Before I Die: An Art Project

I recently stumbled upon this project which I find really unique and a great reflection on a community in New Orleans. Candy Chang took this abandoned house's wall and wrote 'Before I want to...' and allowed community members to write their deepest desire. Read all about it here. These are a few of the pictures of the project on the website. What do you want to do, before you die?

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010). Dress, autumn/winter 2010–11.
All photograph from exhibit website.

It wasn't until his untimely death in 2010 that I first heard the name Alexander McQueen. Earlier this year, with the wedding of the year, the world learned that Kate Middleton's dress was by Sarah Bernhard current head of Alexander McQueen's label. This year, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art paid tribute to McQueen in their annual Costume Institute's summer exhibit, Savage Beauty.

The much hyped exhibit is worth all the buzz. Thinking that the lines would be short in the early morning I trekked to the Met only to be in line for two hours. Fortunately the line took me through galleries of Near Eastern art which I had never seen, and one of my all time favorite galleries, the 19th century European paintings and sculptures (including Rodin, the greatest of sculptures if you ask me).

Not only was the work a true beauty, full of excitement and with beautiful detail, but it was one of the best curated exhibits I've ever seen (by curator Andrew Bolton). Each gallery captured a different essence of McQueen, and in the end the exhibit gives, what I believe, is an accurate portrayal of the great mind behind this intriguing pieces. The background music was exceptionally well chosen and the displays - from an industrial setting, to a Scottish hall, to a hall of mirrors - portrayed the perfect background for each of the pieces.

In one of the quotations scattered through out the exhibit, McQueen said he wanted to be the person to define the woman's silhouette and the person to define fashion in the 21st century. Even with his early death, it is clear that he has left a legacy that will inspire hundreds of artists and designers empowering women in a new way.

If you're in New York sometime between now and it's closing on August 7th, you must pay a vist to the Met, any wait time is worth the wait. For more on the exhibit click here.

Romantic Gothic and Cabinet of Curiosities


Romantic Nationalism

Earasing the Mona Lisa

From Replaced Mona Lisa, via Today and Tomorrow.

So what would happen if you erased the famed Mona Lisa and left nothing but the landscape behind her?

This is what Mike Ruiz came up with using Photoshop Content Aware-Fill tool, and then had the image was sent to a painting manufacturer in China. So props to Mike Ruiz for trying this out. But is this really art? All he used was a digital tool, then didn't even attempt himself at painting it. No oil technique, no silk screening, nothing like that. So how do we value art nowadays? He is not the first to do this, and surely won't be the last.

Christo & Jean Claude: A Partnership Built With Love

Jean Claude and Christo at the NYC Gates installation.

Umbrellas, Japan

Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, Germany

Today at school we were lucky to have a lecture by the famous installation artist Christo. I was excited to go to the lecture, but since I have been sick for the past two weeks and haven't gotten much sleep, I must admit I was not awake through the whole lecture. But when I was awake, it was truly one of the best lectures I've heard in the last five years at Pratt.

So I like to boast that two years ago, I was lucky enough to attend an event where Christo and Jean Claude were to attend, and they were going to be seated at my table. Unfortunately they did not make it, only to find out a couple months later, that Jean Claude had passed away only a few weeks after said event. I first learned about their work when I lived in France, prior to attending the famed Venice Biennale in 2003, I learned for the first time what installation art was. And I must say, their work is one of the few examples of installations I really appreciate. To meet them would have been exhilarating, but alas, I did not get to do so.

Today's lecture felt more like a conversation with Christo. We've all had a conversation with an old family member who is very sane but quirky with whom we have conversations, questioning their lucidness throughout the conversation, but realizing how well they are in the end. Christo first gave an introduction on stage, only to then step down take a seat and talk about his work from his seat. He argued with his colleague, having difficulty with the slide presentation. The true value of his lecture was the hour he spent taking to students, faculty and administration during the Q&A.

For me the highlight of this event was when he spoke about Jean Claude. We've heard of so many partnerships who are built as business and personal relationship, only to have it fall apart in the end. But Jean Claude and Christo shared a special relationship since first meeting in Paris in 1958 - that was a 50 year relationship, and their love is reflected in their work and in their continuous collaboration. Even today, after Jean Claude's passing, Christo still speaks about how she is part of the work, how it's not his work, but it's both of theirs. It was truly inspiring to hear him talk very honestly about the relationship which created some of the most astonishing work we've seen in the past 50 years.

Sometimes I feel like doing this

Invisible Man, Jeff Wall, 1999-2000
Based on Ralph Waldo Ellison's Invisble Man

Sometimes I feel like just hibernating from the rest of the world, even if my greatest fear in life is complete loneliness. There's something about this image that attracts me to it. But I must say, if this ever become me, I'd keep my place much tidier. For real.

Perpective Lyrique

PERSPECTIVE LYRIQUE from 1024 on Vimeo.

First the streets of Paris (at least in Inception), now the facades of Lyon. In December, the Théatre des Celestins was the location of an unlikely phenomenon in the architecture world: a classical Beaux-Arts building smushed into a Gehry-esque blob. And all thanks to the vocal patterns of a very captive audience.

1024 Architecture, the duo who invented the oral video-mapping, first concentrated on simple but effective theatrical lighting . They described their installation Perspective Lyrique as focusing on “the interaction between body, space, sound, visual, low-tech and hi-tech, art and architecture.” According to Co.Design, the architects “created a custom program that would analyze the tones in an audience-member’s voice and then mathematically apply it as a deformation to the image in real time.”

-Via Architizer Blog

Legos - Not just a child's toy

I saw this art work by artist Justin LaRosa and Samuel Cox on Fubiz a few weeks ago and I really liked it. Legos are pretty much amazing, and it's great to see them go beyond a child's imagination.

Enjoy.