Inspired by Mexico’s rich glass works tradition, Mexico City-based artist Valeria Florescano translates that legacy into modern home accessories, jewelry and installations. Florescano shares some of her favorite projects – and the creative rationales behind them – with us below.

Valeria Florescano has been awarded scholarships for Pilchuck School of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, and Penland Arts and Crafts School. She is an active member of the Board of the School of Design at Universidad Anáhuac, México.

She has shown in galleries and museums in Mexico and abroad in the Netherlands, the United States, Japan and Ukraine. Her glass work is part of the Vitro Glass Collection in Monterrey, N.L. Mexico, and the National Museum of Lviv in Ukraine.

Florescano is currently working in the notable glass factory Nouvel in Mexico city while completing an MFA in sculpture at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the National University of México, UNAM.

Enjoy!

above: “Bulbs,” made of recycled glass. Technique: blown glass into optic mold. Length: 17cms. Width: 6 cms. (At the widest part), mouth ø: 2 cms. According to Florescano: “It was my intention to reverse the flower vase idea. The ‘bulbs’ function as glass flowers, and therefore become the prominent object to contemplate. This design enhances the stem. The ‘bulbs’ are unifleur vases designed for soft stem flowers like the calla lily, tulips, daffodil, agapanthus, or the African lily. The idea was that the stem would fit perfectly into the hole and work as a cork, thus preventing the water inside from spilling. The design lets you use them horizontally and vertically, or to place them as sculptures in an upside down position. When used as unifleurs without a vase, the ‘bulbs’ can play with gravity. They can be held together from the stem with a knot so the bulbs settle in balance forming an architectural like structure.”

above: The Mangle Unifleur are a set of vases made in borosilicate glass, available in three sizes.

above: Manita rings. Technique: found object, wax casted in Silver .925 . Says Florescano: “This ring has a sense of romanticism. It also reminds me of Kahlo´s finger pieces. It can be used as a pendant, while it is reminiscent of antique door knobs, but the ring actually has movement. When you place it on your finger, the hand rests in your own, in a caressing gesture.”

above: Sol-O rings. Technique: Silver .925 and goldleaf. “This ring is based in the circular form. Both the wire and the sheet of metal started as a circle, and only with a simple twist and a cut we obtain this strong form,” says Florescano.

above: The Tehuana Goblet Technique: Installation with hand blown venetian pieces and video performance. Explains Florescano: “In the frame of the Tehuana Goblet exhibit held in … Oaxaca this past summer, I presented works that refer [simultaneously] to the garment of the isthmus and to blown glass, particularly the style known as Verre à la façon de Venise…
“Both practices share parallel processes and circumstances; therefore, the exhibition allows me the opportunity to work with certain ideas and concepts of interest in regard to the historical trajectory of objects, their development from a natural state passing through an utilitarian condition (from which its subsistence depends) into a higher degree of sophistication in usage.
“The geographical conditions of the isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Venetian archipielago site are both zones in the crossroads of the old commercial routes between east and west of their respective continents. This particularity has been translated into various aspects of cultural richness and hybridization where habits, beliefs and needs expanded the expressive local languages. Today, it is [important] to revisit these cultural wonders in order to think carefully [about] the skills and shortages of our present. Therefore, trying to approach and strengthen different fields of knowledge, Tehuana Goblet presents itself as a container of ideas on identity, ritual, richness and seduction.”

*All images courtesy of the artist.

Now Showing: “Three Heads Six Arms” (2008), a colossal and beautiful temporary sculpture by celebrated Chinse artist Zhang Huan, makes its world premier in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center this summer, in conjunction with the Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City 30th Anniversary Celebration. Set in the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza, “Three Heads Six Arms” stands over 26 feet tall and weighs almost fifteen tons, making it Zhang’s largest sculpture to date. It is on loan (courtesy of the artist and The Pace Gallery, NY) through 2011.

