World Cup 2014 in Brazil. The world watched. Even the planet’s green beings watched.
The green and art worlds had their own World Cup 2014 finalist in Brazil when Green Provocateur and team scored a goal as a Top 100 Finalist in the CODAAwards, an international competition for design projects that demonstrate the most successful integration of commissioned art into an interior or architectural space. The awards, presented by a jury of art and design notables, “honor the individuals and the teams whose collective imaginations create the public and private spaces that inspire…”
Every goal has a series of plays and a story behind it. Here’s how this one was played:
WHO: “We presented Pasha Radetski to our client, Fazenda Catucaba Art Residency, as Radetski’s exhibitions and projects span the globe, as well as for his tendency to use simple materials and symbols to powerful, universal effect.” relayed Jade Dressler, “As a landscape installation, Portal Do Sul aims at providing philosophical and spatial perspective as related to its immediate natural environment, the local economic and social development. The “gates” or “portals” allude to the harmonious structural balance in construction placed within a contemporary context of Brazil’s rapid economic growth.”
WHAT: The project is an environmentally-minded “chainsaw project,” made from locally sourced reclaimed timber as its base material.
WHERE: The story of Portal do Sul spans the globe, from a casual cocktail party meeting in Paris between Jade, a creative director based in NYC, and Emmanuel Rengade, the visionary behind the eco-resort Picinguaba, a remote, wireless haven in Brazil between Sao Paulo and Rio.
Emmanuel went on to create a second organic eco-resort and community, Fazenda Catucaba, on a former coffee plantation, which now welcomes visitors from all over the world. Located in 100 hectares of mountainous terrain near Sao Luiz do Paraitinga, Brazil, at elevations of 1200 to 1350 meters above sea level, near Sao Paulo, Brazil, the fazenda is the heart of a planned community which includes homes commissioned by noted architect, Marcio Kogan and commissioned chairs for the resort’s lounge by Brazil’s famous Campana brothers.
In 2010, Emmanuel asked Jade to facilitate media introductions in NYC and also recommend artists for residency at Fazenda Catucaba. Jade introduced artist, Pasha Radetski and marveled as the two bonded instantly at the Gramercy Park Hotel rooftop in a tete-a-tete over coffee and having made a solo journey to the same very remote jungle in Brazil.
Thus, Portal do Sul became the first artist work on the property.
WHEN: Next, in 2014, this vast landscape installation made the top 100 in the CODAawards and the top 8 in the Landscape category. Winners will be announced in August 2014 with the jury of art and design notables including: Cindy Allen, Editor-in-Chief, Interior Design magazine; Sherri Donghia, CEO, SD International; Hugh Hardy, Founding Partner, FAIA, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture; Kevin Lippert, Publisher, Princeton Architectural Press; David Revere McFadden, Chief Curator Emeritus, Museum of Arts & Design, New York; David Rockefeller, Jr., Trustee, Museum of Modern Art; Nancy L. Nodler, RID, Principal, Gensler; Ilene Shaw, CODAawards Senior Advisor, President, Shaw & Co! Productions; D.B. Kim, Vice President of Hospitality Design, Wanda Group, Beijing, China; Janet Koplos, Contributing Editor, Freelance art critic to Art in America magazine; Ali Tayar, Architect, Parallel Design Partnership Limited; Dick Spierenburg, Spierenburg Studio; Katharine DeShaw, USA Projects; Deborah Berke, FAIA, Founder, Deborah Berke Partners; Donna Davies, Fair Director, SOFA CHICAGO and art + design new york; Guy Kemper, Architectural artist with sponsorship by Derix Art Glass Consultants, llc.
“The CODAawards provide us with a particularly remarkable series of projects, distinctive in theme and character, where designers demolish the barrier between their own stock-in-trade and the craft practiced by artists.” – Cindy Allen, Editor-in-Chief, Interior Design magazine
The selected winners will be featured in Interior Design magazine, and promoted in an international PR campaign.
Portal do Sul’s recognition in the CODAawards finalist selection was covered by PSFK.com, the international trend platform here.
The project has also appeared in Vogue, Architectural Digest, Madame Figaro, Forbes, Departures and many more.
Thank you to CODAworx, all our followers. We are thrilled to make a goal and score one for the Green World!
