Archive for January, 2011
Martin Parr: Assorted Cocktail
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague
Could anything be more English than afternoon tea and cricket? If you’re willing to be less high brow about the matter, or you’ve ever been to Brighton Beach, Clacton-on-Sea, or Blackpool, maybe the concept of “nothing more English than” could be redefined in the direction of “kiss me quick” hats and rock candy bearing the words “old slapper”. It’s an England that doesn’t get exported, that sometimes I think you have to have been born and raised in the country to understand, and it’s that England that has been the focus and (still obviously loved) inspiration of photographer Martin Parr.
The extensive exhibition at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art features the documentary photographer’s work from 1983 – 2004 and includes significant thematic cycles as Last Resort, Small World, Common Sense, and Think of England. With the British middle class solidly at the center of his subject matter, humor and irony are used to address the topics of mass consumption, tourism, national stereotypes and the growing uniformity of globalization. After seeing so many of his images, maybe the question will be “could anything be more English than Martin Parr?”
While the exhibition itself is a must-see for anyone visiting Prague who’s interested in photography, and if you’ll be there on February 2nd do not miss the opportunity to hear Parr talk about his work himself – he’ll be lecturing at 6pm. Book now!
February 10 – May 16, 2011 at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Poupětova 1, Praha 7. Opening Hours: Monday 10am – 6pm, Wednesday – Friday: 10am – 7pm, Saturday – Sunday: 10am – 6pm.
For reservations to Martin Parr’s lecture at 6pm on the 2nd of February, email tereza@doxprague.org. The entrance fee is CZK 60.
All images copyright Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
Find yourself a space of individuality in Prague and stay at White Line Hotels edit the ICON Hotel & Lounge.
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Categories: Prague, Art, Exhibitions
Contributing writer: Melissa Frost
Seeing the Red Dot in Singapore
Singapore is an inspiring city for contemporary design and if you only have an afternoon to spend exploring the best of it, the Red Dot Design Museum should be your starting point. Located in a the former traffic police headquarters in the central business district, the concept behind the museum is to showcase new talent and projects as well as communicate forward thinking ideas in the field.
The Red Dot Design Award is a coveted international design prize awarded by the Design Centre Nordrhein Westfalen, based in Essen, Germany. The first award was given in 1955, with submissions growing to over 12,000 entries from more than 60 countries in the last 5 years. The awards fall into 3 categories: product design, communication design, and design concept. The museum in Singapore serves as both the location for the awards ceremony, to be held this year in early July, and as a place to display the best of previous winners.
One thing that you can expect from a museum highlighting design is excellent presentation. The Red Dot Museum doesn’t disappoint: with interactive installations, an intriguing colonial architecture, and ongoing events, it’s a hub for all things design in the city. From silly to serious, from font generators to Bionic cars, toilets to drills, what you see will change your perspective of the products you use and the advertising you read.
More information about Red Dot can be found here: http://en.red-dot.org/
White Line Hotels edit the New Majestic Hotel features impressive art and a special eye for design as well. Each of the 30 unique rooms was conceived of and executed by emerging artists. From beds that hang, to giant colourful goldfish hand painted on the wall, art reigns in this sumptuous traveller’s retreat.
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Categories: Singapore, Culture, Design
Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter
Vanessa Billy: Natural means something like vegetables
Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen
I’ve always been somewhat dubious of packaging that bears the labeling “100% Natural,” but it’s never been a feeling I’ve particularly had to analyze. When I came across Vanessa Billy’s exhibition Natural means something like vegetables I started to realize the source of my uneasy doubt about the phrase, or even just the word “natural” itself. On one hand, a belief in the “natural”, kind of like how a belief in a God necessitates a belief in the opposing balance of a Devil, implies the existence of the “unnatural’. Then on the other, albeit connected hand, is the question that Vanessa Billy seems to be getting at; does anyone actually know what natural means? I won’t bother to ask if anyone actually knows then what “unnatural” means.
Working in line with the Arte Povera tradition, but in a poetic and discreet fashion, materials and form are at the center of Billy’s practice. It would be easy to imagine that Billy’s mention of natural is in reference to her unworked, or at least little-worked, materials. It might be too easy. Can plastic ever be natural? And what about the state she’s placed it in for one piece, suspending a small amount of water in a metal can? And if, as her title says, natural is for “something like vegetables”, what is she saying about what she has done herself?
