The latest and possibly last installation by the legendary Christo is called the Big Air Package. Everything concerning the project is impressive, starting with the exhibition space. Built in the 1920s, the Gasometer on the Rhine-Herne Canal in Oberhausen, Germany, is one of the more appealing industrial monuments of the country. The former gas storage container is 117 meters tall and 67 meters wide, towering over any living creature. The inflatable Big Air Package itself, erupted within the Gasometer, is 94 meters high and 54 meters wide. [ Continue reading ]
Everything. is the latest product of the Dutch artists Lernert & Sander, continuing their string of interesting projects. By combining all fragrances launched in 2012, the duo has created a new perfume which they named fittingly Everything. Over the course of last year Lernert & Sander collected a mindbending amount of almost 1400 samples of newly launched fragrances which eventually were combined. [ Continue reading ]
We really like the latest focus point in the visual guidance through the world of creativity by our friends Freunde von Freunden. In Freunde von Freunde Workplaces the intention is capturing the individual, their strengths, their motivations and specifically their work environments in the broadest sense of the word. Rendering intimate impressions that specifically illuminate the creative working environments and lifestyles as shared by the selected friends in the spotlight. By expanding the focus beyond the homes of their friends, Freunde von Freunden Workplaces aims to dig deeper into the lives of those sharing their story. [ Continue reading ]
We’ve spotted them in Toronto last september, and here they are for sale: The lovely Rockets are hand made from solid walnut at Pat Kim. [ Continue reading ]
Beautiful tabletop décor for this season are these natural stone platters with sterling silver and 24K gold contour. [ Continue reading ]
A beautiful silkscreen printed map of The Northern Sky. Limited to 500 pieces, handprinted and -numbered. [ Continue reading ]
The Australian designer Sruli Recht, know for his avant-garde style of fashion- and accessory design, created this futuristic 308 Callibre Heavy-barrel sniper-rifle. Made from hand cut maple, sun-bleached, rubbed down with black horse hide and stripped of colour it, the gun is part of… [ Continue reading ]
I saw them before and bought my pack back in Toronto when I visited Holt Renfrew’s 175th birthday, and I’m happy to see Areaware is now giving it a bigger audience. I’m talking about the balancing blocks by Gregory Buntain and Ian Collings’ Fort Standard. ‘Their… [ Continue reading ]
Our good friend and inspirator Nalden’s Present Plus together with Amsterdam’s creative agency Momkai launched this nice little device called Lowdi. A portable, wireless speaker with the length of your average pencil, that connects to any device equipped with Bluetooth, allowing you to bring… [ Continue reading ]
Last year I was fortunate enough to play a little role in the birth of Cleartones - the elegant, hand made minimalist ringtones and notification tones - by my good friend Hugo Verweij. Today he released the next level: 'Cleartones Organic'. A set of wonderful ringtones and notifications, all recorded on acoustic instruments like metal bells, glass bowls, marimba and vibraphone. I can't say the first set of 'Classic Cleartones' aren't good, but these are just so much better! [ Continue reading ]
Today NOWNESS shared this super inspiring preview of Loris Gréaud's upcoming project: The Snorks, a concert for creatures. "The initial inspiration for the project lies in the idea that creatures would be living on our planet, their aesthetical and behavioural features matching an alien fantasy in every aspect, thereby awaking the desire of communicating with those "creatures". What if they live within our oceans, major component of our eco-system, could we get in touch with them?... Here begins an artistic journey and production that will last 36 months. An unusual temporality that can be understood through the following paradox: we have the ability to go on the Moon, to date the presence of water on Mars, yet we barely know anything about what composes the tremendous majority of the Earth... [ Continue reading ]
