The UMBRELLIOTT - Vito Acconci umbrella - by Elliott Arkin
The UMBRELLIOTT - Vito Acconci umbrella - by Elliott Arkin
Mister ArtSee to honor Vito Acconci with fundraising umbrella......sort of?
When Vito Acconci signed on with the Mister ArtSee project in 2006 to "collaborate on design concepts," he joined the group of initial participants in a most novel approach to socially engaged art.
It was a time when the Acconci design company, Acconci Studios, was at its height. The firm had recently completed several major public works, including the floating Mur Island in Graz, Austria. Mister Artsee's founder, Elliott Arkin, remembers "at our first meeting Vito showed us around the studio and we saw the number of new ways he was inventing how we interfaced with the world - both grand and everyday."
One design that caught the attention of Arkin was a newly designed umbrella that Acconci Studios dubbed the Umbruffla. "I loved the elevating of an often overlooked, everyday object into a reinvented environmental experience."
http://www.vitoacconci.org/portfolio_page/umbruffla-2005/
Soon after, Arkin, a sculptor and designer himself, made his own version of an umbrella as a thank you to Vito for helping with the Mister ArtSee project and as a possible fundraising limited edition. In his indubitably humorous way, Arkin's piece consisted of Vito's sculpted likeness affixed on top a totes miniature umbrella with clay shoes for a base - thus impersonating Vito's iconic all black ensemble.
"Even though Vito liked better the birthday present I made of him biting himself, he said I should sell the umbrella as a fundraiser but wanted me to make it clear people didn't think it was a work by Vito Acconci." Arkin understood and agreed with Acconci's concerns and thus for clarity titled the work THE UMBRELLIOTT.
To honor Vito Acconci and celebrate his collaboration with the project, Mister ArtSee is releasing a limited edition series of Umbrelliotts.
The edition is limited to only 100 pieces. Each piece is a fully disfunctioning umbrella with hand-painted head and feet.
They will be sent as a thank you for a contribution of $400 to Mister ArtSee.
to secure your UMBRELLIOTT, please send a request to MisterArtSee@aol.com or call 646-824-8300
THE UMBRELLIOTT
by: Elliott Arkin
date : 2008
materials: cast resin, acrylic paint, miniature umbrella
dimensions: 12" X 4" X 3"
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