January 14 – March 5, 2011 at Galleri Christina Wilson, Esplanaden 8 B, 1263 Copenhagen. Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 12noon – 5pm, Saturday 12noon – 3pm.
White Line Hotels have got a new home away from home in Copenhagen – The Avenue Hotel. If you missed our announcement of this, shame on you…if you miss the chance to stay there while checking Vanessa out, then I don’t know what to say.
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Categories: Copenhagen, Art, Exhibitions
Contributing writer: Melissa Frost
SINGAPORE BIENNALE 2011: OPEN HOUSE
Tatzu Nishi, The Merlion Hotel (artist’s rendering), 2011, construction-installation, © the artist
Some say that spontaneity is a virtue, others that it’s never too early to plan ahead. With 2 months to go until opening day, perhaps the 3rd Singapore Biennale is near enough to satisfy those who don’t like to plan too much ahead, and still far enough off to calm the nerves of those who like things laid out in advance on their calendar?
This edition of Southeast Asia’s leading Biennale invites visitors to an “open house” of the artistic process. 63 artists from 30 countries will be creating new commissions or premiering new works under the curatorial direction of Russell Storer and Trevor Smith and Artistic Director Matthew Ngui, himself an artist whose practice focuses on installation, video, performance and public art. It’s hard to speculate on highlights from an impressive list of participating artists, but one surely not to miss is Singaporean Ming Wong, whose “remakes” of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films are hilarious and provocative critiques of identity and filmic construct.
One of the best things about Biennales is how, with locations of the event spread across the city, the atmosphere seems to permeate the spaces in between. With venues as perhaps expected as the National Museum, to those as perhaps unexpected as the historic Kallang Airport, the 3rd Singapore Biennale is sure to be no exception.
March 13 – May 15, 2011, check out the official website for more information about times and locations: http://www.singaporebiennale.org/
The best place to base yourself during the Biennale has to be White Line Hotels edit the New Majestic Hotel. Itself a living installation, whose to say it won’t be your highlight of the Biennale?
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Categories: Singapore, Art, Events
Contributing writer: Melissa Frost
Stockholm and everything is just Dandy
The term “Dandy” has gone though a series of interpretations in the last 250 years; the most concrete being a man attentive to his appearance, speaking a refined language, all while pursuing leisurely hobbies with an air of nonchalance. Perhaps even more intriguing is Charles Baudelaire’s definition of dandyism in reference to painter Constantin Guys, as a man who ‘elevates aesthetics to a living religion.’ The Dandy was thought to be the perfect gentleman, however, he required an audience to propagate his ideas. Another one of his characteristics: cultivated scepticism. There are a number of known Dandies, although much like modern day “hipsters” it’s not a title one would assign themselves, it was bestowed upon you by others as simultaneous approval and affront.
So what is a dandy in modern terms? Not quite a hipster, and slightly different from a metrosexual, it’s unclear if it’s a type of dress, a style of intellect, or a way of life. This is the question that is enthusiastically addressed at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm. The exhibition “Dandy”, designed by Stockholm based firm Form Us With Love, dissects what it is and means to be elevated, or denigrated, to “Dandy” status.
The exhibition space has mannequins, or mannequin parts, fused with boxes throughout. Each mannequin part wears one article of typical “Dandy” clothing. It goes one step further by giving examples of how a contemporary Dandy could look. Tailor Frederik Andersen, fashion researcher Rickard Lindqvist, journalist Olaf Enckell, stylist Lalle Johnson, author Björn af Kleen, designer Göran Sundberg and shop owner Christian Quaglia have all given their suggestions on the modern styling of the Dandy.
The exhibition runs through the 1st of May 2011, while you’re there be sure to drop in the 300 years of fashion exhibition at the same museum.
Photography by Jonas Lindström
If you want to be Dandy, or Quaintrelle (a female Dandy) about town you couldn’t have a better platform than White Line Hotels edit Nobis Hotel. Try out the Gold Bar & Lounge – even with spectacularly irresistible drinks and a 28-meter high ceiling, it still maintains a comfortable living room atmosphere. The just finished renovations at the hotel harmoniously update the classic structure, integrating elements of its previous life as a bank throughout.
Not your cup of tea? Then check out it’s sisters – Hotel Skeppsholmen & Hotel J.
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Categories: Stockholm, Design, Fashion
Contributing writer: Alicia Reuter