40 years on

Today in the occasional series celebrating the 40th birthday of our house we bring you 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Considered one of the Greatest Films Ever, we attempted to watch this 1968 classic on Thursday evening without the use of psychedelic drugs and we were defeated. It's not that we don't appreciate the metaphors and the message but did it have to take SO. FREAKIN'. LONG?
I actually gave up at the 2 hour mark, yelling "Enough already, I get it at the screen". The Guy, poor fella, who doesn't remember seeing it before, kept saying "Wait, it's nearly over, it must be nearly over". More in desperation than in hope, I think.
For those who can't sit through the iconic movie, or don't have the requisite acid on hand, can I suggest this multilingual site. It explains the movie so you can fake it when challenged by your film buff friends and you save a couple of hours of your life.

Art Deco and All That Jazz

Ok, it was tiny, poorly laid out and badly lit but the Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture 1925-1940 did have a couple of gems: The radiator grille from the Squibb Building in Manhattan, designed by Buchman & Kahn and the gold on glass panels from the grand hall of the SS Normandie. Then there was a tantalisingly short clip of Josephine Baker performing at a French Revue and a steel model of the Trylon and Perisphere at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
It takes almost as long to read the title of the show as it does to go round it, but really the exhibition was a sort of hors d'oeuvre - it left me hungry to know more about the relationship between the two cities in that inter-war period and reminded me to walk down Fifth Avenue soon to look at the beautiful Art Deco facades we have in New York.

Where am I?

Spain?


France?


Italy?


No, somewhere a little closer to home.

The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End

While we were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art soaking up the sun on the roof and admiring the Jeff Koons sculptures, we took time to wander through the galleries and see The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End. It's only a small exhibition placed in the middle of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas wing, but it was very inspiring.
Three pieces in particular stood out for me:


El Anatsui Between Earth and Heaven, 2006, aluminium and copper wire textile


Sokari Douglas Camp Nigerian Woman Shopping, 1990, steel sculpture


Grace Ndiritu The Nightingale, 2003, video installation

In addition to these three works, the exhibition features textiles dating from the 19th century to the present day and is held in collaboration with the British Museum, London. Catch it if you can at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Shiny Happy Sculptures*

Perfect weather last Friday to view the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Sacred Heart (Red/Gold), 1994–2007


Balloon Dog (Yellow), 1994–2000

You may think Koons' work is simplistic but I have to admire the technical genius of the construction. It's flawless. And it made me smile on a day when the financial markets were plummeting.

* To sing along, click my playlist at the bottom of the page

To do list and city fun

Ok, so we have a few things to get done this weekend:
1) Tackle the new hole the blasted woodpecker has made in the post by the front door before the porch falls down.
2) Clean out the gutters. Again. Yes, someone is going back up on the roof. And yes, that would be the same someone who forgot our anniversary. As both this and chore #1 require someone else to hold the ladder, I can foresee all sorts of calamities before we are done.
3) Clean out the dead moles from the pool filters so the guys can come and close it up without being totally grossed out.
4)Run into the city to see the Jeff Koons exhibit on the roof of the Met before it closes.
All these things require fine weather, so it BETTER NOT RAIN BEFORE SUNDAY EVENING.

YSL Retrospective

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Montreal was visiting the Musee des Beaux Arts to see the Yves St Laurent retrospective. The exhibition, which opened only a few days before YSL died, spanned forty years of innovative fashion design and was awe inspiring, not least because you could really get up close and examine the garments to see the work that the couturier put into each outfit.


It is only when you get within two feet of a dress that you can truly understand how they can cost thousand of dollars.


All the designer's work was represented from Le Smoking, via safari jackets and the yeti style jackets to the transparent blouses and glamorous evening gowns


Memorable designs were the lattice beadwork fringed tribal dresses and this tiny little black micro minidress on the right designed for Diane Von Furstenburg by Yves St Laurent in 1990. Exquisite.
The retrospective in Montreal has now closed but will open at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on November 1st. Go, and be inspired.

