Uncategorized | Russell Brightwell

Not Your Old Bamboo

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Sun, 1980 by Tanabe Shōchiku III. Bamboo, rattan & lacquer

The newish (2012) Asia Society Texas Center is housed in Yoshio Taniguchi’s elegantly rendered building in the Museum District. Best known for his expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, for this his first free standing building in the U.S., Tanaguchi combined graceful design with stunningly beautiful stone, wood and glass. The building alone with it’s exquisite materials, amazing spaces and ethereal Watern Garden Terrace [complete with periodic spools of artificial fog] are well worth a visit, especially with some additional reading on the Center’s website about the building beforehand.

Another reason to stop by the Center is “Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art,” an exhibit of the work of 16 contemporary Japanese bamboo artists on display through July 30th. These skillful, soulful artists use ancient basket-making techniques to create modern, often surprising and playful works. Using humble bamboo – a type of grass rather than wood – rattan and lacquer, they have created forms that look like otherworldly pillows, sails, sets of armor, insects and water droplets. Some even resemble the baskets and flower vases from which they evolved – with a “twist.” The dark green walls and dramatic lighting of the exhibit accentuate the range of colors found in the works – from tan and brown to red and nearly black – and add drama to the sometimes alien shapes. It’s a joy to see and understand that these artists have repurposed utilitarian “making” traditions and their everyday materials to create objects for artistic expression. May this even newer tradition thrive for generations to come.

One Night Only

Comments: 0 | Posted by: russbri

Kevyn Aucoin transformed me into a 1950s Maria Callas-like siren.

One evening in 1994, I went to dinner with my then boyfriend Ken, my friend from Charavari, Donald Reuter [who by that time was working for Mr. Beene], and his boyfriend, the makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin. We went to see one of the Terminator movies, grabbed pizza and went on to Kevin’s amazing little 2-story house complete with front garden in the rear yard of a building on the edge of Soho/Little Italy. Kevyn asked if he could do my make up and I said yes, of course. Kevyn was already “famous” by pre-internet or social media standards and spent much of his working life with the likes of Naomi, Cindy, Whitney and Dolly. Though he would be remembered for his approach to individual, “natural” beauty, he was a master of transformational makeup, turning Isabella Rossalini into Baraba Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow into James Dean among many others. So I was to be a mid-century Italian bombshell a la Maria Callas. Arched eyebrows, reshaped features, full lips and a beauty mark. Dark wig in place and the transformation was complete. I was still in the white t-shirt, jeans and boots I had been wearing that evening out. We admired his handiwork, Kevyn took polaroids and then he took it all off.