Monday, 3 February 2020

Bushfire Brandalism: Guerrilla Campaign Replaces Ads Across Australia with Climate Crisis Appeals

In an effort to draw attention to the ongoing climate crisis and the unprecedented number of bushfires across Australia, 41 artists transformed the streets of Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane into the nation’s biggest unsanctioned campaign advocating for immediate action. Last week, those behind Bushfire Brandalism (previously) replaced 78 posters across the three cities with original designs focused on the fossil fuel industry, heroic local firefighters, and the devastation of wildlife and natural habitats across the country.

As a collective group of Australian artists, we have been driven to reclaim public advertising space with posters speaking to the Australian government’s inaction on climate change and the devastating bushfires.

We do not accept that this situation is ‘business as usual.’ We are making these issues visible in our public spaces and in our media; areas monopolized by entities maintaining conservative climate denial agendas. If the newspapers won’t print the story, we will!

Many of the pieces were installed at bus stops and other public spaces complete with a QR code, allowing viewers to scan and access more than 30 charities aiding in the crisis directly. Considering one company controls 59 percent of daily newspaper sales in Australia, the artists also wanted to push back against general advertising practices, questioning media coverage of climate issues.

Artists involved in the campaign include Georgia Hill, Tom Gerrard, Sarah McCloskey, Amok Island, Andrew J Steel, Blends, Callum Preston, Cam Scale, Damien Mitchell, Dani Hair, DVATE, E.L.K, Ed Whitfield, FIKARIS, Fintan Magee, HEESCO, JESWRI, Ghostpatrol, Leans, Lluis fuzzhound, Lotte Smith, Lucy Lucy, Makatron, Michael Langenegger, Peter Breen, The Workers Art Collective, Stanislava Pinchuk, The Lazy Edwin, Thomas Bell, Tom Civil, WordPlay Studio, and Peter Breen, among others who remain anonymous.

Follow the activist action on Instagram and Twitter.

 

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Carol Egan launches contemporary works in beaux-arts New York house Maison Gerard

Furniture and interior designer Carol Egan was influenced by the form of dragonflies when creating this sculptural collection, which was launched at an exhibition staged in New York gallery Maison Gerard.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
The collections were shown in Maison Gerard's beaux-art gallery space The Elizabeth Collective, a former residence of actress Elizabeth Taylor

Decade follows the evolution of Egan's use of material and form by showcasing her early works, commissioned pieces and prototypes alongside new designs including a shelf, coffee table and a pair of sconces.

The work was exhibited in Maison Gerard's The Elizabeth Collective, a former residence of actress Elizabeth Taylor known for its beaux-arts interior and decorative plasterwork. It was on display in the Manhattan gallery at 53 E 10th St A from 22 to 29 January.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
In her works, Egan experiments with different materials including bronze, marble and wood

"Typically the work is shown in the gallery downtown in a more modern context or at design fairs where it's kind of a white box aesthetic," Egan told Dezeen. "So it's really a treat to have it in such a classical space with all the beautiful plasterwork and this sort of proportion and elegance in this townhouse.

"To see the juxtaposition of this modernity against that I think that it holds up," she added.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
The curved form and chamfered edges on the Double Emperor wall shelf takes cues from the wing formation of dragonflies

Egan experiments with different materials, such as bronze, marble and wood, in her designs that range from consoles, chairs, shelves to light fixtures and tables

Her latest outputs include the Double Emperor wall shelf, which is crafted in bronze and wood. It required a lot of hand labour to give it its recognisable chamfered edges and curved forms that drawing on the wing formation of dragonflies.

This involved clamping together several stacked laminations, while the bronze piece was shaped by wrapping it around a steel plate and welding it in place.

Two steel mesh wall sconces, called The Sovereign, and swivelling coffee tables, named Second Empress, are available in bronze and ebonised mahogany also take cues from the elliptical shape of dragonfly wings.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
Sovereign comprises a pair of blackened steel mesh wall sconces also influenced by the elliptical shape of dragonfly wings

Egan told Dezeen she plans to continue to experiment with the material and colour of these products.

"We're going to be making the sconces in the bronze material and also in painted finish with colour, the mesh painted blue and the frame in white and that will completely transform the appeal of the fixture," she said.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
Outdoor chandelier Egan features a cylinder mesh made of blackened steel with a spiral element

"What I'm doing a lot is playing with the material in my work, like the bench in walnut compared to carved carrera feels like a different piece to steel," she added. "We kind of reiterate the forms in different materials to see how the material informs the line of the pieces."

The new launches follow on from older works by Egan, who founded her firm Carol Egan Interiors in 2002.

