Describing his work, architecturally-inspired, Brooklyn-based artist Mark Joshua Epstein says: “I am interested in the binary of authentic and artificial. The distinction between the two presents itself most interestingly in the built environment. In my work I look to what can broadly be called recreations; period rooms, hobbyist models, architectural drawings. References are a starting point, but I am as interested in art-making materials as I am in conceptual investigation. I am an intuitive image-maker; once visual material is collected, making work becomes an improvisational act. My work swings between the poles of representation and abstraction, and in constantly changing camps, I try and stay loyal to both.”
According to Epstein, his newest painting, called Seasick Yet Still Docked (top), presents a significant shift in his work, one moving towards a looser pictorial construction that references models he has built. The painting uses fictional structures as a starting point (including a children’s book illustration of an imagined cathedral and models Epstein constructed himself – with alterations – from various hobby kits). It marks a departure from referencing actual buildings, which, he says, “has allowed me the freedom to reinvent my visual language and to experiment with the idea of narrative in a new way.”
For the works on paper, the setting was inspired by the Thorne Miniature Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago. Small, unrelated structures float through the rooms, “posing questions about authenticity and scale.” An inorganic ivy invades the period rooms, and “the addition of this geometric element brings the pieces further toward the realm of surrealism. The works are larger then the referents on which they are based, presenting an interesting inversion—rooms have been miniaturized and subsequently blown up again.”
Above: images from the TUBES series by Tsunami Glassworks, courtesy of the artists.
Founded in 2005 by Ontario-based husband and wife team Kriston Gene and Eva Milinkovic, Tsunami Glassworks designs and produces vibrant blown glass objects. Tsunami’s TUBES series is a study of scale through multiples. Each TUBE can be shown individually or in clusters. The color is key to the design, adding a punch of color to any environment.
Says Milinkovic: “Our approach is to mirror the large glass companies who produce quality glass products; we see little limitations in the material and are constantly trying new techniques to bring our designs to the public. We try to push our designs to look completely different from the traditional glass that ‘s out there already.”
“Our goal really is just to continue working with glass; it’s so much fun and so easy to fall in love with. It’s a beautiful material, the colours and translucency you can’t achieve with anything else.”
Of their working relationship, Milinkovic says, “Collaboration is a big part of what we do together.” Describing TUBES, she says, “I was playing around in the studio… Kris walked in and said, ‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.’ A little bit of tweaking later and it became one of our staple products, incorporated into large clusters in hotel and restaurant projects, sold individually to customers and retailers and used in our lighting designs.”
tsunami / pronounced su | na | mi / n. a large ocean wave caused by a strong force beneath the earth’s surface. The word tsunami is used as a metaphor for a tidal wave of great strength.
tsunami glassworks / blown | cast | glass / n. a company with great strength in design and power in execution. tsunami glassworks – sculptural and functional blown glass for the contemporary living environment.
"Corner Knot" by Daniel Arsham, 2008. EPS, plaster, paint, joint compound. 18 x 64 x 20 inches
Set design for Merce Cunningham, Val de Marne, by Daniel Arsham. France, 2009.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of a studio visit with sculptor Daniel Arsham. Arsham describes his work as “architectural interventions,” often playing upon existing structures to create unexpected yet organic sculptures – a knot at the corner of two walls, or a chair emerging from within a wall, and so on.
I first came across Arsham last December in Miami, and his light installation at the Beacon/Miami for Art Basel. Most recently, he was in the press for his second collaboration with legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cunningham is known for creating full evenings of dance in spaces other than traditional theater, with the understanding that the space itself becomes the performance’s décor.In the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, artist Robert Rauschenberg created scenic designs and costumes in situ, utilizing what was available either within the city or theater where the performance occurred.
For the latest Cunningham-Arsham collaboration, Arsham created site-specific set designs for Au Tour De Paris (coinciding with Cunningham’s 90th birthday). As the performers dance and the music plays, Arsham cuts into heavy black foam cubes, lit white from within, manipulating the scenery as the show progresses. The performances were a surprise for all, as Arsham and Cunningham had little creative communication prior, and all the design elements (choreography, music, décor, costumes, and lighting) changed throughout the tour.
