ART & CULTURE.

The exhibition space at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, New York appears customary when you first arrive. The main level of the former industrial building is a traditional gallery with white walls, high ceilings and rotating exhibitions of contemporary sculpture and installation. But walk to the back of the gallery, and a narrow set of stairs descends to a basement where you will find artworks staked out in underground tunnels, nestled beside brick walls and projected onto stone alcoves.

Leopards in the Temple, an exhibition that opened in January and runs through March 30, 2010, utilizes both floors of the Center. Among the artists featured on the more cavernous level is Philadelphia-based artist Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, who answered a few of our questions about the show, the Center and the curious locale of Long Island City. Click Read More for the full interview and photos.

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ART & CULTURE.

On view now at SITE art space in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hasan Elahi’s Tracking Transience is a painstaking study in self-surveillance. It is also a response to, and provocation of, the politics of privacy and government oversight. Elahi, a Bangladesh-born American, developed the piece after being falsely accused as a 9/11 terrorist accomplice in 2002. He documents every detail of his life in photos: meals before he eats them, toilets before he uses them, and monitors his location with a GPS tracker. The artist has said: “I’ve decided that if the government wants to monitor me that’s fine. But I could do a much better job monitoring myself than anyone else.”

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ART IN SECRET.

Amidst a busy square in Cardiff, Wales, you can find a series of miniature worlds—if you know where to look. Artist Jane Edden designed diminutive tableaux that were recently installed in the tops of unassuming bollards, or traffic posts, that dot St. David’s shopping center. The permanent installation is called Post Secret, and was developed by Edden in collaboration with students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She photographed and sketched the students, then constructed the tiny, laser-cut scenes, which reside in secret until a curious visitor gazes in.

Edden: “Within the bollards are miniature constructions, created in a stylized monochrome form. Some of these environments seem to transcend the space that can be perceived to be within the bollards. This interplay with the interior and exterior space is designed to create the feeling of looking into another place or world.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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ART & CULTURE.

The elevators at the 181st Street and 190th Street A-train stops in Manhattan have a history as purveyors of community spirit. Norhattan describes how elevator operators at the stations took to personalizing their domains with family photos, images of revered musicians, and cut-outs of cute pets. Commuters who rode these elevators, “were experiencing a moving community collage.” Then, in 2001, the MTA ordered the assemblages be removed, deeming them a fire hazard.

The celebrated collages remain banned, but organizers recently brought a new kind of community art back to the station elevators, with hopes of rekindling some lost neighborhood pride. In each of six elevators, four artwork posters will be now displayed. Three will come from the collection of Arts for Transit, the MTA’s own subway art program. The fourth is to be selected by Artists Unite, a nonprofit group that formed around this issue, and will be created by a community artist. Although the collection may not recreate the original collages’ charm, it’s a sign of a community coming together to preserve one of the cherished quirks that make daily city life special. Click Read More for additional information.

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HOUSING ISSUES.

As a city with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, Detroit is teeming with abandoned houses. This winter, one of these structures is getting an icy treatment as part of an installation project meant to bring attention to the city’s housing collapse. Photographer Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune are spraying the above pictured house with fire-hydrant water almost 24-hours a day, encrusting it in a glistening shell of ice. The Ice House Project tells tales of supporters stopping by with hot chocolate, documents a food and clothing drive organized by the artists, as well as chronicles the entire endeavor, from house to house-sicle. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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FASHION.

Fashion students from Stockholm’s Beckmans College of Design have the opportunity to display their work at one of the city’s most prominent department stores, while visitors and passersby get a glimpse into the minds of up-and-coming design visionaries, in the storefront show In a Perfect World…, up at PUB in Stockholm.

Each of the twelve featured students designed three concise pieces inspired by the concept of utopian design. The Beckmans website describes their work as driven by, “an ambition to add something to the fashion system. What would we change if we could? What if fashion were different?” Responses include, “the inside would be the outside,” “perfection is an ugly word,” and “a blank uniform makes you unique.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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ART.

Kuntzel + Deygas have an impressive catalog of work. The first time we saw their designs we were at colette viewing the store’s latest window installation. Ever since then we’ve followed them around the globe admiring their work. From larger then life decals on the side of airplanes to more subtle window treatments, you’ll instantly fall in love with their signature characters, Caperino & Peperone.

Recently, the duo opened an exhibition at the Joyce Gallery in Paris. Photographer, NBP, took a few photos of the installation. Definitely check it out if you’re in the area. If not, you can view the show courtesy of Hypebeast and NBP’s excellent photography.

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