More street art news—elusive British artist Banksy recently announced a month-long residency—“Better Out Than In”—that spans the entire city of New York. Our friend + artist, Melissa, spotted this excellent piece—Banksy’s second of the ‘show’—yesterday soon after it was…eh, installed?

According to Los Nuevos York Veces: “Reporters from the Village Voice located the first image, at 18 Allen Street, near Canal Street, on the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. Painted on a concrete wall, it shows a child holding a can of spray paint, standing on another child’s back, below a sign that reads ‘Graffiti Is a Crime.’ The images in ‘Better Out Than In’ are accompanied by a loopy audio guide, accessed by calling an 800 number that appears beside the stencil. (Dial 1-800-656-4271, ext. 1 for this one.) ‘This piece is typical of Ban-sky’s output,’ the guide says. ‘The children in this case represent youth, and the sign represents – well, signs.’”

Listen to Banksy’s announcement of the show and keep up with new pieces on the official site. And stay sharp, New Yorkers—it’s like an artistic scavenger hunt!

As it turns out, the Brooklyn-based artist known as Swoon (Connecticut-born, Daytona Beach-raised Caledonia Dance Curry) isn’t—to my knowledge—a witch or practitioner of any sort of dark arts, though, still to this day, her works draw me in with a seemingly mystic pull. Swoon continues to paste up similar works in cities around the world but, of late, she’s also been turning her eyes to more collaborative creations, like the Swimming Cities of Serenissima that she helped create and then piloted directly into the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Two years ago, she continued to cultivate her collaborative tendencies, teaming up with New Orleans Airlift—a group that encourages collaboration with New Orleans-based artists—to create The Music Box, an experiment to create musical architecture. That experiment, declared a run-away success, has now grown into a larger project named Dithyrambalina. And no, I have no idea how to say that. As they explain:

“Two years ago New Orleans Airlift and the artist Swoon launched the Kickstarter campaign that funded The Music Box, our prototype for an ongoing musical architecture project we call Dithyrambalina. That proof-of-concept was more successful than we ever believed possible!  We transformed a blighted 150-year-old house into a temporary village of playable musical houses with interactive instruments embedded into the walls, floors and ceilings of structures. The Music Box welcomed over 15,000 visitors for days of interactive public exploration and nights of ground-breaking concerts, as well as over 500 students for engaging workshops.”

Now, the group is raising funds for an expansion of five more musical structures that will act as the first of Dithyrambalina’s ‘growing musical village’ and, as they travel across the country, brand ambassadors of sorts, “sharing the wonder and possibility of musical architecture with new audiences as we continue to grow our village and work towards securing a perfect and permanent site for Dithyrambalina in New Orleans.”

Cool, right? Watch the video below to find out more and visit Dithyrambalina’s Kickstarter page to support them + check out their very donation-worthy rewards.

Ever since its opening, the Williamsburg outpost of high-fashion Brooklyn boutique Bird has functioned as not only an emporium for all things in vogue, but also as a cultural hautespot.

And yes we are fans of alliteration + the written pun. Thank you for asking.

With high ceilings, a big, open floor plan, and beautifully rich wood features, the Ole Sondreson-designed space begs to be used for events + parties and owner Jen Mankins has never let it—or us—down. She’s consistently + regularly hosted events for Fashion Week, trunk shows for featured independent designers, and a steady stream of artists’ works on her store’s considerable walls.

Next Wednesday, Bird will celebrate its first ever group show, The New Americana. As the show’s organizers explain:

“The term ‘Americana’ has come to be associated with traditional folk art from the country’s past. This exhibition, however, makes the argument that the American view of our shared cultural history has expanded to include more recent national experiences of religion, race, politics, entertainment, and commerce. In that vein, the curators hope to present a counterpoint to the big-box retail environment that has become a defining feature of the United States landscape by exhibiting these works in a small, privately owned business.”

The show brings in artists from all over America with their paintings, sculptures, and mixed media pieces to help convey this new view of our country, its people, and how we all live amongst one another. From commentaries on California’s state of mind with Karolina Gnatowski’s mixed-media-with-hashpipe ‘This is a Pipe Dream’ (detail above) to pieces that explore stereotypes in what most of us can now agree is not ‘post-racial America’, the show goes well beyond photos of run-down gas stations in rural America…which, to be fair, I created many of myself in college.

