Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Prison rodeos, designs for natural disasters, Halloween pooches and more in our look around the web
1. Highlights From 2017’s Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade
Every year the Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade brings plenty of joy to New Yorkers, with pooches (and oftentimes their owners) dressed up in all kinds of sweet, silly and clever costumes. This year, of course, was no different—from a pup in Bjork’s famous swan dress, to unicorns and GoT-style dragons. One of the best—and most distressingly current—was a dog dressed as Trump, complete with a roll of paper towel labeled “Hurricane Relief.” See more photos at VICE.
2. Famous Artists’ Studios Open to the Public
While it’s a no-brainer to visit museums and galleries while you’re traveling, it’s sometime lesser known that some famous artists’ studios are also open to the public. From Constantin Brancusi, to Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Georgia O’Keefe and more, there are plenty of artists whose fascinating and inspiring creative spaces are able to be explored. Artsy outlines nine favorites, from New Mexico to Brussels, Paris to Mallorca and beyond.
3. Balenciaga’s Speed Trainers Push Footwear Forward
Sock sneakers are appearing in every fashion city and beyond, Marc Bain notes for Quartz. Luxury brands have adopted this relatively recent (perhaps comfort-driven) style from sportswear, though the sock-like components are certainly emphasized now more than ever. As Bain makes clear, no brand embodies this more than Balenciaga, with their $595 to $695 Speed Trainers. The brand, known for taking on unusual inspiration (Crocs, Bernie Sanders, etc), has been so successful that many iterations have sold well—and many other brands have replicated their style closely. These aren’t such knitted sneakers, they’re something more—much like sweatpants for the feat, says Bain. To see the evolution of it all and learn more, head over to Bain’s piece at Quartz.
4. Nendo’s Self-Assembling Toilet for Natural Disasters
Nendo’s Minimilet project began after Japan’s Tōhoku and Kumamoto earthquakes—specifically the devastation and difficulties in the wake of each. Entirely collapsable, the disposable toilet can be assembled using found materials and then dismantled when needed. Made from several components: four aluminum pipes, C-shaped seat, privacy tent, garbage bags and a coagulant liquid, the toilet’s bag can also double as a water carrier. When governments aren’t equipped to deal with large-scale disasters (which is seemingly more common) it’s a troubling fact that we might need to fend for ourselves, and Nendo is working to make that easier.
5. Chris Sheldrick’s System for Giving Every Location an Exact Address
Billions of people live without an address—something that can hinder everything from emergency assistance to pizza delivery. From his time in the music industry overseeing the delivery of music equipment for performers, Chris Sheldrick was able to develop a system that offers every single location on earth a precise, three-word address. It’s done by dividing “the entire planet into [roughly 57 trillion] three-meter squares” and assigning each square a unique three-word identifier (using 47,000 words in 14 languages). The system is already being used by NGOs and post services. Learn more at Sheldrick’s TED talk.
6. Photographer Travis Gillett’s Angola Prison Rodeo Series
In a powerful series of photographs, Travis Gillett lets viewers inside a little-known world. The project, called “Freedom Behind Bars: Angola Prison Rodeo,” is made up of portraits and action shots, and all are captured with an almost tangible tenderness. Started back in ’64, the Angola Prison Rodeo at Louisiana State Penitentiary is meant to give inmates (of whom 75% will never leave the prison) a chance to have family and friends visit. It’s also a triumphant little reminder of the freedom of the outside world. See more images at booooooom.
7. Grayson Perry’s Dresses on Display
UK artist Grayson Perry is perhaps just as well-known as his alter-ego Claire. Since Perry was 15 years old, Claire has existed concurrently—donning wigs and high heels. And, since 2014, Claire has mostly worn dresses designed by students at Central St Martins, thanks to an annual competition for them to create frocks for her. Perry himself is, of course, an established artist but in the upcoming exhibition “Making Himself Claire: Grayson Perry’s Dresses” (opening next month at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) it will be several of Claire’s dresses on display. Pauline Rushton (the senior curator of Decorative Arts at National Museums Liverpool) says, “It is fascinating to see how themes of identity, social status, sexuality and religion are represented in a variety of symbols across Claire’s dresses, along with Perry’s own personal iconography.” Read more at It’s Nice That.
8. Kevin Hviid + GANNI’s Rainbow-Colored Swinging Chair
Named “Iris,” the new collaboration between furniture designer Kevin Hviid and GANNI is a three-meter tall swinging chair that has been created to encourage interaction between strangers in parks and public spaces. With some 600 multi-colored nylon bands (each manually installed) the chair is mostly made up of reds, pinks, orange and blue. It can fit up to four people. See more at designboom.
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning.
