The Three AIR Aquariums By Design Studio Usin-e.

above: Air1 aquarium (top), Air2 (lower right) Air3 (lower left)


The newest AIR 3 Aquarium design (shown above) by Rémi Bouhaniche and Amaury Poudray of Lyon, France design studio Usin-e is the third in their series of modern laboratory glassware fish tanks.

AIR 1 Aquarium:



AIR2 Aquarium:





Each of the AIR series consists of a glass vessel perched atop metal legs. The first two AIR aquariums have horizontally elongated zeppelin-shaped blown glass (blown by Peter Pignat of Pignat glass) bowls perched atop metal legs.


above: Peter Pignat of Pignat scientific glass-blowing creating the AIR1 Aquarium.

The third is a test-tube like shape with a flat bottom and sheared off top, supported on an angle by white metal rods.

AIR3 Aquarium:





The AIR1 and AIR3 aquariums from a 2010 exhibit at La Bergerie, Marseille:


and the AIR2 aquarium at VIVID Gallery, Rotterdam, NL, 2010:



While it's true that these are impossible to clean, have no filter and are not the most fish friendly environments, they are beautiful as studies of material, space and balance.

Materials: Glass, metal
Size: diameter 15cm, 80cm X 25cm
Date: March 2010
Production: AD , Christophe Bailleux
Photos: Laure Mélone

According to the designers:
USIN-e is showing a new generation of Airs aquariums. It was on show for the first time at USIN-e’s exhibition, March 2010, in La Bergerie, Marseille. This aquarium is a glass bubble caught mid-fall by a metal structure. As other Airs models, Air3 was created using the techniques of scientific glassware. Hanging up in the air, Air3 tells us about weight and elevation.

About Usin-e (from their site):

Rémi Bouhaniche and Amaury Poudray are two designers based in Lyon, France. They received their degrees from Saint Etienne Art School , and went on to receive degrees in Industrial Design (BTS Design de produit) - Rémi in Marseille, France, and Amaury in Les Herbiers, France. Both studied abroad for 6 months - Amaury at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, and Rémi at the School of Art, Design and Technology in India, Bangalore Srishti. They experiment with materials, welding, cutting, folding, covering, stretching, molding. They are always looking for craftsmen and industies with whom to develop trusting relationships to create new projects.
**French** Nous recherchons les liens qui unissent la matière, la forme et les compétences, L'objet devient un pretexte pour rassembler. La recherche de simplicité nous pousse à travailler en cohérence avec les techniques artisanales et industrielles. Conscients du détail, nous préférons l’action simple, le geste précis et juste. Ce qui avant tout nous intéresse c'est de créer du lien entre des choses qui apparement s'opposent; personnes, techniques, matières. Créer des paradoxes, de la tension et de la légereté, du vide et de la fragilité, à l'image du monde qui nous entoure.


Village des créateurs,
Passage Thiaffait,
19 rue René Leynaud,
69001 Lyon
contact@usin-e.fr

all images courtesy of Usin-e and Amaury Poudray.
Special thanks to DsgnWrld for bringing this to my attention

More Modern Aquariums and Fish Tanks
I have a thing for modern aquariums and fish tanks. I've compiled a shopping list with links to purchase some of the coolest modern fish tanks and aquariums available right here.

Hey Cinderella, Forget The Glass Slipper. Get A Load Of These Glass Dresses.

The awesome cast glass sculptures of artist Karen La Monte will take your breath away.

Her vast collection of impressive artwork includes figurative cast glass impressions of gowns and busts, ceramic drapery studies, drawings, bas-reliefs, sartoriotypes and glass cast hand mirrors with photo-etched steel.

Today, I'm going to share with you many of her amazing life sized (approx 5 feet tall) figurative cast glass gowns. Willowy diaphanous gowns with subtle impressions of the female form stand or recline eerily on their own as they invite you to touch what looks like ghostly satin and silk drapery but is actual glass cast by the capable hands of this Czech republic artist.



above: Cast glass Semi-reclining dress impression by Karen LaMonte.

Her ability to craft such a hard material into sensuous folds, delicate wrinkles, fluid pleats and satin-like textures is truly remarkable.




above: details from the cast glass impressions of Karen LaMonte

LaMonte's anthropomorphosis of the dress is achieved with the hint of the female form beneath the folds. The essence of femininity and sensuality exudes from the sculptures despite the cold medium.