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Filed under: BRAZIL, green | Leave a Comment
Tags: #artdesignbrazil, awards, Brazil, CODAworx, Emmanuel Rengade, Fazenda Catucaba, green, Jade Dressler, landscape art, Pasha Radetski, Portal do Sul, world cup 2014
Life After Life
Proving that one can always re-invent “Life After Life,” emerging from Winter, Green Provocateur is pleased to be debuting artist Alvaro Montagna and his recent 2013 work in his first solo show entitled “Life After Life.” Opening May 17 in New York, the show will run from the 18th to the 31st of May. The opening follows Montagna’s inclusion in two high-profile group exhibits in 2012, one presented by The New York Times and the other on the jumbotrons in Times Square.
For The Green Provocateur, these images are powerful talismans for contemplation. And, yes, the opportunity to collect an emerging artist at the onset!
In a prolific first year as an emerging artist, Montagna debuted in July 2012 when several of his pieces, depicting evocative mixed media images of tree roots, placed him as a top ten finalist from over 35,000 international artists in “Artists Wanted” in partnership with the Times Square Alliance and Chashama. As part of the exhibition, “Art Takes Times Square,” three Montagna images were in rotation on the famous jumbotrons in Times Square. In October 2012, Montagna was chosen for “Voces” an exhibit of up and coming Hispanic artists, poets and musicians from all over Latin America at The New York Times headquarters. The May show is curated and presented by Jade Dressler; Natalie Burlutskaya and Maria Kordova of re:artiste, Montagna’s representation agency, and Green Provocateur, as we debut our new e-commerce gallery platform focused on nature-focused art by featuring Montagna’s limited edition prints.
Itchy shopping fingers please click here on May 17th.
The Green Provocateur is Provoked With Pleasure.
Montagna’s images isolate the intricate workings of tree roots, exposing a deep emotional sensitivity to what is usually unseen and underground. A new metaphor for worlds beneath the surface is revealed, both twisted and touching at the same time, inviting viewers to look at relationships and emotions in new layered ways. Montagna’s images are created in mixed media photography, painting and collage work on canvas and they begin with walks in Nature…
Processing in Nature, So Elementary for Human Beings.
Montagna’s pieces begin with his introspective walks in the woods or fields where he seeks out a specific root formation and captures it with photography. Back in his studio, he digitally isolates it from its surroundings to reveal the form of his original vision and his discoveries in the process. Individual sections are then separated out, printed, painted and varnished together to create the final piece, much like a mosaic.
The show will exhibit nine works ranging in varied sizes averaging 72 x 60 inches. Also displayed will be prints representing the limited edition print offerings of Montagna’s art through the launch of the Green Provocateur e-commerce platform. Green Provocateur has included Alvaro Montagna since its inception in 2011 among its rotating group of artists. The new platform will offer Alvaro Montagna prints in sizes ranging from 8 x 10 inches to 72 x 60 inches.
We Love you Long Time.
Curator of Green Provocateur (aka appearing as a corporate Marketing Director in the person of Jade Dressler) hired Alvaro many moons ago as Creative Director for an international music brand, where together they raved ’round the world.
Montagna was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, you can read all about his prolific design career here to bring you up to his present…LIFE AFTER LIFE when he became “un artiste.” In 2011, Montagna expanded his personal photography ventures and in two years he has amassed a body of work included in private collections and public exhibitions. Go to www.alvaromontagna.com to see more work and be inspired to create your own “life after life.”
And come! Come to our opening and say hi! Here is your invite.
Filed under: NEW YORK, Openings, trees | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alvaro Montagna, Artists wanted, Chashama, Green Provocateur, Jade Dressler, Maria Kordova, Natalie Burlutskaya, New York, New York Times headquarters, re:artiste, root art, Times Square Alliance, Voces
Treehugging Holiday
In the Western world, we teach children that there are four elements which create and make up all of life, fire, earth, water and air. In Taoist, Chinese medicine’s Five Element Theory, the elements that make up the physical world and beyond, are seen as catalysts for change, each one engendering the next by its evolution, beginning with wood. Wood, or the “green world” as a fifth element is the addition. So curiously missing, so non-existant in the Western theory yet, this “seed” is literally critical, and demanding gracefully, to return, acknowledge and provoke its presence in our lives, bodies and psyche.