The New Americana—curated by Justin Anderson, Peter Joseph, and Rachel Stekson—features works by Chad Andrews, Ben Bertocci, Dan Bina, Clara Claus, Brad Fesmire, Karolina Gnatowski, Jake Kean-Mayman, David Maddy, Easton A. Miller, Clive Murphy, Ramon Silva, Kristianna Smith, Tribble + Mancenido, Darryl Westly.

An opening reception will be held at Bird Williamsburg—203 Grand b/t Bedford + Driggs—next Wednesday, October 9 from 6-8PM and will feature music by DJ Nancy Whang. Go because we can’t. We promise a good time. RSVP on the event Facebook page.

Below, a full shot of and detail of Gnatowski’s ‘This is a Pipe Dream’; Tribble + Mancenido‘s ‘Family as Trees’; Ramon Silva‘s ‘Greedy Genius’; Dan Bina‘s ‘I Am a Man’; Easton A. Miller‘s ‘Fool Me Once’; and the show poster.

Hm? What’s that, Reader? No, no, I didn’t swipe Beyoncé’s iPhone—who do you think I am‽ No, that’s Katie’s phone, all decked out in its new duds—the walnut + brass case from San Francisco-based Native Union.

You may know another of Native Union’s products, the far less fancy-shmancy Pop Phone—the retro handset based on the old-school, 50s-era Bakelite phone receiver that you can plug directly into your modern cell phone to look like you’re half in Mad Men, half out. We were never that impressed with the Pop Phone—we always thought it was a little goofy, even if it was nice to talk into whilst holding half a glass of whiskey—but we’re pretty big fans of this new line of cases.

A successor of their CLIC Wooden cases—pictured to the right and made from solid cherry with an angular band of colored plastic (black, white, green, blue, or orange)—the just-released CLIC Metal ups the already high ante, swapping in a darker walnut wood and bringing in metal accents for that little extra—I’ll say it—bling. Thus the Beyoncé reference. I’m told she likes the bling. I’m told.

As Native Union puts it inside their equally resplendent box for the case: “Breaking away from conventional design, the CLIC Metal combines wood with a slash of brushed metal. Each case is made using hand-polished wood providing a unique individual grain finish.”

I’m assuming that description, if read out loud, would be read by the same guy that does the Jaguar commercials.

All of which brings to bear a frightening new, as-of-yet unforeseen ‘first world’ problem, Reader—what does one do when the upkeep + integrity of one’s protective iPhone case is paramount to the upkeep + integrity of one’s actual iPhone?

Now, Reader, now we know first-hand the woes of our betters.

But seriously—this is a pretty beautiful iPhone case, man. In the immortal words of one Mr. Ferris Bueller: “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

As of writing, Native Union doesn’t seem to yet offer these cases online (though you can order their predecessors, the CLIC Wooden) but, A+R in Venice + La Brea have the Metal cases in-store + online.

Below, another shot of the stellar case and…its stellar box. Hm. Maybe Katie should just carry her phone and case around in that…but then what does she put that in so it doesn’t get banged up? ARGH!!!!

Quick follow-up to our September 5 interview with Kai Clements of the British design duo, Kai + Sunny—the opening was wall-to-wall, with lines spilling out the doors of Subliminal Projects to purchase the limited edition collaborative prints with seminal street artist, Shepard Fairey.

Fairey deejayed the event, spinning tunes as the rest of us perused the pieces…and yes, did some light dancing. Word on the street is that Kai went on to meet P Diddy himself at the show’s after party (proof).

Kai invited us over the night before to get a look at things pre-mob-scene, so we thought we’d post a few shots from our visit.

“Caught by the Nest”—Kai + Sunny’s first solo show on the West Coast—runs until October 5 at Subliminal Projects—1331 W Sunset Blvd. See it while you can. You can read our full interview with Kai from earlier int he month to find out more about the show + the duo’s work.

Well, despite the widening of the year-end window of reminders to buy your limited-run calendars before they’re all gone/we’re all going to die soon, we do enjoy getting an early look at work from some of our favorite artists.

