Tag Archives: 2009

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Danh Vo, 16:32, 26.05.2009

Leave a comment

1632 26 05 2009 photo by gail worley
Photo by Gail

This Crystal Chandelier was one of three acquired by artist Danh Vo during the restoration of the former Hotel Majestic in Paris. It came from the hotel’s grand ballroom, which served as a meeting site for numerous political gatherings from World War II through the hotel’s closure in the first decade of the 2000s. For instance, on January 27, 1973, the hotel was host to the signing ceremony for the Paris Peace Accords, nine-point planned aimed at guaranteeing lasting peace in Vietnam. Each chandelier’s title notes the time and date when the artist removed it from the ballroom’s ceiling — in this case,16:32, 26.05.2009 coincides with 4:32 PM on May 26th, 2009. By divorcing the opulent chandelier from its function and historical setting, this object, designed to convey elegance and celebration, holds within it the memory of the difficult moments in global history it has witnessed.

Photographed in the Whitney Museum in NYC.

Arts and Culture

I Was Just Thinking. By Ricci Albenda

Leave a comment

I Was Just Thinking
Photo By Gail

I Was Just Thinking. By Ricci Albenda is part of the collection of Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, on exhibit at The Whitney Museum through March 6th, 2016.

Design and Innovation

Extruded Aluminum Bench

Leave a comment

Bench Front View
Billet 1: Extrusion 1 Bench, 2009 (All Photos By Gail)

Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine, the way you squeeze toothpaste out of  a tube? Extruded aluminum, commonly used for double-glazed window frame systems, is made by squeezing heated metal through a shaped hole, or die. Intrigued by the warped lengths that occur during this process, the studio sought to make seating, formed in single extrusions, that makes imperfection part of the design.

Bench Right Side View
Bench Viewed from its Right Side

The Heatherwick team worked with an Asian factory whose extrusion machine, used to make aerospace-industry components, can exert 11,000 tons of pressure. The result is a series of seats in which straight, clean lengths contrast beautifully with raw, disfigured ends.

Bench Left Side View
Bench Viewed from its Left Side

This electroless-nickel-plated, aluminum bench was designed by Thomas Heatherwick in collaboration with contemporary art gallery Haunch of Venison.

Bench Rear View
Extrusion Bench, Rear View

Photographed in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City.

Arts and Culture

Fred Tomaselli, Big Stack

Leave a comment

Big Stack
Photos By Gail

Fred Tomaselli (born 1956) is known for his unique hybrid paintings and collages, layering cutout elelments with passages of paint. Big Stack (2009 Photo Collage, Acrylic and Resin on Wood Panel)) is one of the tallest works that Tomaselli has created: its peak corresponds to the ceiling height of his former studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Composed of images of speakers and amplifiers, the Stack seems to extend indefinitely into the starry night sky. The work resembles a kind of cosmic radio tower — a source of communication, or perhaps miscommunication — and serves as a contemporary Tower of Babel.

Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY.

Big Stack Detail
Detail

Lifestyle, Nature and Tourism

Skull Snow Sculpture!

2 Comments

Skull Snow Sculpture
Image Source

This awesome Snow Skull was built way back in 2009 by Skull A Day’s Noah Scanlin and his pal Paul Overton of the late great Dudecraft.Com. While that site is no more, you can still follow Dudecraft on Pinterest!