This is the season we “add green” around the world, to celebrate Winter Solstice and the return of longer days and moments of daylight. This element called “wood” is universally symbolic of growth and eternal life, as its season is the Spring, when it emerges as reaffirmation of life, health and hope. The organs are the liver, gall bladder, and like the green world on the planet itself, it governs the “self-regulating” processes of the body, the digestion, respiration, heart beat and basic metabolism. So much for the science of it all. What is this emotional, mythic force of wood?
On a more subtle level, within our psyche, wood energy is expressed as impulse, engendering, rising, developing, expansion and survival. The photographer, Milos Duma, whose images illustrate this post, speaks of this vital green force in his series “Plant,” that, “…living in the unnatural environment…in despite of its peculiar nature, these plants are surviving, and they have tendency to endure that peculiar world built by human hand. ”
Most people experience nature (or even ordering their own nature) like the Duma photograph above, neatly cordoned off and controlled, a quest for clean, a drive for elegance and purpose. I see in this image, society’s cultivated ideas of green meeting fabricated, fake, temporary walls. Neat and nice, yet Duma creates anxiety, tension and contemplation through his garishly lit imagery.
In Five Element Theory, the element of air is signified by “metal” and represents the mind and mental activities. Determination, force, strength, yielding, self-reliancy, reservation and sophistication. In contrast to wood, representing the direction East, no surprise that all this mental, mind energy represents the West, in the body, the lungs and breathing, and in the psyche, relationships. For me, as the Green Provocateur, this image speaks volumes about this exact relationship at which the human race finds itself. We love when plants show us what’s real.
The wood element in Chinese medicine relates to the liver and gallbladder, which is related to the “actions” of planning, vision and judgement or discernment. The “reactions” when this element is unbalanced are feeling stuck, frustration and anger. The physical organs ruled by wood and green are perceived as “the grand architect for our vision of the future.” This architecture of growth is the blueprint, the patterns we repeat naturally in our own human actions of growing and building. Structurally, visually and literally, wood forms the very spine, the marrow of our existence. Trees of lights, evergreen fir trees and bringing green inside our homes…this is the universal body electric.
No X-ray specs needed. The Matrix is Glowing.
This holiday, when you embrace the spirit of the season and others, extend your branches (arms) from your light, (happy, human, heart) and feel how this impulse, to engender light, is so primal and life-enhancing. So green. So good.
Happy Provoking and Happy Holidays from Green Provocateur.
images by Milos Duma
Filed under: NEW YORK, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: chinese medicine, Christmas tree, evergreen, five element theory, Green Provocateur, Milos Duma, pagan, Taoist, Winter Solstice, Wood
Wake up calls to our basic life support systems and the siren call of luxury may seem disparate issues. However, as our worlds become more fragmented and the very luxurious and beautiful fabric of our planet itself is in peril, our greatest luxury may now be to preserve and honor the basics of “The Birds and The Bees.”
Green Provocateur recently gathered with other birds of a feather at the Audubon Society of New York’s Young Members’ “Save The Sound” benefit at the hip Bowery Hotel rooftop in New York City. The stylish and caring (the very chic!) met at the luxe downtown watering hole to support protecting the habitat of the Long Island Sound, an Estuary of National Significance, namely the home of Piping Plovers, Least Terns and American Oystercatchers.
If the image of elderly birders with binocs and fanny pacs and backwoods beehive tenders in frumpy farm clothes comes to mind, the 20-something young, very smartly dressed gaggle of boys and girls, in passionate conversation about saving bird colonies, quickly put those images to rest. In fact, we learned that bird-watching is now is considered a hot pursuit, as it is the fastest growing outdoor recreation in the nation!
With luxury and fashion superstar hosts such as Alexis Maybank, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Gilt Groupe and newly minted board member of National Audubon Society; Carlos Falchi, CFDA designer and Samantha Yanks, Editor-in-Chief of Gotham and Hamptons magazines, a meeting of luxury, passion and connection to what truly matters was secured.
The event raised over $40,000 towards Audubon’s conservation campaign to preserve Long Island Sound, proving that birds of a feather, nature and fashion, are quite a good look together.