Time for tea

Isn't this one of the most gorgeous designs you've ever seen? Just as art, I mean. The fact that it's a teapot does nothing for me as tea makes me gag. It's just a beautiful, sculptural piece. And with any luck I will be going to see it soon in its temporary home at the Design Museum in London where it is part of the Design Cities exhibition. The Christopher Dresser teapot is one of the earliest exhibits, dating from 1879. I love the geometric form, it's forward looking yet timeless, and would look as good in a modern home as it did in the Victorian household it was designed for. Good design never ages, does it?
To see more of Dresser's work, including beautiful arts and crafts wallpaper and the cutest watering can ever, go here.

Crisis? What crisis?

The stock market is tumbling to the depths but the art market is looking pretty perky, especially if your name is Damian Hirst and you sold a huge collection of recent works through Sotheby's yesterday and today. “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” featured 223 works including Golden Calf (above), which fetched a record breaking 10.35 million pounds. Hirst's six studios have been working flat out to produce the art for the auction and other works for sale include The Kingdom, a tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde and Aurothioglucose, a dot painting. Although some people thought Hirst was taking a risk by-passing galleries and selling directly through an auction house, it seems to have paid off. I wonder what he is going to do with all that money?
And just to make me feel old, the auction was held on the 20th anniversary of the Freeze exhibition that launched Damian Hirst on the art world.

Monumental Art

Planet by Mark Quinn
I'm trying to figure out how I can wangle a trip to the UK to see Sotheby's Beyond Limits: A Selling Exhibition of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture on view in the grounds of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England from Monday, September 15 through Sunday, November 2 2008.
Giant babies, big bears, and another sculpture of Kate Moss, this time in a yoga pose (although I can probably do without seeing that), the twenty-two sculptures have one thing in common: they are huge. And they will command enormous price tags. I don't know where they will end up but last year's exhibition just about sold out. Personally I like them where they are - it's a great contrast with the C16th stately home. But I suppose they might get in the way when Chatsworth is used as a backdrop for films like Pride and Prejudice and Duchess.

Siren

Words fail me, so go here for the story. I await your comments.

Art Glass

I'd never heard of New York based architectural glass designer Gariella Huseman until the Vintage and Modern email dropped into my inbox. That's unsurprising as her work is to the trade only, but she produces laminated glass coffee tables and mirrors that are as much works of art as functional pieces. Funky, modern square coffee table with multicolored swirls, $1800 via Vintage and Modern.

Modern History

This French Restoration bedroom circa 1823 looks so modern it would fit right into my house today. Part of House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors From the Thaw Collection, at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan. The exhibition runs until January 25 2009.
via The New York Times

The Summer White House

I did squeeze in one local culture experience on my vacation at home. On Thursday morning I visited Teddy Roosevelt's home Sagamore Hill at Oyster Bay Cove, 10 minutes from The Cool House.
I've taken visitors to the grounds many times before but this was the first time I'd toured the house and it was worth at least double the $5 fee. Firstly you get a NPS ranger as tour guide and they are always informative but our guide Robert Erhlich had so many stories about the house and the artifacts that we were there much longer than planned. There is the house itself, which is one of the best preserved Victorian Shingle-style homes in the US, with its gas lighted dining room, dark wood paneling, and exterior ice house. Everything in the house, with the exception of the rugs, some drapes and the back staircase, is original. Then there are the public rooms filled with the souvenirs of TR Roosevelt's life, as New York politician, explorer, Rough Rider and President. Elephant tusks (a gift from the King of Ethiopia, Polar and Grizzly bear rugs, the Presidential flag represent just part of the unique decor you'll find here. Even the room where Elinor Roosevelt stayed when her parents died is preserved as it was, complete with a signature quilt made by her closest friends.


