Just a little bit of fun – The Single Lane Super Highway.

Murakami Chair with reading light

Rochus Jacob’s the Chair’s designer writes:

I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity in a gentle and rewarding way. An abstract process becomes tangible and eventually cultivates natural awareness. Complexity is covered by simplicity. Advanced nano-dynamo technology which is built in to the skids of the chair and more efficient light sources such as the newly developed OLED generation makes it possible to build a rocking chair with a reading lamp running on electricity generated from the rocking motion. During daylight the energy gets stored in a battery pack. The construction of the flat and bendable organic light emitting diodes allows new form factors such as using the traditional shape of a lamp but instead of having a light bulb the lampshade himself turns out to be the light source. To have a drastic reduction of consumption the big challenge will be to make consuming less feel like getting more.

I like the this chair but I’ve idea where you can even buy the chair let alone how much it might cost!

Hat Tip: Weaving the Web.

Extremity I by Emilio Gomariz

There’s something compelling about Emilio Gomariz work – Extremity I is reminiscent of a flowers time lapse photograph of its opening.

Hat Tip: bumbumbum.

Mapping Serotypes by Yanko Tsvetkov is subtitled the geography of prejudice which says it all I like the humour.

Where I Live

Europe According to the United States of America

Europe According to France

Europe According to Germany

Europe According to Italy

Europe According to Bulgaria

Europe According to Britain

Europe According to Gay Men

Hat Tip: bumbumbum.

To Press 3 (Performance Documentation), 2007, Oil on canvas, 6 x 8 x 1 1/2 inches

Now who’d have thought that ironing could be sexy personally it’s a chore and always will be – but that’s the point to Ana Teresa Fernandez paintings.

Growing up in Mexico, Ana Teresa Fernandez learned at an early age about the double standards imposed on women and their sexuality. Through performance-based paintings, Fernandez explores the territories that encompass these different boundaries and stereotypes: physical, emotional, and psychological.

Fernandez subverts the typical folkloric representations of Mexican women by changing the protagonist’s uniform to the quintessential little black dress, a symbol of American prosperity and femininity and of the Mexican tradition of wearing black for a year after a death. Her paintings portray actual performances where Fernandez takes on the Sisyphean task of cleaning the environment – sweeping sand on a beach, vacuuming a dirt road – to accentuate the idea of disposable labour resources. Braunstein/Quay Gallery.

Press 2 (Performance Documentation), 2006, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 72 inches

Press 1 (Performance Documentation), 2006, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 72 inches

Adverts are annoying and generally designed to sell us something we probably don’t need – sometimes you just have to admire their ingenuity Johnson Koh a graphic designer from Singapore selects his 50 Extraordinary and Attractive Billboards which is a bit over the top – I like this advert for Nationwide.

Nationwide advert in Columbus, Ohio

There’s even a video of it being made

[flashvideo filename="http://www.outofrange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nationwide.flv" width="460" height="345" image="http://www.outofrange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nationwideskin.png" /]

Hat Tip: Very Short List.

The art world looked down its nose at Beryl Cook, however there’s something endearing about her paintings of depicting some of the colourful characters she encountered her adopted hometown of Plymouth. The very larger-than-life characters emphasised.

If the artworld was arrogant, the public was enthusiastic with her paintings reaching around £40,000. In addition, for populist art there’s much to commend Cook’s work unlike the S&M soft porn of Jack Vettriano or the obscene chocolate box style of Thomas Kinkade. No, I rather like the Cook’s bright colours and larger than life characters that celebrate, our albeit, unusual everyday lives. Although, that said, I wouldn’t hang her pictures on my walls nor would I bother to visit an exhibition of her paintings.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995

The 1995 painting “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” by Lucian Freud a painting of Sue Tiley when she was a Jobcentre supervisor has set a new world record for the price for a work by a living artist a whooping $33.6 million (£17.2 million). I find it satisfying that the painting sold for considerably more than the £3.9 million his portrait of Kate Moss reached in 2005. Source: The BBC.

Photo of Sue Tiley

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 1912

I’ve always thought Duchamp to be one of the most important artists, maybe more so than Picasso, but that’s just personal taste. Until the 26th May, you can judge for yourself at The Tate modern exhibition of Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia subtitled “The Moment Art Changed Forever”. I shan’t be able to make it (shame on me) but if you get the chance go – I guess you’re not going to take my word for it – how about The Guardian‘s Adrian Searle who writes.

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue do much to bring the complications, developing attitudes and complexities of these three artists to life. It also highlights changing social mores and the ways art has been made over the past century. Rather than presenting us with closure and academic posturings, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia makes the best of their art look vital again, dangerous and alive.