FAT abreviated form of Fashion:Taste:Architecture, is an architecture studio founded in 90s in London. Its portfolio of works ranges in the fields of art, interior design, curation, urban design and architecture.
The unusual works by FAT, are influenced by everyday objects/shapes/aestheticsm that lies beneath pop-culture. Their colorful works carry out easily recongizable shapes as main elements in a playful way. The manipulation of scale, bold colors and cutout features all create a cartoonlike feeling, a dollhouse effect for adults/the serious people. Simple and fun in a sophisticated way, FAT’s spatial, architectural interventions succeed putting an interesting smile on everyday person’s face.
In conclusion through its body of works, FAT puts together a controversial collage of playfulness, colors, boldness, simplicity, surreality and artful references. The studio’s confident designs that speak strongly for themselves are a contemporary interpretation of the traditional. Images via fashionarchitecturetaste.com
24/25th of january, during Paris haute couture week, Paris’s historic Palais D'iéna housed Prada’s “24h museum”. The historic space that transformed to a “nonexistent” museum, a baroque festival for 24 hours launched on the eve of 24th with a private party.
The pop-up museum supported by Prada, designed by Francesco Vezzoli with AMO (Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s creative thinking studio) was an haute couture experience that merged gallery space, discotheque, art, fashion and icons/celebs.
AMO’s spatial interventions that included a grand staircase, giant columns and a caged hall with pink neon tubes were pieces of this contemporary collage that fused various exhibition spaces and various times.
Artworks by Vezzoli were the artist’s interpretations of classical sculptures making reference to contemporary divas. Colorless bodies of 18th century sculptures complimented with faces of ‘Elizabeth Taylor’s were designed to illuminate elucidating the eternal power of feminity. As Vezzoli refers to them, his 13 “disco sculptures” were placed on white marble plinths in the steel caged hall.
According to Vezzoli, 24h museum was a parody of a baroque feast, and the special artworks will remain as ruins of a lost moment. The meaning of museum as a space that preserves art in relation to specific time period has been questioned with this unique museum project. Ephemerality, the power of the moment has been strongly emphasized with Prada’s transient museum that stayed open only for one day.
Jason de Caires Taylor is an English sculptor, and the curator of the World’s first Underwater Museum. As an explorer who has chosen the bottom of the ocean to place his eco-sculptures, he creates unique personal experiences augmented with the multi-dimensional perception enhanced by water.
With his installations that take form of artificial coral reefs over time, Taylor aims to draw attention away from the natural reefs that need space to rehabilitate. Appreciating the marine life in an exceptional way, his magical addition to the underwater world provides not only space for endangered species to hold on to but also hope that his form of art can be beneficial for the marine ecosystem.
Taylor’s concrete sculptures are made with carefully selected, eco-friendly materials before they are positioned on the ocean floor. Working with marine biologists, he designs a specific form of marine life that he wants to construct.
His early work that includes of Vicissitudes, Grace Reef, The Lost Correspondent and The Unstill Life are located in the world’s first public underwater sculpture park in Molinere Bay, Grenada, West Indies, which was commissioned in 2006. His most recent project, the worlds largest underwater sculpture museum, MUSA, founded in 2010, off the coast of Cancun, include works Hombre en llamas (Man on Fire), La Jardinera de la Esperanza (The Gardener of Hope), El Colecionista de los Sueños (The Dream Collector) and La Evolución Silenciosa (The Silent Evolution).
The majority of his work consists of human figures positioned beneath the ocean emphasizing the symbiotic relationship that occurs between man and nature. His figures, doomed to change organically as part of the ecosystem, shows how human interaction with nature can be sustainable.
Another recurring theme of his works is sense of loss. Recording some of the lost moments eroded away under the pace of technology, Taylor’s work creates nostalgia and conveys hope.
The exceptional visual seascape created by Taylor will be offering a never-ending experience. The unpredictability that the evolution of his sculpted moments gives is a narrative beauty that is waiting to be discovered. Images via underwatersculpture.com
