required reading // links worth sharing vi

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1. red comme des garçons: innovation, provocation is an exploration of rei kawakubo’s radical approach to design with an exhibition format that takes inspiration from her 2001 comme des garçons presentation at walter van beirendonk’s antwerp fashion festival mode2001.

2. the department of signs and symbols is a new art project space that recently opened in vinegar hill, brooklyn // founder mitra korasheh says, "what we want to do is use the section in the back as a studio space for artists because we want to show emerging artists who do not necessarily have a studio space in new york. so part of our programming is going to be that the artist can have the space while a different exhibition is going on, preparing for their show.”

3. in the studio: photographs is a three-part show organized by gagosian gallery that explores the relationship between an artist and ones studio // hyperallergic writer jeff mcmahon questions, "any of these photographs of artist studios call into question just what is this thing called 'studio.' perhaps the establishment of such a place displaces the centrality of 'home,' setting a place apart for creation (and commerce). is the studio an externalization or perhaps a partitioning of the artist brain?"

4. marc jacobs recently announced the dissolution of his marc by marc jacobs line // w interviews him about his future plans + re-making his mark: “marc’s is a brand of his own experience, a brand of his whole world, and we want to show that on a bigger stage than we have so far,” says pierre-yves roussel, chariman + ceo of lvmh.

5. an excerpt from brittany howard's interview with joe rhodes of nyt on the new alabama shakes album, sound & color: “i don’t care if we get another chart-topping hit,” she told me. “i suppose it would be nice for my family. i could buy my dad a truck.” but if she and the shakes had to go back to being a barroom band in northern alabama, she would be fine, she insisted. she would get a day job and write songs, just like before. “i’d write probably even better songs,” she said, “ ’cause then i could write about how i had everything and lost it.”

6. visual history repeats itself: “we live in times now that show we clearly haven’t learned. what function do these images have if they are to inform us?” says clare grafik, head of exhibitions at the photographer's gallery in london // nyt reports on a new exhibit there, human rights human wrongs, open thru april 6

7. fran lebowitz, cultural critic, writer and occasional actress, tells elle "what's the point of being young if you're not going to make new things, i wonder? // wise words.

8. heated words // a recent london exhibit examines iron-on typefaces from the 70s + 80s.

9. "the gift shop" is a recent pop up at redbull studios new york by alldayeveryday // it's "a take on the traditional museum shop that sells specialty goods carefully curated  by creatives... the new, permanent fixture engages independent artists from within its own community with the purpose of creating a participatory experience that evolves with time and space."

10. and an entertaining tumblr worth sharing: animated text

* random research led me to the above documentary

required reading // links worth sharing pt. v // current curiosities

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1. beatrix ruf, amsterdam's newest director of the stedelijk museum, on how her "training as a choreographer... has likely contributed to her facility to envision how things could be without having to look at them." // "you have to ask questions,” she [insists] "i don’t think it’s interesting to confirm what you know. i’m just too curious for that."

2. curators of a new exhibit, ‘the cranbrook hall of wonders: artworks, objects, and natural curiosities’ at the cranbrook art museum, "have created the equivalent of an art mix tape, with exacting attention paid to the relationships and transitions between objects, which constantly shift as the viewer moves through the allover installation."  // it also includes scheduled "acts of curiosity" i.e. live events that allow the artists to create work in response to the exhibit.

3. alexander wang's moodboard for spring 2015 // "i’m drawn to objects that juxtapose seemingly contradictory ideas. it’s arresting when something mundane is done in an über-luxurious way. that has become a through line for how i approach design—i love a good surprise."

4. spring/break art show was my favorite of the recent art fairs in nyc // it featured some unusual yet approachable curations at an atypical venue >> more about it here.

5. while i've been finding style blogs less inspiring + meaningful as of late, one thing is for certain: ivania carpio is a style innovator who lives and breathes her minimal aesthetic in everything that she does. // here her "ode to nothing / nothing is everything," explains her unusual love for the aesthetics of nothingness.

6. the beat generation was one, "of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming america, serious, curious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way." // photographer larry fink documented individuals of the era.

7. floriana gavriel and rachel mansur, the designers behind mansur gavriel on their creative process // "we didn’t know where to begin...but we knew what we identified with intuitively." while mansur was living in la and gavriel was in berlin, the two spent two years posting images to a private tumblr, "developing and honing their concept into one that...was “beautiful and clean but also had a warmth to it." #happygirlhappybag

8. rip filmmaker albert maysles // in 1994 he told the nyt, "making a film isn’t finding the answer to a question; it’s trying to capture life as it is.”

9. the book as a work of art // pilure (meaning "fold" in french) is a book-based small show, curated by paulo pires do vale, about the artistic metamorphosis of books dating from the 15th to the 21st centuries. the exhibit questions: how is art transformed in dialogue with the paper book, and how is the paper book transformed by art?

10. i'm digging deeper into the art of mindfulness + meditation as of late ~

required reading // links worth sharing iv

in ,
from merrill c. berman's collection: a pin opposing alf landon, a kansas republican who challenged franklin d. roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.

from merrill c. berman's collection: a pin opposing alf landon, a kansas republican who challenged franklin d. roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.

