“EVNI is a collection of giant furniture developed by Italian designer Umberto Dattola. The artist creates all kinds of woodwork that blends carpentry and design. For this project, he took old pieces of furniture and transformed them into these unique, lively pieces. The oversized furniture was first revealed at Milan Design Week and is reminiscent of a fantasy scene, like something directly out of Alice in Wonderland.
EVNI is a project that gives life and expression to otherwise inanimate objects. Through the work, Dattola explores the possibility that everyday objects absorb emotions and carry those feelings throughout the course of existence. Dattola explains: “What, of our passions, remain in the object during our life? Can we consider that some objects follow us during our entire life, absorbing our passions, moments of happiness, and moments of sadness? The question is: are we sure that all our sentiments pass without any influence around us?” The final product certainly seems to have a life of its own. With their long, wavy legs, the surreal pieces look like they might get up and scurry away at any moment.”
(via 2headedsnake)
Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin - Do Not Abandon Me, 2009-2010
Do Not Abandon Me is a collaboration between Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin consisting of sixteen intimate works made over the past two years. These drawings articulate physical drives and feelings, candidly confronting themes of identity, sexuality and the fear of loss and abandonment through joint expression.
This series originated with Bourgeois, who began the works by painting male and female torsos in profile on paper, mixing red, blue and black gouache pigments with water to create delicate and fluid silhouettes. Bourgeois then passed the images on to Emin, who later confessed: ‘I carried the images around the world with me from Australia to France, but I was too scared to touch them’. Emin overlaid Bourgeois’s forms with fantasy, drawing smaller figures that engaged with the torsos like Lilliputian lovers, enacting the body’s desires and anxieties. In one, a woman kisses an erect phallus; in another, a small fetus-like form protrudes from a swollen belly. In many, Emin’s handwriting inscribes the images with a narrative, putting into words the emotions expressed in Bourgeois’s vibrant gouaches.
This suite of prints was one of the last projects Louise Bourgeois completed before her death. They were then printed at Dye-namix studio in New York with archival dyes on cloth in an edition of 18 sets with 6 artist proofs. The exhibition travels to Hauser & Wirth from Carolina Nitsch Project Room, New York, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
World’s Most Beautiful Abandoned Places
Italian product manager and web designer Francesco Mugnai recently added a collection of images to his blog touting some of the most beautiful images of abandoned spots and modern ruins that he’d ever seen. The images Mugnai has captured come from empty castles, shuttered power plants, and dilapidated churches around the world. From a sunken yacht in Antarctica to a forever-closed amusement park in Japan, these images all make up a sort of anti-phoenix; rather than rising as new from the ashes, these husks remain preserved in decomposition, forcing viewers to confront the strange beauty of ruination.
