Viktor & Rolf Retrospective Dolls

Petite in scale, though hardly diminutive in concept and artistry, Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf's retrospective spans 17 years of innovative and boundary-pushing fashion at Antwerp's Studio Job Gallery.

The exhibit, comprised of more than 30 dolls—one doll to represent each collection they've done to date since their idiosyncratic brand's formation in 1993—epitomizes Viktor Horsting and Rolf Shoeren's eccentric, often quirky regard for fashion design, the notion of wearable clothing versus wearable art and its extension beyond the human form.

The Lilliputian examples include some of the designers' most recognizable pieces to date, from a sensational all-white gown from the duo's first haute couture collection (Spring/Summer 1998) to a full-body "Russian doll" cape from the Fall 199 collection (both pictured above), as well as an exquisite replica of the red quilted "duvet-and-pillow" coatdress from their much-publicized Fall/Winter 2005 collection.

In 2008, the London's Barbican Centre exhibited a retrospective of Viktor & Rolf's work, which also included a smaller, earlier collection of dolls modeling their clothes. Both exhibitions further prove the duo's mastery of miniature costumes.

Check it out here:
Studio Job Gallery

Begijnenvest 8, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

All pics & info courtesy of coolhunting

You are who you decide to be ... Adapt & Overcome.

The Pop Culture Vader Helmets

This summer, “The Vader Project launches the final chapter of its four-year art odyssey. The iconic collection features 100 Darth Vader Helmets re-imagined by today’s most notable artists. Completing its epic world tour, The Vader Project returns to Los Angeles in June for a special ten-day exhibition in Hollywood as a preview to the upcoming Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia.”[1]

Notes about project (from the official PR):
For this unique project, each artist customized a 1:1 scale authentic prop replica of the actual Darth Vader helmet featured in the STAR WARS™ films. Notable artists involved with the project include: Shag, Peter Kuper, Jermaine Rogers, Gary Baseman, BXH, Tim Biskup, The Pizz, Dalek, Paul Frank, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Michelle Valigura, Frank Kozik, Plasticgod, Simone Legno – Tokidoki, Bill McMullen, Secret Base, Joe Ledbetter, Alex Pardee, Suckadelic, Cameron Tiede, Mister Cartoon, Marc Ecko, and Amanda Visell.


All pics & info courtesy of scene360

You are who you decide to be ... Adapt & Overcome.

The German Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo 2010

The German Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 is a three-dimensional walk-through sculpture with no defined interior or exterior.For visitors the journey starts at the harbor and leads through gardens and parks, via a town planning office and a factory and past the opera to end at the 'energy source', the city’s power plant.

The 6,000-square-meter structure is germany's largest at any expo. It showcases German urban life and how the country's design and products can help solve urbanization problems.

The architecture was designed by Schmidhuber + Kaindl and constructed by Nussli. The exhibition space was created by Milla Und Partner.

All pics & info courtesy of designboom

You are who you decide to be ... Adapt & Overcome.

The Danish Pavilion At Shanghai Expo 2010

Copenhagen-based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), designed the Danish Pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China.

The Danish pavilion does not only exhibit the Danish virtues. Through interaction, the visitors are able to actually experience some of Copenhagen’s best attractions – the city bike, the harbor bath, the playground and the picnic.

The bike is a popular mean of transportation and a national symbol – common to Denmark and China. In recent years, however, it has had a very different fate in the two countries. While Copenhagen is striving to become the world’s leading bike city, heavy motor traffic is on the rise in Shanghai, where the car has become a symbol of wealth.

Both Shanghai and Copenhagen are harbor cities. The polluting activities in the Copenhagen harbors have been replaced by harbor parks and cultural institutions, as the result, the water has become clean enough to swim in. In the heart of the pavilion the guests will find the Harbor Pool. Children can dapple their feet in the water and thus experience how it is like to live in a Danish city where the water in the harbor is clean. In the middle of The Harbor Pool, The Little Mermaid is sitting exactly as she usually sits in Copenhagen. The original Mermaid is visiting China as a concrete example of the idea that the Danish pavilion contains the real experience of the Danish city life.

While The Little Mermaid is in Shanghai, her place in Langeline will be occupied by an art work created by the internationally recognized Chinese artist Ai Weise who among other things worked as a consultant on Bird’s Nest, the national Olympic stadium in Beijing.

The pavilion is constructed as a monolithic self-supporting construction in white-painted steel, manufactured at a Chinese shipyard. Synthetic light-blue coating used in Denmark for bicycle paths will cover the roof. Inside, the floor will appear in epoxy, the light-blue bycycle path respectively.

The sequence of events at the exhibition takes place between two parallel facades – the internal and external. The internal is closed and contains different functions of the pavilion. The width varies and is defined by the programme of the inner space. The external facade, pavilion’s façade outwards, is made of perforated steel. In the evening time, the indoor activity of the pavilion will be illuminated for passers-by.

The Danish artist Jeppe Hein has designed a ‘social bench’ that will run alongside the bicycle lane. In some places, the bench adapts to its environment elastically and different functions are added such as a bar for food and drink.

Visit the Bjarke Ingels Group website – here.

 All pics & info courtesy of contemporist

You are who you decide to be ... Adapt & Overcome.