No. 21: Sunfish (Julia & Kevin)
No. 21: Sunfish (Julia & Kevin)
Dictionary for Building, Keens Steakhouse, Where is the friend’s home?, Casa Gilardi and Masahiro Mori's Fancy Cups
Julia Eshaghpour & Kevin Hollidge are the NY-based duo behind Sunfish – a multidisciplinary art and design practice focused on sculpture, furniture, and spaces. The two met while studying fine art at Macalester College and have since had solo shows together at Biquini Wax in Mexico City (where they lived for a couple of years) and CUE Art Foundation in NY. Sunfish has had four furniture collections, an exhibition display for Design Week NYC with Sophie Lou Jacobsen, and an immersive pop-up installation for Older Brother x Lyle McGraw. Their work has been featured in Dwell Magazine, Milk Decoration, Wallpaper Magazine, and most recently, they have been included in Sight Unseen’s 2023 Design Hot List. From Julia & Kevin –
I. a series of artwork
Artist and architect Siah Armajani created a series called Dictionary for Building, which was a study he executed over the course of two years. Each day he committed to making informal maquettes of universal architectural features like doors, windows, steps, and furniture objects, arranged in unexpected ways. I’m inspired by these quick creations, simple materials, and the rigor of a committed routine. Each display feels like a miniature scene, a detail of life, an incomplete action, an invitation to question and reimagine our lived spaces.
II. an old restaurant
New Yorkers often gripe about a trek to Midtown. We on the other hand have established an annual routine of dining at Keens Steakhouse and then going up the street to Jimmy’s Corner for drinks. Keens represents what we love about Midtown most: Old bones, unchanging, bustling, and aesthetically rich. The old-timey formality puts you back in time, and the steak is pretty good too. They have over 100,000 clay pipes hung from the ceiling from esteemed academics, athletes, cultural figures, musicians. Living in a city that changes dramatically so often, it's nice to go somewhere and sit in the same place and eat the same food that those who lived here before us did.
III. a film
We have been watching a couple of films by Iranian directors. Recently, we watched Abbas Kiarostami’s “Where is the friend’s home?” It is about a boy who tries to find his friend in a neighboring town over the hill to return his notebook so that his friend can finish his homework and avoid school expulsion. The boy is burdened by moral considerations in the face of authority figures, a large hill to traverse, and the approaching nighttime. We were struck by the scenic hillside mud village of Koker, Iran and the shots of the boy traversing the open green hill and windy roads of the villages. Like many excellent Iranian films, this film is highly restrained, in its visual imagery and its obfuscated critiques of post-revolution life.
IV. a house
Casa Gilardi was the last house designed by Luis Barragan and the first house of many we have seen by the architect. On our first trip to Mexico City, we had taken a picture of the bright pink exterior, not knowing its history, and on our second visit learned that we could request a tour. We knocked on the door and the woman living there showed us inside (she was feeling nice but told us advanced appointments are typically required). Beyond the intimate nature of this viewing - a couple of things have left an impression about this house. The architecture was designed specifically around a jacaranda tree with blooming purple flowers. The glowing corridor, with yellow walls and yellow window panes, immerses you in an almost religious feeling of sunlight. All of the vivid painted wall colors - pink, blue, red, purple. The folk art and traditional Mexican objects and furniture around the house, modest and lived-in.
V. a gift from a friend
Our friend Ruby gifted us some Japanese cups from Tortoise General Store in LA. Designed by Masahiro Mori, the ‘The Fancy Cup’ was released in Tokyo in 1969 as a design object to be enjoyed by the blind for its tactile features. There are a couple of different designs, each with some unique indentations or extrusions. From a visual perspective, it is striking to see cups take these unusual forms. And when you close your eyes, you begin to consider how your hands move around the objects. Sometimes you feel surprised by the new form and, sometimes, it could not feel more natural. But either way, it is special to feel a new awareness towards such a routine, unthinking act. As designers it’s interesting to have an object that is designed for a different sense other than just the visual, it presents a different way of seeing and making that we hope to incorporate into our own practice.
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los angeles
Open: Shota Nakamura’s Light Room at C L E A R I N G. PLAYHOUSE LA 5-day shoppable exhibition of unique and/or unusual vintage, designer or handcrafted furniture at Hannah Hoffman Gallery. Wanda Koop’s Objects of Interest at Night Gallery. Emily Ferguson’s show at Half Gallery. Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting at LACMA. ABOVE THE SEA AND BELOW THE SKY group show at La Loma Projects. John Cage & Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s The Grasshopper Lies Heavy at CASTLE. Sergio Palacios’ Wall Painting at Shrine. Fashion still life photographer Sheila Metzner’s From Life at The Getty.
Tomorrow: Nicole Wittenberg’s show at Ferberger Gallery opens.
Feb 3-4: Scenes with Girls at The Hudson Theaters starring Michaela Boutros-Ghali.
new york
Open: Kyle Staver’s Truth Be Told at Half Gallery. Daniel Lum’s first solo show Lullaby at Turn Gallery. Cindy Sherman’s show at the new Hauser & Wirth on Wooster. Desert + Coast: Seven Elder Aboriginal Painters at Salon94. Joan Snyder’s Come Close at Canada. Curated by Nate Freeman and Benjamin Godsill (Nota Bene Podcast), Friends of the Pod at Broadway Gallery with pieces by Tony Matelli, Sterling Ruby, Austyn, Jonas Wood, and more. Joan Snyder’s Come Close at Canada. Group show The First Taste at Anat Ebgi including Soumya Netrabile, Rob Russell and more. Nathaniel Oliver’s My Journey Was Long So Yours Could Be Shorter at Karma. Blair Saxon Hill’s Even Then Flowers Bloom and Clintel Steed’s Portraits of the Indomitable at Shrine. Colleen Herman’s A longed-for bed at Olympia. Women Dressing at The Met. Henry B Taylor’s B Side at the Whitney.
Today - Jan 28th: Scenes with Girls at The Hudson Theaters starring Michaela Boutros-Ghali.