AFTERMATH: a solo exhibition by the award-winning Indonesian photojournalist Kemal Jufri, opened last wednesday in Komunitas Salihara, Pasar Minggu. The exhibition held in the gallery on May 16th to 29th was commenced with some poem reading, and an audio-visual presentation accompanied with live musical performance.

The event started at 7pm inside the black-box theatre accommodating to it’s full capacity. The ceremony was opened by Debra H. Yatim with some poem reading, written by the photographer’s wife, Dina Purita Antonio-Jufri, continued by a screening of photos from the exhibition, compiled into a an audio-visual presentation by Heru Admadja and I B Charisma. The video uses 3 dimensional effects, adding depth to the photos and creating dramatic transitions between them. This visual was accompanied with live performance by Acehnese ethnomusicologist Nyak Ina Raseuki and cellist Dimawan Krisnowo Adji, creating eerie but beautiful sounds, making the presentation more moving and complete.

The exhibition itself, held inside the circular gallery and curated by Galeri Foto Jurnalistik Antara Director Oscar Matuloh, is of photos taken after the Merapi eruption in 2010 and the Aceh tsunami in 2004. These photos give a visual experience on how people deal with catastrophes; a poignant reminder on what is lost during these calamities. The event itself aims to raise funds for the victims of these disasters; all the profits from sales of the photographs will be donated to help victims in areas around the country. The photographer stated during his greeting in the ceremony, that it is his duty as a photographer to give a visual report on what took place during these hard times to the public, and with his capacity as a renowned photojournalist, this exhibition is his way of doing charity.

Kemal Jufri’s career as a photojournalist started in 1996 as a contract photographer for Agence France Presse. He left two years later to contribute to Asiaweek magazine until 2001. Since then he cover stories around South-East Asia for world’s renowned media such ase Newsweek, TIME Magazine, The New York Times, and many more. During his 15-year career he has participated in exhibitions around the world, and gained numerous honors including second prize at the 2011 World Press Photo Awards.

The exhibition is totally worth a visit. Enjoy and help in any way you can. For further info, go to Salihara’s site.

About 50 chairs were displayed May 17th in the Partners & Spade studio in lower Manhattan. But these chairs are not your ordinary piece of furniture; they’re designed specifically for children. These chairs are not just unique in their scale, but they were designed to function well with kids; some are rockers, some with fun colors, and some are stackable.

The exhibition is from the collection of Patrick Parrish’s, the guy behind Mondo Cane design store. This exhibition is a response to the Museum of Modern Art’s latest exhibition; Century of the Child. These chairs represents designs from 1890s to 1990s; one was a design by the famous architect Alvar Aalto he did in 1930s. Their different time of design and origins displayed different technique, style, and manner in treating the materials. Some are very functional, while others are highly decorative.

The chairs are on display until June 10 and for sale in the store and online. Some of these are one-of-a-kind, so the hefty price tag are quite understandable. Check out the rest of this adorable collection right here!

We should not take for granted the introduction of modern Danish furniture to the American Industry, which is one of the reason it is now a very popular style all over the world. At the time after the second war, the aesthetic preference in the American Industry was more favorable to organic shapes, and this is where Finn Juhl came into the picture with the quality and craftsmanship shown in his products.

Juhl was an architect, industrial, and interior designer from Denmark. He is one of the precursor of the Danish design, a functional design influenced by Bauhaus. He designs furniture as well as handicrafts, decoration, and even his own home. Respect to intrinsic qualities in materials can be clearly seen in his products, and what distinct him from other danish designers is the use of dark colored wood such as teak rather than oak; a light colored wood material common used in the style. Juhl is known to be very much influenced by abstract sculptures by Jean Arp which translates to the fluid forms and soft edges in his design. He was very productive in the 40s until the early 60s, but his designs is still very popular up until now.

In this 2012 catalogue his products are shown in modern architecture settings; the rough texture of raw concrete seems to match the smooth and organic shaped woods and black leather. The wonderful details in the joints of the wood are just impeccable, which is why the whole catalogue deserve a further look. Take a peek here!

