Kiff Slemmons‘ neckpiece Circumspect (2003) is an object that does what it is and is what it does. Composed of lenses and mirrors collected and categorized for a purpose that the collecting itself reveals, it is both a tool of taxonomic assessment and a record of a taxonomic class of useful and evocative things.
Denying the role of jewelry as something only to be looked at, it meets and counters the gaze — returning agency to those being seen. It also asks us to emulate what it facilitates: the art of careful looking as a way of understanding.
Photographed in the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan.
Ettore Sottsass’ late furniture for Gallery Mourmans liberated the artist from the ordinary constraints of the market and quantity. The collaboration gave him license to pursue the vast poetic and sculptural potential of perhaps his favorite of all design archetypes, the Cabinet. Continue reading Eye On Design: Ettore Sottsass, Cabinet No. 56→
Hey what’s up. Today we are celebrating the 17th Birthday of The Worley Gig, the Blog Of Neat Things that I launched on this very day, June 10th in 2003 – wow! While many of my peer blogs from back-in-the-day have fallen by the wayside (RIP: Skulls and Bacon, Modern Urban Living, According2G, etc.) The ‘Gig is surviving and thriving as we adapt to changing times. Another birthday for The Worley Gig gives me pause to discuss what an incredible year it has been for us. Continue reading The Worley Gig Celebrates Seventeen Sensational Years on The Web!→
This Butterfly Headpiece (2003) by Philip Treacy epitomizes the milliner’s untethered and imaginative approach to design. A swarm of butterflies is assembled from exquisitely worked turkey feathers that were cut, painted and hand-fashioned into delicate, fluttering forms. Butterflies are one of the most potent symbols of collecting. Rooted in taxidermic systems yet resplendent with poetry, the insect occupies a prominent spot in most European Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities. Continue reading Eye On Design: Butterfly Headpiece By Philip Treacy→
Legendary Country singer/songwriter Johnny Cash was born on this day, February 26th, in 1932. Cash passed away of respiratory failure on September 12th, 2003, at the age of 71, just four months after the death of his wife June Carter Cash.