1. "i have a love of the history, and the authenticity of subculture in the street." // says vintage streetwear genius brian procell.

2. according to i-d, fashion is undergoing a subcultural revival // "our ways of dressing are as likely to bubble up from the streets as they are now to descend from high fashion. indeed the brands that tow the delicate line are the ones that aren't just making money, but are responsible for defining our current generation."

3. "adapt, adopt, subvert, iterate. the relationship between function and fashion is rarely direct -- or even correlative. when a wearable object's original intent evolves, shifts or otherwise becomes altered, it can splinter into multiple identities." // re-intention, a recent exhibit at nyu, examines wearable objects as works of art.

4. the first new york men's fashion week has been announced for july 2015 // so who are the most influential people in menswear right now? style.com investigates.

5. "everything is always linked to music, even if it's not a direct story." says paul o'neill, levi's senior designer // he recently talked to cool hunting about utilizing levi's rich apparel archive and the soundtrack to his collections.

6. instagram is partnering with the moma irl // #arquimoma

7. a trip to mexico city is at the top of my list // artsy picks the 8 best works at the recent zona maco.

8. in honor of fashion week, a fashion gif tumblr worth sharing.

9. artist chloe wise is a self-described "canadian jewish angel" who makes non functional bread-bags modeled after famous it-bags of the early 2000s, all with pun-driven titles (louis vuitton baguette, etc) // her art/accessories question the boundary between tacky and luxe.

10. merrill c. berman says a teenage interest in political campaigns trained his eye in graphics // he now has a collection of over 20,000 related mementos.

required reading // links worth sharing pt. iii // art + some other stuff

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1. who are the masterminds behind the google doodles? // "we continue to ask how we can delight users and show humor and humanity," says ryan germick, chief doodler.

2. what people asked the new york public library before google existed // via hyperallergic.

3. "girlfriends" is a collection of work by a collective of global female fashion and art photographers exploring the concept of the female gaze // "it's funny cause when you look at some of the work you can see we all have similar influences and references but we all translate those ideas into our own cultures," says dafy hagi from tel aviv.

4. tumblr's picks for artists who made it big in 2014 // and a cool tumblr worth sharing.

5. w magazine declares lykke li's recent collaboration with &other stories a fashion statement born out of utility // "nick cave and patti smith and millions before me can't have been wrong on black being their first and last love... i was a total floral hippie as a child so when i finally could make my own choices, i've been living in different black suit jackets and been really drawn to masculine clothes. i'm not interested in trends," says the swedish pop singer who lives out of a suitcase and says she has long dreamed of a single, portable uniform she could cart along in a minimalist bag.

6. nyt states "somehow, in the last few years, it has become an article of faith that new york has lost its artistic spirit, that the city's long run as a capital of culture is over." // whoever said art is dead in new york is very wrong.

7. matthias merkel hess creates glazed ceramic objects like recasts of buckets, milk crates, trash cans, and domestic items that play on the place of the vessel in the history of pottery as much as they refer to the readymade in modern art // via artsy.

8. contemporary artist korakrit arunanondchai on his recent work and hybridism // "i like the idea of hybrids a lot, like hybrid media, and hybrid experiences..."

9. while helmut lang quit fashion in 2005, he is now presenting a collection of art created from repurposed clothes. // his self-titled exhibit is on view through feb 21 at new york's sperone westwater, 257 bowery.

10. video to watch // "andrew solomon: how the worst moments in our lives make us who we are"  (a ted talk worth sharing).

required reading // links worth sharing pt. ii

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1. "a lot of millenials have been discouraged for a long time. now, with social media, they feel empowered, like people are hearing their voice. and tumblr is a great platform for all types of media," says zellie thomas, creator of black culture // millennials + tumblr activism.

2. bright young things are honing many skills instead of one singular role. "is multi-tasking the only way to make a name for yourself in the creative industries today?" // the rise of the multi-talented multi-tasker.

3. "there were stories happening all around and i just paid attention to them," says producer turned photographer 'spot' // candid photographs of the 1970s so-cal counterculture.

4. "fashion reflects reality. the proof is in the pattern," says vanessa friedman from nyt // fashion in 2014, reviewed.

5. visual coincidences in patterns also reminds us we're all connected // patternity, an innovative pattern-focused organization, is committed to celebrating the common language of pattern and the worlds of fashion and design with science, nature, geology and beyond.

6. tumblr trends: inter/net art // virtual inspiration from 2014, collected + reblogged.

7. yoko ono is coming to the moma in may 2015 // a future visual happening worthy of rejoice.

8. for guy bourdin, a renowned + unconventional fashion photographer, magazines were the only art form // random fact: he only worked with models with specific astrological signs.

9. solar powered trees are being planted in israel and "all the trees around the world will be able to communicate," says inventor michael lasry // pure genius.

10. quotes worth sharing: "the true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life" by william morris // another link from patternity.