CULTUREWATCH
inspiration. In the post-Lehman, Eno had a group of songs post-Madoff, post–Damien Hirst he’d written lying around sale era, we’re all a little wiser, and invited Byrne to add if a lot poorer. At New York’s lyrics and vocal melodies. Armory Show art fair in March, “Brian’s tracks,” says Byrne, Milan dealer Massimo De Carlo were “like simple gospel or “I take a exhibited a cracked marble slab folk songs in their struc- bicycle with by the duo Elmgreen & Dragset ture. I ended up writing etched with the words everyone tunes and lyrics that were me on tour,” is broke in gold. It was a pitch- vaguely uplifting, even says David perfect piece for the times— optimistic, but with dark Byrne. “I don’t simultaneously a wry epitaph undercurrents.” The widely and an earnest wake-up call. praised album isn’t ground- ride to make breaking, but as Chris a point or Jones of the BBC weighed to lower AGELESS INNOVATOR in, “Dammit, it’s Eno and Byrne, and it’s lovely.” my carbon “Once in a Lifetime,” the Byrne has been touring, footprint— pop-existential anthem of the without Eno, doing elegant I ride because seventies and eighties New Wave sold-out shows. Later this band Talking Heads, ends with year he plans to release a it feels good front man David Byrne inton- recording of Here Lies Love, and it gets ing, “Same as it ever was, same the Marcos song cycle, me where I as it ever was…” But for the which he composed with creatively rangy Byrne, now 57, DJ Fatboy Slim, and his want to go.” not much ever seems to stay the book Bicycle Diaries is due same. In the past few years he out from Viking in Septem- has written and illustrated books, ber. “I’ve kept a diary for composed music for the HBO decades as I passed through show Big Love, created art and various cities on my bikes,” design projects (including bike says Byrne, “and these en- racks for New York City), even tries are a kind of record of written a disco-inflected song urban experience.” cycle about Imelda Marcos. In August the latest instal- The nonstop genre-crossing lation of Byrne’s popular art activated by pressing the keys. show at the Roundhouse in Byrne also recently returned piece Playing the Building will be “The motors make the girders 1976 or ’77. “We were between to his musical roots, collabo- at the Roundhouse in London. hum, and the hammerlike sole- the Ramones and the Stranglers. rating with onetime Talking The work involves attaching noids make the columns clang I remember a lot of gobbing Heads producer Brian Eno on various machines to the build- like a giant xylophone,” says [spitting], especially at the poor the 2008 album Everything That ing’s structure and wiring them Byrne, who notes that the Talk- Ramones. At least their leather Happens Will Happen Today. to a pump organ so they can be ing Heads played an early punk jackets protected them.”
Arad’s Evolution Over the past 25 years, few have crisscrossed the line between design and art as brazenly as Ron Arad, the Israeli-born, London-based maverick whose sculptural, highly collectible (and expensive) work is the subject of a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, August 2 to October 19. Some 137 of Arad’s pieces will be y (7) displayed on a steel structure he is creating for “No Discipline,” as the show is titled, a nod to his experimental, no-boundaries approach. “Of course, he likes to be an enfant ter-
rible,” says MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, “but at the same time he’s able to straddle these different disciplines—design, decorative arts, architecture—in a very natural way.” aller a G 1981 1991 1992 1999 2004 2006 2008
• • • • • • • Y F rie d ma n e nd B cli n ch ; COURTES Rover Chair At Your Own Risk After Spring New Orleans Oh Void 2 Blo-Void 3 Bodyguard
Arad recycled old Balanced with lead The designer made A pigmented poly- With versions in One of the last With his large-scale a nny Rover car seats for weights, this puckish this sinuous chaise ester and fiberglass carbon fiber, acrylic, designs in the Void Bodyguard forms these ready-mades. In anodized-steel and a related piece, version of Arad’s silicone, and Corian series, this piece in polished alumi- 2007 Vitra introduced chair pops upright Before Summer, in iconic 1988 Big Easy, (pictured here), this combines aluminum num, Arad ventured a version, called when the sitter multiple finishes. The this is one of 20 or tour de force shows mesh and mirror- further than ever Moreover, in chrome rises. Hence the example here is in so examples—each Arad pushing bound- polished, anodized- into the realm of or rusted steel. cheeky title. polished bronze. entirely unique. aries with materials. aluminum sides. pure sculpture.
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