Photo By Gail
Artist Ryan Callanan created this sculpture of the late Rapper Biggie Smalls as the Buddha, covered in gold leaf, draped in bling and seated on a big pile of cash. Nice. Buddha Smalls Cash Gold (2016) one of an edition of seven pieces, sells for $1,700 from Tag Fine Arts in London, UK.
Photographed at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC.
All Photos By Gail
Wednesday night was a beautiful night in the city; so warm and clear. It was not surprising to see so many people out in Madison Square Park, many of whom were not even in line for Shake Shack. Geoffrey and I had some time to kill before heading to an event in the neighborhood, so we ventured into the park to find the new resident public art project, which they have in the park every summer. Barely into the park’s east side at 24th Street we saw what looked like a giant elephant sculpture with big gold nose ring, just ahead to the west. “There it is,” we said in unison.
Big Bling
Big Bling is a public sculpture by American artist Martin Puryear (b. 1941). This forty-foot-tall work – the largest temporary piece he has created – is built of wood, the artist’s signature material, and a chain link fence. A shackle covered in gold leaf is anchored near the top of the structure.
Puryear has described Big Bling as “an event”; it is a short-term phenomenon. Through abstract means, he has crafted an on-going dialogue with history, art history, identity, and politics. Here, “Bling” – a slang term for flashy jewelry and accessories – is rooted in the urban youth, hip-hop and rap culture of the ‘90s. It is exceptional for Puryear to summon contemporary vernacular in titling his work. The name of the artwork and its placement in the heart of Manhattan demonstrates his recognition that Big Bling is a reflection of the character and the inhabitants of dense urban environments.
Big Bling Detail: It Reminds Me of an Ear
Big Bling is part animal form, part abstract sculpture, and part intellectual meditation.
Do Not Climb Big Bling
See Big Bling in Madison Square Park Through January of 2017!
I took this photo this past Thursday night, of a large scale print representation of the Damien Hirst sculpture For The Love of God, displayed in the window of DTR Modern Galleries (458 West Broadway) in Soho. It is not a great photo, due to the high glare off the shop window, but I just love this work so much, I had to put it up.
I can’t wait until Summer!!
Photo By Anne Raso
This Hot Pink Blinged Out Cake Mixer sits in the front display window at Georgetown Cupcake on Prince Street in New York City. We heard that it was a gift to one of the owners (they are a pair of sisters, so we are not sure which one owns this awesome thing) from her husband. Wow, nothing says Love to me like the gift of a Hot Pink Swarovski Crystal-studded Cake Mixer. Happy Love! Happy Valentines Day!
This Birthday cake in the shape and likeness of rapper Lil Wayne’s head was created for the 14th birthday of Ireland Baldwin (daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger), back in October of 2009. I just found it today after Googling “Rock Star Cakes” hoping to uncover something as cool as this. I’m not a fan of Lil Wayne’s “music” or anything, but I do think this cake looks amazing. Lil Wayne’s dreads are cleverly fashioned from licorice and his sunglasses are made from modeling chocolate, but based on what is obviously the photo on which the cake was designed (below) I think they could have put more bling in his grill. I’m not sure why there is a name tag (Bandaid?) on his face that says “Wade.” Maybe someone can explain that to me in the comments. I’d like to credit the bakery of origin, but I couldn’t find the name anywhere online, though I did learn that they are located in Beverly Hills, which makes sense.
The Throne
I Wonder if Damien Hirst had a hand in creating this amazing bit of bathroom bling? The 50,000 shimmering stones encrusting this lovely toilet by designer Jemal Wright aren’t real diamonds — but who cares? The toilet is forever. The artist’s other bathroom fixtures include chrome-plated porcelain and crystalline patterns hand-laid on sinks or even urinals. Your price? About $75,000.
I’m a big fan and supporter of Myspace.com. I appreciate getting the love and props from all my friends of varying degrees just as much as anybody on one of these online networking sites. But let’s face cold hard facts: some things are just getting way out of hand around here and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Please, some consideration of the following guidelines is appreciated. When leaving comments on My Myspace page, please do not leave any of the following:
1. “Thanks for the Add!” These four words get more annoying the more I see them. I enjoy seeing “Thanks for the Add” in my comments section about as much I like finding spam posts from “Texas Hold ‘Em” websites in my guestbook. When did people stop using their imaginations?
How much thought, creativity and caring does it take to write “Thanks for the Add!” in somebody’s comments section? Answer: Zero percent thought, creativity and caring goes into a comment of that caliber. When did it become cool to be dead from the neck up? “Thanks for the Add!” is the Myspace.com equivalent of writing “Have a Nice Summer!” in your best friend’s high school year book. You might as well just write, “I am a lazy retarded cow and I don’t care enough about you to say something meaningful /funny/ interesting/thought provoking here but I’m trying to get my name on enough random people’s pages so I can collect 15,000 friends!!” Jesus god, if you don’t know me well enough to write something personal about our relationship and you don’t have enough creative brain power to say something clever — or to make something up even — then I don’t want you on my page. Just go ahead and delete yourself right now. I mean, Friendster may totally suck now but at least people used to leave comments for me (they were called “testimonials” over there, actually) that were fucking hilarious and took more than two seconds to compose.
2. Flyers for your band, your new album/video, your club night, etc. Flyers will be left up for 24 hours as a courtesy and then deleted. Or maybe deleted immediately, depending on my mood.
3. Racist jokes or jpegs.
4. Anything sporting enough HTML and Flash bullshit to disable/crash the server of an entire Fortune 500 company.
Thank you, drive through.
