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Mar 1 2023
Surface
Design Dispatch
Wangechi Mutu puts down her roots, a pristine London jewelry showroom, and 3-D printing objects using sound.
FIRST THIS
“I think we all have this unique world inside ourselves.”
HERE’S THE LATEST

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Wangechi Mutu Puts Down Roots at the New Museum

What’s Happening: The multitalented artist is pulling up the curtain on a sweeping retrospective that takes up the entire New Museum, tracing her transformative ideas about Afrofuturism and femininity across an illustrious 25-year career.

The Download: Last summer, perched on a wooded hilltop in the rolling hills of Storm King Art Center, Wangechi Mutu’s evocative bronze sculptures were clambering ahead toward an unknown destiny. The centerpiece, In Two Canoe, depicted two botanical female figures in a canoe, their mangrove-like limbs appearing to plant roots in the grass. Mangroves, which can flourish all over the planet and migrate to new habitats, are an apt metaphor for Mutu’s practice—and symbolize how the artist has sculpted her own trajectory.

In 2015, Mutu started dividing time between New York, where she lived since the mid-1990s, and Kenya. Returning to her home country helped galvanize a shift away from the collage-based works that sealed her fame, allowing her to explore other mediums, especially large-scale sculptures like In Two Canoe that explore the intersection of Afrofuturism and femininity. “If a plant has just one root,” she told the New York Times, “that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to stand straight and strong. The idea of having many roots, of having your feet really grounded in different places, is extremely empowering for me.”


That mantra has borne fruit for Mutu, who tomorrow is unveiling an ambitious career retrospective, called “Intertwined,” at the New Museum. More than 100 works create an all-encompassing tableau of paintings, collages, drawings, sculptures, performances, and films that trace the intertwining ideas across her 25-year career. These include “transmutation, doubling, ideas of interconnectivity and reciprocity, not just to one another, but to ourselves and our environments,” says Margot Norton, who co-curated the show. “We want to show that her work is consistently challenging her own ideas.”

Revealing the interconnectedness of her ideas calls for space, and “Intertwined” marks the first time the Lower East Side museum has dedicated its entire eight-floor building to a single artist. Expect classics from Mutu’s oeuvre, including a 2003 watercolor collage of two hyena-headed women and Crocodylus, a sculpture that reclaims an overly exoticized Jean-Paul Goude photograph of Naomi Campbell riding a crocodile. Coming full circle is a diptych of a warrior woman decapitating a white serpent with her stiletto heel, which Mutu created for a group exhibition devoted to the life of Afrobeat visionary Fela Kuti at the New Museum in 2003.


In Their Own Words: “My point really is to try to use visual and art historical language and images and objects to flesh out a more African-centric history that predated colonization,” Mutu tells the Times. “And when you start to look at it from that perspective, you see the amount of trade and interconnection, the number of commonalities there are between Kenyan cultures and the rest of the world.

Surface Says: Given Mutu’s previous outings at the Legion of Honor and the Met, taking over an entire museum should be a breeze.

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2xOlafur Eliasson will create a long mirrored piece that will reflect England’s coastline.
Check-Circle_2x A new documentary about the rise of Milanese fashion left some insiders unimpressed.
Check-Circle_2x Snapchat introduces a chatbot powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT for paid subscribers.
Check-Circle_2x Rumors are circulating that LVMH may soon acquire Cartier, but they hold little weight.
Check-Circle_2x Plans to redevelop New York’s Penn Station and the nearby area have come to a halt.
Check-Circle_2x The Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Museum raises $55 million in donations.


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SURFACE APPROVED

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Cool Tunes, Light Bites, Fun Vibes

Join Surface and Blu Dot on Wednesday, March 8, to celebrate the award-winning furniture brand’s new Miami showroom. Guests are invited for an evening of music, cocktails, and light apps, as well as the opportunity to meet Blu Dot’s founders and peruse the new store.

STORE

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A London Jewelry Showroom That Hosts Ikebana Workshops

Completedworks was on an upward trajectory—sales nearly doubled in 2021—but the jeweler and ceramics brand lacked a suitable space to showcase its left-of-center, often asymmetrical wares. “We were increasingly having clients asking to see our pieces in person, but felt we didn’t have a space that felt considered and reflected our vision,” says founder Anna Jewsbury. Thanks to funding from the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Trust, the London brand overhauled two floors of a former North Marylebone pub into a pristine new studio, showroom, and workshop that checks all the boxes.