These involved experiments with wood, which was then applied to other materials such as metal, acrylic and stone. Stools, benches, side tables, consoles and shelves often feature the same twisted X-shape design.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
Older designs with a similar twisted X-shape include stools, benches, shelves in metal, acrylic and stone

Decade also included a large cylindrical chandelier Egan created as a commission for a client. It is intended for outdoor use and comprises a mesh of blackened steel with a spiral curving around its faces.

All of the works in the exhibition were staged alongside photography from Jean-Francois Jaussaud of his series profiling French American artist Louise Bourgeois in her studio.

Decade Carol Egan at Elizabeth Collective
Pieces were staged alongside photography from Jean-Francois Jaussaud of his series profiling French American artist Louise Bourgeois in her studio

Maison Gerard was established in 1974 and specialises in showcasing French collectables. It has three gallery locations in New York City.

Other recent exhibitions in New York include Age of Contaminations, which staged prototypes and realised pieces from Italian designer Gaetano Pesce.

Photography is by Michael Mundy.

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Nike avoids Vaporfly running-shoe ban ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% is an update of Nike's previous marathon-running trainer, the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%

Nike's controversial Vaporfly shoe has been permitted for use in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but the shoe Eliud Kipchoge wore to break the two-hour marathon record is banned.

World Athletics has temporarily updated its guidelines for sports shoes worn in competitive events ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in July.

The new guidelines from the international governing body for athletics bans the trainer Eliud Kipchoge wore to break the two-hour marathon record.

Vaporfly meets new stipulations

However, Nike's Vaporfly range – including the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% and the Zoom Vaporfly 4% – meets the stipulations of World Athletics' amended Technical Rules.

These prohibit shoes with soles that are thicker than 40 millimetres and the inclusion of more than one carbon-fibre plate, or similar item, in the sole.

The news comes amid criticism of the fairness of allowing athletes to compete while wearing the Vaporfly range, which have thick, foam soles and carbon-fibre plates to improve speed.

The Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% is an update of Nike's previous marathon-running trainer, the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%
Nike's Varporfly NEXT 4% has a thick foam sole and carbon-fibre plate designed to increase speed

In 2019, 31 of the 36 podium positions in the six world marathon majors were won by elite athletes wearing Vaporfly, as reported by the Guardian.

World Athletics' Moratorium, which forms part of the Clothing section of the guidelines, also states that, from 30 April, shoes have to be on the open market for at least four months before an elite athlete can wear them for a contest.

Eliud Kipchoge's record-breaking shoe banned 

While Vaporfly remains within the amends, the prototype Air Fly trainer that Nike-sponsored Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge wore to run a sub-two-hour marathon in October 2019 will be banned under the regulations.

The sneaker has a much chunkier sole than the Vaporfly and reportedly includes three carbon-fibre plates.

It has been reported, however, that Nike still has time to make amends to the Alpha Fly ahead of a release in March – over four months before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on 24 July.

This could make it possible for athletes to wear the shoe during the major competition.

Nike developed Vaporfly to break record

Nike's designers and scientists worked with athletes to develop the Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes specifically for its Nike Breaking2 project.

It released the first version in the range, the Zoom 4% featuring a thick ZoomX foam underfoot, in 2017, claiming it could increase the speed of an athlete by four per cent.

Nike worked with athletes to develop the Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes specifically for its Breaking2 project

The updated ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% was launched last year, comprising two layers of ZoomX foam with an articulated carbon-fibre plate slotted in between to increase the stiffness of the shoe.

"That's what is giving athletes that propulsion to get their foot off the ground," vice president of Nike Running Footwear Brett Holts told Dezeen last year.

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wHY Architecture reveals design for opera house in Russia

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre by wHY Architecture will be built on the bank of the Kama River in Perm, Russia, near the Ural mountains.

Perm is one of Russia's famous ballet centres, after Moscow and St Petersburg.

American studio wHY Architecture has designed a theatre with wrap-around glazing that will give views over the landscape, and allow the public to see in.

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre

An undulating roof and curving glass facade is intended to invoke the flowing movement of the dancers who will perform there.

Copper-coloured elements will reference the ancient history of copper mining in the Kalargy region, a geologically rich area in the southern Urals of Russia.

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre

A sweep of amphitheatre-style steps will lead up to the Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which will be designed by wHY Architecture's Landscape Workshop.

Inside the opera house, a series of ramps and walkways will lead to different theatres and out to pathways through the outdoor areas.

Renders released by the studio show a rippling ceiling made from wooden panels cut like contours on a map and chandeliers with pendants dropping down from the ceiling through cuts in the floor plate.

