Art

Wow. Went to the Park Avenue Armory to see the installation by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto (who I've written about before), and it's amazing. First of all, I'd never been in the armory before, but it's a great huge space. Apparently the interiors of the rooms are historic too. But the installation is definitely the star.

Huge, anthropomorphic, skeletal, dripping, and yet so soft and beautiful because of the fabric and the forms. It was kid city there on friday afternoon, and you can see why. There was a 'pool' filled with plastic balls for playing in, a funky hand-knotted carpet that came up into a soft bump, and a padded play 'room' - all tucked into and around the big form.

And then the added bonus of the scents - about 20 spices used in the hanging forms - giving the work a whole new dimension that's subtle and very interesting.

UPDATE: Put my pictures up for all to see.

Flickr has a great section of historical photos out of copyright called The Commons. Collections from the archives of the Brooklyn Museum (1893 Columbian Exposition), Smithsonian, National Archives... Just tons of great stuff to look at.

When you illegally write stuff on walls, you generally have to distill it down to just the basics. Get your point across. (get it up quickly!) Or, put up some random bullshit, barely legible, waste spraypaint. Take your pick. This site has them all, fortunately much more of the former.

Just a random posting: one of my favorite physical/installation artists, Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian whose work I first encountered at the Venice biennial in 2001.

Just like drops of rain, nothing

Stanford has an online (and downloadable) photo exhibit about damage to the campus from the 1906 earthquake.

A cartoon comes to life: somebody took the intro to the Simpsons and duplicated it with real life people and scenery. Very cool.

An interesting Dutch person who makes replicas of electronic devices and other precision electromechanical things.

Great 3 minute time-lapse video of a cross-country drive in a convertible set to some decent techno. Something like a music video. Love the rain and roof raising, and the breakdown and mechanic parts.

Since Grand Central Station will loom large in my life this year, let me start off with a beginning of the year blog entry about a cool time lapse video from inside the station.