Case in point, the fine, nature-infused, heart-warming papercuts of fellow crow-lover, Ms. Nikki McClure. After becoming fans of her music back in the 90s, both Katie + I got even more into her later endeavors as a visual artist.

According to Buy Olympia, each image that makes up the months of the year on Nikki’s calendar “is an original papercut, cut from a single piece of paper. Nikki features strong images of everyday life, each with a powerful verb that inspires to action. This year’s verbs and phrases: Vibrate, Honor, Delegate, Matter, Lunch, Befriend, Ache, Inhabit, Chance, Save, Agree and Stay.”

You can see some of the artwork below and order the calendar via Buy Olympia. Inquiring minds can also check out an interview we did with Nikki back in January of 2011 (apologies for the inconsistent format).

For many of us, whether we like it or not, our professional careers often seep into our everyday lives. It makes sense—you have a background in a given specialty, train yourself in it, and then have that trade dominate your thinking for 40 or so hours in a week, it understandably and—some would say—rightly changes how you view things outside of those designated work hours.

We’re no different, Reader. Case in point—it is really tough for us, as consumers, to support via commerce companies that put a poorly designed product out there on store shelves. Call us snobby if you like, but, in my mind, it’s more a matter of pride in the work we do + value in it—if a client isn’t going to take their brand seriously, why should I take their product seriously or think that they care about what they’re producing.

Clearly this isn’t always the case—I know there’s many an old-school crafter out there who stands by the theory that it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, it’s what’s inside that counts, and I get that. They’re mostly right. But I also think that it’s important to tell consumers who you are and what you’re offering them away; ideally with some beautifully designed packaging/labeling.

And yes, this extends, for us, to the purchasing of libations. We have many wines or beers or liquors that we know we like, regardless of labeling, but, when choosing a new, unknown one, more often than not we go by the look of the bottle and what they say, if anything, about their product—the story they tell. It’s important to us and we think it should be important to them.

By way of example, we give you two birds of a feather, as it were—Eel River‘s Raven’s Eye organic imperial stout from Scoita, California + a Spanish rosé from winery pablo claro. Both are well-designed and animal-friendly, no less.

What’s that? You didn’t know beers + wines could not be animal-friendly? Alright, well, don’t freak out, but often manufacturers use things like egg or fish byproduct in the processing or filtration. I know—ew, right? Luckily, back in 2002 or so, two booze-loving vegan Canadians started Barnivore, an online, user-supported directory of beers, wines, and liquor with information on their varying degrees of animal-friendliness. As they put it:

“Brewmasters, winemakers, and distillers may include animal ingredients in their products directly, or they might use them in the processing and filtration. When making the product, dairy, honey, and other things (including, in one case, a whole chicken dropped in the tank) are ingredients in the final recipe. When filtering the drinks prior to bottling, companies can use things like isinglass (from fish bladder,) gelatin, egg whites, and sea shells, among other things. These products grab onto the impurities and make it easier to catch them in the filters, though there are many animal-free alternatives in use. These ingredients don’t usually show up on the label, so the only way to find out is to ask.”

Co-founders Jason + Angela don’t take the daunting/impossible task of asking every single manufacturer of beer, wine, and liquor on themselves though; they instead inform users on how best to reach out to companies to find out whether or not their products are animal-friendly. For instance, with Eel River’s entry on Barnivore, you can see that two separate users contacted the company and you can view the company’s response yourself—”We do not use any animal based products in our beer at all.

And Spanish winery pablo claro was actual checked by us a while back (because we liked their label). It’s easy.

So, next time you’re wondering, “Hmmmm, does this beer have fish bladder in it?”, just search for the company/product on Barnivore and, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, reach out to them yourselves—here’s how.

Cheers, Reader!

Maybe you’ve seen the chatter online or heard tell via your local independent radio station or even seen the many posters that have sprung up around town lately, but it’s no huge secret—the Arcade Fire is back.

They’ve recently announced a new album—out at the end of next month—and just released the album’s title track, “Reflektor”. The biggest news is likely the song itself—the James Murphy (DFA Records/LCD Soundsystem) produced disco feel and upbeat, un-Springsteen style promise new things for a band that, with such notable success already, could easily satisfy the market by sticking to the book they wrote with their most recent commercial hits, The Suburbs + Neon Bible.

