Sergio Miranda is an Argentina-born, Bahrain-based photographer usually known for his work in fashion and advertising. So, his series called Ombligo is a bizarre departure. The amusing project is based on photographs of maps printed on stomachs. Each image prominently features a location on the map where Miranda has lived. Who said that cartography is boring?
On Departure is a marvelous, minimalist short animated film by Vancouver-based, Irish filmmaker Eoin Duffy that captures the disconcerting, otherworldly feel that seems to pervade airports.
After spending too many hours, in too many airports over the past few months, I think that Duffy’s emotive video manages to incorporate that ineffable airport mood of disconnection and lassitude. Take a look:
Station to Station: A Nomadic Art Happening is a rare and exciting transcontinental arts event that will connect visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and even chefs this September. The ten stop train trip/public art project is the brainchild of the ever inventive artist Doug Aitken and is funded by Levi’s.
During the three week journey, the Aitken designed train will make ten city stops where site specific art happenings and cultural interventions will take place. Station to Station aims to embrace unexpected cultural collisions and serendipitous discoveries.
The Aitken curated project will bring together such diverse participants as Kenneth Anger, Liz Glynn, Urs Fischer, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rick Moody, the Dirty projectors, Alice Waters and Fiery Furnaces. And will be supported by cultural institutions like SFMOMA, the Carnegie Museum of Art, SITE Santa Fe, MOMA and more.
Station to Station jumps off in NYC on 9/6 and concludes in Oakland/San Francisco on 9/28, with stops in Pittsburg, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Santa Fe, Winslow, Barstow and LA.
Weller Book Works was founded over 80 years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah as Zion Bookstore. Over the decades the shop, which sells new and used titles, has remained in the Weller family, but has been known as Sam Weller’s Books and Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore. Now the third generation of Wellers is celebrating the store rebranding as Weller Book Works and new location with Operation Book Drop. The event centers on the release of 878 free books around Salt Lake City wrapped in seven custom designed book jackets. What a great idea.
An expert team of creative food artists and bakers from the UK collective Eat Your Heart Out were commissioned to build an edible train replica to celebrate the 15th anniversary of London’s Heathrow Express . The amazing confection—measuring 1.5 x 4 x 2 meters—took the crack team 30 hours to put together, but only survived one day at London Paddington Station. Train travelers were offered samples yesterday until the last crumb was consumed.
Photos © Nathan Pask
Here’s how it came together:
Whether he is going by Seth Globepainter , Julien Seth, or just plain Seth, the globetrotting French street artist is always surprising, entertaining and challenging art lovers around the globe with his original and imaginative wall paintings. I was recently in Place Emmanuel Levinas, in the 5th Arrondissment, where one of Seth’s newest Paris murals has appeared. (see below)
Singapore’s Changi International Airport has planted an enormous digital “Social Tree” to help entertain and connect flyers. Situated in Terminal 1 Central Piazza, the tree is nine meters tall and eleven meters wide, with sixty-four HD TV monitors and eight interactive touch screen kiosks.
Travelers are invited to share personal videos and photographs, which are then displayed on a 360° screen. Visitors can also upload to social media sites. The airport authority plans to expand the tree’s features in coming weeks.
Book lovers traveling on US I-84 between NYC and Boston will want to take a brief detour just before the Connecticut-Massachusetts border. Leave the Interstate at exit 74 and make a beeline for the humble Traveler Food and Books Restaurant in tiny Union, CT.
The little wood-paneled, bookshelf-lined diner has been dishing out all-American road food for three decades, but the real travel treat is the prospect of free books. The original owner, Martin Doyle, started giving away his personal library to customers and began a tradition that has been continued by the current proprietors.
Restaurant owners Art and Karen Murdoch estimate that Traveler Food and Books has shared more than two million books over the years. They manage to maintain the free book policy with donated books, library cast-offs and book sale purchases .
Be prepared to linger over that second cup of joe and a slice of homemade pie while you choose you free title.
I’ve been a big fan of the anonymous Spanish artist collective luzinterruptus since I discovered them a few years ago—no surprise if you’re a regular visitor to TBTP. Last month the group carried-out another guerilla art installation in central Madrid‘s Campo de la Cebada to protest the city’s plan to yuppify the neighborhood.
The project, called Lluvia Interactiva/Rain Interactive, was built around hundreds of water-filled condoms lit by LEDs. The widely popular installation had a brief life-span due to joyful piñata-like wacking by local kids.
photos © Gustavo Sanabria
The Malta-based boutique ad and design agency BRND WGN has developed a sweet, entertaining stop-motion video advertisement for Air Malta. The ad was created by placing 434 colorful candles on a beach near Valletta at sunset. The individual candle were lit and extinguished to reveal symbols, words and images representing Malta, which has been marketing itself as “the Land of Candles”.
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