The store remains hidden yet well-known, and they now also curate a shop-in-shop at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. Why are they so special? They travel to a different part of the world every three months, and pick up everyday items that are completely ORDINARY to the residents, but look like a witty design objet to the uninitiated - that's us!
This makes it the best place to shop for gifts, and several of my friends will now have little stocking-stuffer christmas gifts with a very unique origin.
On to the galleries: m
y intented destination was Ennagon gallery, an exhibit curated by my friend Giulia. The artist, Natalie Tyler, created giant "cocoons". The natural structures, each about 7 feet high, were suspended from the ceiling and swaying slightly as people walked by. They also actually respond to the presence of people in the room, walking around them and moving closer and further away. The gallery was darkened, and a warm glow emanated from within each cocoon - but only when a person approached and was in close proximity to the sculptures.Here's the gallery's description:
"The great Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis ("Zorba the Greek") tells us that when he was a boy, he noticed a cocoon stuck to a tree with a butterfly that was about to be born. He waited a while, but it was taking so long, so he decided to warm the cocoon with his breath. The butterfly finally emerged.
"Diapause" is a deepened state of hibernation and slowed metabolic function that happens in reaction to unfavorable external forces when an entity is gestating, to protect itself. Sometimes it survives and sometimes it aborts. Natalie Tyler uses the concept of cocoon as a metaphor for the emotional, philosophical, and physical states of transformation that occur during life-stage transitions...."
The already perfect evening was then ended with a quick run to the gallery across the street - showing Miro and Dali!
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