Seung Mo Park

Colossal: Seung Mo Park

SEUNG MO PARK

So I came across another Asian art technique that is formed from layers of wire mesh. This time, it's a Korean artist, Seung Mo Park. He creates ephemeral portraits with these wire mesh and it looks like a photograph in air and seems quite complicated. I really am awed when these works come with a great deal of labor intensive process. These artists really wanted to pursue something that will challenge themselves and make the art look effortless in the end. I stumbled upon this through what's trending on Colossal again. I guess you can say it's just like another virtual hub for independent artists and all cool art cultures are discovered here. As usual, you can view the process and artist in action from the video on the website! He's had several exhibitions and inspired fashion shows as well as features in Vogue. It was very blissful watching the video from the concept to how he executed the inspiration and project. The process seemed just as tedious, his inspiration for his portraits are taken from models posing underwater to give a fluid and angelic effect to the movement. Although the material and nature of this makes it a sculpture, it's seen more as a portrait. Layers of mesh wire gives him the ability and flexibility to control the shadows, highlights and negative/positive spaces to create that effect. He uses a subtractive method. Many contemporary arts nowadays uses a lot of juxtaposition, it can be viewed and thought of differently. I 'm really amused by the transition from 3D to 2D effect. As one stands further away from the portrait, it's can be seen as flat, but go up close, you will see individual layers upon one another that gives it depth and space. Light plays an important part in this work too as it changes the dimension and how much density you can see through. It reminds me of Georges Seurat's pointallism theory. I enjoyed how inspiring this is, I was glad he did exhibitions all over Asia and London as well. Hopefully he will be able to America to exhibit his works here.

First Friday!

FIRST FRIDAY ALBUM

I love going to First Fridays because it invites a certain atmosphere of art life within Las Vegas. I know it's not as mature as the LA or New York scene where there are a plethora of art galleries with a heavy lifestyle within visual arts, but the fact that it exists means we are trying. I'm glad there are many artists in Las Vegas still curating and showing their works in public. You can always find a wide variety of styles in the Arts Factory and Emergency Arts. Now, as for the most part outside the galleries, there are a lot of art performance and bigger structures/sculptures. Most of which consist of musical festivals, certain practices, dances, talent shows, and painters in action. What I love most of all is the music and food culture. I love finding different food trucks and how it creates its own unique flavor of atmosphere for the people they gather. There were quite a few of students, middle-aged couples, and families that love going to these events. I have a gallery of May's First Friday event.




I really liked the art sketches by Teresa Maharaj, her works really grabbed my attention as they were dark but she found beauty within darkness. It was edgy and crafty, with a twist of mystery. At first, you can't make out what the figure really is until you look further and step back afterwards. I commented how she should use color gradients to intensify the effect, she said she's taking a break from color to focus on the shapes, which I can agree to. She's done many others in color and as I guessed, she also did tattoo designs. I love her imagery, it's complete and the flame like effects really makes a strong and unique impression. You can view more of her works on her website.


Mark Rumsey
Another artist, Mark Rumsey who was also featured at the P3 Studio at Cosmopolitan had his Noctilucent show in the contemporary art gallery. He is known for his office paper works, most of them would be designed for wallpapers or ceilings. My favorites are his cloud forms with different colored filtered lights and Baldaquin (2010) where the ceilings casted shadows from the sunlight. I wasn't able to see it at Cosmopolitan so I was glad to be able to see it in person here. It was basically hundreds of pieces of paper stapled into a cone-like shape piled up upon filtered lights against walls and doors. It was interesting to see how it was interpreted by the audience. I immediately thought of landscape art or a type of one, say like snow or mountains and that quickly diminished and transitioned to more modern and contemporary art piece. I really just am amused by it simply because it was aesthetically beautiful and entertaining. Although, I do wonder if he would allow people to touch, move, or shift the shape of the piles since he also allows volunteers to help him make his installations. That would put another meaning to community art. Take a look at his other exhibitions! It's so beautiful!