Also of note though—one of two videos they created for the song, written, directed, and produced by Vincent Morisset and billed as “an interactive short film.” Vincent, pictured to the right with one of the film’s stars, explains further on the site for the film, writing that it “explores the themes in Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’ through two devices simultaneously: the computer and smartphone/tablet. Filmed in Haiti, where the band’s singer Régine Chassagne was raised, the story follows a young woman who travels between her world an our own.”

The project, created in partnership with Google, is only functional via Google’s Web browser, Chrome (clever), and allows users to interact with the video and how it’s viewed by waving a smart phone or tablet at a computer’s camera, thus enabling control of some of the effects in the video and displaying of ‘secret’ messages. As you can see below, you can also star—along with your cat, if you like—in the video. You can view a full list of the various 2D + 3D Web technologies here.

All of this is pretty crazy town on its own, but those bells + whistles take on a new light with the lyrics to the song itself. Lines like “We’re so connected, but are we even friends?” beg the listener to question our dual lives online…while asking you to get online and wave your phone around in front of your computer.

Cleverer minds than mine own are put to task on this subkject over at The Atlantic. But, regardless of what we should or should not break free from (you’re still reading this in front of your computer, right?), do yourself a favor and check the video out. If nothing else, it’s very, very cool.

Oh, there’s a second video for the song too that’s black + white and features the band in bobble heads. In case you’re feeling particularly low-tech today or just hankering to see a mandatory 30 second Clearasil^® commercial beforehand.

British multidisciplinary design duo Kai + Sunny have been creating wildly intricate, elegant, beautiful works for the commercial + fine arts world for more than a decade now. From book covers for Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell to work with Alexander McQueen to global advertising campaigns for Adobe + Apple, whether you know their names or not, you likely know their work. This weekend, the two are celebrating their very first solo show on the West Coast at LA’s Subliminal Projects. We got a chance to speak with Kai (left, above) about the origin of the duo, how their style developed, and their new collaboration with famed street artist Shepard Fairey.

Kindness of Ravens: Can you tell us a little about “Caught By The Nest”, your show at Subliminal Projects? We hear it’s largely inspired by the illustration work you did for Naoki Higashida’s The Reason I Jump?

Kai Clements: “Caught By The Nest” is the first solo show we have done on the West Coast. It consists of 24 pieces, a mural, a box set, short animation, and a mix CD along with a 3D piece. The idea for the show came about whilst working on the book The Reason I Jump. The book was very moving and we could make parallels with the text and what we are trying to say through our work.  

Right, I read that the protagonist in The Reason I Jump is a child with autism who turns to nature as a sort of refuge or calming force, which seems to me like a nice parallel to your work—you both so often incorporate the natural world in your pieces to inspire feelings in your audience. It’s interesting to me that your work, which is so geometrically based and full of so many ‘unnatural’ manifestations, so often builds it’s pieces off of the chaotic, organic, unpredictable natural world. Can you speak to what inspires your pieces and how they come about, both inspirationally and technically?

We like to use simple shapes in our work and build these up to something much more complex. We do this in much the same way that geometry does in nature; how a simple shape like a single leaf or hexagonal wax cell from a honey cone is the bases for a much more complex structure.

We use nature in our work to connect with people, provoking thoughts and memories. Nature is the basis of our work but it goes deeper than this—we use it as a metaphor for other feelings. We like to explore double meanings, simultaneously balancing the serene with the troubled. Our work has hints of subversion and deception within seemingly innocent symbols and forms. 

Yeah, how is that done, exactly?

Technically we first draw our shapes and then bring them into the computer to refine. The end stage is a silkscreen print or letter-press print on various surfaces. 

So digital/high-tech to traditional/lo-tech. Excellent. It seems to me that much of your non-commercial work is largely colorless or only brings in one or two hues. Is that so that you can focus your viewer more on shapes, forms, and movement in your pieces?

For us, our pieces sit better with less color and, yes, you’re right—the focus is then on the shapes, form, and movement. However we like color and we use it in our commercial work. I’m sure we will do a color piece one day. 

Your work is so intricate—I’m sure it varies from piece-to-piece, but can you give us an idea of how long it takes to create some of them? The cover for David MItchell’s Cloud Atlas, for instance?

