Mike Nelson: A Psychic Vacuum

by Ami Kealoha

At a time when modern high-rise condos are transforming much of NYC's landscape, it's more and more important to preserve what makes the city unique. U.K. artist Mike Nelson embraces this sentiment with his first major installation in the U.S., “A Psychic Vacuum,” presented in conjunction with Creative Time.

Imagine a derelict building located in Manhattan's Lower East Side—former home to the bustling Essex Street Market and soon to be hot real estate commodity—its neglected innards a history lesson unraveled beneath peeling layers of paint and gleaned through the things left behind, disparate objects as easily rescued from your grandparent's attic as from the local dump. Here, Nelson gathers the clutter into meticulously crafted environments to form his dusty homage to the vanishing past.

Wandering along a seemingly endless labyrinth of dimly lit passageways through ranks of mismatched doors, the audience is transported into Nelson's shadowy world of back alley dentists, gypsy fortune tellers and blue collar VFW bars. With each turn, you seesaw between the role of fascinated explorer and anxious interloper simultaneously anticipating and dreading the anonymous occupants' return.

All of Nelson's carefully selected details create a running narrative that at once interprets the (now endangered) character of the neighborhood as a relic forgotten as the days pass by, while at the same time revering it as a still vital participant in the flow of daily life happening on these streets.

With curiosity and persistence, you will finally emerge from the simulated catacombs into the light of day, only to be confronted by the biggest revelation of the entire journey…but some secrets are best revealed firsthand. The show is open Friday through Sunday from 12-6pm and admission is free.

A Psychic Vacuum
8 September-28 October 28 2007
The Old Essex Street Market
117 Delancey Street
New York, NY 10002 map

Image via This Week in NY

by Scott Lachut

Burton Chicago Flagship

by Tim Yu

Burton staked its claim in the Midwest by opening their latest flagship store in Chicago last night with a big ol' Burton-style party. It may seem odd to open a snowboarding store in the flatlands, but Founder and Chairman Jake Burton first competed with a Burton board in Michigan, so the store brings 30 years of Burton full circle.

At four stories high in a townhouse-style building, this could be the most cozy Burton store yet—even featuring a living room area with couches and a TV where visitors can watch Burton riders on a flat screen and chill out for a bit. The boutique stocks all the latest gear, including Idiom, Anon, Gravis, Analog, AK and all the rest of Burton's brands and there's an entire floor dedicated to women.

The Chicago store is the latest to join recent Burton flagships worldwide, including one in Burlington, Vermont, New York City, Tokyo and Inssbruck, Austria. We've heard of some other Burton Store openings in the works, so stay tuned.

Burton
56 Walton Street
Chicago, Illinois 60611 map

Check out more images of the store here.

Three Jewelry Designers from London Fashion Week

by Leonora Oppenheim

Walking around the accessories section of the London Fashion Week show over the last few days, a noticeable trend of delicate jewelery caught our attention. With long chains, floating butterflies, intricately wrought wood and metal, beautiful combinations of materials and ethereal detailing, each piece seemed to have a romantic story of its own, as though they were born from fairytales.

Known for her wonderful combinations of words and imagery, this season of British designer Amy Anderson's Comfort Station line explores the concept of poison. Anderson embraces an ornate Victorian style with darkly beautiful lockets, chains and laser-cut wood. Look closely at the gothic pieces and you'll find recipes for death by chocolate and botanical illustrations of poison hemlock and deadly nightshade.

Clara Francis shows a lighter side of the fairytale with her extraordinarily detailed beaded jewelery. Butterflies, hummingbirds and flowers sit delicately on large hoop earrings and fine chains with color variations so subtle more that five different colored beads make up one wing of a butterfly. Made using glass beads, all the work is done by hand in Francis' London workshop. David Lupton's charming illustrations beautifully compliment her jewelery on her website.

Using laser-cut brass, Parisian designer Eva Gozlan creates feathers, wings, flowers and dragonflies that float on the end of long chains. We particularly loved the small glass jar pendant holding tiny butterflies inside that look as though they will flutter away if you open the lid.

Shure's New Packaging

by Josh Rubin

We all dislike the over-sized, plastic, clam packaging that comes with electronic products. Not because it makes it harder to steal, but because it seems like a waste of materials and, at times, they are difficult to open. Shure identified this problem and asked Combined Technologies to create a new type of packaging for the Shure Music Phone Adapter. The goal was to reduce the amount of material used for the package while maintaining an anti-theft design.

The result is a smaller package that reduces the amount of plastic used without compromising surface area for product presentation. By utilizing Blisterguard, a new pilfer-proof board stock that is very difficult to tear, they were able to design a fold-over, heat-sealed blister card containing a much smaller clam of plastic. It's nice to know that they are thinking about and willing to invest in these smaller details, but then again, we've come to expect this from Shure. Now if they could just do something about making these packages easier to open.

James Jirat Patradoon

by Lost At E Minor

Sydney-based artist, James Jirat Patradoon, on his career defining moment: "If I could trace my artistic inspiration back to one event, it would have to be the Neo Tokyo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001. I had never seen art like that before; I didn't know you could be so playful with it. I vividly remember the Yoshitomo Nara sculptures made out of bandages, and Kenji Yanobe's atom suit and Godzilla/Astro Boy sculptures that blew bubbles. It was just so fun. I think because a lot of Japanese art contains references to pop culture, it's more accessible for audiences. They aren't so intimidated by it because it can be quite light-hearted but still have a serious undertone to it."