Archive for Design
March 3, 2010 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Culture, Design
My dear friends at Kokoro Studio are celebrating the opening of Spir*akasha, their latest exhibition, tomorrow evening. Featuring work by The Crow and the Wolf, the installation will develop over the course of a month. So if you can’t make it to the opening, stop by later in March to see its progression. Otherwise, see you there tomorrow night — I hear there will be live musical performances too!
Spir*akasha at Kokoro Studio
Thursday, March 4
7-10 pm
682 Geary Street
San Francisco
January 17, 2010 at 9:54 am · Filed under Architecture, Design, Music
It’s been a while since I’ve posted back here — amidst holiday travels, I’ve been mostly blogging at Logos Graphics. For friends who have been patient with me, a very happy belated new year!
Here are a few photos snapped yesterday at SFMOMA’s 75th Anniversary Party, where Matmos and Nate Boyce performed to a packed audience. Earlier, I went to the Legion of Honor for the opening day of the Cartier and America exhibition where crowds came to ogle the extravagant collection of jewels.
SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party
SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party
This week will be exciting too — Someone Else and Robag Whrume are coming back to SF for more fun times. See some of you there!
October 19, 2009 at 11:19 pm · Filed under Architecture, Culture, Design, Literature, Music
About a month ago, I stopped by Aquarius Records to pick up Baku: Symphony of Sirens / Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant-Garde. It’s a fantastic a double disc collection of poetry, music, and agitprop accompanied by a 72-page book with detailed notes on the Russian avant-garde movement from 1908 to 1942.
There are works from some of the best known names of the era — El Lissitzky (see his Soviet poster, below), Malevich, Kamensky, even Lenin and Trotsky — though to my great delight, I learned of seemingly countless other groups and their often humorous counter groups:
-
- El Lissitzky, “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge” (1919)
The somewhat staid Ego-Futurists, mostly in the literary camp, were later superceded by the Imaginists who indulged in long, deeply metaphoric poetry; there were also the painterly Cubo-Futurists, who counted Malevich and Mayakovsky as primary leaders. Then there were the Acmeists, the Suprematists (Malevich at his finest), the Neo-Primitivists, the Rayonists, the Bicosmists, the Luminists, the Electroorganists, the Constructivists and the Productivists.
The funniest groups were the Eggists, who formed as a joke in a newspaper article; the Everythingists, who embraced all styles of expression; and the Nothingists, whose slogan was “Write nothing! Read nothing! Say nothing! Print nothing!”
But these groups seem disappointingly shallow when compared to artists like Iakov Chernikhov, who is worth mentioning here as one of the most imaginative minds in modern architecture — even if his perspective is missing from Baku. Though best known for the Flying City, his body of work (especially his collection of Architectural Fantasies) is well worth a peek.
- Iakov Chernikhov, Fundamentals of Modern Architecture (1925-30)
One of the album’s highlights is About Two Squares – A Suprematist Story by El Lissitzky (1920-22), a children’s tale about a red square and a black square. They travel toward a red circle (Earth) and smash into each other, creating abstract forms on Earth.
- El Lissitzky, About Two Squares (1920-22)
It’s a futuristic narrative that combines experimental typography with the fun of reading aloud “colour-blocks of Word”… a synesthetic experience from one of the Russian greats! View the entire story here.
September 13, 2009 at 4:58 pm · Filed under Design
The new Barton collection from Kuboaa offers fanciful wallpapers that conjure up the glamour of Art Nouveau and Deco. There’s a splash of Miami thrown in for fun, too!
From delicate mint green florals (see Rhododendron, below) to bold, black-and-olive geometric prints such as Hepburn, there is something for everyone in this thoughtfully conceived collection. Here are some of my favorites:
Wistaria - Vin Jaune
Fuchsia & Humming Bird - Fuchsia Pink
Ginko - Liquorice
Coco - Light Slate
Rhododendron - Frosted Slate
August 7, 2009 at 10:30 pm · Filed under Design, Music, NYC, Travel
Wow! It has been a crazy wondeful week.
I started off with weekend brunch at Little Skillet, a tiny little window serving incredible fried chicken and fresh waffles — just steps away from 330 Ritch in SoMA.
Then booked tickets to go see the Boredoms play in New York! Yippee!
Thurston Moore
Sonic Youth proved that they could still rock out on Monday night (see photo of Thurston Moore above, from sfdavidz).
I can’t wait for Sunn O))) to slowly drone me away in a live setting. And speaking of Sunn O))), I was reminded of their homage to Southern Lord’s mainstay group, Earth when I came across a new word: Ouroboros.
According to Wikipedia, an ouroboros is “an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.” I’d heard about this symbol in a few different ways, from Jung to Norse mythology — apparently even Plato found it significant.
Ouroboros
Earth produced a song called “Ouroboros Is Broken” on the slowly unfolding album, Extra-Capsular Extraction. Find it and listen closely for the tail…
Next entries »