Lastly, there was one artist in action when I entered the room, she specialized in sand painting which is known as Mandala. Her main focus and intention for this project was to promote healing meditation. I thought it was really cool for the process and the end results were amazing. She was precise and worked intensely on laying the color pigments carefully on the right areas. I asked how long the piece would last, she replied that once she's done she will sweep it up. I would love to frame this work, so maybe she should have it air-tight shut with glass or resin layered on the surface to make a few of her works permanent but of course, that's what makes it so precious in the end.

Surprise Tea Ceremony with Mai Ueda at Cosmopolitan Pool

Tea ceremony in the Artificial Nature (Zen garden at Bamboo pools at the Cosmopolitan pools)

The concept of Mirate, presenting symbolic similarities between different things, is one of the main acts of a tea ceremony. Mai ended her experimental tea ceremony series with the theme Nodate (outside tea ceremony) which was the surprise tea ceremony and Mitate of Las Vegas strip as Zen garden. It provided a lot of elements when we had the wind, animals, nature sounds, sun, and smell of grass.

So one of the practices in buddhism is to remind us that everything changes all the time. Mai came back to Las Vegas after 10 years and it looks very different. They've destroyed old buildings to build new ones. This style of architecture is actually very zen. The Cosmopolitan pool is the extreme copy of nature.


So when I appeared to the P3 Studio on Saturday at 4 pm., Mai took me up to the pools and said we are having our tea ceremony outside by the pools. They set up the Ipad on video connected to the projector on the wall in the Studio so that wherever we walked to and experienced, people can see through the windows downstairs while we were being filmed. We walked through the pools documenting everything and our journey basically and Mai told me to pretend that the pool was the ocean and if I listened, I'm suppose to hear the ocean waves. It was quite meditative and relaxing. My day was suppose to be a busy day, one full with errands and annoying list of things to do, but once I sat down underneath the cool shade of the umbrella she made, with the icy tea and warmth of the sun, I just wanted to stay there all day and take it easy. I told myself there was no hurry with the small things in life. Although we were being watched by people at the pools, it was a fun experience to bring out the curiosity in them. When we arrived at the Bamboo pools at the back, there was a small, cozy and intimate area in the corner that was cut off from the pools. It offered us the privacy we needed, but we still got the great view of the strip and buildings.

Mai made me two cups of Matcha powder green tea from Kyoto with watermelon essence. It was very nostalgic since in Asia, that's all we drank. My favorite tea and really the only one I would drink is Matcha powder green tea. There was also sweet cold watermelon we ate out of the watermelon. Inside the umbrella were 5 colors of thread I spotted when I looked up, Mai actually made them and historical culture claims that it's suppose to keep the evil and bad spirits out so that we would be protected. I related that to the Dream catchers, assuming that most of the spiritual histories would be somewhat related and similar to the Natives. The experience was a lot more free spirited and lenient than I thought it would be. More traditional tea ceremonies would be very strict on manners and behaviors. It was a casual afternoon, we just chatted about ourselves and what our focus in art is. I asked Mai to talk about food culture and lifestyles in Manhattan.

 The tea ceremony is fairly new for her as this is a new project she is getting into. I learned a few tidbits here and there about the rules of drinking tea in the ceremony. When you receive your cup, you turn it in so that the face of the cup is inside facing towards you. You sip three times and on the last half sip, you are suppose to make a sipping noise to let her know that you are done with your tea. Return the cup to her with the face of the cup towards her. Usually, tea cups are printed with lots of design and textures on them, we only had the wooden ones but we still made marks for the face of our cups. Overall, she was very genuine and nice, I loved the experience. After the ceremony, we helped cleaned and brought everything back down so I was happy I was able to make it for the last session for the outside ceremony for the day. So for the entire time, I had Daniel take photos and record for me while we drank our tea to document so you guys can enjoy the experience as well! :)

The Avant/Garde Diaries presents Transmission LA: AV CLUB

So there is a fairly new and interesting exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at Moca this last week focusing around the new Mercedes coupe they are launching next year for the younger audience. It is an audio and visual experience curated by Mike D from the Beastie Boys. The exhibition and installations will be there April 20 - May 6. I am planning to head to La this weekend so hopefully I can make it and take some photos of the beautiful Mercedes! Besides viewing the vehicle and what new features the brand has to offer, there will be other designers, music festival, performances, and cultural food, which I love traveling for!
Mike collected 17 artists from multiple disciplines to create an exceptional 17 days event full of concerts, DJ nights, performances and installations

