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Art October 6, 2009 Written By: Lefty When I slow down enough to look at my life it seems like a non-stop barrage of stuff that I do and have. I run Naked Binder - a constant and tempestuous love affair between good design, an everyday object and the planet. I am a dance choreographer and have pieces going up locally and on the west coast (as is my wife who also has her work going up in other venues). I have a son who is two and a half - an amazing and frustrating age. We are also rock climbers, back packers, runners .... OK there is a lot. I am constantly looking for ways to simplify and do the things I love. When I see a great idea I jump at it. What struck me today was a furniture set that is collapsable, cool and funny.
With this, you could store furniture in a closet until you needed it. easy to move, fun to see and a DIY project all in one. I especially like the lamps.
Ok this may not be the answer to my life issues of over committing, but it is a fun way to condense and simplify your sitting needs. 
September 15, 2009 Written By: Lefty When you look at the world that you live in, the chances are that you look less at the leaves, trees and sky than you do the TV, ads and computers. Especially if you live in a city, nature gets pushed to one side, discarded for 'information' of which we have too much to take in and is of dubious value in many cases. Our society screams where it could have a bit more humility and quiet. Naked Binder recommends taking some time to shut off the information streams. Turn off the cell phone, tv, radio and computer. go outside and look at something green, clouds ... something not plastic. Walk in a park, talk to your spouse, sit in the grass. In our rush to dominate, win and work, we forget that sometimes we are a part of the world, not king of it. Find ways to incorporate nature into your work day to keep you saner (and healthier studies show). Perhaps your day will feel a little calmer and in perspective.
Art by Andy Goldsworthy.
June 26, 2009 Written By: Lefty This may be off subject even for this blog. Naw... You Tube has a series of videos of nijinski dancing. For those of you not in the know, Nijinski was the worlds best dancer around 1910ish. There is absolutely no original video of him and he stopped at about 27 so didnt perform long enough for footage to have been shot. But check these out! Super fun and amazing.
More Naked Binder stuff later - remember 20% off this week!
June 19, 2009 Written By: Lefty Tara Donavon is an amazing artist who uses found objects to create beautiful, ephemeral phenomena. Other people say: "For over a decade, American sculptor Tara Donovan has transformed huge volumes of everyday items into stunning works of phenomenal impact. Layered, piled, or clustered with an almost viral repetition, these products assume forms that both evoke natural systems and seem to defy the laws of nature." While she is not recycling to make these, she is looking at things around her in a new way. Scotch tape, tooth picks,are all fodder for her art. Not to put too fine a point on this but looking at the world around you in new ways not only opens numerous possibilities, but makes your life a much more interesting place to be. Tara Donovan has a show loading in at the Des Moines Art Center on June 19th. If you happen to be in Iowa, don't miss it. It may just open your eyes to the wonders of the styrofoam cup.
Tooth picks - 1 meter square.
Styrofoam cups.
April 23, 2009 Written By: ken It's Earth Day Week and the requisite green wash has covered business from oil companies to plastic doo-dad manufacturers. We need some art around here. Don't get me wrong. We DO care about the earth, but not so much about the greenwash. Art, like nature itself is a cleansing view of reality, and when things have gotten out of hand, I say bring it on.
Lets start with Inkboat, featuring amazing performances. Exceedingly well crafted, thought out and performed - touching, moving and thought provoking.
Now on to Michelle Ellsworth. Funny. Intelligent. Crazy and inspired. Love her.
Who next? lets go visual.
Lawrence LaBianca. Elemental, powerful, visually stunning and intelligent. Constructing with wood, metal, glass, stone among other things, his work is connected with nature and yet part of the culture.
April 7, 2009 Written By: Lefty Trash. We are surrounded by it, create heaps of it and don't seem to know what to do about it. We recycle a small portion of the waste we produce, but most goes to landfills which are rapidly filling. So what can we do about it? One way is use products with recycled content and recyclable materials - yes, Naked Binder is one of those (100% recycled content!!). While this can tame our contribution to the big piles getting others to listen is also a priority. That Brings us to HA Schult. This artist created 1000 life sized "Trash People'. This army of trash is an kind of Archeological dig into our current situation. Originally shown in the ampitheatre of Xanten, they were subsequently sent around the world to bring home a point as well as inspire and amaze.