Revisiting many of the social and existential themes that have made Zhang’s work resonate so broadly,
“Three Heads Six Arms” is part of a series of monumental works depicting the fragmented extremities of Buddhist statues. The series was inspired by Zhang’s discovery of religious sculptures that had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution for sale in a Tibetan market. He began the series in 2006 shortly after moving from New York to Shanghai, where he retired his performance art practice and embraced a more traditional approach to artistic creation. His recent work is characterized by a more overt relationship with traditional Chinese culture and Buddhist iconography. However, he continues to use the body as a primary vehicle for exploring existential questions and expressing emotions, and it is a common thematic thread through his various artworks.

The first sculptures in the Buddha series included nine large-scale copper fingers, based on remains he collected during his visit to Tibet. According to Zhang, “When I saw these fragments in Lhasa, a mysterious power impressed me. They’re embedded with historical and religious traces, just like the limbs of a human being.” The fingers of Buddhist deities are considered highly symbolic because they convey different spiritual meanings through various hand gestures, or mudras. Zhang continued the series with several even larger sculptures combining the legs, feet, hands and heads of Buddhist deities. The artist, having been deeply moved by the sight of the desecrated statues, believes that by recreating these fragments on a grand scale, he is able to alleviate the pain caused by their destruction.

According to the artist, “The shape of ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ came from my correlation of it with the Chinese mythological character Nezha, inspiration came from Tibetan Buddhist sculptures. I replaced two of the three Buddha heads with human heads.” Among the sculpture’s three heads is a self-portrait of the artist. In his earlier performances and photographs, Zhang always placed himself at the center of the action. Using his own body as his primary medium, he would subject himself to extreme physical trials and exploits often in front of large audiences. By introducing himself into the Buddha series, he reinstates this practice and draws a parallel between the body of Buddhist deities and his own. “Three Heads Six Arms” exemplifies how the layers of ideas explored in his performance pieces have carried through to his more traditional studio practice. “’Three Heads Six Arms’ reflects the changing realities of Chinese people today and also reflects the attitude that humankind has conquered nature and even reflects deeds of volition and hope,” said Zhang.

Zhang chose San Francisco as the ideal setting to debut his sculpture, in part because of the long-standing history being honored between Shanghai and San Francisco during this year’s Sister City Celebration. “The Shanghai San Francisco Sister City celebration commemorates this important time in the history of our two countries when the exchange of art, culture and ideas between the East and West is marked by openness and mutual appreciation. While ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ clearly embodies ideas that are rooted in Chinese culture and tradition, it is also about our common humanity. I hope that, while the sculpture is in San Francisco, it will serve as a bridge between these two great cities and that it will continue to foster this spirit of tolerance and appreciation,” said Zhang.

For more information, visit www.sfartscommission.org.

Above series: Zhang Huan’s “Three Heads Six Arms,” 2008. Copper. 26′ 3″ x 59′ 3/4″ x 32′ 9-3/4″ (800 cm x 1,800 cm x 1,000 cm). Photographs by Bruce Damonte.

**All images courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission

Asia Society Presents
“Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya”
Now through August 15, 2010
-By Matt Mulholland

Since the first recorded expedition to reach the summit of Everest in 1921, less than 3,000 individuals have reached the apex of the world’s highest peak. David Breashears has been to the top of Everest and back five times. During those five ascensions, spanning 1981 through 2004 , the world renown mountaineer and documentarian noticed much warmer temperatures and thinning ice at high altitudes.

Three years after his last ascent, Breashears was approached by Frontline producer Martin Smith. Smith was producing a special on global warming, and was in search of photographs demonstrating the effects of global warming on the Himalayas, the home of the fourteen highest peaks on earth. Breashears knew of an 80-year old photo taken by George Mallory, the leader of the first Everest expedition.

Motivated by his firsthand exposure to climate change on Everest, Breashears decided to reproduce Mallory’s photo, shooting exactly where Mallory had 80 years before. The difference between the two images shocked the veteran alpinist, and inspired his photographic call to arms: the “Glacier Research Imaging Project” (GRIP). The fruit of GRIP is a series of startling images, “Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya,” now showing at New York City’s Asia Society.

For this dramatic series of juxtapositions, Breashears revisited the sites seen in photos by respected mountain photographers taken over the last century. Breashears has precisely recaptured images produced decades earlier, demonstrating the dramatic impact global warming has had on these areas. Notably, Breashears’ photos are not only demonstrative of substantial change, they are beautifully composed.

