Through August 15 - Design by Time at the Museum of Craft and Design
The Museum of Craft and Design is a genuine city gem out in the Dogpatch, and their current group show Design by Time is a fascinating look at some cutting-edge work. Organized around the idea of time at a point in history when many people have lost a grip on temporal reality, the exhibition displays items from 8 countries and a 22 different artists and design collaboratives, with both established and emerging names represented. I was smitten with Swedish studio Front's reimagining of a Royal Delft vase that seemed to perform duration, pictured above, while nearby Sebastian Brajkovic's Lathe V Chair piece resembled classic French furniture that had been melted sideways in a sly visualization of history. Some objects also directly address how time acts on materials, as with the tiles from London studio Glithero gorgeously imprinted with cyanotypes of urban weeds. The museum also has a fantastic gift shop, and while you're in the neighborhood I further recommend brunching at Piccino, seeing Liam Everett's glorious show at Altman Siegel in which he gives me real Richter vibes, and picking up some treats from Biscuit Bender for the road.
Other things I liked this week:
- Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov. The second volume of Shamalov's fiction in which he processes his 15 years in the Gulag, this is grim but essential reading. Human nature doesn't come out looking all that great, and if you're a soft heart like me just skip any story involving an animal.
- 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything on Apple TV+. For a music obsessive this 8-part series is pure catnip, with the usual suspects present but also some nice deep dives into more unusual corners of sound. The vintage footage is incredible, and I appreciated the historical context throughout as well.
- My YouTube rec for this week is the channel for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, with virtual hikes and nature programs galore.
- black midi hosted a listening party for their new album Cavalcade on Wednesday and it was super rad. RIYL high energy post punk math rock.
- I also spent three days Zooming into as much as I could of the International Contemporary Ensemble's Afro-Diasporic Opera Forum, including screenings of and reflections on three operas that the Ensemble has produced: George Lewis’s Afterword, Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire: Meditations For Joséphine Baker, and Pauline Oliveros & IONE’s The Nubian Word For Flowers: A Phantom Opera. The forum ended with a screening of Lisa E. Harris' recent digital opera Cry Of The Third Eye and the whole thing was just wall-to-wall inspiration.
- The virtual Legacy Film Festival on Aging offers a wealth of perspectives on the latter years of our lives, and I chose the Fun & Games program with Ruedi Gerber's Seniors Rocking to honor the passing of goddess Anna Halprin this week and Lance Oppenheim's Some Kind of Heaven about four residents of The Villages in Florida.
- And then yesterday I saw a film! In a theater! It was Christian Petzold's mesmerizing Undine as part of the 25th Berlin and Beyond Film Festival and oh it was wonderful.