As an amazing birthday present, I was invited to spend the weekend in the UK a couple weeks ago.
So we flew from New York to London, departing on Friday night, arriving Saturday morning. We went straight to the amazing Bvlgari hotel, and after a tour of the hotel by the director, I found a very nice and delicious birthday cake (and some truffles) in our room.
The room was perfect.
Carna botnet offers us this amazing 24 hour visualization of relative IPv4 utilization observed using ICMP Ping requests.
Look at the data, just look at it! Dont you see peoples sleeping patterns, internet usage patterns, eating schedule habit, cultural differences, urban influence, regional inequalities…?
4 flights and 40 hours later (after having missed Japan Week), I am back in New York in the modern and technological Delta terminal (C, not D) at Laguardia Airport, with its tablets and card readers on all tables and bars at all bars and restaurants.What a difference from the Delta Terminal 4 at JFK! Luckily the new one will be finished in May, because the old one is falling apart.
Yesterday we were invited to a triple art opening at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD): After the Museum: “As artists, designers, and corporations have increasingly begun to stage exhibitions, lectures, and workshops modeled from the role of museums in the 20th century, current museum forms are increasingly called into question.” (March 12, 2013 to June 9, 2013) Wear it or Not: The exhibition features nearly 130 works from around the world, recently acquired by the MAD (March 12, 2013 to June 2, 2013) Against the Grain: Featuring nearly 90 installations, sculptures, furniture, and objects, the exhibition explores some of the most cutting-edge conceptual and technical trends in woodworking today (March 19, 2013 to September 15, 2013) We also took the opportunity to re-visit “Playing with Fire": 50 Years of Contemporary Glass (November 20, 2012 to August 25, 2013).
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Today we went to New City art fair, Japanese contemporary art at hpgrp Gallery in Chelsea.
Almost everything, from Satoru Tamuras machines from Tezukayama Gallery (who also carried and showed works by Yayoi Kusama, Tomohiro Kato, and Takao Machiba), to the works at Art-U room (by Kazuo Shiraga, Atsuko Tanaka, Jiro Yoshihara, Sadamasa Motonaga, Chiyu Uemae, and Takesada Matsutani), the ones at hprgp (Hisaharu Motoda and Yuichi Hirako), to Satelites ART LAB (Shingo Iguchi, Ben Mori, and Anna Tsubaki), to Fuko Ueadas paintings on Gallery Kogure (along with Takahiro Hirabayashi, Hidenori Yamaguchi, Hiroyuki Matsuura, Takahiro Sanda, Yuwa Kato and Takato Yamamoto), to Gallery TEN (who carries Eishi Takaoka, Michio Kono, Jumpei Yamamuro, Masataka Kitamono, and Kazuko Kaneda), to Shusuke Ao`s installation on eitoeiko (who was also showing Shusuke Ao, Ichiro Irie, Yuki Yoshida and Junta Egawa), almost everything was outstanding.
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Today we have gone to the Independent art show at Center 548. Two floors (starts in the second floor, and the roof top only has a bar). The second floor has some, very few, interesting works. The third floor? Don`t even bother. From childish to improvised, without even being outsider or brut.
When I go to art shows like this I exit with a strange happy grin. The reason? I realize I still have a personal taste, and I know what I don`t like, no matter how crowded the space is, or if it is in Chelsea.
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Yesterday we were invited by Miwako Tezuka (domo arigato!) to the inauguration of Edo Pop at Japan Society. It was wonderful!
Besides the classic and beautiful nishiki-e works by the masters Katsushika Hokusai (yes, Under the Wave off Kanagawa from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, was there), Utagawa Hiroshige, Toshusai Sharaku, Toyota Hokkei, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Suzuki Harunobu, there were contemporary works by graffiti artist Aiko, strikingly “Japanese” transparencies by Emily Allchurch, reinterpreted iconic portraits by Paul Binnie, political criticism in the work of Ishii Toru and Kazama Sachiko (amazing the large format Alas!
