For me, surfing got super boring through the nineties. There was nothing counter about that culture and just looked like straight lines, stark white and big business to me. The revolt in the last to that cleanliness has been refreshing and innovation, experimentation and fun seems to have returned.

This video from long time innovator, Derek Hynd, excited me:

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As have the guys from Zed, formerly Sea Surfboards. They are doing great things for Australian (and worldwide) surfing.

This collaborative project with photographer Ari Marcolpoulos is great.
If you feel like geeking out on some process videos (they are really great) click here.

After a few difficult years struggling in the face of the digital onslaught, Polaroid are reinventing their brand for a new generation. Having signed Lady Gaga as the brands creative director in January this year, the company has just announced the upcoming release of the Lady Gaga Polaroid Camera – available January 2011! The camera has yet to be sighted but is apparently based on the current Polaroid 300 model, producing 3″ X 4″ instant prints.

“Traveling the world, Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru tracked the path of the sun from sunrise to sunset on a single day in a given location. Using a fisheye lens and long exposure, he left his shutter open from dawn to dusk, capturing 360 degree views of the sun’s progress as it made its way across the sky.”

BLICKFANG is an amazing reference collection of 1000 book covers and dust jackets that were published in in Berlin, Germany between 1919-1933. It features work by Expressionist & Dadaist artists including Hans Bellmer, Hannah Hoch & George Grosz.

The Canon Dial 35 is a lovely little camera, with wonderful space-age styling, originally released by Canon in November 1967. We have 3 of these little beauties, all discovered in Sydney secondhand camera stores, within one week, about 10 years ago – we haven’t found another since! It is an unusual 35mm half-frame format, meaning you get double the number of shots on a standard roll of 35mm film. ie 36 exposure film roll will give you 72 frames. The cameras distinctive sixties design is defined by its slightly wide-angle 28mm lens, surrounded by a circular array of CdS meter photocells & the short handle at the base, which uses a spring driven mechanism to advance the film roll.

Joseph Harrington is a sculptor working predominantly in cast glass.

“The main principle within my work is to create a sense of time and movement within a permanent object. I have a fascination with turning one thing into another, the reaction of materials and energies acting upon each other. Using a direct approach with the modeling material, provides an energetic spontaneous working method and creative mindset. This energy lives on within the work, giving a sense of progression and evolution within a solid permanent form.”

Kain Picken and Rob McKenzie recent exhibition- A History of Manners  at Uplands Gallery, Prahran.

Contemplating these I am reminded of a long running frustration I have with money boxes. Which, for whatever reason, are strangely ubiquitous on the dusty back-shelves of knick-knack shops. Many times I have been duped by what, at a glance, appears to be an honest object of whimsy, only to discover the tell tale slot upon closer inspection. Almost without exception my interest immediately wanes or is lost altogether. I find myself feeling cheated. The item devalued. As rational purpose and function makes sense of an object whose very existence was so perplexing and useless as to make it charming.

While in the minds of its creators, no doubt this attribution of function, increased their perception of the objects value, but personally, I do not see how such an arbitrary function, a function disconnected from the form of the object itself, simply plonked on at the end, should add value. Why can’t the object just exist for the sake of existing? Why must it always serve us a purpose? I’m saddened that no one believed in the object enough to simply let it exist as a thing of peculiar beauty and appeal. During my moment of discovery the spell is broken, the magic disappears and for me the value is lost.

These Eggheads on the other hand seem to be buoyed by their utility. Their particular use is unexpected, they could not be less sexual, and it is this unexpectedness that is instantly endearing. I find myself liking them more because of it. A triumph of thoughtful design.

Italian furniture company, Cerruti Baleri, have collaborated with Maison Martin Margiela, to produce two surrealist furniture objects. Based on the concept of reinterpreted found furniture, the pieces combine references from various periods and styles, united with draped white linen.

I recently borrowed this publication from Lauren Berkowitz. The New Sculpture 1965-75: Between Geometry and Gesture looks at the work of Hesse, Smithson, Tuttle, Nauman, Serra, Le Va, Saret, Sonner, Benglis and Shapiro, major heavy weights in minimalism, feminist art, land art, etc. Published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 1990, it catalogues an exhibition organised by Richard Armstrong and Richard Marshall. Such an impressive text, with essays from Lucy Lippard, Robert Morris, Marcia Tucker, Lawrence Alloway, Rosalind Krauss etc., but worth spending some time with for the images alone. And timely for Helen Hughes and I in the formulation of our essay for Discreet Objects at Utopian Slumps.

This amazing refurbishment in an old cinema in Milan really made my day. Now we’ve all seen the Simparch Free Basin but hey, it’s so good why not do it again. Apart from the bowl I am really into what they did with the rest of the space and the my favourite part is that they actually got the space! An old cinema – what could be better. Leaving those tiles was probably the best choice Supermetrico made.

