Monday, October 30, 2017

New York: MoMa – Items: Is Fashion Modern? – Exhibition + Terrace 5 Restaurant


 
MoMa
Items: Is Fashion Modern?
“This is a design show that takes fashion as its focus… We wanted to communicate instantly that the exhibition is about each individual object.”
Paola Antonelli
Curator
The exhibition at MoMa - Items: Is Fashion Modern? - until January 28 is curated by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, and Michelle Millar Fisher, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, it explores the present, past—and sometimes the future—of 111 items of clothing and accessories that have had a strong impact on the world in the 20th and 21st centuries—and continue to hold currency today.

 

Items: Is Fashion Modern?
In the exhibition there are well-known and transformative pieces such as Levi’s 501s, the Breton shirt, and the Little Black Dress, and also as, ancient and culturally charged pieces, as the sari, the pearl necklace, the kippah, and the keffiyeh.  Driven first and foremost by objects, not designers, the exhibition considers the many relationships between fashion and functionality, culture, aesthetics, politics, labor, identity, economy, and technology.
Levi Strauss and Co. – Jacob W. Davis - 501 Jeans
1947 - denim
Hanes – T-Shirt
2017 – cotton

 
Wonderbra
c. 1990s – nylon - polyester  -spandex
photographer: Ellen von Unwerth –  model: Eva Herzigova
Wonderbra advertisement


The Little Black Dress
Thierry Mugler 1981 – Gianni Versace 1994
 Philippe Starck 1997 - Nervous System’s Kinematic Dress 2014  
Rick Owens 2014 - Pia Interlandi – Garments for the Grave 2012

 
The Shift Dress
Harry Gordon - 1967
Paper Dress - featuring Bob Dylan


 
 Issey Miyake – Dai Fujiwara – Miyake Design Studio
A-POC Queen  
1997 – cotton - nylon – polyurethane

 
Adolf (Adi) Dassler – Rudolph (Rudi) Dassler  
Adidas – Superstars
1983 – oxhide leather and rubber


 Swimwear
Aheda Naetti – Ahilida – Burkini
2003 – polyester
David Azulay – Blueman – Bikini
1970s – Cotton
Speedo – U.S. Team Swimsuit
1972 – nylon


Mao Jacket - (Zhifu)
c. 1970s - cotton – plastic
Francesco Risso – Marni Mao Mirror
2017 – silver foil Cordura – Swedish fabric – Kantha embroidery

 
 The Suit
“Central power garment in any business combination.”
John T. Molloy - Dress for Success - 1975


Platform Shoes
Boots made for Elton John
1974 – leather – rubber – metal – textile

 
Items: Is fashion Modern? //Checklist
The Full List of 111 Items


Restaurant - Terrace 5, The Carroll and Milton Petrie Cafe
This sophisticated, airy cafe is situated adjacent to the Painting and Sculpture Galleries, and enjoys a spectacular fifth-floor view of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the surrounding skyline, with outdoor terrace dining available seasonally.

 
Hibiscus Iced Tea
Terrace 5 is a cafe offering a seasonal menu of delicious savory selections and an array of desserts. Terrace 5 features Danish furniture and tableware from leading modernist designers and manufacturers, including Arne Jacobsen, Georg Jensen, and Fritz Hansen.

 
Chilled Carrot Ginger Soup
Coconut and Quinoa

 
  Truffled Brie on Ciabatta


T-Shirt - Sol LeWitt















Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Catskill – NY: Thomas Cole National Historic Site – Kiki Smith – From the Creek

 
Thomas Cole  - National Historic Site

Kiki Smith – From the Creek
Kiki Smith’s From the Creek is a site-specific exhibition in the series, Open House: Contemporary Art in Conversation with Cole, on until November 19, the multidisciplinary exhibition takes place inside and outside of the 200-year old home of the artist Thomas Cole. Cole is known for ushering in a new form of landscape painting unique in America, and whose vision would inspire the Hudson River School of Painting. Both artists, residing as Smith Notes:
“about a mile, and two centuries apart”
along the Catskill Creek, have made work that is directly inspired by the waterway that flow from the Catskill Mountains to the Hudson River.  Smith worked with curator, Kate Menconeri, to site over 25 artworks for this installation, which includes ten-foot tall jacquard tapestries, recent prints, and sculptures of bronze, aluminum and glass.
Excerpts from the introduction to the catalogue by curator Kate Menconeri



“Many of the sculptures I’ve made come directly from prints, or I’ve made them using the same techniques as an etching.  I am very attracted to objects that hover between flat and three-dimensions.”
Kiki Smith
In conversation with curator Kate Menconeri

 

“It is fascinating to me how a house holds you, and how people embellish their lives and try to make their environment beautiful, either through their own efforts or through culturally manufactured things.  Mr. Cole was very involved in thinking about domestic aspects of life.  It is evident in the pleasure and care he took in his own house. I feel the movement, flux and uncertainty of home.”
Kiki Smith
In conversation with curator Kate Menconeri 

 
 “In my tapestries images are collaged together with things put in proximity to one another, in very unnatural ways.”
Kiki Smith
In conversation with curator Kate Menconeri 
Congregation - 2014
jacquard tapestry


Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Kiki Smith – From the Creek

Kiki Smith was born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany, and lives and works in Catskill and New York City. Since 1982 her work has been in over 150 exhibitions worldwide, including solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center.

 
Thomas and Maria’s Bedroom


Kiki Smith – From the Creek

 

The Nursery


Kiki Smith – From the Creek
 Esperanza – 2015
intaglio and collage on Hahnemuhle paper
Little Red Riding Hood Dolls

 

The Nursery



Kiki Smith – From the Creek

 
Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Kiki Smith – From the Creek
All text taken from the Kiki Smith - From the Creek – exhibition booklet – 2017





Wednesday, October 18, 2017

New York: Mission Chinese Food – Restaurant

 
New York

Mission Chinese Food
On the Lower East Side, Mission Chinese Food is not exactly a Chinese restaurant. It began its life as a pop-up: a restaurant nested within a divey Americanized Chinese joint in San Francisco’s Mission District. From the beginning, a spirit of resourcefulness and radical inventiveness has infused each and every dish at the restaurant. The green neon around the bar, the pink cane chairs, the pale green Formica table tops all evoke the style of a trendy mid-century diner.
 
 
 Mission Chinese Food
Doing justice to chef Danny Bowien fiery, creative dishes with Asian-American flavors, hungry diners line up outside both the San Francisco and New York City locations, waiting hours for platters of Sizzling Cumin Lamb, Thrice-Cooked Bacon, Fiery Kung Pao Pastrami, and pungent Salt-Cod Fried Rice.

 
 The Menu



Green Tea Noodles


Steamed Broccoli Shoots – Oyster Sauce
Thirty-five year old chef owner Danny Bowien was born in Korea and adopted by parents in Oklahoma, hence he has a broad spectrum of influences. He is the recipient of many awards amongst which the James Beard Foundation’s illustrious Rising Star Chef Award, Bon Appetit named Mission Chinese Food the second-best new restaurant in America, and in 2012, The New York Times hailed the Lower East Side outpost as The Best New Restaurant in New York City.


  Ginger Scallion Tea Rice 

 
Wine Bottles – T-Shirts

 
Shaved Ice  - Ice Cream - Raspberry Coulis - Pop Rocks

 
 Mission Chinese Food
The decor in the main dinning room is a kitschy take, with all the trimmings, on classic Chinese restaurants; velvet banquettes, lazy Susan, “Chinese” sculptures, dragons with neon eyes and last but not least a fish tank.


  Mission Chinese Food