Barbie - The Icon Reborn

Margaux Lange’s recent jewelry collection features repurposed dolls, specifically Barbie. She addresses (some would say celebrates) our relationship with one of pop culture’s most prominent icons. The infamous anatomically unrealistic proportions of the much chastised doll is legend. Over time Matel’s depiction of the modern woman in the form of this doll has been accused of contributing to bulimia, anorexia nervosa, teen suicide, low self image and many other complaints of the modern teenage girl. One might argue that today’s Barbie in a more modern role of “career woman” is still required to return home to Barbie’s designer kitchen. Hmmm...

Artist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) photographed brutally dismembered, recombined and violently sexualized manikins. He explained his misogynistic approach by saying his work was meant to challenge the fascist ideal Hitler was promoting at that time. Lange also dismantles dolls but to an entirely different affect. Her work both mocks and celebrates those overly pert breasts and impossibly perfect lips. Her treatment of the doll and its overtly idealized form confuses our idea of the fetish while challenging societies seemingly endless need for and display of trophies.

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Hans Belmer Photography

Inspiration - Hat, Bonnet, Wig, Horse?

Mammals have hair, the function of which is protection and regulation of body temperature. Hair also acts as tiny sensory organs. It's safe to say that most people admit to the psychological and physical importance hair as it relates to self image and an overall sense of health and wellbeing. 

Culdesac and Studio Marisol explore human hair in the 2010 Boisbuchet Workshops, in cooperation with the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Vitra Design Museum. These two studios challenge us to reconsider hair and it's role in fashion and theater as well as everyday life. 

Ursus Wehrli - Comedian addresses art

Copy and paste, it's worth it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ursus_wehrli_tidies_up_art.html

Octopus's Garden

The Poseidon Undersea Resort is a hotel built 40 feet underwater (just over one atmosphere) near a private island in Fiji. The most important and interesting part of the Resort is the Coral Reef Sanctuary Program which was conceived as a nonprofit entity. This organization invites scientists, and the general public to support conservation, education and on going research on coral reefs. The Enhanced Reef program exists in the relative safety of the islands lagoon and uses advanced coral farming and propagation techniques to promote the biodiversity of the region.

Fiji’s reef system is composed of over 300 islands. It’s known as the soft coral capital of the world, although it also houses 200 species of hard coral and 1,200 species of fish. The high degree of biodiversity is due to spawn from coral reef animals, originating from all over the tropical Pacific, which travel thousands of miles looking for a place to colonize. Fiji’s nutrient rich runoff and deep ocean upwelling provides the perfect home.

The actual hotel offers five star accommodations including; six restaurants, seven bars, a dive shop, water sports center, retail boutique, library/lounge, theater, conference room, wedding chapel, nine-hole golf course, and tennis courts. With 24 suites currently available, guests take an elevator to their unique luxury accommodations. Seventy percent of the exterior surface is transparent plexiglass (with a privacy film) the rest is steel. The rooms offer unobstructed views of the coral gardens and unique marine life. At the touch of a button one may adjust the light or feed the fish. I'm curious what it sounds like or is the plexiglass too thick?

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors - University of Pennsylvania

Roboticists at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP show their latest work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4&feature=youtu.be

For a bit more on that...
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/02/autonomous-quadrotors-fly-amazing-formations/

Loss of American Surrealist Artist - Dorothea Tanning

Philadelphia Museum of Art
When asked about her work, the American Surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning explained: “This terribly non-mainstream piece was, more than anything, a challenge to myself, a bet that I made with myself, and only me, that I would give real physical life to a bunch of tweeds and stuffing. Now, when you look at its triumphant? paroxysmic? despairing? physicality you are not quite sure that materials are only tools, that the inert is the inert, that life is something else. But one thing you know: that like you and me and everyone else, this Rainy-Day Canapé will not live for centuries. But how could we care?”

Loss of a great Artist - Mike Kelley

Creative Makers - Ted Talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1065

Ideas and their makers! Check it out.

Fiber Art takes to the Street

Artist Agata Olek’s live knitted figurative sculptures were an impressive component of the D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival in Brooklyn, NY.

Magda Sayeg is a textile artist who founded Knitta Please. She and her group are credited with establishing the international yarn bombing movement. 

Juliana Santacruz Herrera practices guerilla knitting in the streets of Paris by creating these shocking pothole patches.

This street bench by StreetColor intentionally refers to a painting in the Oakland Museum Collection by Squeak Carnwath, In Pursuit of Happiness, 2000.

Los Angeles artist Kim Burk admittedly uses patterns to create her sea creatures which she strategically places in throughout the city. Kim knits almost constantly, and to prove that this is nothing new she has supplied this vintage photograph.

Boys knitting while rollerskating! 1918

One question remains... What will you do if it rains?

“The knitting should hold up to rain, wool can get wet. I guess they may swell and fall down. They were never intended to last forever,  they are like street flowers.”

Streetcolor