Wear + Here

May 20, 2014

Think twice

The Last Billboard in Pittsburgh, PA.

Edith A. Miller Striped Shirt.

Dueling double takes: one expressed in burly wood letters, perched above a waffle joint in Pittsburgh, PA; the other, instigated by kid scratch on cotton, stretched across a chest. Both semiotically subversive, inversive.

For four years, artist Jon Rubin has curated The Last Billboard, a rotating signage of sentiments overlooking the intersection of Highland and Baum in the East Liberty neighborhood, a busy spot seen by some 10,000 people and cars per day. Rubin describes the installation as “a publishing system for thoughts and ideas from around the world all presented in the sky…” The monthly words are those of artists, neighbors, writers and children: Maude Liotta, 11, sent her thoughts on society from Seattle, “Questions for my new blog: Who invented tape, how were feelings discovered, when did ‘skinny’ become fashionable.” Adam Frelin created the current Crier, based on his travels through Brazil: in a rural village, a loudspeaker announced the start of a funeral, inviting all who knew the deceased to pay their respects. The announcement seemed logical to Frelin, so logical he has proposed a similar system stateside: a town crier of sorts, making proclamations in public places who also symbolizes the public act of crying in joy or sorrow. Through The Last Billboard, Frelin is testing out his crier concept, a fresh approach to temporary installation as social experiment, a double take that may become a permanent part of society.

May 18, 2014

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Full circle

Bethlehem Baptist Church in L.A. by R.M. Schindler.

Bethlehem Baptist Church in 2013 in L.A.

Amerrymishap Pinks Necklace.

On the seventh day in South L.A., the faithful now flock to a resurrected architectural relic. Modernist maverick Rudolph Schindler designed the Bethlehem Baptist Church – his only church – for a black congregation in 1944, “the lone example of Modernist architecture to cross Los Angeles economic and racial boundaries in the era of Jim Crow housing covenants,” wrote the Heritage Commission. In spite of its transcendent origin, the church became abandoned after its sale in 1975. Thirty some years later, the derelict jewel was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Saved but not yet redeemed, it remained in limbo until Pastor Melvin Ashley of Faith Build International walked by while searching for a home for his multi-cultural, multi-faith community organization. Undaunted by architects’ condemned assessment, Pastor Ashley persevered: the church reopened earlier this month and non-denominational services happen every Sunday at 11 a.m. Amen to full circles (epitomized by an askew necklace).

May 17, 2014

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Filigree filter

Lešić Dimitri Palace hotel in Korčula, Croatia.

Anna Sui Crochet Kimono.

Light, as artist, draws lattice lace on me as I lounge. My hideaway, a limestone palace built in the 15th century beside the (disputed) birthplace of Marco Polo, inspires a reading list rooted in the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia (and a crocheted kimono as intricate as the mashrabiya screens). “I have not told half of what I saw,” the Silk Road explorer said. Oh to see more than you can say.

May 17, 2014

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Friday fuse

A stepped common area at NeueHouse in New York.

Rick Owens Carapace Vest.

Fridays, as a freelancer, feel less distinct than they once did. As home and office blur, with only a canine colleague, waylaid by magazines. Work-a-day dissolves into dusk; lights flicker on, keyboard clatter continues. Craving a catalyst, I’m scouting spaces conducive to creative mashups, like the David Rockwell-designed NeueHouse in New York. Described by member/MoMA PS1 founder Alanna Heiss as “a power strip where everyone can plug in” (glamour as surge protector), NeueHouse promises the socio-professional sparks my current work-scape lacks. Not to mention aesthetic immersion (a power strip for recharging inspiration) and sartorial incentivizing (goodbye comfy sweatpants, hello trim silhouettes).

May 14, 2014

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Lofty laps

The Sylvie Fleury pool at Villa Emslieb near Salzburg, Austria.

Lisa Marie Fernandez Farrah Maillot.

In honor of Austrian Conchita Wurst’s triumphant win of the Eurovision Song Contest, I’m bound for a Baroque manor outside Salzburg, where modernity is a foil for history. Contemporary art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac has peppered his painstaking restoration of Villa Emslieb, a county estate built in 1618, with primo pieces by Anslem Kiefer, Not Vital and George Baselitz, among other artists whom Ropac represents. If, by a stroke of high-art luck, I scored an invitation to the villa, I would swim laps (under the watchful eye of Tom Sachs’ bronze bunny fountain) in the black granite pool designed by Swiss conceptual artist Sylvie Fleury, each pass over the “Be Amazing” inlay magnifying the Wurstian clarion call.

May 13, 2014

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Palette park

The Red Square in Superkilen in Copenhagen.

Acne Denim Trench.

Welcome to Superkilen, a Copenhagen park defined by color: The Red Square for the modern urbanite keen on cafes, music and sports; the Black Market, classical with a fountain and benches; the Green Park, site of picnics, dog walks and pick-up games. In spite of its monochromatic monikers, Superkilen is a riotous palette: channeling the diversity of the surrounding neighborhood (home to more than 50 different nationalities), the park’s designers – BIG Architects and artists’ group Superflex – eschewed standard-issue fixtures for neighbors’ nominations of components from their native countries: benches from Brazil, trash bins from England, manhole covers from Zanzibar, a donut sign from Tennessee. The result: a tapestry of international tropes that resonate with the people who use the park. An interloper like me, on an imaginary walk in this trench by Acne Studios (the vanguard Swedish brand with multiple stores in Copenhagen), could encounter 108 different objects in Superkilen, 108 different moments of cultural reminiscing.