This July, Arsham’s newest work will be on public display, courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. A collaborative performance called “Untitled Corner” by Arsham, choreographer and media artist Jonah Bokaer and choreographer and dancer Judith Sanchez Ruiz will examine “pattern recognition and perceptual faculties as they apply to the human body, creating the illusion of expanded space.” Part dance, part music, part architectural manipulation (and part of Sitelines ’09), they’ll be performing for free at One Chase Manhattan Plaza at Nassau Street July 6, 10, 13 and 17th at 12:30 pm and July 8th and 15th at 7pm. It’s sure to be a good show, so come by!
Bita Fayyazi, PlayGround Installation at Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2007, copyright artist and B21 Gallery and Espace Louis Vuitton; photo by Kamran Diba
Shirin Aliabdai and Farhad Moshiri, We Are All Americans, Operation Supermarket Series, 2006 Ink Jet Print 100 x 75 cm; copyright artists
This week, NY’s Chelsea Art Museum launches its latest exhibit: Iran Inside Out: Influences of Homeland and Diaspora on the Artistic Language of 56 Contemporary Artists. Running through September 5th, the exhibit features 35 artists living and working in Iran (some exhibiting for the first time), and 21 others living in the Diaspora. The show’s goal? To challenge conventional perceptions of Iran and Iranian art.
The exhibit boasts 210 works of sculpture, painting, photography, video and installation. Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Iran Inside Out examines the means through which a generation of artists reconciles its cultural and geographical circumstances with the search for artistic expression.
One year ago today, photographer Max Gerber caught my attention as a guest on The Charlie Rose Show (above). Gerber spoke with Rose about My Heart vs. The Real World. a documentary project that explores the lives of children with congenital heart disease through pictures and interviews. A book by the same name was published in February 2008.
Every year, 25,000 children are born with CHD in the US – or 1 out of every 125 – and Gerber himself (a successful editorial and commercial photographer whose client list includes TIME, Newsweek, and The Village Voice) has worn a pacemaker since the age of 8. At 35, Gerber has far outlived his 15 year life expectancy. Recalling the isolation he felt as a boy in the doctor’s office, always surrounded by adults, Max wanted to give a sense of familiarity and community to other young kids with CHD. His inspiring series profiles ten children with the disease.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Max today:
AC: How are you feeling about the book a year later?
MG: It’s funny to think about the book “a year later”, as you say. To me, it doesn’t really feel like a year later. I began photography for the project in late 1999, when I first visited Camp del Corazon, and finished shooting the photos in 2004. The idea for the book actually occurred to me earlier, in 1998, but it took about a year to begin finding subjects. Since then it had just been a long process of finding a receptive publisher, getting the book edited, designed and to press. It was a long road.
I take pictures for a living, mostly for magazines and corporate clients, and purely as a photographer it’s strange to look at the book now and think how I would do those pictures differently today. Still, even the photos that might be less than perfect still have significance for me – it’s really impossible for me to separate them from the experience, from the subjects themselves, from the circumstances that surrounded things.
Publishing a book is a goal for many photographers, and I don’t for a second forget or overlook how lucky I am to have done it at all, fairly early in my career, and with a subject that means so much to me.
AC: Have you had any success organizing exhibits of the series?
MG: It’s always been my plan – or, rather, my hope – to have exhibitions of pictures from the book, as well as brief excerpts. From the beginning, I had wanted to put these exhibitions in children’s hospitals rather than traditional galleries. Places where they could do more good, if you will. Places where the people who need some familiarity could find them. Sadly this has proved to be a little more difficult to organize than I had originally anticipated. As of yet, we have not managed to do this. Over the past year I’ve had some promising leads and affiliations with non profit and patient advocacy groups, but in almost every case the recession has hit these groups quite hard. Fundraisers have been canceled, conferences pared down, budgets cut, and unfortunately exhibitions from the book have been victim to these cuts.
Still, I remain optimistic that this will be doable in the near future. If there are any interested institutions please contact me!
AC: Any thoughts you’d like to share on the subjects themselves?