A chat with Juliet Falchi, daughter of Carlos and founding committee member, revealed that her passion for birds outshone even her silvery, spangly and striped column gown. She spoke about how, while her mother, a board member of the Audubon Society initiated her interest, she was compelled to do more, to interest her young friends to connect and bring a new generation to the cause. Hugs to Mom and Dad Falchi!
Ann Morrison Calvert, founding board member and Benefit Chair, by day the Director, Public Relations & Marketing at Tara Compton Fine & Estate Jewelry, spoke about bringing nature to urbanites, engaging them through events and activities they can get involved with, or see as luxury, such as organic food and wine events, outdoor trips and terrace gardening. Tall as a tree and looking like a black-head-to-toe-clad gallery denizen, Ann swung her long blond hair and added, “Just as art museums have young members’ groups for fundraising and gala events, why not conservation groups?”
Hugs! Birds and Bees are the new luxury.
Sorry but, elegance isn’t refusal. Elegance is saying yes! Yes, to getting involved personally and giving of one’s time and energy to interact positively with the world. We advocate for new definitions of “Luxury” and “Bespoke” and Experiences.”
“A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) identified a shift from “owning a luxury to experiencing a luxury” with bespoke treats now accounting for more than half of the $1.4tn spent on luxury goods and services last year.” The Guardian
We say nature and giving experiences are the most gratifying on the planet, certainly there is a natural attraction here as basic as “the birds and the bees do it.”
Taking a hip cue from the art world, combined with ancient, nerdy, viral networking techniques, Sean Mahar, Director of Government Relations, Audubon New York, had the idea to make business cards for birds and get them spread everywhere. In partnership with Toyota’s TogetherGreen, a program training young leaders and activating new conservation projects, birders drop the bird biz cards at restaurants, stores, cinemas, tourism offices, etc., wherever they travel, to remind business owners and communities that bird habitat preservation “means business.”
This business of birds and the bees, meet thousands of young and passionate New York City human creatures. The creatures like “experiences,” they have money and they care about their world. Going to the beach, the mountains and the slow luxury of time spent in nature is a city-slicker’s second nature. Cocktail parties to raise funds during the week and weekend jaunts to the beach to work on nest preservation is “the good life.” Being emotionally passionate about the other beings that share our world…and taking action…is the work of a Green Provocateur.
Julia Flynn and friend
Jenna Manula, Emily Chapman, Hannah Tsai and Martha Canning
Monica Brouwer, Benefit Committee Member and Jason Gers
Jacquelyne Reyes and Guy W Fletcher
Ann Morrison Calvert, Benefit Committee Chair and Benefit Committee Members, Eva Yean, Juliet Falchi and Adrienne Rudkin
Thanks to all and Hudson River Valley organic wines, catering by Sonnier & Castle, Heineken, Svedka and Blackwell Rum.
images Natalie Poette for Guest of A Guest
Filed under: birds, NEW YORK | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adrienne Rudkin, Alex Cook, Alexis Maybank, American Oystercatchers., Ann Morrison Calvert, Audubon Society, Audubon Society Young Members, birds, Birds Mean Business, Blackwell Rum, Bowery Hotel Rooftop, Carlos Falchi, Emily Chapman, Estuary of National Significance, Eva Yean, Failed bee colonies, Gilt Groupe, Green Provocateur, Guy W Fletcher, Hannah Tsai, Heineken, Hudson River Valley organic wines, Jacquelyne Reyes, Jarman Rogers, Jason Gers, Jenna Manula, Julia Flynn, Juliet Falchi, Least Terns, Long Island Sound, Martha Canning, MOnica Brouwer, National Audubon Society, Piping Plovers, Samantha Yanks, Save The Sound, Silent Spring, slow luxury, Sonnier & Castle, Svedka, Tara Compton Fine & Estate Jewelry, The Birds and The Bees, Together Green, Toyota
Hotel Earth: Up A Creek!
Been keeping this under wraps for a while but the cat is out of the bag per say. This is one small part, one small teaser for our Hotel Earth project, subtitled “Up A Creek”, co-curated by Jonathan Porcelli and Jade Dressler.
Art hotels. Predicaments. That there is an early “sketch” of a caviar bar with locally farmed Miami born and raised sturgeons to bed down with. Green Provocateur welcomes collaborations and realizations.
