Design Research: a street-visible exhibition

What fun! D/R has temporarily reclaiming its former home at 48 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. An exhibition viewable only from the street, Design Research: A Retrospective celebrates the pioneering retailer of bold modernist furnishings, interior designs, and clothing. On view through April 2010. More information here, here, and here.

Post updated in January 2021 with minor text edits. Broken links have been fixed or replaced with archived URLs, courtesy of archive.org. This post was originally published at theexhibitdesigner.com on 29 November 2009.

Flowers on the fence

I took this photo, of thin metal flowers nailed to a corrugated metal fence, last summer on Front Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Despite epic web-searching, I couldn’t find even the tiniest snippet of info about the artist responsible …

… but I have decided that it must have been part of the New York Urban Art Project. I’ll update you if I ever hear back from the DOT — yes, I did email them for an answer.

I can’t say for certain what material the flowers were made from — steel, tin, aluminum? — or how they were cut — laser-cut, acid-etched, really good pair of shears? — but they’re awfully pretty set against the industrial galvanized steel of the fence, and its dull, flaky, crystallized finish.

Update, 3 March 2010: I did hear back from the New York City Department of Transportation; they informed me that this artwork was installed before the launch of the NYCDOT Urban Arts program.

Update, 2016: The anonymous artist reports. See comment below!

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Post updated in January 2021 with minor text edits. This post was originally published at theexhibitdesigner.com on 16 November 2009.