MG: I’m really happy to say that I keep in contact with many of the subjects in the book. One of the side effects of the project that didn’t occur to me when I started was that I would literally be watching these kids grow up. Jeni was 13 years old when I met her, now she’s almost 24 and married. Micah’s sister, Tashena, is in her mid twenties and an amazing photographer, having graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Ali just graduated high school and got a scholarship to CalArts for photography. She cites me as an influence and I’m immeasurably proud! As the kids grow up and become teenagers and then young adults I’ve been able to relate to them in much different ways, and it’s very cool. Hopefully I’m like the cool uncle.
I have my own copy of the book signed by the kids themselves. I caught up with Tashena, Patty, Jeni, Mario, Dylan and Ali shortly after the book was published. In one case Dylan, Mario and I duplicated a picture we had done for the book, a few years later. You can see them here:
above: The Flying Chair by Phillip Grass, December 2007
(digital prototype to be built later this year out of wood, fiberglass,
epoxy resin and chrome paint. The seat will be a shell of fiberglass,
upholstered with PU foam and white leather.)
above: Zhair chair by Phillip Grass, July 2008 (digital prototype)
Rhode Island-based furniture designer Phillip Grass has an eye toward the future. His sculptural designs are works of art: fluid, sleek and playful, evoking a sense of speed. His goal? To create “furniture that stimulates the senses and enriches the surroundings – as good artwork does.”
His talent and sensitivity to stability, size and material is well earned. Grass studied at the Art Academy in Bremen, learned wood-sculpture in Austria, and built furniture for respected Copenhagen manufacturer Rud Rasmussen before starting out on his own.
About Grass’s newest, hai_speed series (top image), in his own words:
“In the hai_speed world, there have been found six species so far. They all come from the same source and share certain characteristics. Each hai_speed being is made entirely by hand. The core is shaped out of wood (1). In order to ensure each hai_speed being a long life the wooden core is strengthened with layers of bamboo fiber (2) and epoxy resin. As hai_speed beings do not only look good and fast but are real freedom lovers each hai_speed being is finally coated with automotive quality paint. This ensures that hai_speed beings can enjoy life in their residence as well as next to the pool preparing for a swim.
The dimensions of the hai_speed species discovered so far are about 300 x 130 x 100 cm or 9’10″ x 4’4″ x 3’4″ (LxWxH).”
For years, the Australian creative firm Frost has found international success with innovative and edgy work in disciplines as diverse as design, advertising, strategy, environments and digital. According to the company, their goal is simple: “make the world a better place.”
Now, Frost has launched a line of 100% Bamboo t-shirts. In stores starting this September, the funky t’s are ethically produced with minimal use of chemicals or pesticides. Frost boasts the new shirts are soft as silk and durable as cotton, identifying bamboo as a naturally hypoallergenic and renewable resource.
Tonight, for one night only, L.A. store De La Barracuda hosts the Evolution exhibit. Organized by Factory 311 director Nicholas Hardy and photographer Lionel Deluy, Evolution is the result of a 16 month collaboration between the two. With a focus on the analogy between evolution and creative fame, Hardy and Deluy convened a crew of renowned digital artists to collaborate on the show. According to Hardy, “It’s about growth, fight and life…you can’t construct ideas on your own; you need to seek like-minded people.”
Celebrities on display include David Lynch, Dita Von Teese, Marilyn Manson, Will.I.Am, Gary Oldman, Ice Cube and more. And while some images are definitely stronger than others, the overall concept is well-executed. Deluy’s hope is to challenge preconceptions associated with celebrities. He says, “Today, the public perceive celebs as a somewhat God, but they are only human; I want to go deeper and further, to displace celebrities from their recognisable environment; make them shine in a different light, whilst capturing the essence of evolution.”
Photographer Miru Kim is an urban explorer. The Korean-born, New York-based artist spoke at the 2008 TED Conference about her ongoing series, Naked City Spleen. Juxtaposing her own delicate human form with haunting, industrial ruins, Kim’s work alternately reveals extreme loneliness and a bold fearlessness, and contrasts the living, supple world with a decaying one. In Naked City Spleen, we follow Kim’s fictional main character through abandoned factories, hospitals, subways and catacombs around the globe. Kim is also the founder of Naked City Arts, a New York-based organization dedicated to promoting young artists in the city and drawing artists down to lower Manhattan.
To learn more about Miru Kim, check out my interview with the artist in the upcoming issue of Clear Magazine.
