one piece

The Sale of Manhattan for $24.00

The main attraction of the Rijkmuseum's exhibition Return to Manhattan - 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage is a letter from Pieter Schaghen a representative of the Dutch States General. The letter, dated 1626, documents the sale of Manhattan which was "valued at 60 guilders". It is the only evidence of the historical event as the actual purchase contract for Manhattan no longer exists.

Manhattan was discovered in 1609 by Henry Hudson, who sailed from Amsterdam on the ship The Half Moon in search of quick passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company. Five months later, he sailed up the river which would later bear his name. In 1624, New Netherlands was established on Manhattan. A year later the Dutch trading post was renamed New Amsterdam. Eventually, the city changed its name again to New York.

The exhibition, which runs until 1 June, includes the oldest map of Manhattan as an island in 1614 and a famous seascape of New Amsterdam by Johannes Vingboons from around 1665. Return to Manhattan marks 400 years of relations between the Netherlands and New York. It will travel to New York in September.

link: Rijksmuseum displays New York's 'birth certificate'

Product Puns

B-SIDES: 'This is a project which questions the nature of everyday objects and how we interact with them. Small additions and subtractions convert simple objects into communicative tools. Transformed, these items also make a subtle statement about consumer culture. 'b-sides' comprises an ongoing series of modified objects (to date there are more than thirty), including vases with clamps, plug-in torches and wine bottles with integrated glasses. While most of these objects are conceptual explorations, some of the modified objects - buttons which speak, surprise matches and 'reduced' t-shirts - are intended for production. More than an exercise in design, 'b-sides' is as a proposal for how we might look differently at the unextraordinary bits and pieces we find around us.'

Meric Kara

Central Vision

Those who study design history have for years learned about the "canon," the core figures (people and objects) that have significantly contributed to graphic design practice. For almost as long as the canon has existed, it has been challenged as being too Modernist, Eurocentric, print-oriented, classically trained, Bauhaus-born, Pentagram-driven, male-dominated, and a dozen other canards. It's true that the canon was established by the few who exercised control over the field, and there is much room for expansion. History is ongoing, as it should be, and the canon should be shot at on a regular basis.

In its current issue, titled "Beyond the Canon," EYE magazine takes the established record to task, not by defaming what exists, but with a selection of new candidates, including off-the-radar entries.

link: "Shooting the Canon"

The Daily Heller (Steven Heller)

Sit

Ordinary chair

relax

designer:

Ineke Hans

design year:

2005

manufacturer:

Ineke Hans, the Netherlands

materials:

recycled plastic; suitable for outdoor use

dimensions:

19.75" x 20"; height: 26.75"

price:

$1,250.00

link: "The Daily New" Archive Edition

moss

Home Assembly

“Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” which opens on Sunday at the Museum of Modern Art, is not simply a crowd pleaser. It’s the kind of loving, scholarly achievement that is rare in today’s architectural climate, which so often favors cheap spectacle over probing intellect.

Barry Bergdoll the organizer, and MoMA’s chief curator of architecture and design, has not only managed to track down some unexpected gems, he has also arranged them in a way that allows us to see them with fresh eyes. He makes a convincing case that prefabricated housing was both a central theme of Modernist history and a dream that remains very much alive today.

link: Instant Houses, Then and Now

By Nicolai Ouroussoff ~ The New York Times

PIG 05049

What happens to a pig after it has been slaughtered? Of course, part of the animal is meant for consumption, but what happens to the rest? Over three years, designer Christien Meindertma has investigated exactly what products are made from pigs. Her quest provided her with 187 products and led her to a tattoo artist, dentist, farmer and weapon specialist. Beer, medicine, munitions, cardiac valves, brake discs and bubblegum: these are but a few products that contain parts, or sometimes minuscule particles, of a pig. For the very first time an almost surgical dissection of one specific pig is exhibited: PIG 05049 is on display in the Kunsthal, together with all the products that originate from it.

previous posts on Christien Meindertma

HERE and HERE

Rembrandt Smile

In October 2007 a painting of a laughing man came to light, and there was speculation that it might be by Rembrandt. This painting will be on show in the Rembrandt House from 7 June until 29 June.

Although this little painting was feted as a new discovery, its existence was already known of thanks to a reproductive print dating from around 1800. The printmaker believed that it was a painting by Frans Hals, but in the early twentieth century several art historians became convinced that the print was produced after a work by Rembrandt. This view, however, went virtually unnoticed by the art world.

When the painting surfaced at an English sale in 2007, some people recognized it as an authentic Rembrandt. In the ensuing months it was subjected to an exhaustive examination. It has now been established on a range of technical and stylistic grounds that this is an authentic early work by Rembrandt dating from around 1628.

During the early part of his career Rembrandt studied the various emotions ('affects') of human beings as they were expressed in the face and in the posture. The painting is an exceptional expression of this interest. A number of striking similarities between this work and Rembrandt's early self-portrait of around 1629 in Nuremberg leaves it in no doubt that this little picture must have been painted in front of a mirror. Hence the title that has been chosen: Rembrandt Laughing.

Pyramids of Makkum

Commissioned by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, to repair their late 17th century Delft flower pyramid—an exuberant, monumental multiple layer flower vase created in response to Europe’s “tulip mania”—Royal Tichelaar Makkum, the renowned 16th century Dutch manufactory, spent years researching the long-lost techniques necessary to recreate such a massive and complex composition.

link: EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS AT MOSS

Witches’ Kitchen

Dutch designer Tord Boontje's new Witches’ Kitchen collection for Artecnica’s Design.

Made by artisan communities in Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia, the collection includes black ceramic cooking pots, wooden utensils, fringed and patchwork aprons and oven gloves.

Enlighten

Dutch design company Studiomeiboom gives a new meaning to book light. Their white plexiglass "book" lamp, cleverly shaped like a heavy tome, is named The Enlightenment in honor of the intellectual movement of the 18th century.

link: FFFFOUND!