Minimum [book] is a versatile and expandable bookshelf that can be used to arrange and display books, as well as any other stuff. The notion behind this brilliant twist shelving is to help anyone design his/her own bookshelves in an easy way. With its shipshape and linear model, Minimum [book] gives you the chance to develop your own room as desired. As a sensible awareness to the environment, Minimum [book] utilizes naturally deceased oak trees from the forest to construct wood for the shelves. Minimum [book] allows people to create their own designs for home according to the needs, either in the living area or relax area. Beside for residences, the collaboration of functionality and decorativeness that is provided by Minimum [book] is also exemplary for offices and stores. Check out  here for more details about this creative innovation.

Believe it or not, these very awesome chinese graphics are from the 20s and 30s, using the woodcut technique founded by Lu Xun, one of the leading figures of modern Chinese literature. At that time he believed the technique can be used as a medium to expose social ills. The technique is later developed by the German Expressionists, which is why the technique is often thought to be Western. These illustrations are rather rigid, with clear edges and rough color gradation, considering the technique used at that time. But to think of all the process of creating one print, these posters are such wonders.

These cool graphics are featured in a book by Scott Minick and Jiao Ping, Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. They were printed as posters, magazines, and newspapers, containing social and political message to be spread around China. It is hard to imagine how these colorful images are created and copied without digital aid. The one below kinda reminded me of TheFoxIsBlack logo. Scroll down to see the rest!

Bellboy is a New York-based wood shop, producing hand made furniture products. Founded by art director Matt Driscoll, the shop uses a lot of local materials to create modern furnitures with simplistic design.

On it’s latest project, Bellboy created this sleek piece of furniture made of redwood material which was reclaimed from a water tower in New York. The shape appears to be originated from the movement of water in the lake, translated into symmetrical shape for your seating needs. The materials and shape is a respond to the ecological issue which the shop have been consistently dealing with, as well as to the needs in a multi-functional space.

The brilliant painter KAWS a.k.a. Brian Donelly just displayed his series of paintings in an exhibition entitled “The Nature of Need” at Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong. The gallery presents one of the largest vertical displays of KAWS and over 50 vertical rectangles along the wall. KAWS considered this exhibition as part of growth and progression throughout his line of work. As a bit modification to his whole career, KAWS had worked on his recent collaborative projects with Hennessy and Ikepod. This talented creator who has been painting his whole life always does every painting with incredible technical aspect of the shading, the proportions, and perspective. The reason behind this whole perfection is that he applies his entire focus to his work. It is the subtlety in paintings that he wants to show to people. With his two assistants, he’s pretty capable of managing all of his work.

photos from various sources.

The Matryoshka Bench is a set of furniture by Canada based designers Jaewoo Chon and Antariksh Tandon consisted of 6 L-shaped individual benches. Inspired by the Russian Matryoshka Doll, each part is bigger than the other. The idea is to explore the possibilities of social interactions that can function on the bench, by making the parts flexible to many types of configurations: a conversation, a group chat, and even an individual workstation.

Each part is made of 12 horizontally arranged L-shaped plywoods, covered with polyurethane finish. The thing that makes this bench unique is that each part is unstable; the parts need to be configured to achieve its stability.

It’s an astronaut. No, it’s a plant wearing an astronaut suit. It’s.. a Planstronaut? Whatever you may call this, the Italian designer Matteo Cibic calls this DOMSAI, which is actually a little a dome enclosing a plant, standing on a ceramic little pair of legs. Inspired by the Japanese Tamagotchi toys popular in the 90s, these plants also require some feeding; it depends on water and sunlight. This invention by Cibic was showed at the Monotono exhibition space in 2009, which is clearly a very different product from the sex-toy lamp Cibic created previously for the Love Design Exhibition.

These one-of-a-kind glass domes are custom-blown; each shape being unique, corresponding to the shape of the plant it enfolds. Standing about 25 cm high, DOMSAI comes in white and gold. It’s rather simplistic design and low maintenance makes it a perfect toy to put in your desk.

In highlighting the correlation of design and technology at Milan’s SaloneSatellite, the award-winning Swedish designer Staffan Holm showcased his delicate design of the bentwood chair he calls Branch. Branch was created with the use of complex wood bending technology they called Compwood, a method where heated wood is compressed lengthwise making the fibers very flexible and bendable.

Although simple in its concept, this process is stated to be one of the most technically challenging wooden chairs to be ever made. This bending technique requires exact precision in its process demanding instant bending of the wood while the compressed plank is still hot after traditionally steamed.

While craftsmanship and a detailed concept may be the core of great design, the technology we have today extends various possibilities of design that weren’t available years ago. Read more on its technical process here.