March 19, 2009 Written By: Lefty Figuring most of us wont get to the Tate Modern in London to see this, I will let you know it is happening and you can check out the website - the new next best thing to being there. "In the first commission to use the building's iconic river façade, and the first major public museum display of street art in London, Tate Modern presents the work of six internationally acclaimed artists whose work is intricately linked to the urban environment: Blu from Bologna, Italy; the artist collective Faile from New York, USA; JR from Paris, France; Nunca and Os Gêmeos, both from São Paulo, Brazil and Sixeart from Barcelona, Spain. You can also take the Street Art Walking Tour: an urban tour of site-specific art from a group of five Madrid-based street artists: 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, El Tono and Nuria – a map is available online and in the gallery. Various events will take place during the exhibition, including an interactive evening with experimental New York artists Graffiti Research Lab, refacing Tate Modern with graffiti light projections." The last part sound super fun - graffiti light projections makes me want to edit something together and do a show of my own. Admitedly, it wont be at the Tate.
March 10, 2009 Written By: Ken Ivan Majdrakoff
March 2, 2009 Written By: Naked Binder Admin “My colored pencils rushed in inspiration across columns of illegible text in masterly squiggles, in breakneck zigzags that knotted themselves suddenly into anagrams of vision, into enigmas of bright revelation, and then dissolved into empty, shiny flashes of lightning, following imaginary tracks.” A story of an artist in the worst of times.
Go here and read about him.
February 26, 2009 Written By: Naked Binder Admin "I think that painting is very much like solving a complicated mathematical problem, where each step logically and necessarily follows from the previous step, finally arriving at a solution. Ideally, an elegant one." Christian Faur is a painter working with various meiums including crayons that he makes himself. Having cast over 100,000 in various shades and colors, he builds a painting much like a computer - using the crayons as pixels. In an added leap, he "developed a mapping system that translates the English alphabet into twenty six discrete colors and I use these crayon “fonts” to add words and language to each of the pieces in the show." As someone who makes and likes obsesive work (Eva Hesse! Katharina Fritsch! Pina Bausch! Tom Friedman! not the journalist the artist)) these works appeal to me through the labor as much as the art. It makes sense that he considers painting in line with mathematics, and is very appealing. Check out more of his work here.
February 25, 2009 Written By: Lefty Every once in a while you stumble on a piece of art in a dark corner of the world. An alley. On a telephone pole. An impromptu performance in a park. Now you can be in the know, find them online and impress your friends.
The Street Art Locator is a place where people document and post the art they find ( or do) out in the world. perhaps you are in London, or Tel Aviv, maybe Rio and want to see the best the streets have to offer. This site will send you there. "streetartlocator.com is a community google map mashup mapping street art the world over. You can find all aspects of street art here from Graffiti to the Galleries that host lowbrow exhibitions and street art produced using more formal Painting styles. Stickers are everywhere and quick slick way to get up, many go unnoticed except to the keen observer. Banksy and Blek Le Rat are the kings of the Stencil, these guys are only the tip of the iceberg with so many stencil artists across the globe there are plenty more to be discovered. Sculpture is pure old school street and wildely accepted but what about all the fantastic gorilla sculptures and installations." As someone who is a great proponant of performance on the streets (Go Chris Black! Go Trolley Dances!) I would like to see more of this listed also. So find stuff, make stuff, post stuff and look up stuff but be aware of the art in the world. 
January 27, 2009 Written By: ken Ever have an urge to choreograph? Ever see Martha Graham's work and think, "I could do better."?
 When Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra premiered in 1958 it became an instant hit The Graham Company is looking to you discover the 21st century parallels to this Ancient Greek Graham classic. They have posted five videos online for you to remix. Each video depicts a character from Trojan War. You can choose from Helen of Troy, Electra, Clytemnestra, Cassandra, or a more abstract character – the Messenger of Death. "Choose one of the characters, take that video, and rework it (remix it, remash it, remaster it, whatever). Create a modern twist on these ancient characters through current pop culture news, personalities or events. The possibilities are endless: recast a character in contemporary style, change the music, add a background, So Be Martha! Be the Movement! and get editing. (It's like Naked Binder Art day came early isn't it?)
