San Francisco becomes Candyland

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Candy Land (coincidentally my favorite childhood game *DING*), San Francisco's famous Lombard St was converted today into a giant boardgame. Here's the gist:

According to the Examiner, "Kids will draw from a deck of color-coated cards as big as six square feet while eco-friendly confetti and balloons drape the background." Also, "purple, yellow, blue, orange, green and red blocks" will be placed along Lombard's 575-foot-long path. "Each block will be about 14 feet long and 12 feet wide, matching the same color sequence as the usual game," Ex goes on to report.
Remember, you and your kids can watch the action go down at 10 a.m. today, but only children from UC San Francisco Children’s Hospital and the nonprofit Friends of the Children will compete. Also, at the end of the game, where Queen Princess Frostine awaits, there will be delicious cake for all. Mm. - SFist

I gotta go by this after work today...Check it out! (For more photos click here)

Today I spell checked the names of famous Bay Area artists as a task for me boss. Here are some of the neat things I came across:

Kota Ezawa "Image from History of Photography Remix," 2005, 35mm slide show (40 slides)edition of 6

Rigo 23, Sculpture on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. portraying 1968 U.S. Olympics athletes Tommie Smith (gold, #1) and John Carlos (Bronze, #3) on the Olympics winners podium delivering a Black Power salute during the playing of the US National Anthem at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The space for #2, which was occupied by Australian sprinter (and protest supporter) Peter Norman, was left empty so that viewers could also "take a stand."

Rupert Garcia "1975, 2002" (2002) woodcut. h: 42 x w: 31.5 in / h: 106.7 x w: 80 cm

Robert Bechtle on the racks

"Watsonville Olympia," 1977. Painting by Robert Bechtle

Robert Bechtle is a photorealist born and raised in San Francisco. Although I love all of his work, this one is my favorite. I saw it first in the Tate Modern I think and was absolutely captivated. The woman is just so real (and so '70s) - there is no other way to put it. I was lucky enough to see the work again at the SFMOMA, this time in its storage racks located in the basement. It hung on a crowded, pull-out shelf next to a Jasper Johns and a Phillip Guston and seeing it in that setting was more enchanting, more special than seeing it on the museum floor. I also recently found out that Bechtle exhibited at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, where I now work!

Check out this great video of Bechtle doing his thang: http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/229

A life-size booger (and an elegant one at that!)

Marcel Wanders Dutch (Boxtel, Netherlands, 1963), Cappellini, Manufacturer(Arosio, Italy, Established 1946), Airborne Snotty Vase: Pollinosis, 2001 design object plastic

Here is a bit more on this boney-looking booger:

The piece is one of a series of five snotastic vases that can really store flowers! (check out the utilitarian sculptures here ; and a video about the making of the pieces here).

From what I can tell, each of the vases was made from an actual 3D scan of a single globule of a booger. Each of the five works were created from "models" or "patients" with one of the following diseases: coryza, influenza, ozaena, pollinosis (SFMOMA's got pollinosis!) and sinusitis.

Reactions?

I think its a killer idea - quirky yet techy. Wanders really highlights the aesthetics of science, something I have never properly considered. All in all, I never thought I'd be able to analyze the architecture of a booger and, I must say, those little buggers are pretty damn elegant. The pure white, the windswept movement - it reminds me of a ballet dancer or the petrified wood my grandparents have in their backyard or something Frank Lloyd Wright would have crafted for his living room... Cheers to the curators for this selection. It seems to fit with the theme of the exhibition (Sensate: Bodies and Design) really nicely.

The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, or common mola, is the heaviest known bony fish in the world. It has an average adult weight of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally. Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended.

Sunfish live on a diet that consists mainly of jellyfish, but because this diet is nutritionally poor, they consume large amounts in order to develop and maintain their great bulk. Females of the species can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate.

Adult sunfish are vulnerable to few natural predators, but sea lions, orcas and sharks will consume them. Among humans, sunfish are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, including Japan, the Korean peninsula and Taiwan, but sale of their flesh is banned in the European Union.