Making is making a comeback––think Brooklyn pickling parties and community gardens. So, a totally fun, comprehensive, and often gorgeous new show called NYC Makers, at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), seems just about right. In only eight months, 350 nominators carefully selected interesting artists and artisans––from fashion designers to small-batch whiskey distillers––working in all five boroughs of NYC, and the culmination of talented winners are on display here all summer long.
If you aren’t careful, you might miss something. For instance, the scratch ‘n sniff wallpaper in the staircase made by wallpaper company Flavor Paper. Or the lobby “mural” installations that look like the contents of a piñata by artist-design collective CONFETTISYSTEM. Even the security guards are donning art: vests designed by Eckhaus Latta (though, when asked, one of the security guards admitted he’d rather just be wearing a suit).
As you enter the elevator, lit with blacklight, the madness intensifies––a blue room translates sound into colors on screen, live plants create natural fabric dyes, a level designed by Laurie Anderson produces male or female vocals depending on the tipping direction. A series of masks combined the faces of the crowd via facial recognition technology, while Naomi Yasuda designed nail polishes shaped as plumbing tools. Okay, we'll stop. Basically, there’s a lot of great stuff here.
At times, it feels technology is moving us backwards and forwards at the same time. “This watch tells time with scents,” Aisen Caro Chacin told us of her creation. “In the morning it smells like coffee, during the day tarnish and paper, and in the evening whiskey and tobacco.” Paula Hayes, the maker of enormous terrariums contained in hand-blown glass said, “I grew up in nature... as a kid, I hated the sound of TV.” Heidi Lee, who was wearing one of her Parasol Skeleton Hats, inspired by Karakasa Obake from Japanese mythology, says she was interested in “the architecture of decay.”
What is the line between a beautiful artifact and a piece of art, anyway? Between creative genius and skilled engineering? In this show, there isn’t one; boundaries of all kinds are shattered. “Can I touch my own art?” one artist even asked.
Through October 12, 2014
NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial
Museum of Art & Design
2 Columbus Circle
map
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A security guard at the MAD Biennial in an Eckhaus Latta vest, against CONFETTISYSTEM's installation. Photo courtesy of Eckhaus Latta
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Gold Wall, 2010. CONFETTISYSTEM
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If you aren’t careful, you might miss something. For instance, the scratch ‘n sniff wallpaper in the staircase made by wallpaper company Flavor Paper. Or the lobby “mural” installations that look like the contents of a piñata by artist-design collective CONFETTISYSTEM. Even the security guards are donning art: vests designed by Eckhaus Latta (though, when asked, one of the security guards admitted he’d rather just be wearing a suit).
As you enter the elevator, lit with blacklight, the madness intensifies––a blue room translates sound into colors on screen, live plants create natural fabric dyes, a level designed by Laurie Anderson produces male or female vocals depending on the tipping direction. A series of masks combined the faces of the crowd via facial recognition technology, while Naomi Yasuda designed nail polishes shaped as plumbing tools. Okay, we'll stop. Basically, there’s a lot of great stuff here.
At times, it feels technology is moving us backwards and forwards at the same time. “This watch tells time with scents,” Aisen Caro Chacin told us of her creation. “In the morning it smells like coffee, during the day tarnish and paper, and in the evening whiskey and tobacco.” Paula Hayes, the maker of enormous terrariums contained in hand-blown glass said, “I grew up in nature... as a kid, I hated the sound of TV.” Heidi Lee, who was wearing one of her Parasol Skeleton Hats, inspired by Karakasa Obake from Japanese mythology, says she was interested in “the architecture of decay.”
What is the line between a beautiful artifact and a piece of art, anyway? Between creative genius and skilled engineering? In this show, there isn’t one; boundaries of all kinds are shattered. “Can I touch my own art?” one artist even asked.
Through October 12, 2014
NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial
Museum of Art & Design
2 Columbus Circle
map
A security guard at the MAD Biennial in an Eckhaus Latta vest, against CONFETTISYSTEM's installation. Photo courtesy of Eckhaus Latta
Gold Wall, 2010. CONFETTISYSTEM
