Archive for January, 2012

A Glimpse into The African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora Festival

This is an excerpt featured on the Studio Museum in Harlem blog, it’s my first in a series of design articles.

London is one of the hottest and most creative cities, bristling with a multicultural community. Yet its Black artists and designers have remained largely untapped. That is until now. Just this past September, London was booming with design festivals showcasing innovative furniture, objects and fabulous fashions. Among them was the latest installment of the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora Festival, a hotbed of new ideas, inspiration and creativity. This year’s theme, “?Choices!,” attracted some 22,000 visitors (2,000 more than in 2010). The AACDD festival took place from September 9 to 25, coinciding with the London Design Festival and constituted AACDD’s second successful year. It was the latest project launched by the British European Design Group’s (BEDG) three-year initiative, which is playing an increasingly important role in diversifying London’s creative community.

The festival director, Karin Phillips, Design Director Clemens Hackl, and Nigerian-born designer and curator, Emamoke Ukeleghe, orchestrated this production. The artists represented included roughly 100 graphic designers, multimedia artists, illustrators, industrial and product designers, and visual artists of African and African-Caribbean descent working in the U.K., Africa, the Caribbean, Japan and the United States. Hackl explained, “These artists and designers made a huge impact on visitors with their innovative works.” And thanks to funding from the London Arts Council, this year the AACDD Festival reached more people through a well-designed festival guide, website and social media platforms.

AACDD’s festival took place in three main locations: BargeHouse in OXO Towers in SouthBack, Hospital Club, and the Re-Loved Lounge at 100% Design. With 1,333 square feet of raw warehouse space, the BargeHouse served as the perfect blank canvas setting for browsing art lovers. It featured four floors of curated work by fine artists, illustrators, graphic designers, fashion designers, multimedia artists, and photographers. On one floor, Below the Surface, a photographic project by young black teenagers from London’s African and African-Caribbean communities, was a whopping success. The teenagers documented the colorful facets of everyday life, and produced an eye grabbing collection shot with disposable cameras given away through AACDD’s tweets and Facebook postings. For more click here>>

 

 


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01 2012

SPARE BEATS: Happenings Near You

When it comes to Culinary Salon I simply can’t resist boasting about pop-up diner, TY-LÖR BORING DINNERS!
 Ty-Lör Boring,
a NYC based chef and Top Chef: Texas cheftestant is joining us at CITY GRIT to present a five course, farm-to-table meal reflecting his classical training in French and Asian cuisine. This style won Ty-Lör great praises at Spasso in Greenwich Village, where he worked as the opening Chef De Cuisine before becoming a hopeful ‘cheftestant’ on “Top Chef: Texas.” Click for more info.

THE FINN JUHL CHAMBER IN THE UN HEADQUARTER: Celebrates 100-year anniversary of Design design icon Finn Juhl starting 27 January rediscovery the UN Headquarters latest renovations. This major efforts is being overseen by Kasper Salto and Thomas Sigsgaard the winners of the Danish Arts Foundation’s competition to provide new furniture for the UN headquarters in New York. The Chamber was originally designed and furnished by the Danish architect Finn Juhl and is currently undergoing renovations which will be completed in 2013.

 

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk: The first exhibition devoted to the designs of world-renowned French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier will make its U.S. debut at the Dallas Museum of Art in November 2011. This is an unprecedented look at the designer dubbed fashion’s “enfant terrible” from the time of his first runway shows in the 1970s and who has become one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades. Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier, the exhibition premiered in Montreal on June 15, 2011, and will be on view at the Dallas Museum of Art from November 13, 2011, through February 12, 2012, before traveling to its final stop in the U.S. at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young, in March 2012. The exhibition will be on view at the Fundación Mapfre – Instituto de Cultura in Madrid, Spain, from September 26 through November 18, 2012, and to Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from February 9, 2013 through May 12, 2013, and then travel to Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm in June 2013.

Check out Jean Paul Gaultier, Fashion’s wild child on CBS Morning News

16

01 2012

2012 Participatory Conference Keynotes Talk About Indigenous Design


Live stream videos at Ustream

Sadly, I couldn’t fly off to Australia to attend this year’s Participatory Innovation Conference 2012’s (PIN-C2012), but I’ve been following the pre-speakers events online through Ustream. This is a stellar Keynote presentation all about play, indigenous design, and participatory process. And so far I’ve been very pleased with all that I have heard to date. In the video above Professor Sudarshan Khanna, former Principal Designer-Faculty, and Chairman of Education & Research at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India. www.sudarshankhanna.com

 

13

01 2012

Roger Tucker’s Newest Venture Celebrates Visual Artist

Roger Tucker, educator and former graphic designer is setting his sights high, he’s on a serious mission to make visual artists work more accessible for everyday living. Recently Roger, launched his consultancy Tucker Contemporary Art specializing in the works by painters, ceramicist, photographers, sculptures and mixed media artist are just some of the artist he currently represents.  Listen to art critic Patrick Henry Bass interview with artist Margaret Vendryes as she talk about her latest series of 31 Divas. 

Below is cross section of works by other artists previously on display at Tucker’s private salon held last December.

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01 2012