This is WLASze: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences and zero economics
Amazing work of experimental architect and artist Lebbeus Woods drawing on his work from the 1980s: http://www.dezeen.com/2012/11/08/lebbeus-woods-early-drawings/. Lebbeus traces back to the Chicago 'Bauhaus' and worked under Eero Saarinen. He later co-founded and led http://www.riea.ch/ which seeming became largely inactive back around 2009-2010, but left a marked legacy of daring innovation. Woods' site is here: http://lebbeuswoods.net/. His work is going to be profiled in November-March 2014 exhibition at the Michigan State University: http://www.archdaily.com/444068/exhibition-lebbeus-woods-architect/
Another wonderful feature from dezeen, with nice home connection: Dublin-based designers Notion have set up own brand NTN. The inaugural collection is brilliant, although short: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/08/first-collection-from-new-dublin-design-brand-includes-a-table-with-a-hammock-underneath/
Occasionally whimsical, often challenging, and frequently truly non-derivative in originality, this is an excellent start for what is promising to be a bright, light, creative design shop. And it is a much needed boost to Dublin design community which generally lacks brands that can stand on their own internationally, but has so much real potential. Let's hope Enterprise Ireland is paying attention!
My favourite of the lot:
The brand design base is here: http://www.designbynotion.com/
And NTN brand collection is here: www.ntn.ie
Unlike design in Dublin, which moving toward real sustainable life, life on Mars has taken a turn for the worse in recent years (rather billions of years). Nonetheless, fascinating bit of news from NASA's Curiosity rover is that "a crater found on Mars is actually an ancient lake bed that could have contained the proper conditions to have supported life on the Red Planet."
NASA scientists basically claim that they "have discovered the fossil remains of a lake inside Gale Crater. The scientists say that this lake would have existed for as long as tens of thousands of years, which is long enough for life to have evolved." And, allegedly, the lack "contained chemical and mineral conditions needed to support microbial life. The lake waters held low salinity at just the right acidity and all the chemicals needed to support living organisms." Read more on this here: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113023177/life-bearing-ancient-lake-discovered-mars-120913/
Let's hope Irish Water will too contain the right acidity and all the chemicals needed to support living organisms… and deliver these to us at a price that won't turn Ireland into a Martian 'Gale Crater'…
Fabian Oefner show at the whimsically inimitable MB&F M.A.D. gallery, Geneva (through May 2014) is based on pain tacking deconstruction of classic sports cars and re-assembly of their deconstructed images into a static representation of dynamic motion called 'explosion'… See the brilliant video of the work here:
http://www.designboom.com/art/fabian-oefner-explodes-views-of-classic-sports-cars-11-29-2013/
And MB&F gallery link is here:
http://www.mbandf.com/mad-gallery/explore/disintegrating-by-fabian-oefner/
His other work is here: http://www.mbandf.com/mad-gallery/explore/hatch-by-fabian-oefner/
and his personal page is here: http://fabianoefner.com/
So now you know, when that Lambo no longer fits the driveway… go 'Boom' instead of 'e-Bay'… for some serious visual impact.
Of course, the concept of destruction as artistic expression is not novel. Perhaps surgical nature of Oefner's work makes it rather more technically advanced, but the idea traces back centuries, including historical alterations and defacements of the ancients. One good example from the past is this article on "The seeds of destruction" or "Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm at Tate Britain" covering the recent exhibition of the Tate:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/seeds-destruction
I love this work by Jake and Dinos Chapman:
And here's a feature about Capmans show in Kiev earlier this year: http://www.designboom.com/art/the-sum-of-all-evil-by-jake-and-dinos-chapman/
Not a cheerful note to end, but superb art…
Enjoy!