Roosevelt and his second wife Edith Kermit Carow moved into Sagamore Hill in 1887, eventually raising six children there, including Alice, from his first marriage. When Roosevelt became the youngest president in 1902 after the McKinley's assassination he re-named the Executive Mansion in Washington DC "The White House" and the installation of a telephone at Sagamore Hill that kept the President in touch with the Capital permitted the family to reside on Long Island during the summer months. Sagamore Hill became known as the Summer White House.
If you love old houses, taxidermy, history or good yarns and have an opportunity to visit Long Island, or if you live near here and didn't know about it, beg or borrow $5 and invest it in a tour. You won't be disappointed.
Sagamore Hill NHS 12 Sagamore Hill Road, Oyster Bay, NY 11771 is open to visitors from Wednesday through Sunday each week (closed Mondays & Tuesdays). House tours on the hour 10 AM-4 PM.

Prefabulous houses at MoMA

Monday morning's disappointment with The Waterfalls and the delicious make-up-for-it lunch and a couple of espressos behind us we headed uptown for more culture at the MoMA - Home Delivery: Fabricating The Modern Dwelling. This exhibition of prefabrication in architecture from the early 19th century to the present isn't comprehensive - Sears-Roebeck homes get a mention but Macy's Leisurama Homes don't - but it is fascinating nonetheless. I especially loved the 1930's copper houses constructed in Berlin and Haifa, that I previously knew nothing about.
I checked in the all-metal 1949 Lustron House that was reassembled inside the museum for this exhibition but the drawers were clear of used tissues. There was a couple seated at the dining table, she was applying lipstick, checking her blackberry while they chatted about friends and how they could "totally live there right in the middle of a museum". They were completely comfortable, enjoying the Prefab space. It was kind of cute in a life-as-art way.
Outside on a vacant lot adjacent to the MoMA were five prototype prefabs, the installation of which you can watch on video.


I loved the construction of the Digitally Fabricated Housing for New Orleans: no nails, no glue, you need only a rubber mallet to put together the numbered parts.


Open tread staircase in the photovoltaic rich Cellophane House, adds to the open and airy feeling. The house is full of light and feels surprisingly spacious and cool even on a sweltering New York Summer day


The retro feel but conceptually ultra-modern Burst*008, is bathed in a creamy yellow glow. This prefab isn't a box but rather geometrical folds mean each house will be unique. Sunshine bursts everywhere, including this nifty skylight above the double bed, yet the house remains cool.
This was installation design done really well and a fun afternoon at MoMA. They have had some really interesting, informative and thought-provoking exhibitions over the past year, and that's what a culture-fix should provide.

Where there's life there's....

... a Belgian takeover of one of the icons of American popular culture. Allez les belges!

Kicking Off Summer

We're off to the City tomorrow night to celebrate the start of summer with a Jonathan Coulton concert. As recent events and other expenses are taking their toll on our wallets, we'll be taking a home-ation this year. That doesn't mean we'll be sitting in the dark like sad cases, though. There's a bunch of must-see events going on in NY, including the Buckminster Fuller retrospective at The Whitney and The New York City Waterfalls, and I still haven't seen Jeff Koons on the Met roof. Oh, and next Saturday evening there'll be more of this going on.

The Breathing Sculpture

I posted this over here but I think it is something that bears repeating. The British Broadcasting Company commissioned artist Jaume Plensa to design a sculpture that pays tribute to all those killed while reporting the news. A beacon of light shines from it every night while the shape evokes an ear trumpet to hear the voices of people throughout the world.
The glass sculpture is entitled Breathing, it is a fitting memorial and a thing of beauty.

Why should effluence be prosaic?

Pretty much the most basic facility in the City - the Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn - is already an architectural masterpiece. Eight 145 ft stainless steel eggs hold millions of gallons of sewage and convert it into clean water and what will become fertilizer, all while looking like something from an episode of Flash Gordon. And now there is a bonus feature. They will be illuminated at night, from June 3, with a “diaphanous layer of blue light.” That's according to French designer Hervé Descottes whose firm L'Observatoire International is responsible for the lighting project. Poetic, no?

And then there was Beantown

Quincy Market

Thermopolyae at the JFK Building


USS Constitution


USS Cassin Young
Much was accomplished in a few days, including some sightseeing, bacon wrapped scallops at The Salty Dog (I cannot recommend this too highly; the sweetest, tastiest scallops encased in BACON. What's not to like? Everything tastes better wrapped in bacon), and martinis at The Last Hurrah.