A Fake Pool Makes A Splash All Over The World.

Initially conceived of 12 years ago, the 'fake' swimming pool by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, known for his illusion-like installations, has been featured at various museums around the world. In 2001, it was featured at the 49th Venice Biennale in Arentina. In 2004, it found a permanent home at the 21st Century Art Museum in Kanazawa, Japan. In 2008, the fake pool was set up for a 2 year installation at MoMA's PS1 Contemporary Art Center. And as of December 2010, the pool was being installed in the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.

In Japan:




For the long-term exhibit at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, he constructed a full-size pool [20 x 9 7/8 x 10 feet (600 x 280 x 300 cm)], complete with a surrounding deck [the installation in Japan's museum does not have a wood deck], underwater pool lights and ladder.



When one first approached upon the amazingly surreal piece from the ground floor, it appeared that people, fully clothed, were standing underwater, alive and engaged in conversation, on the floor of what appeared to be a very real swimming pool.




However, when examining the pool from underneath, one sees that it's actually empty and the illusion of the water-filled space is achieved by his placing a large piece of transparent laminated glass suspended over the pool atop which lies some actual water.





The interior of the pool's walls are painted aqua to further add to the illusion.


One enters through pool through the opening shown below:


Here are the installation photos of the pool's latest appearance at The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia:



Artist's Bio [courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery]


Leandro Erlich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. At age 20, he won a grant from the Antorchas Foundation to take an advanced sculpture and installation workshop under the direction of Luis F. Benedit and Pablo Suárez. Between 1998 and 1999 he took part in the Core Program, an artist-in-residence program in Houston, Texas, U.S.

In 1999 he moved to New York and presented his first exhibition in a commercial New York gallery. Over the next two years he participated in the Whitney Biennial and represented Argentina at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001).

Erlich's works are in several private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London; Musee d'Art moderne, Paris; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; MACRO, Rome; and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC), Paris.

Erlich lives and works in Paris, France, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

images and info courtesy of the following:
The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan
MoMA PS1
Somethingstartedcrazy on Flickr
Building process photos in Brisbane by Natasha Harth courtesy of 21c blog

Bottles Of Bud. Canna Cola Launches Five Flavored Pot-Laced Sodas.

If you've been following the news, there's been quite a bit of 'buzz', pardon the pun, about Canna Cola, a new line of THC-infused carbonated beverages for intended sale at medicinal marijuana dispensaries.



The five flavored medical marijuana soda pops; Canna Cola, Orange Kush, Sour Diesel, Grape Ape and Doc Weed are the brain child of multi-talented designer, concert photographer, political cartoonist and entrepreneur Clay Butler.




Scott Ridell of Diavolo Brands, who created the products along with Clay [they are not marketing it... that was an error in the Santa Cruz Sentinel article], says the beverage line's dosage of THC will be "somewhere between 35 to 65 milligrams" and that that "the levels of THC in his line of soft drinks will be substantially below the levels of many drinks now on the market." He likened his product to a "light beer" alongside high-proof liquors.



Although there are several THC laced sodas on the market, most are produced in small batches and lack the marketing effort of a larger brand. Kushtown Sodas and Dixie Elixirs are two examples.

Clay, a self-proclaimed "clean living guy" says he's never even smoked a cigarette, let alone marijuana.


above: Clay and some of his Soda Pot (photo for Santa Cruz Sentinel by Bill Lovejoy)

An article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel quotes Clay as saying "Marijuana sodas do exist in the marketplace. But, said Butler, none of them have the branding savvy of his product.

"You look at all the marijuana products out there, and they are so mom-and-pop, hippie-dippy, and rinky dink," he said. "If someone can put every color on the rainbow on it, they do. If they can pick the most inappropriate and unreadable fonts, they will. And there's marijuana leaves on everything. It's a horrible cliché in the industry."

Kushtown's THC-infused sodas and sauces:


Dixie Elixir changed their original marijuana leaf logos:

to a more subtle, but difficult to read, design:

Butler's epiphany was to market the THC-laced sodas "how Snapple or Coca-Cola or Minute Maid would make a marijuana beverage, if they ever chose to do it."

Thus, he used the marijuana leaf - it's an unavoidable part of the "brand DNA" of marijuana products, he said - but he designed a leaf made of bubbles (shown below), to suggest soda pop.


above: Clay Butler designed the logo and bottle designs for the Soda Pot.

Clay's graphic design skills came in handy. The bottles have fabulously fun imagery and clever names.

The sodas are intended to be priced at between $10 and $15 for each 12 oz bottle and are planned for launch in medical marijuana-friendly Colorado next month. California, however, remains a wild card. THC-infused sodas cannot be transported across state lines according to Federal laws (despite individual state laws regarding medicinal marijuana use), so the product would have to be manufactured in California to be sold there.

Plans are tentatively to have it in California dispensaries in the spring.

Canna Cola on Facebook

Read the Santa Cruz Sentinel article

Modern Highlights From The Los Angeles Art Show - Part II

above: Halim Al Karim, Hidden Love 3, 2009, Lambda print on aluminum, 67 x 47 inches (170 x 120 cm)

Yesterday I shared with you some of the more modern highlights from the Los Angeles Art Show in Part I and now the eye candy continues with Part II.

Joshua Suda:


Claudia Parducci:


Gerd Leider:

Irene Presnner:


Harry Holland:

Troels Worsel:

Lin Quinyan:

Margit J. Fureder:


Ronald Kulla-Kinzie:

Peter Clark:

Shen Jingdong:

Patrick Duegaw:

Ilona Zaremba:

Sara Friedlander:

Jean Wells:

Will Kissmer:

David Bromley:

Sebastian Artz:

all photos taken by laura sweet for if it's hip, it's here
See Part I here
The 2011 Los Angeles Art Show
Links to all the participating galleries

Modern Art Highlights From The Los Angeles Art Show - Part I

The 16th annual Los Angeles Art Show took place in the city's Convention Center this past Thursday, January 19th through Sunday, January 23rd. I attended with my friend and fellow art-lover/collector Betsy Wills, who flew out from Nashville for the event and who is the author of an enjoyable art blog named Artstormer.