Papafoxtrot, known for their amazing wooden supertankers, launched a new line of wonderful wooden satellites that bring out our inner child, but at the same time awe us with their beautiful design. The Papafoxtrot company was founded in 2011 as a collaboration between product designers Martin Postler and Ian Ferguson of Postlerferguson and Herman Cheung from manufacturing consultants Adda Products after years of working together on client projects. Handcrafted wood and a colourful, minimal aesthetic are the essence of Papafoxtrot products with an engaging tactility and playful optimism. [ Continue reading ]
On the 8th of September the incredible Dutch ceramic artist Carolein Smit will open her exhibition 'Death and the Maiden' at the newly opened Flatland Gallery in Amsterdam. The work of the Academy of fine arts, St. Joost graduate is known for its evocative postures which inhabit at the same time a certain vulnerability. Much of her attention in her statues goes to the skin: it could be covered with thorns, holes, hairs, water drops, or a pattern of veins. The aesthetic created by these choices has a strong connection to the magic-realistic tradition in the arts. Carolein borrows themes from classic mythology and biblical tales, such as greed, power and impotence, vanity, perishableness and death. Often her sculptures enclose elements like those we find in vanitas. [ Continue reading ]
Recently the newly graduated designer Klara Petersén was brought to our attention. This Swedish designer has, for her Masters, been studying the versatility of uncoated vegetable natural leather which she exclusively gets at the tannery Tärnsjö Garveri in Tärnsjö, Sweden. Using vegetable leather gives her the possibility to harden the leather after it's been soaked in water. In a process in which the designer vacuums the wet leather onto an object and heating it afterwards, Petersén is able to catch any shape wrapped in the leather. [ Continue reading ]
Our friends at Deutsche & Japaner updated their portfolio with some amazing work. Deutsche & Japaner was formed by Moritz Firchow, David Wolpert, Ina Yamaguchi and Julian Zimmerman, focussing on graphic, product and interior design with a rich and highly aesthetic style. Since their start back in 2009… [ Continue reading ]
During Art Basel, the Vitra Design Museum opened an exposition dedicated to a number of innovative Dutch designers. The designers were invited to join a partner from the region in developing a design project. The spectrum of partners ranged from the molecular biology laboratory of the firm Roche to the only female charcoal maker in Switzerland.
Studio Wieki Somers teamed up with chocolatier Rafael Mutter to create the ‘Chocolate Mill', a large cylindrical block of chocolate from which delicate rosettes can be shaved off with a crank-turned blade. Various patterns are integrated into the block using different types of chocolate, creating a flipbook effect as the layers are scraped off. [ Continue reading ]
Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk created an exclusive candle lantern with Laikingland. The two creative worlds of Bleiswijk and Eijk are very visible in this poetic kinetic object, with soft and romantic ceramic forms and custom mechanism. The light of the candle… [ Continue reading ]
I love it when two geniuses meet and collaborate! Both good friends, Hugo Verweij and Kimberly Lloyd, collaborated to create a special Qompendium x Cleartones ringtones pack. One is the letter “Q” in melodic Morse code. The other consists of a clear sound to grab the… [ Continue reading ]
There's a new magazine, and this time not a paper one, but a beautifully designed online publication. Please welcome the first issue of the Swedish online magazine Suit Up or Die. A magazine dedicated to style, sharing 'a look at how fashion, art and aesthetics are being transformed by the online revolution'. A magazine sharing new impressions and ideas, visual, intellectual and spiritual for the ones who knows that to relieve boredom you have to love what you do or do what you love... We like that very much! [ Continue reading ]
Later this week Partners & Spade will host a lovely exhibition of children’s chairs from the collection of Patrick Parrish of Mondo Cane. Over 50 colorful chairs made between 1890 and 1990 will be on view at Partners and Spade starting May 17th till June 10th. [ Continue reading ]
The three books, the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia I, II and III published by Fuel, are one of our favorites. The books, filled with the crazy, absurd and often very violent tattoo drawings by Danzig Baldaev are going into an exhibition now. Between 1948-1986, during his career as a prison guard,… [ Continue reading ]