January 23, 2009 Written By: ken  "Petroleum, tar, “chapapote”, black gold that influences so much our lives. A substance that is viscous and untamed on one side, malleable and soft on the other. Black expression of the human soul, essential fuel for life, an atrocious spot in our seas, the energy of any engine that feeds progress!" Petrolart. Cleaning the beaches and using the chunky tar excrement from oil ships as pigments for art. a beautiful story. "In the summer of 1991, I felt one of those little pieces of tar had stuck on my foot while I was walking along the beach, just as it had happened so many times before. They are the remains of the cleaning of the oil tankers dumped indiscriminately at sea by ruthless captains and dreadful shipowners. I had always looked at this oily element as something sticky and disgusting, hard to clean once on your skin. But as I tried to take it away using some gasoline I found out that so many different colours came out of it, from black to cream. From that day on I started experimenting with tar in order to use it for my paintings.
Unfortunately, I keep finding a lot of “tar biscuits” spread all over the coast of Spain when I go out on holiday and, therefore I have become a “nonstop volunteer” for the gathering of this oily component while others enjoy the beach and sunbathing, something I dislike, by the way. Once holidays are over the recycling process begins and then I get the material ready for my paintings." Keep finding the positives.
January 21, 2009 Written By: Ken If you live in a city and want to save money, the environment or just like riding a bike you know the adrenalin rush you can get from traffic. Buses randomly pulling out, getting doored, cars rushing in front of you and turning (why?). On one ride to work so much happened in such a short time that I got to work and had to go out and take a walk to settle down a bit. AND it is worse at night - and more fun...
In 2007, 43,000 people were injured in bike accidents, resulting in 698 deaths. Though many cities are getting serious about making bike-friendly infrastructure changes, installing bike lanes is a costly porposition with a glacial pace of implementation. DIY to the rescue! No more waiting for the city to act. The designers at Altitude, Inc. have come up with LightLane which projects a virtual bike lane with lasers on the ground around you. Drivers can avoid the area and leave the biker in peace. 
January 14, 2009 Written By: ken  It's Art day at Naked Binder! If you can't get to Spain this year to see the Museo Del Prado collections, you are in luck. Google Earth is bringing them to you. OK, not everything, but 14 of the finest. "These are 14 of the most important works in the museum," said the Prado's director, Miguel Zugaza. Among the offerings: Velázquez's famous portrait of the family of Philip IV, Las Meninas, Goya's Third of May, Rubens's The Three Graces, and Titian's huge portrait The Emperor Charles V. The images were sewn together digitally from more than 8,000 high resolution photographs taken over six months.If you, like me, like to peer at brush strokes, this is a great way to do it without incurring the wrath of the museum guards. If you want to see the masterpieces, download and install Google Earth. Then enable the 3D option and then travel to Madrid and click the button marking the Prado building. This is fun in itself.
January 7, 2009 Written By: ken Environmental art is a growing form and yet because of its very nature (in nature) it is difficult to find a place to see much of it at once. The Green Museum is an online resource for artists and viewers alike. 'This online museum emerged from our own experiences making environmental art and from seeing firsthand some of the challenges facing artists, community groups, nonprofit organizations and arts institutions when it came to presenting and discussing environmental art. More than a museum, we see greenmuseum.org as a giant collaborative art-making tool.' I find it interesting to see who is doing what - whether using water as art, camera obscura to highlight endangered species, building structures of the surrounding materials - all these projects are concerned with our interactions with nature.At Naked Binder we donate to help preserve the wild spaces in our society and we are members of 1% for the Planet. These artists are bringing the discussion of our relationship to nature out into the public sphere. It is an important conversation that needs to happen. Recycling alone will not solve our problems, though it won't hurt - we need to look at our world with new eyes to find ways to continue sustainably. 
December 30, 2008 Written By: ken Dance Performance is the great scary thing that most people never see. People don't get it - it seems odd, or worse, it is bad. You don't take a class because you might look or feel stupid. Some people won't dance in public (clubs) because of the same worry. I even know a few people who won't dance at home because someone might possibly be able to see them.