Top of mind for Jewsbury? “We wanted people to be able to enter our world and get to know us, and for us to get to know them.” She enlisted local studio Hollie Bowden, which devised a detail-oriented yet laid-back “ideas laboratory” whose interiors complement Completedworks wares. Folded and hammered cupboard handles, for example, riff on the brand’s crumpled Cohesion earrings. Clean-lined displays, including one upholstered in hand-printed lilac linen, make the brand’s array of homewares and jewelry pop while not stealing their thunder.

“Clients seem to really appreciate the intimate experience that comes with a salon concept of buying,” Jewsbury continues. “They want to meet the designer and the team, and perhaps even have the option to get something that’s more bespoke.” On that note, the showroom will host free monthly classes, including pottery tutorials led by the brand’s in-house ceramicist, ikebana workshops, and a talk on sustainable cuisine by chef Junya Yamasaki.

NEW & NOTABLE

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What’s New, From Our List Members

New & Notable is a cultural catchall that highlights interesting new products and projects from our brilliantly creative members of The List. With new releases, events, and goings-on, these moments indicate their power to move the needle within and beyond realms like architecture, design, fashion, and art.

Avant Arte: On March 2, Avant Arte will release a new limited-edition silkscreen print by Yu Nagaba. The print, titled Fishbowl, is inspired by the Japanese artist’s love for Henri Matisse and features signatures from his own practice such as the Ace Hotel stamp. The print will be available for only 24 hours online at Avant Arte.
 
RIOS: The brilliant minds behind RIOS, the studio collective known for bridging the gap between nature and the built environment, have turned their attention to perfecting the coffee-drinking experience with the Pico collection. The ceramic coffee service line by sister company notNeutral is named for Pico Boulevard, which connects Angelenos to the ocean, Downtown L.A., and the city’s vast culinary landscape.
 
Art for Change: During Black History Month, Art For Change spotlighted works by a multigenerational group of contemporary Black artists including Patricia Renee’ Thomas, Anthony Peyton Young, Ebony G. Patterson, Jamaal Peterman, and Rico Gatson. A portion of proceeds from each work benefits organizations including the Brooklyn Museum, City Harvest, the Movement for Black Lives, and more.
ART

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ICYMI: How Postage Stamps Are Chronicling the War in Ukraine

George Orwell once quipped that “every joke is a tiny revolution.” Ukrainians are proof positive of this notion—the good-humored people have long used jokes and memes as coping mechanisms during eras of political turbulence and natural disasters. The Russian-Ukrainian war is no different. Last year, in late February, a Russian warship approached a group of Ukrainian border guards stationed at a military base on Snake Island in the Black Sea, ordering Ukraine’s surrender. “Russian warship, go fuck yourself,” the guards responded.

The act of courage has come to symbolize Ukraine’s irreverent attitude toward Russian aggression so much that the Ukrainian Postal Service (Ukrposhta) released a postage stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier flipping the bird to an approaching ship. Since the conflict broke out one year ago, Ukrposhta has staged contests online to source artwork for postage stamps in order to raise money for the armed forces, releasing more than 30 custom stamps by both amateur and professional artists.

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THE LIST

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Member Spotlight: Gufram

Founded in 1966, Gufram produces some of the world’s most recognizable radical design staples. Under Charley Vezza’s creative direction, the brand has revitalized its catalogue through collaborations with famous designers and brands to keep the radical spirit alive.

Surface Says: Packed with playful irreverence, furniture from Gufram adds a pop to any interior. The brand’s most recognizable pieces, such as the Cactus coat stand and Pratone lounge chair, prove that humor never goes out of style.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

A new technology can instantly 3-D print objects using ultrasound holograms.

Air pollution may have influenced Impressionist painters like Monet.

The latest Mercedes comes with a touchscreen, TikTok, and a selfie camera.

Robert Rauschenberg’s former New York home officially opens to visitors.

               


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