Two Strange and Awesome Events (Images from designartnews.com)

So I'm at the final month of my college degree. After finishing my demo reel for the umpteenth I'm feeling great. As many of you know, I like art. I like it very much. I also like intricate designs for festivals, if you didn't catch that in my recent posts. So, let it be known that this pattern will continue for quite some time.

The first show that I saw was The Horn of Plenty To Lowered Ceiling.

 This show, curated by Gosse Osterhof, was about the pieces of Jonathon Monk and his jigsaw mentality. Born in Leicester in 1969, Jonathan Monk isn't a young up and comer like many of events tend to showcase. No, he is already established, and this is his first solo effort in Holland. Monk visited Amsterdam and saw The Horn of Plenty as a 19 year old, quickly becoming inspired by its free nature. Designws' Tim Voss made a great point in that the charm of Monk comes from the fact that the exhibit is woven from his crazy stories. Where the normally silent atmosphere of a museum is now a game.

From Designws 

From Designws

Another event was Joep Van Liesshout's stage design for Opera Tannhauser. He was invited by Sebastien Baumgarten to design the set for the July 25 edition of the show that took place during the Bayreuther Festspiele. The Festspiele is very prestigious due in part to the fact that it founded by the composer Richard Wagner. Since its conception, the House only showcased Wagner's music and only during the summer festspiele.  Every year festspiele makes one new production that will be carried on for  five continuous years.This time it is Tannhauser, and Lieshout, alongside Baumgarten, Chris Kondek, and Nina Von Mechov, looked to make it one to remember.

Here are some images from the show (from Designws)

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Fruits at the Vivid Gallery

Hisakazu Shimizu presented an exhibition at the Vivid Gallery entitled Fruits. This was a great showcase of the designer's work. The pieces represent fruit in some sense or another, showing its versatility and flexibility. For example, there are melon-shaped porcelain clocks, as well as lamps shaped and colored like fruit. According to Designws, he Shimizu was fascinated with the juxtaposition of fruit, a borderless product of nature, being expressed within the vein of "pop culture", in the form of manmade constructions. Shimizu actually works for Canon's in-house design team, and has worked with lines such as the Canon IXUS camera. He has also developed works under the nickname "Sabo Studio".

Photos by Daisen

Fruits Wall Lamp

Fruits Table Lamp

Watermelon Clock

Bucky Fuller & The Spaceship Earth

This exhibit shows a biographic overview, if you will, of Richard Buckminster Fuller's work, from Dymaxion House to the Geodesic Domes. The exhibit was curated by Lord Norman Foster (who has worked with Fuller in his last 12 years), and Luis Fernandez-Guliano, professor of Universidad Politechnica in Madrid. Outside of architecture, the exhibit also includes photographs, drawings, and films. The biggest piece in the exhibit, in my opinion was the reconstructed Dymaxion Car #4, as I believe that the effort was worth it.  In case you all are wondering, Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was a futurist, inventor, engineer, and was the second president of Mensa International, an organization for those with high IQ. His most widely recognized works probably include the geodesic domes in the 50's. The first thing that many of my friends have noticed was his famous Spaceship Earth structure at Walt Disney World. That piece is just so amazing that words can't describe. Overall the exhibit was a great tribute to a great and creative man. Thanks, guys.

Both of these exhibitions were done last month, and I was a bit late in the party, but I figured that this blog shouldn't go without mention of these two awesome shows. 

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