SHANGHAI – Offering exclusive views of the iconic Shanghai skyline, the new VIP Lounge at Bar Rouge plays on the typography of the urban setting. The project proposal requested a design which would ‘reinterpret the known cityscape of Shanghai, with an intervention which would maximise its visual impact, transforming the way the space is conceived’. Taking a very literal approach – by abstracting the silhouettes of the surrounding buildings – local firm 100architects devised an ‘inhabitable architectural object’ which nestles into place along the edge of the roof terrace.
The object is constructed entirely from the highly durable and versatile solid surfacing material Corian, in a shade defined as ‘hot red’ which fits perfectly with the visual identity of the bar. The glossy material finish emphasises the area’s exclusivity and reflects the dancing lights of the city skyline. Cubic proportions add a symmetry and balance to the overall design. Five distinctive seating arrangements – from individual cube stools to a stepped bench wall – offer a range of environments to cater to the specific needs of the clientele.
The firm explains: ‘We possess a singular vision: we design architectural objects that attract people and encourage social interaction.’ Specialising in inhabitable interventions, Bar Rouge is an exemplar project of the firm’s overall portfolio.
As with all things Internet, newer is better at the
Whitechapel Gallery’s current show "Electronic Superhighway" (through May 15), which features 100 digital and pre-digital artworks by 70 artists and works backwards from the present to the mid-1960s "Experiments in Art and Technology" that paired artists like
Robert Rauschenberg and
Yvonne Rainer with
Bell Laboratories. Technology’s ever-quickening race to a theoretically apocalyptic finish line makes it hard to appreciate older forms of media art, which can look obsolescent, clunky, metaphorically sepia.
But it’s edifying, and fascinating, to see artists of the "
Post-Internet" generation, including
Jacolby Satterwhite and
Hito Steyerl, on a continuum with pioneers of computer art such as
Stan VanDerBeek and
Nam June Paik (who coined the term "electronic superhighway" back in 1974). Here, in chronological order, are the five works not to miss if you’re planning a visit.
NAM JUNE PAIKGood Morning, Mr. Orwell, 1983
The widely acknowledged founder of video art originally showed this "global disco" TV broadcast live on New Year’s Day of 1984. It’s become a digital roll call of 1980s trends: John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Allen Ginsberg figure in it, but so do the critically derided (though successful) UK chart act the Thompson Twins. Today, the piece's eye-blitzing fast cuts make it seem like a precursor to the free-for-all, non-hierarchical nature of the internet.
In this installation, you sit in "Lorna’s apartment" and watch a TV on which an apparently agoraphobic woman is shown applying makeup and going about her daily tasks. Flip through the channels, and you might even come across her fiddling with a gun. After a while, the experience becomes a little unnerving—you start to wonder if this person, or a representation of her, will come in and blast you away. The piece was originally conceived as a comment on the sanitizing effect of TV. Viewed in this context however, it seems to anticipate the immersive illusions of virtual reality.
Arcangel has taken on the role of an Internet and computer art historian. For his "Lakes" series he used a Java applet on photos of Paris Hilton, Hilary Clinton and Beyoncé to create a vintage, rippling watery effect. To the digital immigrant it’s a reminder of the fuzziness of early computer images; to the digital native though, it has an undeniable Warholian Pop art feel about it.
This painting series with a voiceover soundtrack is based on an image, showing four rockets surging into the sky, that was released in 2008 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. After the release, photo agencies noticed it was a fake and that one of the rockets was a composite of the other two. A meme was born, and the internet exploded with myriad versions of the picture—some adding more than 40 missiles. Don the headphones that accompany the images, and you'll hear Laric saying that if you google the story now, the images with four and 40 missiles co-exist, leaving new viewers to wonder which—if either—is the "authentic" one.
JACOLBY SATTERWHITEEn Plein Air: Music of Objective Romance, 2015
A modern day version of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Satterwhite’s surreal, 3-D-animated tableau surveys various disparate offerings of the internet—including a bit of gay porn and scenes of climate change—and works them into a coherent universe. It’s a visual feast that, regardless of your view on its subject matter, is pretty much a state-of-the-art depiction of what it’s actually like to be in a dream.
10 Black-and-White Flowers by Mapplethorpe That Will Seduce You
By Artspace Editors
March 16, 2016
Detail of Orchid (1977) by Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe is generally associated with his controversial and homoerotic photography, documents of New York’s gritty underbelly during the 1970s and ‘80s. Here, however, are ten images from Phaidon’s new compendium
Mapplethorpe Flora: The Complete Flowers that show the American photographer bringing his skill with light and shadow to bear on another favorite subject: flowers. If you’re hungry for more of Mapplethorpe’s floral works, read a piece of Herbert Muschamp’s introduction to the book here, check out some of his color imagery here, and purchase the full book here.
1. Orchid, 1977
2. Flower, 1980
3. Flower Arrangement, 1980
4. Bird of Paradise, 1981
5. Flower, 1983
6. Flowers, 1983
7. Iris and Zinnia, 1984
8. Rose with Smoke, 1985
9. Tulip, 1985
10. Calla Lily, 1988
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In a 1975 interview with the New York Times, MAD Magazine founder Harvey Kurtzman recalled an illustration of a grinning boy he’d spotted on a postcard in the early fifties: a “bumpkin portrait,” “part leering wiseacre, part happy-go-lucky kid.” It was captioned “What, Me Worry?”