Reclining Dress Impression (front):

Reclining Dress Impression (back):

Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl:

Dress Impression with Wrinkled Cowl, detail:

Semi-reclining Dress Impression with Drapery:

Semi-reclining Dress Impression with Drapery, detail:

Dress Impression with Shawl:

Dress Impression with Shawl, detail:

Deco Dress Impression:

Deco Dress, details:

Reclining Drapery Impression Dress:

Reclining Drapery Impression Dress, detail:

Undine:

Undine, details:

Dress Impression with Train:

Pianist's Dress Impression:

Pianist's Dress Impression, details:

Dress Impression with Drapery:


Her work is so impressive that the reclining dress impression shown below is a recent acquisition by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.



artist biography:


Karen LaMonte (above) started using clothing as a metaphor for identity and exploring the human in absentia in her early sculptures of blown glass puppets and marionettes shortly after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990.

As a young artist working and living in New York, she participated in many gallery and museum exhibitions. An excellent example of her early investigations is Bottle Clothesline (1995) that was part of the traveling museum exhibition ¡Cálido! Contemporary Warm Glass that toured from 1997 through 1998. The Tucson Museum of Art later acquisitioned it for their permanent collection.

She continued probing the disparity between our natural skin and our social skin, clothing which we use to obscure and conceal, to protect the individual and project a persona. It is a ‘vestmentary envelope’ which renders us as social beings.

She received a Fulbright Fellowship in 1999 to make her work in the Czech Republic. Further investigating the idea that clothing draws the body so that it can be culturally seen and articulates it in a socially meaningful form, she began working on sculptures of cast glass dresses. One of the earliest examples of this is Blue Dress now in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass. During the Fulbright year, she also completed her first large scale sculpture Vestige.

She expanded her inquiry by adding the impression of an absent body to her sculptures. This investigation of the clothing as a divider between public from private space and of transparency and transience, led to a new body of work for which she received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award in 2001.

Also in 2001, her interest in transparency led her to create monotype prints she called Sartoriotypes (sartorial of or relating to tailored clothing, plus type meaning image and impression). These works were installed with the cast glass sculptures in the 2002 exhibition at Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice, Italy.

In 2004, she began a new body of work using mirrors and photography. The Lark Mirrors and Sleeping Mirrors became an important part of her solo museum exhibitions Vanitas at the Czech Museum of Fine Art in Prague, Czech Republic and Absence Adorned at the Museum of Glass International Center for Contemporary Art in Tacoma, WA.

In 2006, she was awarded a seven month Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts during which she studied the kimono as an investigation into the Japanese use of clothing as social language.

LaMonte also began investigating the use of ceramic in her sculptures at the European Ceramic Work Centre and was the recipient of the Corning Museum of Glass/Kohler Arts Center Joint Residency for working with ceramic and glass.

Recently, her work was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA and was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

She continues to live and work in the Czech Republic.
all images courtesy of the artist

See more of her amazing work at Karen LaMonte

The Campana Brothers Esperança Collection For Venini

Fernando and Humberto Campana (the Campana brothers) created a special limited edition collection for Italian glassmakers, Venini.

The Esperança collection 2010 includes a hand blown glass chandelier, two wall sconces and a series of objects/vases.

The Chandelier
A whimsical multi-colored pendant lamp suspends from the ceiling and has blown-glass male and female figurines protruding from it.



Wattage: 3 x max 40W G9
Dimensions:
870.10 ø cm 60 h cm 100 ( 23,62" - 39,37")
870.11 ø cm 72 h cm 110 ( 28,34" - 43,30")
• Edition limited to 5 art pieces

Vases
In addition to the chandelier, the talented brothers from Portugal also created a collection of limited edition Vases for Venini with the same little blown glass figurines:






Esperança vases/objects
length. cm 35 depth 15 height cm 40
length cm 37 depth. 20 height cm 45
length cm 40 depth 8 height cm 28
•Limited Edition

And lastly two blow glass wall sconces, the Espotadio and the Samambaia.

Wall Sconces

Espatodia length cm 27 depth 20 height cm 85
Samambaia length cm 21 depth 14 height cm 90
•Numbered Edition

for purchasing and pricing information contact:

Head Quarters:
Fondamenta Vetrai,50
Tel +39 041 2737211
Fax +39 041 2737223
e-mail: venini@venini.it