Cool Hunting
| 03 August 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Tobias Wistisen Shrunken Heads Necklace
by Josh Rubin
Creepy, beautiful and cute, these necklaces by Danish designer Tobias Wistisen feature silver mini shrunken heads. Their mix of highly detailed garish features (like the stitches over the mouth) and hair made from delicate silver chains makes for an unusual accessory that's tough to categorize. We recommend the many-headed version for rockstars or review mirrors, but the single pendant works for a more subtle way to ward off bad spirits. Other picks from the collection, like wallet chains with shark fin-like pieces of crocodile leather or stingray have similar attention to detail and design elements referencing mysticism and religion. The necklaces and a few other pieces are available from Behaviour (tel. +1 212 352 8380) in NYC.
Yayoi Kusama
by Jacob Resneck
Japanese-born Yayoi Kusama has been creating her distinctive brand of avant-garde creations ever since she arrived in the U.S. some 50 years ago. But she's taken it to a new level. Moving into the medium of open-air sculptures in 1994, Kusama debuted a solo exhibition in Tokyo entitled "KUSAMATRIX" a decade later drawing more than a half-million people.
Today, her pieces reside permanently not only in Japanese art museums but the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan was well as modern art galleries in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh.
More recently Kusama has created a series of spaces that draw upon her signature gestalt polka dot effect that's an overwhelming onslaught of aural stimuli.
"Kusama's rooms are under complete vibe-control lockdown," as our friends at Veneer Magazine wrote on their blog. "As you timidly cross the threshold and the door swings shut behind you, you're suddenly the centerpiece of an echoing, infinite landscape populated by hovering lights and the hollow slap of air conditioning."
Kusama's work is featured in a number of exhibits running concurrently on different continents. In New York City, her work is part of the "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era" showcase at the Whitney Museum of American Art; a solo exhibit called "Dots Obsession" is running 13 September-18 November 2007 in Brussels at the WIELS gallery.
And in Tokyo, the Hills Cafe has been subsumed into Kusama's polka-dotted universe with every square centimeter of this lunchtime eatery covered in garish polka dots. "I wish to cover everything in the cafe with pink dots," Kusama explains on her website "In space painted in pink, polka dots that is infinity love filled everybody's heart with joy. In universe the moon and the sun are a part of dots. The mother earth as well as billions of stars are put under a pink spell to turn to pink."
Me.dium
by SummerSeventySix
Me.dium is like being given a piggyback by someone surfing the web. The interface sits as a sidebar on your Firefox browser (a version for Microsoft Explorer will soon be released) and at the top of the window, you can see which sites other Me.dium users are currently looking at. If anything takes your interest, like Frogger you can leap from your surfing session to theirs, and follow them as they explore the web. Don't worry though, no-one can follow you to sensitive sites such as online banking or email.
We found it really gratifying as we navigated to Cool Hunting and about four users swiftly followed us. On the flipside, we linked up with someone who was looking at some good stuff on YouTube. With a widget you can add to your site that shows visitors what you're looking at, Me.dium takes the surfing experience to the next level, making it less hidden and more open—but only if you want it to be. Web 2.1 anybody?
One Hundred and One Things To Do
by Fiona Killackey
Never be bored again with KesselsKramer's latest offering, one hundred and one things to do. Jam packed with plenty to keep you occupied and presented with a stunning collection of simple photographic images, it is as much a coffee table text as a manual for any crafternoon collective.
The text is a 40-page essay based on ideas from Do, a label created by KesselsKramer a decade ago. Do produces innovative ideas for products, marketing, communication and design and has been responsible for creating some of the branding strategies for labels like Virgin, Benetton and the Body Shop. With 30 projects already developed by Do and 70 still in a conceptual stage, one hundred and one things to do challenges the reader to participate in the process of production and to think outside the square when developing new ideas. Outlining key trends in the fields of design and graphics, KesselsKramer have developed a text essential to the creative expansion of any artist.