The Naked Binder team is here to make a push for it today. Why? Because we are sitting down. The link of body mind has been made quite eloquently from the Greeks (ancient) on down. When you move - work out, walk, dance..- you mind works better. If you sit all day, you run the risk of turning your brain into a puddle of mush. OK, that isn't true, but the point is that the mind works better when the body gets a workout. Dance moves the whole body in surprising ways that get your brain working to create and balance. I say get up right now at you desk, turn on your mp3 player or computer or radio and boogie. You will feel and think better. In reality most other people will be jealous they don't have the guts to do it themselves. A thought: …………………………………ripensare la danza e l’arte come ricerca interiore e personale, come qualcosa di liquido e mutevole, comunicazione non forzata, rigorosamente libera e spontanea. alessia scala with a bad translation (sorry my Italian is nearly non-existant): ...to rethink dance and the art like an inner personal search, be like a changing liquid not forcing communication, free and rigorously spontaneous.  There may be a Naked Binder dance session later... (photo of Fellow Travelers Performance Group - pictured: Ann Berman)
December 23, 2008 Written By: ken Once more we notice people being incredibly creative with the world around them. From London the Naked Binder team stumbled on these works created by Anna Garforth & Elly Stevens (El&Abe) and second year design students.
First, a green writing style - using moss. What they said "It seems as if writing with moss, represents an unusual synthesis between advanced civilization and nature. It is a chance for us to speak as individuals and artists, but also to be the spokesperson of organisms which have no voice in our world." :  Then, much to my happiness after yesterdays post, Trash Type. Recycling garbage to create fonts. Reinventing! Reusing! Recycling! and thinking about the world around them. I love this. 
December 9, 2008 Written By: ken The thought of a product which can not be recycled/reused and has to go to landfill makes me a bit sad. In that vein, I stumbled onto a project in which scientists and artists have teamed up to try to find answers to the packaging and landfill issues.
Who they are: Professor Tony Ryan, University of Sheffield, and artist and designer Professor Helen Storey, London College of Fashion created an exhibit based on plastics that dissolve in water called Wonderland. The Wonderland exhibitions brings together the worlds of art and science. By working together, Ryan and Storey have been able to use their different backgrounds to spark new ideas on the application of science and discover practical solutions to current ethical issues. The exhibit seemed to center around two ideas. Dissolving bottles are an exploration of intelligent packaging. "Once finished with, the bottles dissolve under hot water to form a gel in which seeds can be grown. The concept could revolutionise the packaging industry and aims to highlight issues surrounding waste plastic." Now that is an interesting concept. The other part of the exhibition brings up one of my pet peeves. Where can you get old clothes recycled? Often this is hard to do. The exhibit questioned the environmental sustainability of the fashion industry and what happens to used clothing. "The disappearing dresses ... are made from dissolving textiles designed Trish Belford at Interface, at the University of Ulster. The material dissolves in water, creating vibrant underwater fireworks. The dresses will be hung from scaffolds and gradually lowered into giant goldfish bowls of water."    recycle reuse disolving bottles sustainable packaging wonderland Professor Helen Storey Professor Tony Ryan
November 14, 2008 Written By: ken Artists Donald Fortescue and Lawrence LaBianca's piece is extrapolated from Moby Dick but also deals with the current state of San Francisco Bay's wildlife, tides, and geography.
They researched ocean survey charts, and talked with local environmental authorities on the work's impact of their piece, then hired a diver to install the steel-table form they built — see photo — on the floor of Tomales Bay, where it was designed to sit for several months. During the installation, however, their diver told them that the conditions weren't the best for the hoped-for weathering and oyster- and barnacle-encrusting process, so the table was relocated to Pillar Point. In the meantime, they gathered hydrophone recordings in Bodega Bay. The final work was a beautiful piece with the table rusted and covered in seaweed, filled with rocks with a whimsical huge white grammaphone horn eminating from it. Standing in front of the horn, you could hear the sounds from the hydrophone recordings softly playing like table memories.
October 29, 2008 Written By: ken OK this is just cool, but recycling can be fun if you have a sense of humor about it.
There are a lot of artists who use "found" objects and materials. Joshua Allen Harris is making things from garbage bags that look like trash until the subway comes by. I know this has made the rounds of the internet, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo
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wanted to create something beautiful and positive out of such a negative
and pollutant material. There is always the positive side of things…
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