If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Funky Find Of The Week: Ingo Maurer's Seven Rats Table Lamp

The Seven Rats table light. Designed by German Artist Ingo Maurer and team, 2007.

This unique lighted art piece depicts seven plastic rats (four black and three white) locked inside a steel, gold, brass and plastic cage structure measuring 33.5" x 15.7" x 15.7".

The whole piece is lit with a 50 watts halogen WFL 55:, socket GU 5,3, 230/125/12volts and has a continuously variable transformer-dimmer. You can purchase it for $4,680.00 USD. Buy it here at Unica Home.

German born artist and light objects designer, Ingo Maurer has been the recipient of many design awards and his work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the museum of modern art in new york. Considered an outsider with rare artistic style, Ingo Maurer adds provocation and fun to the world of design.

See more of his wild 'art' lighting at his site here.

Lavazza Continues Their Tradition Of Stunning Calendars With Annie Leibovitz for 2009

I'm a huge fan of Lavazza products, the company and their corporate culture. And each year I look forward to their new calendar, which is unparalleled in its quality and production. Armando Testa of Italy deserves as much of the credit as does Lavazza. A collaboration that has yielded some of the most impressive forms of communication for Lavazza's product lines for 48 years now!

ROAD KILL STUFFED ANIMALS by L. Mylott Manning
As a part of the Art In Odd Places exhibition, NY artist L. Mylott Manning has placed mutilated stuffed animals (not actual 'beanie babies', by the way.... I don't want to get sued by TY) soaked in dirty water at various 14th Street locations.

The fabric carcasses resemble the aftermath of real animals that have been hit by a vehicle but delve further into psychological symbolism as the viewers realize the uncannily realistic animals are made out of cloth.

Take a look at some of the reactions from passers by.

Where and when?

Time and Location: Saturday, October 11, 18, 25 (12-4pm). 14th Street between University Place & Broadway; between Third & Sixth Avenues; between Ninth &Tenth Avenues.

Today is the last day to view this art installation. See more of the Art In Odd Places exhibit here.

Short On Room But Big On Style? Here Are Some Great Options For Small Spaces

What do you do when you love good looking furniture and design but reside in a 400 square foot apartment? The following products are a few examples of ways to make the most of your small space without sacrificing design.

The WallFlower Wall Office

The Wallflower Wall office by Jonas & Jonas has a scratch- and shock-resistant body of made of laminate (HPL: high pressure laminate) and allows for any kind of strain. Wall office offers room for folders, books, writing,phone and lamp. WALLFLOWER Walloffice is available in widths of 1100 mm and 960 mm.

Jonas & Jonas

The Corner Flame

Made by Radius Design, it is a wall mountable fireplace that doesn't use wood, burns cleanly, appears to be floating and takes up minimal space while giving you maximum warmth. Available in multiple finishes.

Radius Design

The Square Sleeper Chair

Buy it here

The Corner lamp

This is such a bright idea (pardon the pun) that I'm amazed I didn't see it long ago. Created by Design House Stockholm, designed by Roberto Cardenas. Made of pergament plastic lamp shade & steel pole. measures 66" tall

Design House Stockholm

Got a bathroom the size of a closet?
Then maybe the Ego Tower by Aquaware is just the thing for you. It's got the mirror, sink, towel rack, shelf drawer and light all in one:

Shown above in both oak and in wengé wood. Learn more here.

Flat Life by Finn Magee

"Flat Time" and "Flat Light" are posters with photographs of a clock and a lamp that have a built in LED light and 7 digit LED readout, so rather than take up space on a surface, your clock and desk lamp are wall mounted!

Learn more about Flat Life here.

Wassup... For Obama.

The Wassup guys are back- 8 years later, in a world of tumbling markets, inane wars, natural disasters, unemployment and unaffordable health care.

60Frames works with talented artists to create, original internet programming. This week they're featuring "Wassup 2008" (not at all affiliated with Anheuser Busch. ) Ah, how soon the state of the world can change.

Special thanks to Tricia Ting for bringing this to my attention.
60 Frames

Big News For A Little Car: The First Electric MINI Has Arrived

The new, and first, electric Mini, named the MINI E, has just been released. With zero carbon emissions and powered by a 100 % electric motor, it accelerates to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 8.5 seconds and has a top speed of 152 km/h (95 mph).

Up to 500 MINI E will hit the streets in the US shortly and you could be one of the first people to get a chance to drive it if you're lucky enough to reside in Southern California, New York City and/ or New Jersey.

Additional photos (exterior):

Interior:

Some technical specs of the new MINI E (click to enlarge):

Rossignol Has Artists Depict The 7 Deadly Sins On Skis.

For the first time ever 7 prominent board culture artists, some of them skateboard legends like Steve Cabellero and Andy Howell, have been asked to create original art for the new Rossignol twin tip ski line.

The concept is simple: 7 Skis, 7 Artists, and a mission to artistically express the 7 Deadly Sins.

Curated by Spacejunk gallery, the Seven Artistic Sins project provides a canvas for the artists who's work drives the board culture movement. The art created for the Seven Artistic Sins will be showcased globally in exhibitions, websites, and gallery books, thus injecting fresh, artistic, cultural relevancy into the ski world.

With the seven artistic sins, skis are not just generic graphics and sidecuts, They become ride-able art. The only odd thing you'll notice is that two of them seem to have depicted "greed" and no one seems to have depicted "pride" at least not according to the information from the project.

Check them out.

S7 By Steve Caballero (GLUTTONY)