There are also three videos – two poignantly narrated pieces and one that takes the viewer on a virtual tour of where the Himalayas are located. These videos are a must-see if the viewer wishes to fully understand the magnitude of the change illustrated in the photographs. What might appear simply as a small, newly exposed rock face, for example, is actually the result of a 400-foot wall of snow and ice melting away. The scope is impossible to determine simply from staring at the images; thus the Asia Society provides illustrations to establish the colossal scale.

Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, spells out the dire meaning behind the melting glacial ice:

“Many of the Greater Himalaya’s glaciers are in China, and the rivers that flow out these mountains and from these frozen reservoirs will help determine the fates of people from Afghanistan to the North China Plain. What the world chooses to do about climate change, will determine the fates of these glaciers and these peoples.”

The melt from these glaciers, the world’s largest sub-polar ice reserves, supply critical water flow to the Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, Yellow, Brahmaputra and several other rivers. Hundreds of millions of people depend on these rivers to live. At this current melt rate, many of the Himalayan glaciers will be severely depleted in less than fifty years. Lonnie Thompson, paleoclimatologist and Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University states:

“The glacier is a wonderful archive and you can take it to any goverment, you can take it the U.S. Senate; no one yet has come up with a political agenda the glacier might have to be behaving like it is, except the climate of the planet is changing.”

David Breashears has witnessed a harrowing change in these mountains and succeeded in illustrating the destruction caused by climate change in his dramatic comparisons. With “Rivers of Ice,” he has demonstrated the irreversible loss of hundreds of feet of ice. Breashears has been to the top and back, and guided others to the pinnacle of the world. But the greatest endeavor for Breashears remains – convincing people to do something about climate change.

Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya
Now through August 15, 2010 at Asia Society Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York, NY

Story and photos by Matt Mulholland.

The very exciting Guggenheim Museum/YouTube collaborative competition – YouTube Play – is on the hunt for the world’s most creative videos. As we reported last month, YouTube Play was conceived to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video. Open to the global online community, the competition is accepting submissions now through July 31st.

And now the competition’s all-star and eclectic jury from the worlds of art, design, film, and music has been announced. The impressive dream-team panel includes Laurie Anderson, Animal Collective, Darren Aronofsky, Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Stefan Sagmeister, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

According to jury chair Nancy Spector:

“We will be looking for work that will test, elevate, and experiment with video as it is manifest online. We are less interested in what’s ‘now’ than in what’s next.” YouTube Play is open to students and amateur video makers, artists, and creative professionals. Submissions may include animation, motion graphics, narrative, nonnarrative, documentary, and music videos. The jury will review a short list of up to two hundred video works that have been prescreened by the Guggenheim from the pool of videos submitted by the international YouTube community and uploaded to youtube.com/play. From the short list, the jury will select up to twenty that they deem the most creative and inspiring, regardless of genre, technique, or budget. The short-listed videos will be on the YouTube Play channel (youtube.com/play) beginning in September 2010.

To learn more, visit YouTube.com/Play.

Photographer Bill Diodato‘s first monograph, “C/O Ward 81,” is a hauntingly beautiful photographic tribute to the demise of The Oregon State Mental Asylum’s Ward 81. Opened in the late 1800s, Ward 81 was established to provide women with psychiatric needs help and isolation. The Salem-based asylum was also the famous setting for the 1976 movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.”

As Diodato writes in the book’s introduction, “Ward 81 is gone, and metaphorically so are the stereotypes associated with women who are afflicted with mental illness. My intention in publishing these images is to present the physical crumbling and decaying cells, which represent the end of old, corrupt, poorly-run asylums and bring about a sense of closure for the women of Ward 81.”

During 2005, when the entire site was being redeveloped, the Oregon State Legislature authorized Diodato to photograph – and thus document – the cremated remains of some 3500 deceased patients of the “Asylum” which, in one final act of inhumanity, had been cremated buried and exhumed. During this very moving project, Warden Marvin Fickle also granted Diodato access to the infamous closed-off Ward 81. Knowing that he’d be the last person to document the ward, Diodato felt a sense of responsibility to remember the women who inhabited this extraordinary place.

