Cool Hunting 2008 Gift Guide

by Karen Day

Jam-packed full of gifts sure to please loved ones, enemies and those who you feel relatively neutral about, our annual gift guide culls all the options and organizes our favorites in one convenient location for your online shopping pleasure. From paper guns and Absinthe sets to Dr. Dre's headphones and an eco-friendly TV, there's something there for everyone.

We'll be adding new finds daily so visit often!

Together For Never Photo Exhibit

by Max Gold

Opening tomorrow in Miami and presented by local artists Team Turbo Sex, "Together For Never" is a surreal trio of giant photographs that would fit perfectly above your family's dining room table.

Alexis Mincolla, one half of Team Turbo Sex (TTS), explains that these photographs are a reflection of the notion of contemporary female friendships in Miami. The goal was "to make something that was as creepy as it was beautiful that plays off of a sort of repulsed fascination...to articulate the complex dynamic of close girlfriends and the external societal pressures that occur to them today."

TTS is made up of the self-titled "purveyor of the absurd" Alexis and accomplished Norwegian multimedia artist Stian Roenning. Their previous collaboration, "Black Sunday," uses stop-motion video to cruise through the dark side of Miami's party scene. ("DISCO'S OUT, MURDER'S IN. PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY.") TTS conjured "Together For Never" just in time for Art Basel Miami 2008.

Together For Never
2-7 December 2008
Galerie Bertin-Toublanc
2534 North Miami Avenue
Miami, Florida 33127 U.S.A. map
tel. +1 305 573 3554

Photographer Alejandra Laviada

by Karen Day

Mexico City most often conjures visuals involving a profusion of bright colors and bustling energy, possibly even tacky souvenirs or dice hanging from rear view mirrors. While her hometown's influence is mildly apparent in her work, Alejandra Laviada's photosculpture series of abandoned industrial objects stacked and set against the slate backdrop of Mexico City's abandoned factories is a sharp contrast to any preconception we may have had about the city with 19 million people.

With an incredible talent for composition of space and color, Alejandra takes ordinary warehouse items like giant drums or office chairs and piles them up, creating compelling sculptures and amazing feats in balance.

Alejandra finished her undergrad in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and carried on to complete a masters in photography from New York's School of Visual Arts. Mixing mediums is not the only objective in her work, as her recent series "Photo Sculptures" is "an attempt to record pieces of history that are simultaneously being erased and created" in Mexico City's ever-daunting struggle to revere the past while looking forward to the future. Like the work of husband-and-wife team Bernd and Hilla Becher, some of her work begins to look like a taxonomy of inanimate objects.

Her work is soon current display at the Palacio de Iturbide, an 18th-century mansion now restored and devoted to art exhibitions and educational events.

Intimidades: Acceso Publicos/Visiones Privadas
Palacio de Iturbide
Madero 17
Centro Historico, Mexico City 06000
Mexico map
tel. +55 1226 02 33

The 48 Hour T-Shirt

by Jacob Resneck

Another Black Friday has come and gone in the United States and here's an offering that simultaneously lampoons consumer culture and offers a limited supply of tees. After all, few have done as good a job as Rob Walker whose book points out out how advertisers' sophisticated sleight of hand has made chumps of us all. Walker has just unveiled the 48 Hour T-Shirt. (Click image for detail.)

Three separate designs—available for 48 hours during three different time-spans—will be featured on Walker's irreverent blog starting today and going until 15 December 2008.

"The aim of the project is to prod consumers to think more about our own behavior, about how we can be manipulated, and about how we manipulate ourselves," writes Walker. "Yes, doing this by way of products may be seen as either ironic, clever, or hypocritical. That's part of the point."

Cleverly, the artists will only produce as many shirts as are pre-ordered thereby eliminating the risk of the waste that is the destructive byproduct of a consumer culture hell-bent on disposable commodities.

Each design has been crafted by a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design (including Derek Black and Greg Eckler ) and will be printed on a high-quality American-made t-shirt. So act now! Supplies are limited! Er... you get the idea.

Illustrator Christopher Neal

by Lost At E Minor

We asked New York illustrator Christopher Neal about the inspirations behind his work.
Each job is different. Sometimes looking through old books and artist monographs will spark something. Other times, its just putting pen to paper until I get an idea. Things like music videos, movies and trips to the museum all seep in and resurface later in my work. For my personal work, a lot of it comes from my sketchbooks.

Light and Motion Seca 700 Cycling Light

by Brian Fichtner

Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge on my second night using the Seca 700 cycling light, I overheard an oncoming cyclist say to his friend, "Now that's a light." And what a light it is.

Designed and manufactured in California by Light and Motion, a company with twenty years experience producing high-powered, tailored beam lighting for both diving and cycling, the Seca 700 is the ultimate component for nocturnal trail riding.

The Seca 700 harnesses the power of six LEDs encased in a custom reflector that focuses the top three on a deep spot, with the bottom three turned to the immediate front and sides (a feature I found helpful in dodging potholes). Boasting multiple output settings varying from 150 to a whopping 700 lumens, the Seca 700 does require quite a bit of juice. The race version (which we tested) comes with a six-cell 11.1v Li-ion battery that provides a 3.5 hour run time at the brightest output, and quick two hour recharge.

Weighing in at 520g for the race version, the Seca 700 is surprisingly nimble. Like the rest of Light and Motion's range, the Seca utilizes a simple tool-free mounting system that allows the user to easily change the lamp from a bar-mount to a helmet-mount and concurrently move the battery from the top-tube to a backpack.

With a suggested retail of $549, the Seca 700 Race is obviously geared toward the hard-core trail rider. Frankly, the light pollution native to our modern metropolis means much of the Seca's power would go unnoticed on city streets. Still, Light and Motion produces a range of products that will meet the needs of most any cyclist. The Stella 200, a compact single beam lamp, is our pick for city riding.