Berlin Eyewitness Newscaster Banners

I've been a big-time fan and small-time collector of artist Stephen Hendee's work for years. And if I had a bit more context, I would have snapped up these giant banners he made of German TV journalists Lars Brandau and Leo Bausch already. Because they look rather awesome. As it stands, though they are an awesome mystery to me.

Meanwhile, it's all I can do not to hate-buy his 1987 Julian Schnabel museum banner right now.

Berlin Eyewitness News, 2 Wall hangings or bed coverings, $325 [hendeestudio on etsy]

Recycling Dennis Hopper's Frank Gehry Chaise

If you didn't buy Dennis Hopper's Bubbles Chaise Longue by Frank Gehry at Christie's in January for $3,000, now's your chance to not buy it again at Wright for twice that much.

June 9, Lot 122: Frank Gehry | Bubbles chaise lounge, c. 1987, est $7000-9000 [wright20.com]

Rolls Royce Desk Clock

Check out the lumpiness of the Spirit of Ecstasy on top of this c.1950 Rolls Royce Breitling desk clock.

It reminds me how, for the centennial celebration of the Spirit of Ecstasy, and because they can, since they now finally own the company and all the trademarks, BMW re-created the figure. Seems that after a hundred years of use and remaking, the molds used to create the wax originals of Charles Sykes' sculpture had gotten pretty rough.

There's a terribly moving PR film about the recarving titled--really? "The Graceful Little Goddess?--at--really?! 21stcenturylegends.com? Good grief. I hope they're just at the beginning of their branding do-over.

Lot 66515 BREITLING SILVER ROLLS ROYCE DESK CLOCK, CIRCA 1950 . Height 3-1/2 inches, current bid $4,000+premium [heritage auctions]

Homemade Darth Vadar in Bronze

Anonymous true fan from the 1970's cast this bronze bust of Darth Vader.

Anonymous Works via Reference Library

Alvar Aalto Door Handle

On the one hand, when it comes to Alvar Aalto door handles at auction, you could say, "Nah, I'd really need to buy at least two."

On the other, the Finnish government's Alvar Aalto Association bought the Maison Louis Carre, Aalto's only surviving house in France, and has turned it into a study center/museum. So unless the owner of Valaistutyö tucked some more of these away, I don't think there'll be two coming down the pike anytime soon.

Get your bidding paddles and your repro calipers ready.

Lotnumber: 096A154 Alvar Aalto. Doorhandle, designed in 1956. L. 13.2 cm. Made by Valaistutyö Ky, Helsinki for Maison Carre, in 1956. Est EUR600-800 [quittenbaum.de]
Maison Louis Carre [maisonlouiscarre.fr]

Ed Ruscha "Twentysix Gasoline Stations"

Sure would like to find this at a garage sale.

At Swann for an estimated $8,000-12,000

Three Hermes Scarves Were Harmed In The Modding Of These Vans

"Celeb Stylist @robertverdi asked us to take his vintage Hermes scarves & make some custom Vans for him. So we did. - Note, this isn't an Hermes/Vans collab."







Yow, if I had any doubts left about the bad karma of using Hermes scarves as raw material, these shoes cleared them up right quick.

Custom Vans - Vintage Hermes Scarves [Vans 66's flickr]

Hermès Bicentennial Kite

For the French Bicentennial, Hermès created a commemorative kite from a silk scarf. I mean, wow, they actually cut and pieced it together.

When I was young and stupid, I once had an idea to use a bunch of Hermès scarves to line some pointless piece of clothing, like a duffle coat or something, but I snapped out of it. As cool as this is, and even though it was done in-house, I'm still not quite sure of the karmic implications of using Hermès scarves as raw material.

Hermès Vintage Lot 502 - Cerf-volant, est. EUR400-600 [artcurial.com]

Huts of Japan and Finland

Photographer Ari Saarto, says of his IN SITU series:

In IN SITU the outcasts and their huts are the objects of landscape photography, as opposed to the approaches of traditional photojournalism or methodical documentarism. The builders of these huts are mainly invisible to us, located on the peripheral vision of society. However, in the images, their presence is still discernible - as if someone had just been there.

asaarto.fi via flavorwire