May 10, 2014

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Pop-up escapade

Coral & Tusk Pop-Up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In God We Trust Cave Print Constance Shirt and Gerty Short.

I’m having an Eloise moment (as part of my NYC state of mind), but rather than reside at the Plaza, I want to playfully crash the Coral & Tusk pop-up shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. On a soggy spring day like today (or so says the weather forecast), I would creep in with a clutch of magazines, incognito in this critter ensemble (sold on-site), wait for all employees to disperse for lunch, and lock the doors so I could delight solo in this quirky dreamland. Sprawled on an upholstered couch, I would cozy up in mad plaid cashmere, sip from a spunky ceramic teacup, nibble on vanilla smoke chocolate, futz with a bow and arrow, and let my thoughts sail away with a rakish canoe marooned on a mossy sea.

Daydreaming aside, this retail flight of whimsy, ebulliently dubbed the Coral & Tusk and Friends Spring Extravaganza, is only open until the end of May. Channel Eloise and skibble over to BK.

May 9, 2014

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Ivy tower

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roof Garden Commission: Dan Graham with Günther Vogt.

ASOS Africa Lace Swing Dress.

Simultaneously transparent and reflective (I can aspire to that). Or, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s description: “part garden maze, part modernist skyscraper façade” (I’m lingering in NYC). As the Met’s new Roof Garden Commission,Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout by American artist Dan Graham with Swiss landscape architect Günther Vogt finds curves of steel and two-way mirrored glass snaking between ivy hedgegrows. Graham’s entire oeuvre is site-specific to the Met rooftop: beyond the buffer of nature (Central Park) lies the skyline of skyscrapers, reflecting Graham’s enduring interest in how the built environment reflects organic (including human) nature. For Graham, the mirrored skin of corporate towers symbolizes economic power and design efficiency: the windows reflect the urban world whirling by while simultaneously camouflaging the occupants inside. “What Dan creates is a new form of quixotic landscape architecture that combines nature and community within a city environment,” said Sheena Wagstaff, the Met’s Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art. Atop the Met, viewer, city and sky all become participants in the piece (At the unveiling last week, Graham said people seem particularly fond of the reflective effect for how trim it makes them look). I want to see Hedge at all times of day, to experience the different dances of light, to find myself sheathed in a veil of reflective transparency (as I would in this ASOS dress).

May 8, 2014

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Frieze frame

Postcard for Al’s Grand Hotel in 1971, by Allen Ruppersberg.

Visionaire x Gap: Richard Phillips.

In May 1971, a travel brochure circulated around the creative set of Los Angeles. In typeface borrowed from a Chinese takeout menu, the leaflet promised “the finest accommodations at the most reasonable rates” in Hollywood. Al’s Grand Hotel was the ruse de arte of Allen Ruppersberg: for six weeks, guests could stay in one of his seven themed rooms (tucked within a suburban Craftsman-style shell), from the Jesus Room replete with a massive cross abutting the bed to the “B” Room – fully stocked for B-list parties, picnic basket and all. Tomorrow, Al’s reemerges as a pop-up installation at the Frieze New York, restaged by L.A. art force Public Fiction (as one of six Frieze Projects curated by the High Line’s director of art programming Cecilia Alemani). Sited within the fair tent on Randalls Island, the hotel will only be open for four nights starting tonight, at inflation-adjusted rates (then: $15-$30 per night; now $350-$375, dinner and breakfast included). Bookings are granted by calling 646-578-8471; a robotic female recording will ask you to leave your name, number and desired dates, one night (stands) only; then, await a call; only eight people plus companions are fated to be guests. Al’s reincarnation feels – albeit at a remove – akin to the woman’s indulged expression on this tee (part of a Gap and Visionaire collab collection for Frieze featuring 11 artist-designed t-shirts, available tomorrow at select retail locations). In its original iteration, Al’s engaged viewers as consumers, requiring their participation, and during its spring lifespan, the hotel became a hub for happenings, performances and parties – an art historical landmark. Can Al’s restaging stoke as much vitality in a blink with two beds?

May 7, 2014

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Crystal catwalk

The Glacier Skywalk in Jasper National Park, Canada.

Nau Poncho Via in Beetle.

Vertigo rarely visits me, but I wonder if it would on the just-opened Glacier Skywalk, a steel arc jutting from a craggy cliff in Canada’s Jasper National Park. Through the glass floor, I would study the Sunwapta Valley, 918 feet below. Or I might keep my eyes fixed up high, on the glaciers visible from the horseshoe deck. Designed to educate visitors about glacial formation and impact, the Skywalk stirred controversy during its five-year development; opponents feel it sets a commercially-driven Canadian precedent in ecologically-sensitive parkland (mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wolverines, wolves, grizzlies and mountain caribou all call this corner of Jasper home). I respect this stance, while valuing the visitor experience the Skywalk affords and applauding its ruggedly beautiful design – or beautifully rugged design like this Nau hardshell, a stylish disguise of billowy technical function.