The Week in Design

Don’t Play With Your Art

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen in Milan

Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851, a costly exhibition currently at the Triennale in Milan and curated by Germano Celant, dives into the subject of food’s relation to art with pieces that range from Andy Warhol’s banana album cover for the Velvet Underground, to a section on cannibalistic rituals. Celant chose to begin the exhibit chronologically at 1851 because that was the first year of the world’s fair, the Art Newspaper reports.

Keep Hope Alive

Situated nicely on the main waterfront en route from Arsenale to Giardini is the Ukrainian national pavilion, which is currently housing group art show Hope! for the 56th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Hope! is meant to act as a testament to the current crisis in Ukraine, and a way for regional artists to voice their optimism for the future of their country. The show features some of the brightest names in local talent, including Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan, and Open Group. Hope, which opened yesterday and will run through August 2, is organized by the PinchukArtCentre with the support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

Two-Faced

KATSU, an NYC-based graffiti artist, has taken the dubious title as the first of his ilk to ever be accused of drone vandalism. As WIRED reports, he’s perfected the notion of using a drone as an extra helping hand since last year, and now has made a formal debut on an ad of Kendal Jenner which recently appeared in Soho.

Dr. Feel Good

ADWEEK recently weighed in on the history of Dr. Martens, specifically the eight-eyelet 1460 boots, from their origins a service worker staple before evolving into punk wear. So who was the first person responsible for bringing these sturdy boots into the mainstream? Sometime in the 1960s, Robert Klara writes, “[Pete] Townshend [of the Who] had just bought the pair at a local Army Navy store for £2. And why? Because he was pissed off. ‘I was sick of dressing up as a Christmas tree in flowing robes that got in the way of my guitar playing,’ Townshend told rock chronicler Martin Roach. ‘So I thought I'd move onto utility wear.’”

The Protagonist, A Beautiful Mansion

One of the crucial elements in dystopian Sci-Fi flick Ex Machina, other than robots and the tech apocalpyse, is the home of the main character: a huge contemporary mansion, nestled somewhere in the middle of mountain terrain. This mansion really does exist, and you can stay there too, albeit for a hefty amount. The Juvet Landscape Hotel resides in Valldal, Norway. The hotel, which features 28 rooms, was “built without the need for rock blasting or changing the terrain,” BuzzFeed reports. Ex Machina’s production designer Mark Digby tells Vanity Fair that they wanted to find a place that was very remote. “We wanted it to be among nature, we wanted it to be stunning, and we wanted it to be exclusive,” says Digby. Speaking about the modern furniture, and set designs, including a Jackson Pollock replica he says “We chose an eclectic range of mid-20th century designs I think that are classic and everlasting.”

Week In Design Link Round Up:

Italian photographer Marco Citron (above) captured the subtle beauty of Eastern Europe’s failed architecture. [Calvert Journal]

?Priya’s Shakti, a comic book and “social impact multimedia project”, spawned from India’s domestic violence issues, is now an interactive exhibition at NYC’s City Lore Gallery. The gallery has turned itself into a walk-in comic book where audiences can “unlock” special animation, videos, real-life stories via mobile visual discovery platform and an app. [City Lore]

A vending machine popped-up in Berlin that distributes, and schools consumers on, ethical clothing. [Prot.ein]

An amateur photographer captured some of the most compelling images of the #BaltimoreUprising, and made the cover of Time. [Hyperallergic]

3D open-sourced bird nests at Printed Nests were offered up as a possible answer to dwindling urban bird populations. [The Creators Project]