Fritz Haeg Edible Estates: Walker Art Center

Fritz Haeg is a trained architect, artist, and organic activist whose work spans a range of disciplines and media including gardens, dance, performance, design, installation, ecology and architecture.  He is currently the Walker Art Center’s Artist in Residence.  Edible Estates was a book published in 2005, when Haeg started the project.  He is now on his 15th Edible Estate in Woodbury, Minnesota.

A Londoner and his wife have sown life-giving vegetables in a London Bomb crater.

Haeg’s idea of the Edible Estate dates back to the Victory Gardens of WWI and WWII.  The idea is to produce your own food, and to collaborate with your neighbors to work sub-urban landscapes into less isolated communities.

Now Fritz Haeg is working with the Schoenherr family of Woodbury Minnesota to transform their blank suburban yard into an Edible Estate.  Mr Haeg, along with several volunteers has been working hard to transform their yard into a food producing installation.

Tearing up the front lawn, a near-sacred symbol of American success and leisure, in favor of tomatoes and beans is still controversial and even illegal in many places. In fact, “The Battlefront in the Front Yard,” a New York Times story published last December, documented a nationwide string of disputes between front-yard gardeners and disapproving neighbors and city officials; some were charged with violating city codes and ordinances.- Walker Art Center

Before

After

The yard has been transformed from grass to a place for the entire community to come together.  There is a round area for the community to sit and talk, as well as a giant pizza oven and a little library.Fritz Haeg has also developed an installation in the Walker’s sculpture garden called, Foraging Circle.  Here, you’ll find perennial plants as well as medicinal plantings.  Visit the Foraging Circle today at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

 

Sight Unseen Presents Noho Next Design.

The Noho Design fair tends to bring new designers and objects into the world presenting in various locations in the Noho (North of Houston) neighborhood. The selection of work at 45 Bleeker street is meant to highlight new designers. There were a few gems in this space presented by Sight Unseen and  Jawbone.  Misha Kahn was showing a neon table, a shingled chest of semi-functioning drawers (you have to decide if you want the cabinet open or not) and porcelain bubble lamps.  He is a recent recipient of a Fulbright scholarship,  a graduate of RISD and working on his Masters in Design from the Bezalel Academy in Israel.  

Eric Trine, the Portland based self described “Maker of Things” created a vignette that reminded me of the pictures in the old photo albums of my grandparents.  I really love geometric wire plant stands which are available at Poketo in Los Angeles.

Another new addition to the design world is Caitlin Mociun.  She is a jewelry and textile designer based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Among other things, she was showing these triangle pillows which are perfect to rest your tired little wrists from all that mouse clickage.  Check out her store and website at Mociun.com

Noho Design “Marbelles” by Guillaume Sasseville

This week is NYC Design Week. ICFF, Wanted Design and Noho Design all run fairs in tandem.  I had the opportunity to visit 2 Bond Street, a temporary store and space that is showing new design objects in the Noho Design District.  One of the objects I found most interesting are these “Marbelles.” They are solid marble dumbbell weights created by Guillaume Sasseville, a French-Canadian designer based in Montreal.  The weights each are around 5lbs, and will be inscribed with 2kg etchings on the end.  Sasseville collaborated with Josee Lepage of BondToo after she saw a table he made of marble which is on view at the Wanted Design Fair this week.  She thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if this were even smaller, like a dumbbell?”  They haven’t quite determined a price yet, but the dumbbells will run you around $2,000.

Jason Rens: West of Memphis

Designed by Jason Rens

Jason Rens joins a new movement of designers who aim to improve, or explore the opportunities of Memphis, the design movement created by Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Nathalie du Pasquier and many others. Sottsass which I have written about before, was the forefather of the Memphis Group the colorful geometric design style of the 80s which died in 1988 when trends changed, and designers began to experiment with other forms.  However, Jason Rens (Portland) along with people like ROLU (Minneapolis), Alma Allen (Joshua Tree) are using some of the shapes and colors of the Memphis Group, but are experimenting with new materials.  Much of the new look is very west coast, with earthy colors and southwestern native prints and raw materials.

Shiva Vase by Ettore Sottsass

Knew Vase Collection by Jason Rens

Bookends by Jason Rens

California Style: Steven Harrington

The California based artist Steven Harrington has created a very unique lamp in an edition of 12.  His whimsical, colorful, tribalish work is very Cali, and reminds me of cheerful little hobbit men living in the base of a big redwood tree.  I love the turquoise paint splattered shade, do I sense a DIY project coming on?  The lamp is his first project with wood, and is in collaboration with Case Studyo.

Is it ironic to blog about print media? Modern Matter Magazine

“As cultural commentary suggests that the magazine industry is being usurped by the new age of the digital, Modern Matter magazine seeks to explore the advances of modern technology into the world of the artist, via an analogue medium – namely, that of the printed page.  Modern Matter’s interest lies not just in the newest product or the fastest download, but rather, in the impact which technology has had on the culture of the creative.” -Modern Matter

Issue 4 of Modern Matters magazine is now available for those of you who continue to support printed matter.  The idea behind this magazine, exploring the impact of technology on culture, makes you really want to buy and subscribe to the printed paper.  As everything becomes more and more digital, we will continue to have tactile needs.  Books are better, magazines should be read with your fingers, and we should forget the anxieties of constant updates (@AModernMatter). Modern Matters is the magazine for the person that just wants to sit down and read about something they never knew.  Issue 4, Made in USA, featuring Chloe Sevigny, Maurizio Cattelan, Max Snow, Hedi Slimane and more is now available.

Nick Cave is not a bad seed. HEARD//NY

The artist, not the musician, Nick Cave has created 30 colorful horses that will move (via dancers) about Grand Central Terminal until March 31st thanks to MTA Arts for Transit and Creative Time.  The sculptures are beautiful and move gracefully through the terminal everyday at 11:00 and 2:00.

Deconstructed Furniture, Flat: Michael Zelehoski

I was walking through this years Volta art fair, and I was impressed by many artists, but one who really caught my eye was Michael Zelehoski.  He found his groove in 2006 when he took apart an old blue chair that had been lying around.  All of his current pieces deconstruct three dimensional objects and turn them flat.  The perspective is amazing, and the play of color and shading is true skill that results in these beautifully reclaimed works of art.

VOLTA NY: Imi Hwangbo

I attended a preview of the Volta art fair yesterday and came across these really beautiful, incredibly time consuming pieces made of hand cut mylar.  The artist Imi Hwangbo creates these layered patterns, which contain over 30 layers of cut mylar.  Some of the work is hand cut while some pieces are laser cut.  She is inspired by the Korean folk art Pojagi, and has created these works using patterns, imagery and color widely used in the art form.

Art On Repeat: Claire Shegog

I went to the opening of the Scope Art Fair last night.  This year Scope is at Moynihan Post Office, a really beautiful post office on 33rd and 8th Ave that will soon be turned into the next Penn Station, thank god.  One artist that I have seen at Scope a few times in the last couple of years is Claire Shegog.  I absolutely love her work, to the point that if I had an extra $3,000 hanging around, I would buy one of her pieces.  Claire is not formally trained and only started making work in 2011.  She was interested in pattern and textures, and was inspired by the Hollywood film director Busby Berkeley.  She has created the Busby series with hundreds of 1 inch tall mini dolls that she hand paints and places on a mirror to form a simple, almost minimal pattern and texture.  Her work is exhibited by the Aureus Gallery, and on view at Scope.  But if you miss it this year, it will likely be back next year.