Famed photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who herself spent more than six weeks living with and photographing a woman’s ward at the same hospital in 1976, penned the book’s forward. In it, she writes:

“It’s painful for me to look at these pictures. They evoke feelings of life and death. I can hear the sounds of women running through hallways and someone shouting, ‘Meds, meds, come and get your meds.’ I can hear the crying of a woman being locked down in restraints. I can hear the music of the jukebox at the once-a-week dance with the women of Ward 81. Bill’s book brings me back to the haunted cell in which I slept in a deserted ward right next to Ward 81. I swear I heard people walking above me all night. Bill’s images confirm the feeling that I always had—that Ward 81 was and still is inhabited by many ghosts.”

There is immense sadness in Diodato’s series to be sure – undeniably, this crumbling space witnessed unthinkable pain and desperation. But there are also surprising elements that suggest the possibility of joy. Faded specimens of patients’ artwork and scabbing, once brightly colored paint on the walls can, at times, evoke an unanticipated and bittersweet sense of lost home.

In Diodato’s words: “…. Entering Ward 81, I found each room vibrated with pastel colors, some walls even adorned with curiously upbeat art from the patients. All this beauty was contrasted with a dense chalky air, earthy odor and constant crackling of debris beneath my feet….In the end, I can’t say where exactly the many sleepless nights I spent pondering what happened to the women of Ward 81 have taken me. I simply do not know. If, by chance, it helps even just one woman and her family, I rest my head with a renewed sense of hope.”

“Care Of Ward 81″ is the first of two limited-edition Diodato books focusing on “the demise of institutional services.” The second is slated for a 2011 release.

“Care of Ward 81″ is available in a first edition of 1,000 copies (200 are still available for $50); in a signed, numbered and slipcased edition of 100 with both the book and the slipcase bound in Japanese Saifu cloth ($250), and as a deluxe edition of 50, numbered and signed by Bill Diodato and Mary Ellen Mark, slipcase bound in Japanese Saifu Cloth, which comes with a print. The deluxe edition print of 50 included with the Deluxe Edition is a pigment print on the archival Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta paper. This image is printed with the finest archival inks available on the market today. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist. ($500) To purchase, click here

To learn more about Bill Diodato, visit his blog or billdiodato.com.
Diodato is represented by Marge Casey + Associates: 212-929-3757; info@margecasey.com

Care of Ward 81
Photographs and text by Bill Diodato.
Foreword by Mary Ellen Mark.
Golden Section Publishing, 2010.
64 pp., 46 color and black & white illustrations., 10×6½”.

*All images courtesy of Bill Diodato.

French-Colombian designer Sylvia Toth’s fashion line, WARMI, blends tradition with modernity by interpreting Latin American folk craftsmanship with a European flair. Launched in 2008, every WARMI collection is entirely handcrafted by women weavers of the Colombian villages of Tausa and Sutatausa. Each handmade item is numbered and signed by the artisan who made it. Their traditional, meticulous techniques result in whimsical garment and accessories collections where “every piece has a particular aura, charged with the soul of the weavers.”

Born in Colombia, Toth is now Paris-based, though she makes frequent trips back to Colombia. A child of two cultures, her dual-identity serves an inspiration for what is ultimately a very personal brand, and one that bridges her cultural backgrounds. “In Paris, I’m at the center of information, arts, culture…that’s where I create,” Toth says. “Bogota is the city where everything is possible, a rich mixture of modern architecture, blue mountains, misery, wealth and the bizarre. A place where people always wear a smile… This is where I recharge my batteries and produce my creations, shoulder to shoulder with the artisans.”

The word WARMI means “woman” in Quechua, one of the last indigenous languages that still exists in the Andean region. Describing the brand, Toth shares, “WARMI is not only a tribute to women – as artisans, a life force and the ultimate creators – but also to the tradition of a craft and ancestral ‘savoir faire’ from a culture that is fading away.”

