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We saw Ami Vitale at the Cooper Hewitt Museum

Posted by: Allen Murabayashi Date: May 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

Avid blog readers know that Ami Vitale’s work is on display at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York, as a part of a Nature Conservancy project to meld design with eco-consciousness. Ami was commissioned to photograph various artists and the local environments that they sought inspiration and raw material from.

Ami invited Grover and me to the opening yesterday, and after we grabbed some pizza, we headed over to 91st and 5th Avenue. Here’s my little photo essay!

Look! There’s Ami.

The designers of the exhibit from New York-based Pentagram, decided to print Ami’s photos using a “direct to substrate” method onto aluminum. Then they cut up some of the pictures and mounted them at an angle. The overall effect is stunning.

Here’s another view. It looks like the images are printed on metallic paper, but no. It’s actually metal.

Issac Mizrahi made a dress out of salmon skin leather formed into paillettes.

Vietnam Memorial designer, Maya Lin, created a bench made from a single tree. She stacked organically shaped 2x4s (obviously not planed into 2x4s) and made a very cool piece of art. By the way, if you haven’t seen her latest sculpture, Storm King Wavefield, you need to check it out.