Photos: Jason Mandella/courtesy MoMA

On first hearing the title of Ron Arad’s new MoMA retrospective, Ron Arad: No Discipline, I was reminded of the mid-1990’s craze for T-shirts with the slogans “No Fear” and “No Rules” emblazoned across the front. And so it seemed appropriate that when I spotted Arad opening night, he was wearing a novelty tee of his own—this one screened with an Ed Ruscha piece that reads, “I Don’t Want No Retro Spective.” Read more…

All-nighters and design school go hand in hand, but the night before graduation? Really? Shin Cho and Stuart Helo—two ‘09 Harvard GSD graduates and the partners of Cho+Helo—spent the early-morning hours before their big day on the last-minute assemblage of their first project as architecture professionals: a jagged aluminum pavilion hovering over the lawn outside the GSD’s main building.

First envisioned last September, after Cho+Helo received a grant from the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the pavilion took nine months to go from rendering to reality. Recently, I spoke to Helo (full disclosure: he is a friend and former classmate) about the logistics of the project. Read more…

If you’ve ever set foot in a Design Within Reach, cracked open a book of architecture history, or even passed through the lobby here at Metropolis, you’ve probably come across the E. 1027 table. The iconic glass-and-tubular-steel piece, designed by the pioneering Modernist Eileen Gray, has had remarkable staying power since its 1927 debut. Unfortunately, Gray herself didn’t get to enjoy its success; in her lifetime she received little recognition, with articles and exhibitions on her work only appearing near her death in 1976. And even as the E. 1027 has become an icon, much of Gray’s other work remains relatively unknown. To remedy this neglect, the author and documentarian Peter Adam—who was a close friend of Gray’s—has written an expanded edition of his 1984 biography, Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work. At more than 350 pages, it is the most in-depth look at the designer to date, with an exhaustive account of her personal, social, and professional lives alongside about 400 images of her work. Read more…

Fanny-pack and belt-buckle-cell-phone-holster users, get excited! OFF! has just come out with a summer 2009 super-gimmick: a clip-on mosquito repellent for fanning the bloodthirsty beasts away one refillable disk (and two AA batteries) at a time. How does it work? Metofluthrin, a relatively new repellent chemical not intended for skin contact, is blown out of the bottom of the unit as air is drawn into the center, releasing a pesticide current around the user. According to most consumer reviews, however, product functionality is poor; and according to yours truly, the product design is heinous. The cobalt-blue extruded-plastic unit looks like a birth-control pack on steroids—a clunky, embarrassing accessory for your summertime get-up. Even if you’re into walking around with a glorified Glade PlugIn clipped to those cut-offs, the waist-height placement seems problematic for cookouts. Believe me, you don’t want to be the party-fouling picnicgoer blowing pesticide all over the fried chicken.

Last week I attended a lecture at New York’s Sony Club by Dr. Kazuo Kawasaki, an industrial designer, professor of engineering, and doctor of medical science best known for his MP-704 spectacles, made notorious last election cycle by a certain moose-hunting Alaskan governor. But while the fervor over Palin’s rimless glasses was admittedly “a very big event” for him, Kawasaki is now focused on much more substantive design issues. His Peace-Keeping Design (PKD) initiative tackles catastrophes on the international front (war, poverty, environmental destruction) with eminently functional objects like a folding disposable syringe and a set of colored medical “triage tags” for rapidly identifying patients’ treatment priority. Read more…

New Yorkers, you’ve only got one weekend left to check out Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino roaming the Park Avenue Armory’s grandiose Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Humans plus dinos? Oh, yes. The massive installation is an evolutionary jungle gym with hump-backed tunnels covered in pastel Lycra gauze—not unlike my Wolford hose—and soft, dangling wrecking balls filled with spices, all beneath a swooping, parabolic ceiling in tune with Neto’s previous masterpieces. The bones of this reptilian “netosaurus” are goofy CNC-ed plywood shapes—“dino DNA” that perhaps ought to have been covered in something a little less revealing. But while the whole thing may strike adults as a bit suggestive, the installation is actually highly kid-friendly and interactive (particularly the purple, squishy bean-bag room and the irresistable ball pit). Curious noses should take caution when sniffing around, however: I walked out of there with a ground-cumin and clove stained nose.

The Elephant, a mixed-media installation piece by Helle Mardahl, showcases a massive ball-and-chain and sewn dummies donning dunce caps and ski masks.

Late last month, I attended (and was pleasantly surprised by) the opening of The Largest Possible Audience, an exhibition by the Danish artist Helle Mardahl at New York’s LaViolaBank Gallery. Once I’d gotten my bearings in the packed room—the largest possible audience, indeed—I found myself swimming in a sea of black-and-white mixed-media mayhem, unsure if I was in prison or on the playground. Tim Burton would eat this up! Read more…

This month, Dutch design king Marcel Wanders invites you down the rabbit hole into his first monograph, Marcel Wanders: Behind the Ceiling (Gestalten). Part showy image-fest, part haughty design manifesto, the hardback might instead have been subtitled: Behind my gazing blue eyes, my gold-plated clown nose, and my perfectly pink lips: not just a pretty face (but I’ve got one right?)

OK, so modest he is not. But Wanders’s unabashedness is the perfect complement to his psychedelic, in-your-face aesthetic, whether you’re into it or not. And, for the most part, I’m into it. Read more…