Yes is More

‘Playful’, ‘controversial’, ‘cheeky’, ‘innovative’ and ‘provocative’ are just some of the terms used to describe BIG. Headed by Bjarke Ingels, this architectural company has in the space of a few years created prize-winning projects, a long list of innovative buildings and an international reputation, as well as taking an active part in current debates in society

This exhibition forms part of a pilot project called ‘Close up’, which through exhibitions, debates, seminars and teaching sessions takes a long, hard look at new tendencies, theories and challenges within Danish architecture.

Exhibiton: Yes is More, Architectural projects by BiG, 21 February – 31 May 2009, at Danish Architecture Centre (DAC),

Sol LeWitt Cube Structures

Sol LeWitt helped establish Conceptualism and Minimalism as dominant movements of the postwar era. Many of LeWitt’s works explore the variations possible within the basic structure of a cube. The permutations are simple, clear and logical.

“Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.”
- Sol LeWitt

Cube Without a Cube, $21,600 (top two) and K 1 2 3 4 5 6 #2, $132,000 (bottom)
by Sol LeWitt 1928-2007, Sold at Auction at Wright

Riding Hood & Wolves, Happy Days by Bendetta Mori Ubaldini

Two installations are on display for Bendetta Mori Ubaldini’s solo show at Fat Galerie. Riding Hood and wolves, and Happy Days, both fill the space with a symbolic and poetic narrative. “They have no internal structure so their presence is almost absent, giving them a sense of wonder, magic”. Creating images in 3 Dimensions, Ubaldini experiments in colour and light on the transparent material enhancing this effect and capturing the imagination of the viewers. In addition to chicken wire works, she now also makes what she calls “ugly art”: scultpures and body image made with balloons. These pieces function as a self-critique of the fantasy and beauty of the animal sculptures.

Riding Hood and Wolves and Happy Days by Bendetta Mori Ubaldini, at Fat Galerie
via: Yatzer

Million Dollar Satellite Hanging Light by Eileen Gray

A rare pendant light designed by Eileen Gray is up for auction at Christie’s. It is expected to fetch just under 1 million dollars. It is part of a collection of the late Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. The auction, described as the “sale of the century” also includes rare works by Brancusi, Léger, Braque, Matisse and Picasso.

The light is made of cream-painted aluminium, composed of three superimposed flat rings in ascending scale mounted in alternation with three stepped conical shades in descending scale.

Satellite Hanging Light, ca. 1925, by Eileen Gray, Estimate €600,000 – €800,000, Collection Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Berge, Auction at Christie’s, 23 – 25 February

Yves Saint Laurent, Brancusi Sculpture on Auction at Christie’s

Constantin Brancusi owes its outstanding reputation mainly his sculptures in stone and bronze, cut or molded, smooth and polished to perfection. The public knows little wooden works, much less numerous and, at first, were not well received, as to be rejected by private collectors.
Madame LR is a wonderful example of the first wooden sculptures by Brancusi: By choosing the material and the technique of direct cutting through the iconography and the intent underlying its creation, this work is Indeed, far from the normal production of the sculptor. While the Bird in Space, amounts to heaven in a spiritual movement and almost intangible—wooden sculptures are massive, rooted in soil and mysteriously enigmatic.

It is difficult to assess accurately the number of wood sculptures by Brancusi realized, as some have been dismantled, reconstructed or destroyed, but it is estimated that there were still some thirty sculptures or fragments of sculpture. Most of them were executed between 1913 and 1925, during which Brancusi also produces oak stands to put his works in marble or bronze. Although he produced some great wooden sculptures after 1920 and continued to pedestals, the works of the early years remain the most surprising.

Portrait of Madame L.R., by Constantin Brancusi, Estimate €15,000,000 – €20,000,000, Collection Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Berge, Auction at Christie’s, 23 – 25 February

Sculpture by Andreas Fischer

The data sculpture Fundament shows the allocation of the world’s gross domestic product in comparison to the worldwide derivatives volume. The statistical data was aquired from the CIA World Factbook and the International Monetary Fund.
Reflection is a sound data sculpture, which was inspired by and derived from the musical piece by Frans de Waard of the same title.

Fundament, Reflection, by Andreas Nicolas Fischer

Exhibition: Memory by Anish Kapoor

A major new site-specific work entitled Memory is currently on show in Berlin. The raw, brown, Cor-Ten steel structure, just 8mm thick, is like a landed alien pod or a relic from an old war, unwieldy, tightly fit into the otherwise bare white space.
The claustrophobic physicality deliberately impedes viewing the entire object at once. Instead the spectator is forced to creep around and piece together fragmented perspectives, the individualized creation of what Anish Kapoor calls ‘mental sculpture’, all the while wondering how on earth the thing stays upright.

Exhibition: Memory, by Anish Kapoor, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany
until February 1, 2009. via: Wallpaper*

Jaime Hayon is Guest of honour of Interieur 08

This Spanish enfant terrible, Jaime Hayon is considered as a trail-blazing talent in the world of design. For the 21st edition of the International biennial Interieur in Kortrijk, the Foundation Interieur managed to snare the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon. The youngest and the first Spanish guest of honour ever, is known for his frivolous design and unbridled imagination. Since the first edition in 1968, an international guest has been chosen carefully for his ability to surprise, to reflect and preferably outpace the spirit of the times. Famous designers such as Raymond Loewy, Verner Panton, Andrea Branzi and Jean Nouvel have filled this role.

Jaime Hayon, Guest of honour, Interieur 2008, Kortrijk, Belgium
via: Yatzer

Mondrian South Beach Hotel by Marcel Wanders

One of the main events at this year’s Art Basel Fair in Miami was the grand opening of the Mondrian South Beach Hotel. The hotel’s interior is designed by Marcel Wanders, and creates a sense of space with large supporting spindle-like columns and ornately patterned staircases. The intention was to give the new Mondrian’s interior a romantic, fairy tale feeling. Part of the interior design includes delft blue tiles with images depicting girls and sharks, chandelier showers and a small coach house entrance which features six large bell chandeliers. The hotel’s sunset lounge provides views over Miami’s downtown skyline while golden candelabras and onyx jewel-cut stools are combined with ottomans and antiques creating contrasting visual elements between the imagined and the forgotten.

Mondrian South Beach, by Marcel Wanders, for The Morgans Hotel Group

Model: World Trade Center NYC

The American Architectural Foundation has donated the model of the World Trade Center to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, to be opened in 2012.

“Architectural models are inherently fragile and challenging to maintain,” the museum’s chief curator, Jan S. Ramirez, said in a statement. “It is a double stroke of exceptional luck and far-sighted stewardship that this outstanding model has outlived the building complex it was created to forecast.”

“This model has the unparalleled capacity to help tell the first chapter of the World Trade Center story,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president of the memorial and museum.

World Trade Center New York, Model by Minoru Yamasaki Associates
via: The New York Times