+ Marleen Sleeuwits
I found Marleen Sleeuwits’ work via a great blog by Jacob Heftmann who has great daily post (opposite to my blog lately). Marleen is based in The Hague, The Netherlands and has a pretty divers body of work, but mainly her work is about space and in her words “the non-relationship with space she finds herself in”
Marleen has also been commission by design companies for product photography, by graphic design companies for portrait photography as well as by magazines to photograph for their covers. The last 2 layouts shown in this post are for Akzo Nobel, I really enjoy the spaces she photographed for them.
Her photography of spaces is very intriguing and clean, the colours are phenominal. I will defitnitely have to check out her work more frequently.
Thanks Jacob!
+ HORT
A couple of weeks ago we learned a bit about the company HORT. They are located in Berlin, in the neighbourhood called Kreuzberg. HORT works on a HUGE array of different types of work. From styling to interaction design, to graphic design. They have workshops as well. The studio was started and is still being run by Eikes König. This is how they explain their company and ideas behind it:
HORT began its inhabitance back in 1994, under the previous stage name of EIKES GRAFISCHER HORT. Who the hell is Eike? Eike is the creator of HORT. HORT – a direct translation of the studio’s mission. A creative playground. A place where ‘work and play’ can be said in the same sentence. An unconventional working environment. Once a household name in the music industry. Now, a multi-disciplinary creative hub. Not just a studio space, but an institution devoted to making ideas come to life. A place to learn, a place to grow, and a place that is still growing. Not a client execution tool. HORT has been known to draw inspiration from things other than design.
Some of their work is amazing, am personally not a fan of all the work, but that is the way it goes, you cannot like everything and it makes you think about why and what you do find intriguing and what not.
The project above is for Peter Heppner’s CD. Below is the work HORT did for Playboy magazine. Both projects are phenomenal. I really enjoy that the Peter Heppner shoot is about body parts and movement as well as patterns on clothing. The Playboy Magazine shoot seems to be about shapes, material and colour.
+ Hendrik Kerstens
A couple of years ago I received a magazine with Hendrik Kerstens work in it. He is being represented by the Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam and New York. Many of you I am sure already know his work. But it is definitely worth mentioning again. As well as the fact that his show is opening in New York at the Witzenhausen Gallery on Thursday June 11th until July 11th 2009, for more info click here. From the Witzenhausen Gallery site:
when hendrik kerstens decided to dedicate himself entirely to photography in 1995, he turned to a model very near at hand: his daughter paula. he wanted to document all the important moments in her life, to ‘be there’, to capture something of the fleeting moments that fade from memory all too quickly.
This series of photos is pretty amazing, it is so simple in a way, but that is the key. The simplicity of how he is able to create a certain feeling in the photo without seemingly any effort. His model and daughter, Paula, seems to be the perfect model for what Hendrik is getting at in his work. The more recent portraits seem to have a common thread in their referral to the painted portraits of the Dutch Masters. See you on the 11th June!
+ Yang Maoyuan
We saw Yang Maoyuan’s work for the first time last year in Berlin at the Alexander Ochs Galleries, which is located both in Berlin and Bejing. They represent Yang Maoyuan’s work. Yang was born in Dalian, Liaoning Province in China in 1966 and has a very large and divers body of work that ranges from paintings to large sculptures. Above are Marble and Bronze busts that Yang worked on between 2006 – 2007.
These caught my eye directly when we saw them last year in Berlin. The way the faces are partially erased, the eyes look like they’re closed, but all this manipulated by the artist. The Bronze busts have such impact where the faces are shiny bronze versus the black matte of the rest of the bust. The removed parts have made place for helmet looking shapes. The shiny bronze areas become somewhat detached from the face itself. However with the marble busts this doesn’t happen, Yang has manipulated the face and manipulates how we see and what we see of the expression on the person’s face.
Below is the sculpture named:“The Mongolian Horse” from 2008. The sculpture is made out of inflated horse skin. It’s an amazing piece. If you ever have the chance to see Yang’s sculptures or Drawings, I would highly recommend it. I am not a fan of his paintings.
+ Thomas Brown photography
Thomas Brown is a photographer, currently living and working in London. He is represented by Webber Represents His work ranges from fashion (mostly shoes) to furniture design, but it all has an aspect of graphic design, linear, 2D vs 3D, colour and his environment photos have a lot of texture. What I like about his work is that most photos are more than just nice to look at. You can find a story in each one. There’s also always humour buried in the photograph, which I always appreciate very much. A tad of humour is a must in life and work!