The existing Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre in the city is one of the country's earliest, dating from 1870 and is home to one of Russia's most popular ballet troupes. Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in the region.

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre

wHY Architecture was founded in 2004 by Thai architect Kulapat Yantrasast and has offices in New York and Los Angeles.

The architecture studio has worked on several other arts projects, including the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, and an events pavilion overlooked by Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. wHy Architecture also designed an immersive tent for Los Angeles' first Frieze Art Fair.

Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre will join several other contemporary opera houses with curving forms.

Snøhetta has designed an opera house in Shanghai with a spiralling stepped roof, and MAD recently completed an opera house in Harbin with curving arms clad in white aluminium panels.

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Gregg Moore creates restaurant's tableware using waste bones from its kitchen

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

Ceramicist Gregg Moore has created crockery for the Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant outside New York, that is made from the bones of the very cows whose dairy and meat is served.

The table setting encompasses a bowl, plate and cup, with paper-thin white walls that are left unglazed to allow the eerie translucency of the material to shine through.

Their distinctive, luminescent quality is achieved using an 18th-century recipe for bone china – a type of porcelain made using animal bones.

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

In line with the restaurant's nose-to-tail philosophy, which seeks to utilise all parts of an animal, Moore has created his version of the material with bones that went unused in the kitchen.

These are cleaned and then fired, in a process called calcination, to turn them from a living material into calcium phosphate.

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

"What remains goes into a rotating mill called a ball mill, where it is mixed with water and ground into a sludge," Moore explained to Dezeen.

"I then dry and pulverise this to create bone ash and create a mixture that's 50 per cent bone ash, 25 per cent English china stone and 25 per cent kaolin."

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

In pursuit of the purest possible result, Moore sources both the stone – a type of partly decomposed granite – and the white kaolin clay from Cornwall in England, as their American counterparts can often be "dirtier".

The mixture finally gets mixed into a liquid slip and cast into a mould, where it remains for only three to five seconds.

"For the other objects I create, I cast the porcelain for about 20 minutes," he continued. "But in this case, I'm trying to get as thin a result as possible, and the less time the liquids spends in the mould the thinner the wall is."

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

Finally, after a day of drying, the dishes are fired. Although they go into this process perfectly round and symmetrical, the rims of the taller pieces bend to the intense heat in the kiln, creating gently curved, organic forms.

Much of the restaurant's beef and dairy comes from the Blue Hill farm in Massachusetts – which gives the restaurant its name – where the cows are grass-fed and free-range.

This, Moore explained, manifests itself not just in their milk or their meat but also in their bones.

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

"In the whole field of ceramics, bone china is the only material that was once alive, everything else is geological or mineralogical," he said.

"And so it has the ability, if we look at it closely enough, to tell us something about our interaction with those animals and the environment they lived in."

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

In an as-yet unpublished study Moore has been undertaking with evolutionary biologist Dr. Tobias Landberg, the duo found that the chemical composition of a cow's bones is fundamentally different when it is allowed to graze on grass or fed grains in a contained environment.

"If a cow is being raised on grass, it's also going to move more to seek out that grass, so it's a combination of both diet and exercise that transform the physical bones of the animal," Moore explained.

"There are impurities present in grain-fed bone ash, leading to a different colour spectrum, a lower firing temperature and melting point."

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

When it comes to turning it into porcelain, that means it can survive a hotter, more intense firing process, which in turn results in stronger, more translucent porcelain.

The result is a new take on an antiquated material, often associated with commemorative coronation tea sets and ostentatious displays of status.

"I think there's an opportunity with a material like that, which has such a narrowly defined history, to be able to express new ideas," said Moore.

"I think people's mindset is certainly shifting at the moment when it comes to what goes into our food and I'm hoping that with this work, that same question would be asked about what goes into the plates that serve the food."

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

Reexamining the ways in which we farm animals and the waste byproducts we create in the process has been at the heart of Moore's ongoing, five-year collaboration with Dan Barber, head chef and co-owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant.

As part of the project, the ceramicist has previously created a series of textured plates, with surface indents formed by grazing and pecking animals from the farm.

Gregg Moore makes restaurant's tableware with waste bones from kitchen

Designers are coming at the issue of sustainable food consumption from different angles, with some, like Moore, focusing on rethinking the tableware we use.

Vienna-based Teresa Berger, for example, has created a collection of multi-sensory crockery in the hopes of helping us eat more consciously.

Others still have focused on the production process itself, with graduate Rob Russell developing an at-home bioreactor that allows users to reduce their carbon emissions by growing their own edible algae.

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