Free Money & Art. November 21, 2007

Jake and Dinos Chapman Art Giveaway

Roll up, roll up, for 48 hours only, free money and art! Last month, during the Frieze Art Fair, the British artists Jake & Dinos Chapman took money from visitors and “defaced and improved” the money before handing it back to them.

Visitors queued in large numbers for the opportunity to have their hard-earned money scribbled on by brothers Chapman, but if you missed out, don’t worry because Jake and Dinos Chapman would like to offer everyone who visits both the BBC’s Imagine website a free and exclusive piece of art in the form of imaginary banknotes created by the artists. The images will be available until 22.35pm on Thursday 22nd November 2007 - so if you want your free money and art, you better be quick!

Get your free money and art here.

Kevin Van Braak’s Caravan. November 13, 2007

Kevin Van Braak's Caravan

Don’t take your caravan to the country, let the caravan bring the country to you. Caravan by Kevin Van Braak is customised caravan that opens out to provide a grassy area of calm to wherever it’s situated. With our environment becoming increasingly more concrete and green spaces disappearing rapidly, Caravan can bring a touch of country living to anywhere it’s needed.

See more work by Kevin Van Braak.

The Modern Bird.

A Collection Of Modern Birdhouses

Designer housing for the modern bird. Rob from UglyBogus informed us about The Modern Bird Exhibition after the recent post on religious bird houses. ‘The Modern Bird’ is “an exhibition of designer birdhouses created by more than 20 of the top artists and design studios worldwide”, which “will show how far contemporary visionaries have taken the traditional wooden birdhouse.”

See more photos at Flickr.

Karen Ryan. October 4, 2007

Karen Ryan

Discarded furniture reborn. Karen Ryan takes discarded furniture items, and gives them a stylish new lease of life. Durings the recent Designersblock event in London, Karen Ryan was exhibiting some fantastic lampshades, each individually painted on the inner side of the shade. Unfortunately, I can’t find any photos online, so you’ll have to check out the one I took at Designersblock (here, here and here).

Despite having the slowest website in the world, you should check out her work, especially the chairs she creates from the remains of other salvaged chairs. You can also see some of her stuff at the Rabih Hage Gallery.

See more work by Karen Ryan.

SHCH Graphics Group. October 1, 2007

SHCH Graphics Group

Beautiful swirling graphics. The SHCH Graphics Group don’t provide any information in relation to their intricate swirly typographic designs, but they’re stunning, and sometimes that’s all you need to know.

Check it all out at SHCH Graphics Group.

Un-Plugged.

Unplugged

There’s never a plug socket nearby when you need one. Seemingly having been running since 2002, Un-Plugged appears to be an art project involving the placing of plug sockets around various cities in the most unlikely of places. So keep an eye out for the sockets in your city.

Check it out at Un-Plugged.

Shipping Container Tiles. September 17, 2007

Shipping Container Tiles

Art + Design = Miller Studio. Having been a former assistant to Artist Jeff Koons, and also a former designer for Karim Rashid, you can kind of get a sense of why the work of Jason Miller of Miller Studio verges between art and design. The colourful geometric patterns that can be made of his shipping container tiles would look suitably at home in an art gallery, as they would in your bathroom.

Shipping container tiles are ceramic wall tiles inspired by the landscape of shipping containers in Newark, New Jersey, or any other seaport.

See more great work at Miller Studio.

Bulge.

Bulge

Art & Underwear. Although we’re used to the use of homo-erotic photography being used to flog underwear to the greater public, Bulge are doing it with a twist. For €99 you can buy a package consisting of a signed, numbered & framed photographic print of a subject wearing an item of Bulge underwear, and also the item of bulgewear featured in your print for yourself in your size.

So if you’re into artwork of men in their pants, and you happen to be in the market for a new pair of y-fronts, you better get yourself over to Bulge.

Plywood Chateau. August 28, 2007

Plywood Chateau

Damn it, it’s not a bed! When I first saw the Plywood Chateau by James Westwater I thought it was a life-size bedroom concept. Unfortunately, it’s art or something. pffft!!!

I demand someone designs a bed cube thingymabob that has interchangable vinyl walls that make you feel like you’re sleeping in a variety of exotic, expensive and glamorous locations, when in reality you’re sleeping in a plywood box!

The Vader Project. July 4, 2007

Vader by Jeremyville

Darth Vader doesn’t seem as frightening anymore. You’ve got to love Jeremyvilles’s Vader Helmet for The Vader Project; a reimagining of the iconic Darth Vader helmet by some of today’s hottest pop and underground artists.

You can see more of the artist’s helmets on show via Flickr.