If you thirst for more, contact us. Now. Renata Lopes-Merriam and her new Kingdom B also has the 411. See here.
Filed under: MIAMI | 1 Comment
Tags: earth installations, Green Provocateur, Hotel Earth, Jade Dressler, Jon Porcelli, Up A Creek
the news from sao paulo brazil:
pre-Brazil Imaging spins from Central Park, Jade Dressler photo
what: Architects, urban art interventionists and manufacturers convene in Brazil and on Twitter for the fourth edition of BOOMSPDESIGN, a series of conferences dialoguing on international design.
why: A catalyst for Brazilian connection to US and international business as vital to the global creative experience by bringing together designers and artists to showcase and discuss their work and passion.
who: Studio Dror, Matali Crasset, Paul Clemence, Cat, Harry Allen, Chad Oppenheim, Mount Fuji, with FriendsWithYou and moi, Jade Dressler with Green Provocateur adding the collaborative art meets urban/street setting element to the mix. Among the Brazilians, Brunete Fraccaroli, FGMF, Glauco Diogenes, Guilherme Torres, Sergio Matos, and Zoe Melo will attend.
pre-conference highlights.
are releasing a 3 new prints to celebrate their visit to BOOMSPDESIGN, launching at coletivo amor de madre on September 1st. The store window will get a dose of FWY giant prints as well.
BOOMSPDESIGN, Green Provocateur and Adroyt co-host a Twitter Design Chat on all things art and design and Brazil. Caipirinhas, sand, sun, samba are included. Adroyt is a social media consultancy specializing in online engagement for design and architecture clients.
To dive in on the chat between architects, designers, manufacturers, and art and design lovers get on Twitter, enter coordinates:
Paulo Werneck, Paul Clemence photo
Natury-patterned Soho Synagogue, Jade Dressler photo
exhibit. “reset .11.03.11 new paradigms”
contemporary Japanese architecture, Anywheredoor, Cat, Mount Fuji and Ryuichi Ashizawa. The projects shown will highlight a design approach intrinsically linked to human and territorial needs as a symbiosis of space and time; the limit of nature upon mankind. Anywheredoor is the group organizing the project, concept and curatorship.
Pororoca Design, Gustavo Camilo, Andre Cruz, Sergio Matos, Zanini de Zanine, Vaca Valiente, Zoe Melo, Tulio Tavares Glauco Diogenes.
DATES: August 31st to September 1st
Location: Centro Universit·rio Belas Artes de Sao Paulo
Rua José Antônio Coelho, 879 – Vila Mariana
Location: D&D Shopping – WTC Teatro
Av. das Nações Unidas, 12.555
Filed under: BRAZIL | 1 Comment
Tags: #artdesignbrazil, 1111 Lincoln Road, Adroyt, aksel stasny, Alchemist, Anywheredoor, Arne Quinze, BOOMSPDESIGN, Brunete Fraccaroli, Cat, Centro Univerisitario Belas Artes, Chad Oppenheim, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Coletivo amor de madre, D&D Design Center, DROR, Dror Benshetrit, Editora Master books, FGMF, FriendswithYOU, Glauco Diogenes, Green Provocateur, Guilherme Torres, Harry Allen, Jade Dressler, Karim Rashid, Luminaire, Matali Crasset, Mekal, Mount Fuji architects, Nasir Kassamali, Ornare, Paul Clemence, Paulo Werneck, Rene Gonzalez, Roberto Cocenza, Ryuichi Ashizawa, Saxon Henry, Sergio Matos, Stephan Mathieu, Studio Dror, Taylor Deupree, Tsunieshi Groupo, ViaLight Design, Viking, Zoe Melo
One Green Step for Mankind.
It’s up!
Green Provocateur has landed in Milan! A badge of pride to become one with the neighborhood and be tagged the very next day!
Thank you to everyone who was part of the first landing of Green Provocateur! The first international public art intervention of Green Provocateur, was awarded and commissioned by AMAZElab, a non-profit cultural lab which works for the diffusion and knowledge of contemporary cultures in projects around the world. The transitional neighborhood of Isola, Milan was the first setting for Green Provocateur, turning an urban railway staircase into a lush green oasis, for the 2011 Salone’s satellite fair, Green Island. Curated by Jade Dressler, the stairway was covered with a lush green photograph design, taken by artist, Paul Clemence.
