
Curated by product designer Naoto Fukasawa, one of four directors at the museum (the other three are Issey Miyake, Taku Satoh and Noriko Kawakami), the first exhibition at Tokyo's new design forum 21_21 Design Sight, called "Chocolate," aims to explore ways of seeing the world from a design point of view. Collaborating with a wide range of artists and designers, Fukasawa selected and commissioned works not only made of chocolate (keys, batteries, credit cards, nails, etc.), but anything resembling or loosely-connected with this bittersweet confection has also been included.
An installation shows the yearly consumption of chocolate per person with Switzerland (11.3 kg) coming first followed by Germany (10.5 kg) and Belgium (10.3 kg). Gold rings in this exhibit are decorated not with diamond or emeralds, but with shiny chocolate wrappers rolled into small balls. A shower room is tiled with chocolate. And large-format portraits of poor cocoa bean farmers are stark contrasts to the otherwise sweet and happy world of chocolate.As a souvenir, you can buy a chocolate t-shirt by Final Home wrapped to look exactly like a bar of chocolate. This is not their first choco-product. Also check our their chocolate candle here.
by Jens Jensen
Tin&Ed
by Lost At E Minor
Melbourne illustrators, designers and men-about-town Tin&Ed are known and loved for many things. Their lost-in-a-forest illustrations, their science-meets-whimsy line-based art, their collages, their photographs, their escapades and their generally unexpected solutions to design problems. Tin&Ed's work is great, probably because they strive to find the best answer to each design challenge rather than aiming for a distinct studio style. Their recent work for Crumpler is not only awesome to behold, but has applications way beyond the commercial. Check out the animated alphabet and behold your ticket to the best graphic email signature ever. Spend a few minutes on the site and you'll work out what we mean.