The photos shown above: “Cream if you want to go faster” are for Intersection Magazine for Issue 28 Winter 2008/2009
The photo series below: “Model Cars” were photographed in 2007
Line Up
Prada – Tom Ford
Issey Miyake
Shocks
Shoe Bike
+ Morgane Tschiember
A month and a half ago I was pointed out the work of Morgane Tschiember she’s French, not sure from where, but from what I gather from her Bio of expo’s she went to school in Quimper, France. Quimper is known for it’s typical painted ceramics. Morgane’s work is not related to this, but always find this an interesting town.
The pieces by Morgane above are called Iron Maiden and were shown at Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris in 2007. These huge coloured sheets are sheets of metal, perfectly coloured that are seemingly peeling off the wall. It seems such a simple piece or collection of pieces, but yet I have never seen anything quite like this before. They’re like perfectly peeling walls, revealing the next colour of the wall beneath. However when you think of the sheets of peeling sheets of metal it puts the whole piece in a new dimension, makes you want to touch and feel if you really cannot bend it and tug it like a piece of paper. Being a big fan of colour it makes me a very very happy person.
Below I have also collected some photos of Morgane’s Pop Up Collection from 2008 also presented in Galerie Loevenbruck.
+ Thorsten Brinkmann
The work of Thorsten Brinkmann was featured in the latest issue of Damn Magazine I believe. Thorsten was born in Stuttgart Germany. He is represented by Kunstagenten based in Berlin. I wasn’t familiar with his work until this week, and especially enjoy these “old master” style portraits with metal and fabric and containers wrapped around the portrayed people’s heads. The top photo is my favourite one and called: “Drune Quoll” from 2007. The other detail I am intrigued by the fact that the models never have arms, even if the arms would have to be on the photo they have been tucked away in the next piece of clothing.
This is a quote from Damn Magazine about Thorsten’s work:
“In the mercantile port of Hamburg, Thorsten Brinkmann tangles with a modern-day caveman’s dreams. Unable to resist the allure of dumped urban detritus, this German artist recomposes and intervenes in the trash to scrap cycle to come up with installations, videos or photos such as portraits and still lifes. Why wouldn’t you wrap your head in sheet metal?”
Busy Month at byAMT Studio
Usually as you might have noticed I do not post our studio’s work on this blog, but you must have noticed it has been quiet on Plus & Minus Things. So I have decided to share some of what we’ve been working on. Our studio has been working on hard on many projects, including new collections and curating and designing a design show during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair here in New York. Please see below some images of our new collections.
TAPED TABLE LINEN
AVAILABLE VIA byAMT DESIGN
Table linen with a pattern drawn using tape, with the raffled tape ends still showing, The tape is mimicking the old school way of patterning a woven damask. They used to use paper with squares to clearly indicate the pattern of the piece that needed to be woven. The tape is playing off of this underlying pattern, especially noticeable in the Tea Towels. However the Tape pattern does something else, it indicates a spot, an area where we can eat, it tells us that that is a place where something happens, just like lines on the street tell us to park, or not park somewhere. Museums have lines/tape on the floor indicating to not pass that boundary. This is the underlying story. Taped is the first set in a series, more will be developed over time.
A repeated pattern which will be cut into Dish Towels, each batch will create a new series of Dish Towels, as the print is moved over slightly. For ICFF these towels will be presented in a bright colour, not only the current grey + white.
Taped will include:
1x Linen Damask Table Cloth
6x Napkins with 6 different designs
Dish Towels
It is being launched at ICFF on 2 locations by a new company Functionals.eu, which manufactures all products in house and sells all their products exclusively via their own website: www.Functionals.eu. The first products in their collection are a lamp by Dick van Hoff and a set of candelabras by Roderick Vos.