The first Italian Green Provocateur project also landed on the pages of GQ, Marie Claire and Stylepark; the dailies: Il Giornale, Corrieire della Sera, la Repubblica, Metro News; the all-important Interni magazine and wow! even William McDonough, the world re-known green czar architect and Time magazine’s ‘Hero of the Planet,’shared our Metropolis post on Isola with his Twitter fans!
Thanks to bloggers at Serox Cult and Saxon Henry at Roaming by Design; Claudia Zanfi, Green Island curator for the invitation, the creative agency PLANT., all our indiegogo.com supporters and thanks to Susan Szenasy, EIC of Metropolis for the opportunity to blog about the Salone, muse about green and the expanded spaces for urban art. (We have many people to thank, see them all here.)
Between artist, photographer, Paul Clemence’s pro photos and my mobile phone documentation, we’ll have a number of posts, but this one…from my mobile camera is straight up from the beginning to the end. Enjoy!
What a mantra to find upon arrival! It’s up to you. Caring about green, realizing dream projects, realizing our wall in a large part due to YOU, our fans and followers, the Wall is “Up to YOU!”…kinda cool.
I could write volumes on the magic of Isola, with it’s artisan, Bronx-like grit and graffiti, elegant historic buildings, hip spots and modern architecture world-mix…we wrote a lot about it for Metropolis…but this image hints at the magic at dusk exactly where our stairs live. Via Pepe is a major thoroughfare of cars, bikes, scooters and all kinds of people utilizing the rail station.
Paul and Jade…a little jet-lagged, a lot excited to start.
We had angels at every turn…underneath on the wall and in the flesh and blood to help us install. Specific angels were Frederico, an energetic artist, Andrea, a poetic playwright and Vilyus, a blond God who worked half-naked and whose designer pants could not be ruined.
the pants remain clean.
see all the wrinkles? just one of the challenges…
the mode of persistence prevailed.
By this time we were joined by Frederick’s adorable girlfriend who arrived on her bike and was sporting fuzzy golden lion ears.
Our friend, Dedi Salmeri of Alcos Comunicazione, arrives with her husband Alberto and their dog Tobias and Dedi gets right in on the action.
Left to right. Golden eared Elena, the mythic Vilyus, the artist Paul and Frederico, our angel anchor on the ladder.
the team.
golden angel # 10,076, Andreas arrives at 12 am, from his theatre passion, to lend a gentle and wise presence.
in the meantime…Isola sleeps.
Andreas gives me a ride on his bike and sings a song at 2:30 am winding through the streets to where taxis are to safely bring me home. He goes back and the boys share an hour of magic connection and talk after a night’s hard work.
in the morning, we begin again. can you believe the dedication?
an overnight tag from Mother Earth?
Frederico with cigarette (when not on the mobile) steers the boat.
Paul puts the finishing touch on the wall.
Martin, a designer, followed us from Germany, supported us on indiegogo.com and made a personal pilgrimage!
Augusto Cosimi, also from Alcos Comunicazione, a supporter of Green Provocateur all the way! Grazie!!!
integrated into the urban scape. Mission accomplished!
Filed under: MILAN | 1 Comment
Tags: AMAZElab, Claudia Zanfi, Garibaldi green steps, Garibaldi station green, Green Island, Green Island 2011, Green Provocateur, green stairs, green stairs Milan, green steps Milan, green wall Milan, Isola Green, Jade Dressler, Metropolis magazine, Milan, Milan green, Milan Isola, Milan street art, Paul Clemence, PLANT Agency, Salone del Mobile 2011, Salone green, Saxon Henry, street art, street art installation, Susan Szenasy, urban intervention, Via Pepe green wall, William McDonough
Thank you Yoko!
Public art feels so retro somehow, plopping a sculpture in a location like it’s a cute playground object. Since the concept of “public art” began, we think it is taking baby steps to where we have always envisioned it…a community expression for healing and connection. Dare we say the words shaman and ritual?
Yoko Ono’s Wish Trees have been an inspiration to the Green Provocateur launch in Milan for Green Island during Salone del Mobile April 10-17th. In just 14 days we begin installation in Isola on the railway stairs. A seemingly small gesture of beauty, much like the wishes on Yoko’s wish trees.