For each new collection, Toth is inspired by everything from classical art to the streets. “I am very inspired by medieval art, especially the animal representations found in the ‘Bestiaires.’ I love their mythical and ‘brut’ dimension,” she says. And her list of varied inspirations goes on. “All the work done by the naïf painters: Seraphine, Douanier Rousseau. Their primitive yet very modern vision! Or in a more contemporary scene, Walton Ford. The Colombian popular culture is very inspiring too… a kind of surreal POP-FOLK! An indigene, African and catholic syncretism…In fashion I love the work of Nicolas Ghesquière or Muccia Prada for Miumiu.”

Currently, Toth is working on a series of prints inspired by Jean Cocteau’s drawings, and enjoying the power of Frida Khalo’s work.

Check out highlights from WARMI’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection below, named “Delices,” the French word for “Pleasure of a great subtilité and intensity.” This playful knit collection reflects Toth’s signature talent for combining modern elements with classic imagery and folklore, and, according to Toth, expresses a desire to find the divine condition. Featuring Eden-like figures – a bird, a peacock, a serpent – “Delices” calls to mind Eve’s grace period before the fall…

*All images courtesy of WARMI.
For more information, visit warmi.fr.

Tsunami Glassworks Incorporated, one of ArtSlope.com’s faves, introduces a new series of custom designed platters called PETAL. Inspired by the soft curve of a flower petal, design partners Kriston Gene and Eva Milinkovic have created hand blown and etched platters measuring 20″x8″, available either etched or shiny. And there are eight color combinations to choose from: black/iris, cherry/turquoise, olive/aqua, citron/jade, strawberry/saffron, citron/saffron and amethyst black.

For a list of retailers, click here.

*All images courtesy of Tsunami Glassworks Incorporated.

For its newest title, Phaidon Press has gathered ten respected curators to choose 100 of the world’s best and most important emerging contemporary artists. The resulting collection is CREAMIER: Contemporary Art in Culture, the fifth addition to the publisher’s Cream series.

Packed with over 700 color images from a variety of mediums, CREAMIER is a beautiful new reference for art collectors and lovers. A one to two page spread is dedicated to each of the featured artists, including a newly commissioned text written by the curator who selected the artist, alongside full-color images illustrating the artists’ most recent work. The book’s introduction reveals a thoughtful discussion amongst the curators (including the Tate Modern‘s Catherine Wood, The Kitchen‘s Debra Singer, MACBA‘s Chus Martinez, and Kunsthalle Basel‘s director, Adam Szymczyk) on the topic of the recession’s impact on both the art market and artists’ creativity.

The design of the book itself also nods to the nature of the art world. Calling to mind a broadsheet newspaper in size, weight and paper, CREAMIER reinforces the “of the moment” nature of the artists and work within. That newspaper-look implies accessibility, while the custom-made box it comes in hints at a more collectible aspect; combined, these design elements reinforces the idea of the art world’s fluidity, wherein an artist’s new work can be fresh for only a short while, but where powerful work will stand the test of time.

Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture: 10 Curators, 100 Contemporary Artists, 10 Sources
Curated by Elena Filipovic, Douglas Fogle, Yukie Kamiya,
Inés Katzenstein, Chus Martínez, Kitty Scott, Debra Singer,
Adam Szymczyk, Catherine Wood, and Tirdad Zolghadr.
Published by Phaidon Press, 2010
700 color illustrations
324 pages
$39.95
www.phaidon.com

*above: Jamie Isenstein, Arm Chair, 2006; linen, wood, metal, nylon, raw cotton, upholstery foam, human arms and human legs or ‘Will return’ sign; dimensions variable. Curator: Debra Singer.

*above: Goshka Macuga, I Am Become Death, 2009; mixed–media installation; dimensions variable. Curator: Adam Szymcyck.

*above: Lisa Anne Auerbach, Photomural for Nottingham Contemporary Window Installation, 2009; color photograph 670 x 304 cm. Curator: Douglas Fogle.

*above: Alejandro Cesarco, When I am Happy, 2002-present; coloured pencil on paper; 28 × 23 cm. Curator: Inés Katzenstein.