The cover for Cloud Atlas came together very quickly and was the start of what we do today. Cloud Atlas gave Sunny and I recognition in the public eye when we designed it back in 2004. Since then, we have been refining our craft. Our work feels much more delicate in its approach today. Our art pieces can take up to a month from concept to finished piece before we are happy with them but sometimes it comes together more quickly. 

Are there particular designers or fine artists who you feel have informed your work?

There are many artists and designers that have informed our work. I started my career at Mo Wax, a record label ran by James Lavelle. I worked under Ben Drury as a record sleeve designer. He had a lot of influence on me in the early days. Sunny and I have been inspired by the work of William Morris. We love the work of Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama—the list could go on and on.

I’m sure. We have friends who are authors who’ve complained to us in the past about how little control they have over the design of their book covers, saying that the publisher so often has a firm concept of what will and won’t sell books. Your all’s publishing work is so creative and very indicative of your other work. How did you all first get involved with book design? Was it through a particular publisher or author? 

The first book cover we designed was Cloud Atlas with Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. Before that we were designing for record labels and fashion brands. I think because the book did so well, the publishers had confidence in us from that point on. Most of the covers we have designed we have had free rein.

That’s great. So, I heard that David Mitchell actually wrote a short story in response to your pieces in the show too.  

This is correct. We asked David if he would be interested and he was really excited about it. We sent him the works from the show. We told him we were inspired by the book The Reason I Jump, which David translated. The story he wrote for us which is called “Lots Of Bits Of Star” is fantastic—it will come in a letterpress box set and a much larger silkscreen version will be available at the show.

Can’t wait to see it. What can you tell us about the collaboration you’re doing with Shepard Fairey for the show? We’ve heard very little about it leading up to the show.

The collaborative print is a version of one of Shepard’s Mandala pieces. We both felt the combination between our style and Shepard’s shape would be a great pairing. We are really pleased with the results. 

It looks awesome from the shots you sent us. We’ve worked almost exclusively as a traditional, commercial, client-based design studio for years now, but, clearly, some of your most exciting work is in collaborations and in the fine art realm. What came first for you all?

Sunny and I first worked as a design studio and then started a fashion Label called Call Of The Wild. We saw the label as an art-based one and would present our collections with in-store installations. We did this at Liberty, Selfridges in London and Collette in Paris. We did our fist complete show with the fashion label in Shoreditch, London at Jaguar Shoes back in 2004. Our first solo art show under Kai and Sunny without the label was in 2007 at Stolen Space gallery in London. 

Very cool. And now you’re here in the US. I wanted to ask—we’re huge fans of much of Alexander McQueen‘s work—how did that collaboration come about?

We are too! This was a great project and something we are very proud of. We were contacted by the art director and the project went from there. 

Do you have any other exciting projects coming up in the near future that you can speak to?

We have a few projects lined up when we get back but can’t talk about them till they actually happen. 

Fair enough. Is your relationship with Subliminal Projects a new one?

Yes this is the first show we have done with Subliminal. I met Shepard at Art Basel in Miami at the end of last year and he invited us to show then. 

Synergy! Do you have any other plans while you’re here in LA? Maybe hit the beaches? Tool around Rodeo Drive à la Pretty Woman?

I’m here for just over three weeks. We arrived on the 20th of August. My wife is from here, so we’re seeing lots of family. My two small boys are with us too. Lots of family time and meeting old friends. The trip has been great so far! Universal Studios was amazing!

Ah! We have yet to go. Adding it to the list. Thanks so much and looking forward to the opening.

Angelenos + others in the area—Kai + Sunny: Caught by the Nest runs from September 7 to October 5 at Subliminal Projects – 1331 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. They’ll be kicking things off with an opening reception Saturday night from 8-11PM.

Below:
Section: Smashed Dandy, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Lots Of Bit Of Star – Copper, 2013 (hand-pulled 1 color screen print);
Section: Lots Of Bit Of Star, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Migration South, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);Section: Moving Dune, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Shepard Fairey x Kai & Sunny, show print, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Wild Flower, 2012 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Sycamore Seed, 2012 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Signed/Stamped Shepard Fairey x Kai & Sunny, show print, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Section: Shepard Fairey x Kai & Sunny, show print, 2013 (hand-pulled 2 color screen print);
Kai + Shepard hard at work.