Moca: "The Avant/Garde Diaries presents Transmission LA: AV CLUB, curated by Mike D, an interdisciplinary festival featuring the work of 16 contemporary artists, musicians, designers, filmmakers, and chefs, including Peter Coffin, Jim Drain, Will Fowler, Benjamin Jones, Mike Mills, Takeshi Murata, and Tom Sachs. The presentation will include the international debut of the Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupé and an evening concert and DJ series featuring performances by many special guests, including Santigold."

Moca exhibition

Coolhunter news article

For those who'd like to find out more about the curator and events, here is their website and you can reserve free advance performance tickets for specific dates through there! I'm sure this is a great event for the street artists and young crowd to attend to since DJs have been an excellent entertainment factor for these festivals. I'm glad Mercedes is finally branching out to something new and bold. This is the first time I've seen the company doing a completely new theme around their series (A Class). Anyone in class interested to go? If so, why and what would you guys go for? I will update this post with photos and review if I get to go this weekend!

The Avant Garde Diaries

Facebook fan page

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exhibition photos Saturday May 5, 2012

The Coolhunter

Have any of you guys heard of the coolhunter phenomenon yet? If not, I'd like to share an incredible virtual hub for all the cool things you need to explore to stay in the know of the world. This is such an amazing website, especially for us artists, designers, or photographers even. If you haven't discovered it yet, please check it out as it will expose you to a lot of what is hidden in our world today.

THECOOLHUNTER

It doesn't follow trends, but believes in global relevance and what they find is cool enough to share and expand. I always get my ultimate satisfaction of newsfeed of the design and architecture from here and gain a lot of inspiration and goals to see these works myself in the future when I travel. It really allowed me to grow naturally in a very significant way and got me hungry for exploring new things and appreciating global creativity and innovative ideas. It involves anything from architecture, automobile, gadgets, lifestyle to fashion, food, music, art and travel.

They are... "Creative influencers who stay in the know and ahead of the curve. Global in outlook, culturally discerning, The Cool Hunter readers are connected, creatively aware, confident, stylish and sociable. They value architecture, design, style, music, fashion and entertainment. They work, play and travel internationally and bring with them distinguished tastes and a demanding appetite for quality information.

The Cool Hunter is not a trend-spotter, trend-watcher or trend predictor. We select and celebrate what is beautiful and enduring from all that is sought-after in architecture, design, gadgets, lifestyle, urban living, fashion, travel and pop culture."

Scott Weaver's 35 year toothpick project

Scott Weaver's Bay Structure

I found this to be very interesting. I related this kinetic structure, Scott Weaver's "rolling through the Bay" to Chris Burden's "Metropoliss II" exhibited at the LACMA. You can watch the video of the work in action from the Colossal site. Both complex installations featured a type of motion set by the audience in setting of a major city in California. The major difference is the materials, time frame it was built within, and the vulnerability of the structure. I guess it was to expose how busy and concentrated the cities are and they succeeded with building compact versions of these highly saturated city lifestyles. The motion of the ball and mini automobiles are the tour guides that takes the viewer on a tour through the city and details play such an important part in recognizing certain monuments and buildings.

Even though the Metropolis II is set in motion by machine, it gives more of a synthetic feeling and modern edge while Scott's structure is set into motion by manual labor with his hand constantly moving and nudging the tennis balls through, allowing the audience to be more intimate and up close to the art work. They can sense every detail of work and toothpick that has gone into building the city, which comes with a huge feeling of accomplishment for Scott because he spent 35 years on building it! It's incredible to see a life long project that is still in action and up for revisions even today. Instead of hearing hundreds of continuous flow of loud, fast cars speeding through 18 roadways, it was a quite different to hear the artist narrate the few golf-balls trail through the city with loads of historical background and humorous stories with the intention to make us feel as though San Francisco is still a busy city. Same intentions with different approaches that attract the same viewers.