To see these pieces, please come and visit us at this exhibit from May 16 – June 14th:
400 Years Later -CITE Goes Dutch
CITE Showroom
131 Greene Street (between Prince and W Houston St.)
New York, NY 10012, US
JOINTED JEWELLERY
AVAILABLE VIA byAMT DESIGN
Jointed Jewellery is a work in progress – which will debut at ICFF and continue to evolve for another exhibit planned in September 2009 (more info about this soon)
byAMT will present a collection of Jewellery with ball joints and in the near future other objects with this same joint. By using modern technology it is possible nowadays to make shapes that are impossible to make using old techniques. It is impossible to mould a ball joint in ceramics or plastics all in one go, without assembly needed. A ball joint can only be put together after the parts have been manufactured separately. Using Selective Laser Sintering, a 3D printing technology, it is possible to create a ball joint connection in one piece. Next to creating jewellery, we will explore the idea of making every day objects with ball joints (including a stool, a lamp, etc)
Some questions we posed ourselves and thoughts that went through our heads:
Look at how Ball joints are made currently. How can it be applied and be a form of beauty? How can it be applied in a functional way and be beautiful? We question the fact that only functional. We would like to use the industrial piece to inspire a wearable piece as well as a decorative piece.
To see these pieces, please come and visit us at this exhibit from May 16 – June 14th: 400 Years Later -CITE Goes DutchCITE Showroom
131 Greene Street (between Prince and W Houston St.)
New York, NY 10012, US
INSPIRED BY A MILK STOOL
AVAILABLE VIA byAMT DESIGN
LONELY HANGERS
AVAILABLE VIA byAMT DESIGN
The Lonely Hangers, are derived from cup handles that were broken off from their cups. Now they can hand on the wall and be used in living rooms, bedrooms, lobbies, bathrooms, etc. Spread out over the wall you can create your own landscape of coat hangers, or hang a cloths hanger off of it.
400 Years Later – CITE Goes Dutch
(photo: Lisa Klappe)
2009: New Yorkers Discover Dutch Design The exhibit presents everything from furniture and tabletop objects to jewelry by 23 emerging Dutch designers and manufacturers and 1 photographer. Curated byStudio Jan Habraken and Alissia Melka-Teichroew in collaboration withWabnitz Editions Ltd and Josée Lepage, the work draws an outline of contemporary design coming out of, and shaped by, the unique climate of the densely populated Netherlands, whose designers grow up below sea level and under heavy gray skies. 400 Years Later will introduce recent and never-before-seen work by Studio Oooms, Frederik Roijé, Jorre van Ast, Mirjam van der Lubbe, Studio Glithero, Sander Mulder, Lucas Maassen, Lotte van Laatum, Dave Keune, Maarten Baptist, Lisa Klappe, Jan Habraken and byAMT Studio, among others, that is both intricate and pared-down, pragmatic and poetic, witty and well-crafted. WHERE
400 Years Later -CITE Goes Dutch
CITE Showroom
131 Greene Street (between Prince and W Houston St.)
New York, NY 10012, US
OPENING HOURS
11:00 am – 7:00 pm Monday through Saturday
12:00 pm – 6:00 pm Sunday
+ Visionaire 56 Solar
Above: Cover art by Roe Ethridge. Below: Photo by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
Above: Photo by Richard Burbridge.
Above: Painting by Richard Phillips.
Visionaire 56 Solar is the latest issue of Visionaire Magazine, one of the most amazing magazine collections in my opinion. They are always working with the senses in one way or another. Often using cutting edge technology or get together the most amazing artists from all over the world. Visionaire was the first magazine to laser cut instead of print an entire magazine.
This Solar issue is again quite stunning, all images inside the magazine appear black and white, the white embroidered cover appears all white in normal indoor light. Once you take the magazine outside into the sunlight this black and white or white image turns into colour, just like magic!
Participating artists are Yoko Ono, John Baldessari, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Richard Phillips, Richard Burbridge, M/M, Ryan McGinley, and more. Enjoy!
Thank you Refinery 29 pipeline.
+ Ron Gilad’s Spaces Etc./An Exercise in Utility
birth of a chair’ by ron gilad
enameled sterling silver
all images courtesy wright20
birth of a chair’ by ron gilad
Meant to post this last week when we received an invite for Ron Gilad first solo exhibit, also known for his design studio: DesignFenzider at Wright in Chicago (Wright is the premier auction house specializing in modern and contemporary design). Spaces Etc./An Exercise in Utility encompasses (I believe 40) objects that question our relationship with the architectural environments that define our immediate surroundings. The pieces above really made me smile, especially the chairs, the pieces below that are objects/spaces that we’ve all doodled in our sketchbooks and thought about, or used to emphasize a space without drawing all the lines. This is why I like a lot of Ron’s work. It’s great to see all these minimal amounts of lines that create spaces and objects and you can still decide if it is about the space inside or outside of the lines or even both, that creates the object or triggers the usage that we understand when we see this object. (An Excersize in Utility)
coffee table
