By Neale Van Fleet on May 24th, 2024
This cable car was initially built in 1976 as a temporary commuting option for residents of New York’s Roosevelt Island (a 147 acre island on the East side of Manhattan, previously known as ‘Welfare Island’). The addition of a subway station on the island in 1989 turned the cable car into more of a tourist attraction rather than a commute option for locals. Luckily, they still run it, and I made a point of riding on it when I was in New York this week.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 23rd, 2024
This whimsical installation was made by American artist Toshiko Takaezu, who realized that she could dry her pottery on hammocks without distorting their shape. Seen at The Noguchi Museum in Astoria Queens.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 22nd, 2024
From British podcast studio Tortoise comes a podcast series about the social media storm surrounding Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Something hit me very wrong regarding the online hate Amber received, especially considering that Depp was found to have been abusive in a dozen incidents in a 2020 court case in England.
What comes to mind when you think of Amber Heard? Liar? Survivor? Narcissist? Millions of us watched the celebrity trial of the century, Depp v Heard, in 2022. Amber Heard lost and Johnny Depp was vindicated. But what if Amber was actually the victim of an organised trolling campaign? What if the online hate against her was manufactured?
By Neale Van Fleet on May 15th, 2024
I’m planning a solo trip to Nee York City this week, and on my list of activities is visiting the Brooklyn-based museum dedicated to Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi. As well as being an artist and designer (he designed this iconic coffee table) Noguchi was a frequent collaborator with Buckminster Fuller, who has appeared on this blog numerous times. Noguchi worked on the Dymaxion Car, which was Fuller’s somewhat ill-fated concept car which never saw wide production.
Pictured here is a fountain from Noguchi’s Expo 70′ installation. Photos via Noguchi’s archive.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 6th, 2024
Old friend of Elsewhat Bird and Moon cleverly looks at real bird names and comes up with birds which don’t exist, but which are implied by the real ones.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 5th, 2024
Typeknitting is a methodical plugin for typographic knitting. It explores the graphic potential of various knitting techniques, from Fair Isle, slip-stitch, and shadow knitting, to modular patchwork knitting.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 4th, 2024
By Neale Van Fleet on May 3rd, 2024
I recently got to take part in a very small art performance for a single person, me. Montréal/Rome based artist Sarah Zakaib met with me in a coffee shop, told me stories of her extended family, and gifted me with a casting of a ring that one of her family members had smuggled out of Italy during World War II. It was an art performance for a single person. It was touching, personal, and refreshingly small. The other people in the coffee shop had no idea that anything unusual was happening at all.
By Neale Van Fleet on May 1st, 2024
A closeup of Anahita Norouzi‘s artwork Constellational Diasporas from the Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain. Each glass orb contains an invasive Persian Hogweed seed, which is an invasive species here in Quebec.
By Neale Van Fleet on April 30th, 2024