07/01/2012
Analogue inspired retro-progressive redesign
A nostalgic love of designs from previous decades has resulted in the booming market for vintage products. Whilst one-off vintage pieces are still much sought after, vintage inspiration is being incorporated into modern designs, creating arty, retro-inspired fashion accessories and home furnishings. Analogue influences from the machine age are becoming popular, alongside retro-progressive creations, influenced by postmodernist, pre-digital popular culture. Look out for reinterpretations of items such as typewriters, cassette players, pre-digital cameras, old fashioned camcorders – and even vintage fighter jets:
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01/01/2012
Curiosity shades: retro-inspired and individually customized sunglasses
2012 is destined to be a year for curious sunglasses. With greater demand for handcrafted unique accessories and one-off, or limited edition pieces, sunglasses designers are going to town in their efforts to set their creations apart from the crowd. Designed with celebrities and musicians in mind, curiosity shades are rapidly becoming the most sought-after style of eyewear, as will be evidenced on the high street this summer. The highly embellished vintage cat's eye look will be particularly popular - with horn-rimmed, winged and rhinestone-encrusted frames predominating:
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21/12/2011
Handcrafted angels and celestial wings in design art
At a time when many artists and designers are attempting to shock and denigrate, it’s refreshing to see so many turning to angels for inspiration. Angels are associated with light, love and protection. They are usually portrayed as guardians or messengers. Appearances of winged creatures have been documented by diverse cultures and religions throughout history - often as messengers from God, to foretell crucial events in the spiritual realm, as in the case of the
Archangel Gabriel.
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18/12/2011
Salvage society: reclaimed metal and found materials upcycled into artworks
Artists are increasingly ditching traditional materials, such as canvas, in favour of more novel surfaces upon which to express their creativity. Sculptors are also becoming more imaginative in their choice of materials, upcycling found objects and recycling waste products:
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13/12/2011
Broken society: victim culture in the arts
Is the faltering note at the end of Leona Lewis’s new single, Hurt, sung on purpose? It's an interesting choice of song - and her version seems to pander to the victim culture (see video clip and lyrics below). The appeal of not being perfect, but being human, is the latest curious trend. In contrast to the golden days of Hollywood, modern celebrity status is largely based upon ritual public humiliation. Good deeds, acts of heroism and success are not newsworthy, but defects and disaster are...
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09/12/2011
Tony Heywood's conceptual horticulture
Tony Heywood has been described as the “Damien Hirst of horticulture.” Heywood was formerly head gardener for the Church Commissioners, which owns Hyde Park Estates. The flowering skull curiosity, pictured above, called The Head Gardener, was for shown earlier this year by the Fine Art Society. Heywood’s latest creation, Glamourland, made in collaboration with Alison Condie, is currently on display in Berkeley Square (until 20th January).
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19/11/2011
LASSCO's architectural salvage emporium at Brunswick House
In the 18th century, London’s Brunswick House was set in five and a half acres of parkland with its own jetty. Now it overlooks five lands of traffic and is overshadowed by the ever-expanding St George’s Wharf development. The building is home to LASSCO (London Architectural Salvage and Supplies Ltd) and houses its salvage yard/shop, as well as the Brunswick Café -a bar and restaurant that has recently opened for lunch and dinner, to rave reviews
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19/11/2011
Virtual shops using QR codes and smartphone technology
Ebay are set to open their
first pop-up store in the UK, where purchasers can use smart phones to select QR coded items and pay online via Ebay’s website. This sounds a little like the tried and tested Argos model, except you don’t get to take the goods home with you – they’re delivered a few days later. It sounds horribly convoluted, but is probably a prelude to something far more sophisticated...
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19/11/2011
Slow food, ethnic homeware and vintage fashion at Brixton Market
I mentioned London’s
Brixton Market a while ago in an article on upmarket markets. Brixton, a survivor of the original riots, remains relatively unharmed by the ‘how to spend it’ designer-crazed brigade. Ignore the armed police standing guard outside the underground station, the mega-sized branches of KFC and McDonalds - and march rapidly towards
Electric Avenue – a monument to the history of electrical engineering and small commercial enterprise.
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16/11/2011
Contemporary curiosity boxes by Japanese artists and designers
Shoreditch based gallery, ICN’s recent opening exhibition ‘OHAKO’ paid homage to the Japanese word meaning ‘one's best technique and skill’. Using traditional Japanese tea boxes from Shizuoka, Japan – also known as ‘ohako’ - each artist involved in the project created an expression of their best skill inside a tea box - their ‘ohako’ enclosed in an ‘ohako’.
The exhibition featured works by 30 Japanese artists representing manga art, photography, architecture, ceramics, fashion, character design, art and more – including internationally known artists, as well as relative newcomers. The aim of the exhibition was to give visitors to the London gallery a rare opportunity to experience “the unique harmony of Japanese arts, using a combination of tradition and contemporary expression.” Here is a selection of some the uniquely curious exhibits on show:
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