Here at Bouf we have just about recovered from the madness that was the Vintage at Goodwood Festival. With 5 decades in just 3 days, the atmosphere was as eclectic as the outfits.

From the retro bus service from the station to the site we were ushered down a woodland pathway adorned with hanging lights to the entrance where it became apparent very quickly that Vintage was not going to be your average festival… Read the rest of this entry →

This year, Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway and Lord March are embarking upon a new project which will take place over 13th-15th August 2010.  Read the rest of this entry →

The Light Orchestra is one act of four in the True Stories series of exhibitions shown in Ventura Lambrate during Design Week by students at Milan’s Scuola Politecnica di Design. Walking into the vast space of the former Faema factory (described as a post-industrial cathedral) is humbling experience. This cavern is empty, save for an oversized keyboard in the centre that beckons like a xylophone to visitors, who press the keys to orchestrate coloured lights. The bank of tall windows has been covered with a perforated material that adds to an atmosphere of hushed mystery. The notes ring out as sporadic punctuation, echoing the sense of contemporary calm.

“
Light Orchestra is music for the eyes. It associates sounds with a perceptive domain different from hearing. The highlight of the installation is an oversized keyboard resembling a futuristic piano with 12 coloured buttons that control 12 LED sources. The visitor interacts with the instrument and creates changeable atmospheres by painting a vast, empty space with a palette of lights, colours and sounds. This grand piano whose shape is modelled on a waveform graph casually recorded, combines colours and sounds according to Goethe’s colour wheel, based on 12 colours, and to the circle of fifths, expressing the relationship between the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. Light Orchestra took part in the LED Light Festival making his debut in December 2009 at the Colonne di San Lorenzo, a popular Milanese meeting place. It was voted as the best installation in the schools category and was awarded the second prize overall.”

Artists: Daniel Simonini with Lorenzo Marini and Fernando Gonzales Sandino

More info on scuoladesign.com

The fourth London International Documentary Festival opened on Friday. Design studio Up created the accompanying catalogue and campaign graphics…

According to Up, the theme for the project is “a conversation in film” and so the campaign uses quotes from various films showing at the festival to reflect the notion of dialogue. The point being that the LIDF not only screens films, but encourages open discussion forums and workshops with directors and filmmakers.

The typographic design uses a split device echoing the idea of text in motion. To generate initial interest in the festival, the more abstract and deconstructed posters were put up around the city, followed by the more legible versions (also rolled out over a series of postcards).

Spanning 16 days, the LIDF is now the UK’s largest documentary festival and showcases over 130 works. It’s on now and runs until 8 May.

Films are set to be shown at a host of locations in the capital including The Barbican, Tate Modern, The British Museum, Rich Mix and The Rio.

More information at lidf.co.uk. More on Up at upcreatives.com.

For this year’s Milan Design Week, the dutch-belgian studio job and the dutch pieke bergmans, in association with italian gallery dilmos will present ‘Wonderlamp’, a collection of 7 polished bronze objects with blown-glass lamps spilling out of them.

Studio job creates monumental objects made of cast bronze, while Bergmans has made a name for herself developing mouth-blown crystal forms which coagulate into fluid forms. These are the points of departure for their collaboration ‘wonderlamp’, in which Bergmans’ large glass light bulbs are linked to seven bronze objects from Studio job.

The seven playful, but monumental implements stir fantasy and imagination. Where Bergmans’ objects seek correlation
with reality, Studio job creates a fantasy world full of surrealistic elements. These differences offer enough points of contact for an interesting exchange of ideas.

‘light bulbs’: a series of crystal lamps that refer to the archetypal incandescent lamp

More Info here

Dedicated to fostering independent artistic expression, Scion Installation L.A. is a space that allows artists to explore their creative visions. The Scion Space is hosting the Rooms exhibition from 24th April to 15 May 2010.

Curated by Roger Gastman, the exhibition space has been divided into “rooms” for each artist to go hog wild with their imagination. Eight artists including Kime Buzzelli and Adam Wallacavage were assigned an area in the 4,500-square-foot gallery to create a room from scratch. “This show requires artists to not just hang art on the wall, but build out an entire room that corresponds with their work. All of the artists in ‘Rooms’ are able to deal with a more complex concept and are also inventive enough to create a unique experience,” Gastman said.

The results run the gamut. Wallacavage hung his sea-life chandeliers in his room against custom wallpaper, while Dueling VHS’ comedy skits will play on a TV in a make-believe basement. Bill Daniel’s room interprets a punk-rock teenager’s den, and Buzzelli dives into a girl’s set-up. The overall concept makes for a refreshing take on traditional art exhibits, allowing fans to see the breadth of these artists’ imaginations in a new way.

More info here

Pick Me Up, the first contemporary graphic art fair in the UK, presented by the Somerset House, opens today. It brings together galleries, collectives and designers to showcase affordable work by graphic designers and illustrators, ranging from well-known names such as Anthony Burrill to emerging figures in the industry.

The fair will be presented alongside a lively programme of events and activities including an open studio from legendary paper artist Rob Ryan. So this weekend if you’re in London, don’t miss this exclusive event!! It’s opened until May 3rd.

More info here

Info and Images Via Somerset House

ROA’s eagerly anticipated UK solo debut opened in East London 8th April to exhibit his unique portrayal of large scale urban wildlife, disquietly cohabiting city streets, hand painted in his distinctive black and white style.

ROA started painting abandoned buildings and warehouses in the isolated industrial outskirts of his hometown – Ghent, Belgium. Fixating on the animals he found there; the wildlife became the central subject matter of his work, inspired by their clever ability to adapt into scavengers in order to survive. He used the dilapidated, coarse interiors and exteriors of the unyielding landscape as a canvas to portray his large-scale creatures.

The exhibition will be completed with street works in the local area. Look out for a new ROA city fox appearing on a street near you.

Solo Exhibition at Pure Evil Gallery now – 2nd MAY 2010

See products by similar artists

In political campaigns’ time this exhibition comes just at the right time. It highlights political intrigue of the past 200 years, as seen through souvenir mugs, jugs, contemporary toys and tins.

Since the Seventies, political pottery caricatures have become increasingly popular, encouraged by the mimicry of the Spitting Image TV series. The Thatcher era saw Maggie squeakers, note pads, Acrobrats, toilet rolls, and even slippers.

The Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising spans a 120-year period in the British history of consumerism, culture, design, domestic life, fashion, folly and fate. It is presented as a magnificently cluttered time tunnel of cartons and bottles, toys and advertising displays.

One for Brti-brand nostalgists.

15th April 2009 – 28th November 2010

More info on http://www.museumofbrands.com/

This week, we pick up  the controversial “Skin Fruit” at the New Museum (New-York), a must-see exhibition running from 03/03/10 until 06/06/10.

This is the first time that Dakis Joannou, owner of the world largest modern art collections, showcases his Collection in the USA.

“Including over 100 works by fifty international artists spanning several generations, the exhibition explores the age-old preoccupation with the human body as a vessel and vehicle for experience, a distinctive focus of the collection”.The Skin Fruit alludes to notion of “duality between exterior and interior, between what we see and what we consume”.

Unfortunately we are not in the area (and we won’t be before the end), so if you are around, catch it for us and give us your testimonials on the blog!

Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection Curated by Jeff Koons
New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
p: 212.219.1222