As we face personal and global challenges, wishing while we participate is the basis of the Green Provocateur philosophy. Yes, we will garden, contribute to green causes, compost and recycle. But let’s also sing to Nature, celebrate her through art and simple things like attention to our daily paths and each other…even walking up to a train platform or looking at a tree in a new way…maybe it has feelings too? Wishes? Beyond just exchanging breath with you? What are they?
We invite you to share in the making of Green Provocateur, from this first seed to all its manifestations around the world. Celebrate with us (and get Paul Clemence art and your name on the walls of this project as our thanks) at indiegogo.com and thank you for sharing your precious wishing and realizing with us.
Filed under: MILAN, NEW YORK | 1 Comment
Tags: Green Provocateur, love notes, Milan Green Island, Wish trees, wishes, Yoko Ono, yoko wish trees
Filed under: MILAN, NEW YORK | Leave a Comment
Tags: AMAZElab, Audrey Peterman, Carlos Castaneda, Claudia Zanfi, Concrete Safaris, crowdfunding, Earthwise Productions, Great Plains Restoration Council, Green Island, Green Provocateur, Green Worker Cooperatives, Indiegogo, Jade Dressler, Jarid Manos, Kim Jackson, Maya Baratz, Omar Freilla, Paul Clemence, People of Color Don't Care About The Environment, PLANT Agency, Salone del Mobile, Sharon Levine, Simran Sethi, Society for Ethical Culture, Streetwise Pictures, Sundance Film Festival, The Sundance Channel, Uptown Magazine, urban green
When a Provocateur is waving and dancing in front of you, even though you want to go forward, one must pause, be quiet, listen and look back. Photographer Paul Clemence is a provocateur for architecture and design and one must stop and listen to him.
As Green Provocateur readies for its Milan launch, Paul waved his photo above in front of me insisting that we look at this project.
Indeed the Meek shall inherit the earth. The way a small green seed becomes a forest or a tiny voice for nature grows louder, Glavovic Studio‘s design for The Girls Club in Ft. Lauderdale, just outside of Miami is just such a whisper of power. The design plays with and pays homage to Florida’s sun and sub-tropical landscape as elemental forces in the design. Light, shadow of building surface and waving trees play with each other to stimulate shifts in perspectives in a space dedicated to community exchange of art, culture and discourse.
Margi Nothard’s design solution utilizing a sustainable resin-based façade as the skin wrapping the existing concrete block building and a cleared interior inspired Paul’s lyrical photographs of the space. Paul’s exhibit, “SKIN,” at Young Arts Pavilion, which was also designed by Glavovic, was the seed for this continued mutual collaboration.
Of the space, Margi says, “The feminist orientation is intentional, the collection of Francie Bishop Good, along with those of other local and non-local artists such as Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, and Nan Goldin will reinforce the contribution of women to the field of contemporary art. The mission of Girls’ Club is to educate the public, and to serve as a resource for art scholars, curators, and practicing artists.”
This building’s story immediately reminded me of a personal heroine of mine in Florida. At age 79, Marjory Stoneman Douglas took up the cause of the Everglades after writing her book, “River of Grass,” seen as seminal in the environmental movement as Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” “River of Grass” helped me survive the tiny, tiny provocateur mosquito bites of a week in the Everglades, one of the most fascinating wetland bio-spaces on Earth.
The Everglades bobcat which darted across the road one day in front of our car was another Green Provocateur which I will never forget. The mystery and force emanating from the cat’s leap across the highway was a rare glimpse, a symbolic call of the Wild and the call of Art. The call of Ecstasy and Action. One never destroys what one loves. Let’s keep talking to Green.
Listen to Francie Bishop Good at Art Talk at The Sagamore Hotel, Miami, on March 1st. Click the link to join Cricket and Martin Taplin host artist, Francie Bishop Good.
Filed under: MIAMI | Leave a Comment
Tags: AMAZElab, bobcat in Everglades, Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, Everglades, Francie Bishop Good, Glavovic Studio, green at Salone, Green Island Milan, Green Provocateur, Jade Dressler, Margi Nothard, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Miami green movement, Milan, Nan Goldin, Paul Clemence, Paul Clemence skin, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, SKIN at Young Arts Club, SKIN Exhibit, The Girls Club
Green Provocateur 