The Walker Art Center is running a promotional campaign called “Collective Imagination” for it’s current exhibitions Benches and Binoculars and Event Horizon, both of which are exhibitions of the Walkers permanent collection. Through the same salon-style layout as Benches and Binoculars, the campaign is meant to evoke the free flow of ideas that is generated in the exhibitions by placing non-art related imagery and text side by side with imagery of artworks, blurring their distinctions and hinting at the social and historical context from which the works came from.

French sculptor Xavier Veilhan, transforms familiar objects by removing significant detail & recreating the original as a caricature of it former self. One of his latest pieces, a unique monochromatic power boat, is coming up for auction in Monte Carlo, later this month – estimate 180,000 – 220.000 euro!

Recently the idea of ‘home’ keeps on bubbling to the surface in my life. I’ve been doing a lot of consultancy work exploring the modern definition of home and whether you can ever truly feel at home in an apartment. I’m reading the newish Apartamento magazine which is about homes, and I’ve also been staying at other people’s homes a lot.

I’m fascinated by how homes are put together in several ways and with varying degrees of success. And indeed how ‘home’ means such different things to different people. What I have realised is:

1. Making a home seems to be an art that you acquire with age

2. That for me, my home is where I do my best creative thinking and work is where I do my worst

3. That I am going to contact the other contributors of The Internetwork and get them to upload some photos of their homes… unless they think that’s weird. – BB

The functional beauty of everyday products.
95 years old and still designing, Sori Yanagi is a Japanese designer who has long been close to our inner CIBI. His crafting of kitchenware and tableware with a universal and timeless appeal, reveals a stunning blend of simplicity and functionality that seems to slip comfortably into the hand. Sori Yanagi’s design are at once rooted in the “folk art” simplicity of Japanese craftsmanship, yet meticulously designed and manufactured using the ‘finest quality everyday materials’ to provide user friendly quality and pleasurable functionality for years to come. This coming together of head, hands and heart is pure CIBI, and we are pleased to share our daily joy of discovery in using Sori Yanagi-designed products with you. Enjoy a complimentary Asahi while you peruse his genius. – Zenta Tanaka

Come and enjoy a cold Asahi.

Opening: 8th July 2010, Thursday night 6PM – 8PM
Period: 8th July – 24th July 2010
At: CIBI 45 Keele Street Collingwood

cibi.com.au

I’m finally posting some images of the Utopian Slumps desk purpose built by conceptual art/design/architect group S.I.B.L.I.N.G. for  the new gallery space. As illustrated, the desk is modular and makes up either one large form, or three smaller forms. The brief was Bauhaus/industrial style meets modular functionality, and I think that S.I.B.L.I.N.G. did a superb job. It was made from reinforced ply, recycled glass and Tasmanian Oak. I’ve been happy putting the desk to good use since its completion in April this year.

We’ve been collecting swedish art glass for many years now – it all started when we discovered the incredible work of the early designers at Orrefors and Kosta Boda, created at the beginning of last century. Both companies have traditionally employed some of Swedens’ most outstanding artists – the highly influential Edward Hald began designing at Orrefors in 1917, after training with Matisse in Paris. Almost 100 years later, Kosta Boda are still working with wonderful creatives pushing boundaries – the latest pieces by relatively new artists at the company, Ludvig Lofgren & Asa Jungnelius are quite amazing! Ludwig Lofgrens’ work explores the possibilities of his medium with all the energy and rule-breaking freedom of one of Kosta Bodas’ most celebrated designers, Erik Hoglund, ensuring his status as the new “enfant terrible” of glass art.

Sotheby’s Announces its First Ever Outdoor Exhibition of Contemporary Design at Sudeley Castle in Summer 2010.

I have only had one meaningful love in my life over the past years: Apple Mac. It’s sad but I think it’s true. I’ve fetishized, collected, obsessed and lusted, but now my love is souring.

What I love about the Internet is the spirit of open source: that we share, personalise and make better. But not so for Mac. They’re getting so cagey and proprietary like a badly behaved kid not sharing his toys. And what of their need to morally vet all their apps and content: can you imagine the nerd in Mac HQ who decided that Dazed and Confused needed to airbrush the nipples out of their photo shoots before they could release an iPad Application?

I find it quite tragic (maybe even futile) for a company to behave that way when you think that in the future we will hardly have any hardware and all our programs and content will sit on an Internet cloud where Mac can’t be such a bully. Oh Mac. My fading love. You’re still good looking but stop being such a bitch. – BB

http://www.youtube.com/user/AsahiAustralia#p/a/u/2/r0RF14FvUFA